Off subject. I am still awaiting someone developing an affordable voice assistant that is free of the WWW.
Dave
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I have done a search for VLCthing but can't seem to see a location for the code.
I've tried VLCThing. It only works if VLC is actively running which is not something I wanted to deal with for Linux or OSX. It also fools you into thinking it is a music player but it's very limited in that ability because VLC doesn't report needed information for pausing/restore.
Tried this and it just reads the URL?
Edit: got it use music player.
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Sorry for any confusion. I have updated my earlier post to clarify the use of the Media Player Capability. Thanks!
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Just to add to the mix,
If you already have a tablet running as a dashboard with Fully Kiosk Browser, this has the feature built and you can use it as a notification device.
If you don't currently have a tablet, then the cost of getting one and purchasing the FKB license may be more than you are looking to spend.
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Just wanted to throw in a "darn you!" to everyone for this thread! 
I have two Fire tablets running (un-licensed) Fully on the wall as weather station displays, and no other voice assistants or speakers in the house. This thread inspired me to install LANnouncer on the two Fire tablets yesterday, along with BigTalker2 and one rule to announce when the automatic dog door contact sensor opens/closes.
Our OCD psycho dog thought he heard something out in the yard about 3:30 AM this morning, and went to stick his head out of the dog door to take a sniff. "Dog door open" announced loudly at both Fire tablets, waking both my DW and me up. When he heard the strange woman's voice inside, he turned around to see who was sneaking up from behind him. "Dog door closed." When he didn't see anyone, he turned back to the door to sniff outside again. "Dog door open." Repeat this scene a dozen more times, until I got annoyed and got out of bed to turn the dog door off. Needless to say, the WAF of this new feature is ZERO after ruining both of our sleep last night.
Yes, BigTalker2 has the ability to create rules with start/stop times. I really want to hear these announcements 24/7, since the dog door occasionally gets stuck wide open every month or so due to some mechanical binding in the slider tracks that I cannot locate. Plus, I'm trying to figure out why LANnouncer and BigTalker2 appear to have fallen out of favor, and if the problem with LANnouncer being automatically closed by Android after running for a while in the background is a show-stopper.
I do intend to get the enhanced Fully license (should have done it years ago), but was prodded by this thread to see how having the house talk back would impact the WAF.....
(As a footnote, OCD psycho dog has been standing by the dog door for 15 minutes now, triggering the dog door to open/close so that he can hear the announcements over and over. He learns quick!)
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that's one smart dog! You should set up a count and after the 3rd announcement it says " 
Go Lay Down!"
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Don't blame the feature for your poor implementation. 
All kidding aside, years ago I did something similar and learned my lesson. All announcement and sound features are off between 9pm and 8am now.
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I ditched my Alexa setup last year. I had 7 dots and two tall units. It took some fiddling around with the API and I ended up creating a specific rule for announcing using a variable updated by the calling rule. All in all Iām very happy at not having all the listening devices in the house.
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Smart indeed! I am amazed at how he can find time to take a break from his search for a COVID-19 cure to help the neighborhood kids with their long division homework. 
In all seriousness, he knows his colors, most shapes, and even the concept of trading one thing for another. When he was a puppy, he even tried to talk...until he got to a sound that he couldn't make and then decided to bark in frustration.
I don't blame the feature for my poor implementation, I blame the dog! The final rule will be programmed to only trigger if the dog door is open for 5 minutes without closing, which should cover most of his sniff/bathroom activities but still give us a heads-up before a raccoon or squirrel finds the open door should it ever get stuck again.....
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I finally got a sonos device..I am not thrilled about its cloud components. And may eventually limmited some of them. But for now its working.
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Dang... where did you get those at?
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Monoprice had occasional sales of recertified units in 2019. Looked new to me. I had two orders: 1) $39.99 ea and 2) 4 for $153.
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Hi Lewis
I was thinking to use this mis https://www.seeedstudio.com/ReSpeaker-USB-Mic-Array-p-4247.html with something like voxcommando in an old laptop.
Do you have any experience with that mic?
is just plug and play on a windows PC (apart from the drivers of course)?
My use case was with a Raspberry PI. I don't have any experience with connecting it using windows. I think it's plug-and-play with windows though, no drivers required.
Thank you Lewis but I was trying to get some input here about its quality.
For instance....for all those features mentioned on their web like noise cancellation, automatic gain, etc.... do I need an extra software or all those are part of the mic it self? sorry... many doubts here about this mic....never see one before.
I'm planning to use it in a living room but no sure if it will be a good solution.
