I’m having a setup issue. I thought I followed the instructions step by step but I must have missed something. I’m good all the way up to Lannouncer device listed on my Things. I can go in there an push alarm etc and here the tones on my droid. I can also sent a tone to it using http://192.168.0.158:1035/?ALARM=CHIME&SPEAK=hellos&@DONE@… so no issues there. The problem is when I go into Big Talker. It does not list my device there as an available speaker. What am I missing? Thanks.
With each install of Big Talker, you can either set it for Music Player (Default) or when you select Configure, you set that to off which will then allow speech synthesis devices to show.
You can leave the version that you have already installed which can be used for your regular external speakers and then goto Marketplace and install a second version of Big Talker for Speech Synthesis (turn off option in Configure).
Well that was an easy fix. All set now. Thanks for the response WB70.
Thanks for this great app!
Using app on a Kindle Fire 7. Having an issue when LanNouncer is set as a Siren in Smarthome, and an intrusion occurs. The device generates a siren sound for perhaps an 1/8 of a second, then stops and the screen goes to the Home page. I have to bring LanNouncer to the foreground to get it working again. When I attempt to take a look at the command log it’s empty. However, when I look at the Active Apps before tapping on the Lannouncer app, the following commands are displayed:
FLASH(STROBE) Continous
SOUNDALARM SIREN:Continuous
My device does not have a flash. I assume ST SHM issues the “Both” command to the device, setting off the siren and strobe. Also confirmed “Strobe” is the cause by going into the ST Device, then tapping “Strobe” tile, boom, back to the Home Screen on the Kindle.
For now I’ve removed LanNouncer as a SHM Siren device.
Any ideas other than modifying the DTH to kill the strobe on the both command? Or perhaps set an option in the Android app to “Ignore Strobe Command”.
FWIW: I also use the Fully browser that displays an ActionTiles page, and installed the “WI-FI keep alive” app from the Amazon app store
I’m a first time poster to the forum. I’ve read through this thread and with all of the changes and updates my head is spinning. I wonder if someone could update or point me to an thorough set of installation instructions to get this thing running. I have an android tablet running version 5.1.1 and an amazon echo (and obviously Smart Things). I would basically like to get voice notifications and hear them on the echo. I’m pretty confused as to if I need Lannouncer, Big Talker, AskAlexa, or some combination of them all. Thanks for any help
Let me try to help. This is summarized from http://www.keybounce.com/lannouncer/
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Get and install LANnouncer from the Play store
or directly from this link: http://www.keybounce.com/bin/LANnouncer.apk -
Once you have it running on your Android, look for the IP address (something like 192.168.1.xx) and the port # which is usually 1035
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Select All and Copy this Device Handler
You will use this code to create a new speech device for SmartThings -
Log into your IDE https://account.smartthings.com
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Once logged in, click on a link My Device Handlers and then click at the right a green button “Create New Device Handler”
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Click on a link that says “From Code” and paste what you copied earlier into the field below.
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At the bottom, click on “Create”, then at the top right button, click on “Save”
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Click on the button that says “Publish”, then select “For Me”. You have now created a Device Handler
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Back on the main screen, click on a heading link “My Devices”
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Click on a green button “New Device” and configure it with a name such as “Android Speaker”
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In the Network ID field, just enter any number. Don’t worry about some of the other fields except for Type. Click the button underneath it and select LANnouncer Alerter (device type) that you created earlier. Probably near the bottom of the list and then click on the blue “Create” button.
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Now go to the SmartThings app and look for the newly created Device called “Android Speaker” under your “Things” tab
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Select it and click on the gear icon at the top right. Enter your IP address and Port# from the installed LANnouncer app on your Android device. Then press Done
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Now test it by clicking on the “Tone” or “Speak” tile. You should hear something come out of your Android device. To hear it on your Echo, you’ll need to connect your Android device via Bluetooth to the Echo.
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Now install the smartapp BigTalker 2 ([Release] BigTalker 2.x)
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When first configuring BigTalker, choose Speech Player as your device.
