17 Sep
2025
17 Sep
'25
12:57 p.m.
I presume Parallax stopped building the EMIC2 board through lack of demand.
The components seem to be still available and relatively cheap (about $12
on Mouser for each of the two large chips). The project page includes all
the pcb details but I don't see source or even binary.
A quick test of the github code uses about 8% CPU on a Pi 4 so should be
within range of a Pi 0. The Pi 0 has no audio out and USB is probably the
cheapest way to do it. The built-in (PWM) audio on the Pi4 is dreadfully
noisy so no real loss and alternative audio modules relatively expensive.
You'd soon get to the $55 of the mikroe.
Might be in range of an ESP32, though the big advantage of a Pi is the
extraordinarily good range of support - all the facilities of Linux without
having to write even a monitor.
On Wed, Sep 17, 2025 at 7:07 PM Paul Koning via cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Sep 17, 2025, at 11:21 AM, Anders Nelson via
cctalk <
cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
Epson still makes a DECTalk chip, basically DECTalk code on an Epson MCU
with a serial interface: S1V30120.
https://www.mikroe.com/text-to-speech-click
That's rather expensive. It's also curious that German and French are not
supported, though they are included in the version on Github.
paul