Anybody with M4X wants to be first / second customer for LambdaSpeak?

[LambdaMikel]

At this point, I would like to find another "first / second customer" for LambdaSpeak. This person will get a "discounted" price of 130 $ that barely covers my costs (30 $ PCB, 60 $ Emic 2, 30 $ Shipping to Europe, 15 $ parts... ) This person would need to have an M4X motherboard and report back to me if he / she encounters any problems with LambdaSpeak. Also notice that I have not tested it with the monitor's PSU, I am using an external 2.5 A PSU on my CPC 464. Please contact me if you would like to do this!

I already have another first customer, but in order to speed things up a bit, I would like one more person (soon) 

[GUNHED]

It would be cheaper to send a dozen or more to EU and somebody there can send - for cheap - to other customers in EU. 

[LambdaMikel]

Sure, that could be done "for production". With 130 $ I am in the reds... even with the reduced shipping price resulting from that, it might still not get less than 130 $    I need approx. 1,5 hours to assemble and test one by hand... I would like to have some minimal reimbursement in the 15 - 20 $ range for my efforts. 

3 PCBs at OshPark of that size are 85 $ btw.... the only way to bring the costs down significantly are to assemble in China, and then about 60 PCBs or so. But I don't think that many people are interested.

So, in order to verify the M4X version is working correctly, I need one volounteer who is willing to pay 130 $ (and gets the money back if it doesn't work of course - however, I would't really know why it shouldn't, the success rate is > 90 % at his point)

[LambdaMikel]

I could be yours 

[Gryzor]

I love this monstrosity

[GUNHED]

Any (new) videos about it?

[chinnyhill10]

I love this monstrosity

Whoever does buy one I'd suggest connecting it to the CPC via a ribbon cable to prevent accidents/bad connections.

[||C|-|E||]

I like it a lot too... and I would be buying one if I had not bought the graphics card 

[LambdaMikel]

Whoever does buy one I'd suggest connecting it to the CPC via a ribbon cable to prevent accidents/bad connections.

I offer one :-)
Originally I designed it such that the DDI3 would be visible through it behind it via the CPC Expanasion Port Connector, and this works quite well, but it might get shakey over time with more use.

Lucky me, I just got an offer for MotherX4 board - so I will be able to test it myself.

[LambdaMikel]

I like it a lot too... and I would be buying one if I had not bought the graphics card 

Well, thanks for considering it  Maybe one day.

[LambdaMikel]

Any (new) videos about it?

No, not really... the latest one was the Eliza video (native mode demo).

... maybe I'll do a promotion video once it is tested on M4X

[LambdaMikel]

I love this monstrosity

... it would bring down the costs significantly if the Emic 2 could be replaced with something else... I can easily support other speech chips with the architecture, it is quite general (it basically supports any hardware to which the Arduino / ATmega 328 can talk / has a driver... this include RTCs, LCD / LED Displays, Dot Matrixes, Temperature Sensors....)

Anybody has a good idea for an *inexpensive* Emic 2 alternative? No, not SPO256 

[Bryce]

The emic 2 has superior speech compared to old school speech ICs. The only possible cost reduction without loosing the speech quality would be to source the emic IC without the whole PCB etc connected. Can it be bought as a single IC? What IC is the emic based on?

Bryce.

Edit: Just did some checking... The emic2 is based on the EPSON S1V30120 Text to speech IC. They cost around €6 each, so if you are prepared to design and add the necessary bits to your schematic you could majorly reduce the total end price.

[LambdaMikel]

Edit: Just did some checking... The emic2 is based on the EPSON S1V30120 Text to speech IC. They cost around €6 each, so if you are prepared to design and add the necessary bits to your schematic you could majorly reduce the total end price.

... I don't think it is that easy... there is also the complete DecTalk software built in... the second big chip on the Emic 2 must be the microcontroller, right?

[LambdaMikel]

There are alternatives, but boy, are they bad... listen to this nightmare for example:

Now, this is a 29$ chip... I must say I rather spend 60 $ for the Emic 2

[Bryce]

... I don't think it is that easy... there is also the complete DecTalk software built in... the second big chip on the Emic 2 must be the microcontroller, right?

