I recently got VLCthing working in my hub, and have a raspbian server that autostarts vlc on boot. I'm currently working on migrating it to a more robust OS so it's more fault tolerant, but was wondering if this is solving a need in the community that people could benefit from?
I'm thinking of packaging this code up, adding some easy wifi config functionality, the hardware, and all the documentation needed for local TTS into a product to sell in small batches.
yeah I had originally bought an ikea symfonik to use for the built in sonos support from the HE, but the unit I received is defective, did some searching in the HE forums here and found some posts on someone porting VLCthing over from ST and some others posts with some improvements.
I like this approach as it uses all open source software to accomplish the goal, and it's all local
Sounds interesting, what do you use as an audio device? Looks like something that can be implemented on a couple of Pi zeros I already have deployed around the house for presence.
ATM I just have it on a spare pi3B+, but the volume is super wimpy and a little noisy on it's own. Currently looking at pi based DACs and amplifier hats to find a price/feature combo that works for me if I follow through with the idea of doing a small batch of appliances.
All the hats I find are compatible with just about all pi's even the zeroW's.
I'm also taking a gander at some other low cost linux SBC's to bring the overall cost down, but then I'm on the hook for finding a new DAC/amp solution for those boards
yeah, the original VLCthing code from ST was GPL licensed, hence the HE port was GPL'd, hence anything I change in the driver code would be GPL'd as well. So far I don't see any reason to change it, if anything it would be to take out the music playing portion to slim it down to just TTS and slim down what I need to support.
On the linux side, I'm not doing anything super fancy, just running VLC at boot with the proper flags, anyone technical enough to do that isn't really the target audience for this solution to begin with.
I'd also be including step by step instructions to set it up. I couldn't find anything on the forums to help so I had to figure it out on my own, figured that would be beneficial too.
I said no because I don't want another appliance, but I do want the functionality on an old laptop, as I said before, and I understand I can do that now...added to the list
I'm with you. I have all the bits need to build this lying around as it were but I can see this being an attractive option if I wasn't interested in tinkering and both price and case look decent (it seems that WAF is a big thing around here ). Don't forget an echo is pretty cheap these days with discounts flying around. So I'm voting yes (subject to the 2 caveats) but personally I'd build it.
I was THIS close to just buying a couple google minis since their voice processing appears to be mostly local, but they won't work if the internet is out, whereas this solution will work regardless. I feel this approach fits well with the overall ethos of the HE.
). Don't forget an echo is pretty cheap these days with discounts flying around. So I'm voting yes (subject to the 2 caveats) but personally I'd build it.
