$65 Home Automation Announcer

The SmartThings media player method uses Amazon as a text-to-speech engine. This method would go down if the device were disconnected from the internet. However, LANnouncer is local text-to-speech which means it has no dependency on the network.

1 Like

Nice, I do have an older rpi that I can play with. Thanks for the awesome instructions!

1 Like

Really nice! What is the response time on this thing?
From trigger (ST) to sound comming out of your speakers?

Sorry, I misunderstood. I have a WiFi dongle already. I shall just strip down the OS for just the browser for SmartTiles and the announcer.

I have a Tab3 for smarttiles already, and would replace that with the rpi. Now I just have to figure out a speaker setup for it.

Great project! Definitley on the list to build.

Is there a way to just implement a simple tone or chime instead of the voice announcement? For doors opening and closing, I’d prefer just a simple notification.

1 Like

You can have it say “Ding”

3 Likes

2 Likes

I’m installing some bluetooth in-wall speakers to a new Raspi. Obviously there are some changes.

Step 5 for audio output changes. I’ve never set up bluetooth audio on a Linux Server Edition distro so I’ll let you guys know how it goes.

I started my install and realized my older pi doesn’t have wifi lol. Now I’m waiting on amazon to deliver my wifi addon.

1 Like

I finished my build today. Thanks very much for the easy to follow instructions. Mine works great. I’ve just got to figure out where to put it and hook up the speakers.

1 Like

Just wanted to post that I got this set up and working very well. My first use case was for laundry notification since the chime volume on our new washer is too low. I have it set to announce that the dryer has stopped every 2 minutes until someone acknowledges it by switching off a tile in smarttiles.

Next is replicating the same on the 2 CHIP computers I have in the drawer and sourcing 2 more cheap speakers, trying bluetooth next! I also got a micro usb splitter from ebay to power both the speaker and pi/CHIP.

Does your vlc server die after a few days? I have had to restart mine every 3 days or so.

I used to use my Raspberry Pi with VLCThing; however it did seem to die every so often requiring me to reboot it to fire VLC back up so I rebuilt the Pi as a DLNA media renderer. Since doing this, I can send audio from Big Talker to the Pi as well as throw audio from my Windows 10 computer or any other device that can throw audio at a DLNA media renderer. For anyone interested in comparing, I documented that process and shared it in this thread: https://community.smartthings.com/t/raspberry-pi-as-musicplayer-speech-device-with-bigtalker/38675

Thanks! I will have a look at that link for ideas.

No. It’s likely experiencing power or reliability issues.
Let’s hope it’s power. You should get a 2A 5v rated power supply (charger) for it.

I have a Windows machine that does that because it restarts automatically for updates. I have to manually start VLC on that machine.

I have never had a problem with my RPIs becoming unresponsive.

You probably have power issues as well. I have a raspberry pi at work that’s been continuously driving relays on and off to automate buttons on a phone. It has performed over 100,000 factory resets on a phone over the last two months and has not reset once.

Given proper power, the raspberry pi is a very stable machine.

As an alternative to a better charger, if you’re running Raspisan instead of Raspisan Mini, switch to Raspisan Mini. The overhead of a full UI causes a lot of heat and additional power consumption. Raspisan idles high, mini idles at 0-1% CPU usage.

Heat and power are two enemies of raspi.

Interesting, I will check this out. I do have some samsung chargers in the house. I will give that a try. Any way to check logs to see if it’s actually restarting?

1 Like

The Pi itself never quit responding, just VLC did… Typical response without bothering myself to SSH into it and troubleshoot further was just pull power to reboot, then it would work again for a while. Once I changed over to GMediaRenderResurrect method mentioned above, I didn’t have to reboot. Hopefully users have success with VLC on the Pi and VLCThing, but I gave up and that’s why I documented the method that worked for me.
Thanks for these directions though as they will get people interested in the Pi, VLC and VLCThing. Hopefully they work stable with the user despite the experience that I had with VLC (disclaimer: These directions may resolve the issues that I had as I didn’t have these directions when I set my Raspberry Pi/VLCThing setup up).

2 Likes

It’s been 4 days now since I switched to the higher rated power supply and it is still working! Hoping not to jinx it :slight_smile:

1 Like