The whole DecTalk software and the English and Spanish / 9 voices etc is built into the EPSON IC, not their µP. I have no idea what their µP is doing, need to check the schematics.

Bryce.

[LambdaMikel]

It is a "Microcontroller, Coldfire, TQFP-64" (never heard of it).
http://www.grandideastudio.com/wp-content/uploads/emic2_bom.pdf

Yes, the schematics are actually online here
http://www.grandideastudio.com/wp-content/uploads/emic2_schematic.pdf

Anyways, SMD soldering etc. are beyond my capabilities, then somebody else need to do it 

[LambdaMikel]

... also, the "plug in play" solution is not that bad from the point of view that the Emic 2 is kind of an investment, but you can also use it for your other projects (Arduino, ...) So I actually decided not to solder it in. I used it in lots of other projects, it is not being monopolized for LambdaSpeak, but a "shared ressource".

[Bryce]

I took a look at the schematics and I'm speechless (excuse the pun). They've used a massive (and relatively expensive) 32bit µP and all it's doing is converting the serial input to SPI and flashing the LEDs!! Talk about cracking a nut with a sledge hammer! Why??!!??

If you can change your design to output the commands directly via SPI on your PCB then you can reduce the design down to the EPSON IC, some voltage regulation and an op-amp. The $59 is then less than $9.

Bryce.

[LambdaMikel]

If you can change your design to output the commands directly via SPI on your PCB then you can reduce the design down to the EPSON IC, some voltage regulation and an op-amp. The $59 is then less than $9.
Bryce.

Wow! Intruiging.. yes outputting SPI directly would be equally simple for me.... currently the AVR 328 is doing parallel-serial using UART, same thing can be done with SPI immediately. And I thought my design was "wasteful" 

Still, I won't be able to do an SMD... but I could probably do the design and software (maybe with your help?)

[Bryce]

No problem. I can do some of the hardware design too. Let's talk on PM.

Bryce.

[GUNHED]

SPI? Why not connecting to Tot0's Minibooster?

[Bryce]

SPI? Why not connecting to Tot0's Minibooster?

Because then it wouldn't be DKTronics or SSA-1 compatible and the games with speech wouldn't support it either.

Bryce.

[LambdaMikel]

I took a look at the schematics and I'm speechless (excuse the pun). They've used a massive (and relatively expensive) 32bit µP and all it's doing is converting the serial input to SPI and flashing the LEDs!! Talk about cracking a nut with a sledge hammer! Why??!!??

If you can change your design to output the commands directly via SPI on your PCB then you can reduce the design down to the EPSON IC, some voltage regulation and an op-amp. The $59 is then less than $9.

Hi Bryce, I also took a look and found the following documents:
http://www.mouser.com/pdfdocs/s1v30120_hw_spec_eng_e.pdf

and

http://global.epson.com/products_and_drivers/semicon/pdf/id001875.pdf


Turns out the microcontroller on the Emic 2 is doing a little bit more thank blinking LEDs and doing USART to SPI conversion:
see 5.1 in the first document:

Fig. 5-1 illustrates a typical application system using the S1V30120. The host processor communicates with the S1V30120 over the serial interface, using commands (message protocol) to control the embedded algorithms. For more information on commands, see "S1V30120 Message Protocol Specification."

On reset the S1V30120 runs the bootstrap loader firmware. The host must then use bootstrap loader messages to load the SRAM firmware contents and ROM firmware updates (SRAM_VECTORS) into the S1V30120 device's SRAM and to switch to running the main mode. These SRAM_VECTORS are stored in FLASH in the typical application system shown in Fig. 5-1 above

The microcontroller is hence loading the firmware upon cold reset into the Epson.
the SRAM VECTORS are stored in the flash of the coldfire microcontroller, not on the Epson. Seems the Epson does not have flash for firmware?! 
Seems the Emic 2 is indeed more complicated than we think; that will be too complex to recreate with my little AVR 328 
I am afraid the "Cost Down Design" is out of my league - at least with the amount of time I can invest in a hobby project.

[LambdaMikel]

I am afraid the "Cost Down Design" is out of my league - at least with the amount of time I can invest in a hobby project.

Having said that, I am declaring CPC LambdaSpeak as final for now and will start working on a Commodore 64 version of it