With BigTalker, you can configure Chimes, Sirens, and Text to Speech synthesis. A list of special commands can be found here: http://www.keybounce.com/lannouncer/commands/
I think that’s it. Let me know if this works for you. I kinda did this from memory.
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Always login to https://account.smartthings.com as this will automatically redirect you to your correct shard.
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Jim,
Thanks so much for your help. I’m doing as you said but when I get to the “New Device” step it asks for a network ID as a required field. What do I put in that field? I really appreciate the help.
Put any number, it doesn’t matter. I’ll update my instructions.
Great instructions, especially from memory!
One thing I would add is going into your router’s DHCP address reserve settings (or whatever it may be named on your device), then reserving the IP address for the target LanNouncer device. Otherwise, it may simply stop talking when the IP address expires, and gets reassigned by the router.
When using LanNouncer, I read it is good practice to keep WiFi active during sleep on the target Android device. Should you be running LanNouncer on a Kindle Fire, install the “WiFi Keep Alive” app from the Amazon App store.
All good points and definitely recommended things to do.
Well, Jim, I did everything and still…nothing. One thing that I failed to mention is that the android tablet is on a different wi-fi network than the smartthings hub. I wanted to monitor what was happening at home from work. Should it still work as you laid out?
You have to be on the same WiFi network.
I guess I was hoping for a work-a-round. Thanks so much for your help, Jim. At least I’ll have it working when I get home.
You’re welcome. Android phones/tablets are relatively inexpensive these days. I would recommend the Amazon Fire HD8 for $50 on sale right now.
Tony, I’m a bit unclear… you want a work-around to the devices having to be on the same “network” (by which we mean sub-net)?
You can accomplish that in several ways. None of which are common here, but…
- You could set up a VPN into your other network. That’s a bit tricky, but impossible. You’d just have to run the VPN server somewhere. Probably half of us have VPNs already running, on a Synology, a WRT-router, a dedicated firewall such as a Ubiquiti or Mikrotik, or even just on a P.C.
- Nobody here remembers this, because it’s a niche usage, but LANNouncer supports running even on a remote phone. You just need to use the WAN, the GCM or the SMS interface instead of the direct one.
So it’s not necessarily the easiest path, because I’m probably the only one whose done it. (I wrote LANNouncer, BTW.) But setting up GCM, which is “Google Cloud Messaging”, isn’t very hard. And the SMS interface works well, but requires the additional SmartThings driver I wrote, which I don’t know if still works. SmartThings did break a lot of code very quickly for a while, and this code is something like two years old now.
Hey, on the bright side, my cheap $50 Android tablet (an “eMatics”) has been running in a wiring closet, without being touched, doing announcements and the security camera/dropbox interfacing every time the door opens for something like six months. No crashing, no rebooting, just stashed away out of reach. So once you do get it working, you’re done.
Well, I suspect @Jimxenus tinkers constantly, regardless of things working. I also suspect he knows LANNouncer better than I do, despite my having written it. So maybe you’ll catch that bug.
NWTony,
Thanks so much for the advice and your expertise on the subject. I’ll get started working on the VPN soon. I guess I’m like a lot of folks who are into home automation in that I don’t really “need” it to work, I just “want” it to work and most of the fun is in the pursuit of working through the obstacles. I’ll keep you all posted on what I’m able to accomplish. Thanks so much for sharing your talents and time.
Can anyone help me with a tasker profile that will kill lanouncer (say at 2am and restart it for me). Every few days lanouncer stops working and I figure if i can just have it automatically restart everyday that should fix that issue. I was thinking:
Make a profile that performs "Kill Lanouncer, wait 15 secs, Launch Lanouncer (I dont know how to make it kill the app again at 2am)
Thanks for any help I am still learning 
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That’s an interesting problem. Mine has been running in a closet problem-free for many months. (I’m the author though… it might be afraid of me.!)
Did you follow the instructions on the website, e.g. don’t let it be power-saved, keep the network on, static IP, etc?
Ill double check when I get home, but I am pretty sure I followed all instructions when I set it up (I do know it has a static IP). Its interesting, to get it working again I just tap the stop listening and restart listening and it good to go again.