CHIP/Pi Zero W & VLC Thing/Big Talker = SONOS KILLER!

Wiki Projects & Stories
21

I sent an e-mail about the BT speaker issue to CHIP support and am waiting on their response.

22

Oh, thanks for that, I meant to do it - please let me know what they say or if you get bluetooth working! Iā€™m glad to hear I wasnā€™t the only one with that problem.

Any idea why the first word in every announcement is cut off for me? It was happening on my PC as well but only a fraction of a second of the first word would be missed. On chip the entire first word is dropped off.

23

The only way I could work around the clipped audio was to add a word in front of the spoken response in the VLC Thing device handler. Line 317 I changed from:

def sound = myTextToSpeech(text)

to

def sound = myTextToSpeech("alert " + text)

Not ideal, but it seems to work.

1 Like
24

Thanks, Iā€™ll give it a try. My next best idea was to add a filler word to the beginning of each message lol so this sounds better.

Edit: The extra word didnā€™t help. I made the change to line 317 and published it for myself, and even deleted it all and started over with 317 changed, but the first word is still cut off.

25

Reviving an old thread so as not to start a new one. Does the CHIP get warm to the touch in your setup? I just configured mine today and after a few hours being connected to my laptop, it feels warm to the touch. I did have a terminal and connection to the vlc server the whole time.

Edit: Temp settled down after an hour or so and shutting down terminal and vlc server connection.

26

Yes it does. But it does not heat up much more than that.

27

Iā€™ve been looking into doing this but noticed the C.H.I.P is currently unavailable from their site. Does anyone know where it can be sourced now?

Note: I am aware I am impatient and can (and probably should) just wait for them to stock it again.

28

Oh man, I didnā€™t know they are working on a new version! I also have one using a raspi, and it looks like the pi zero has the built in wifi also.

1 Like
29

Correct. Pie Zero W has both the Bluetooth and wifi built in. My project works with both Pie and C.H.I.P.

30

You can also use Pie Zero W for your version of the project.

31

@lmosenko Thanks for this. I ordered (and paid) some C.H.I.P.s a few months ago and am still waiting - about to give up. But I didnā€™t realize the PiZ was an option. Do you have a thread, or other directions on how to deploy it?

32

The directions are same for Pie Zero W. The only thing different is that Pie needs to have the OS loaded onto it and C.H.I.P. comes with pre-loaded Linux Debian OS. You should download Jessie OS which is linux and install it onto the Pie Zero first and than follow same instructions as above.

The videos I used for learning Pie Zero setup:
https://youtu.be/AVM7QaSndf8

https://youtu.be/PYENjCYWJ0A

I donā€™t recall the link for auto loading apps in Jessie but ytou can try this:
https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/42251/make-programs-start-on-boot-on-jessie-such-as-samba-apache-with-webmin

33

This was the thread I used for my first pi announcer then I discovered CHIP which made it easier since itā€™s got the OS loaded already.

2 Likes
34

Youā€™re better off using a server OS as outlined in the linked thread as a desktop OS has GUI overhead which is a relatively large task for a simple ARM processor. Iā€™d recommend not using this method as it is based on a GUI and there is no direct path to migrate to headless. C.H.I.P. is a good processor to start with, but the GUI is absolutely not needed for this use case.

35

I am not much of a coder and still prefer to see a GUI. Call me old school. I am lurning how to SSH into my Pie Zero, But there is a little learning curve.

36

I realize itā€™s tough to do things the embedded way on Linux, but it saves power and makes the system more responsive and quick. Iā€™m an embedded systems engineer with several Linux certifications and many years of experience. Thatā€™s why I created that guide.

1 Like
37

Thanks @adamoutler. Iā€™ll check it out.

38

Hi community members,

I have been trying to setup my VLC Thing on a raspberry pi zero w and I canā€™t manage to get it connect to the vlc media on the raspberry pi. When I look at the info. in the live logging a get this info:

0fxxxxx-fdf0-xxxx-8f3a-axxbee7abfe7 15:24:36: error Server error: Client
15:24:17: info VLC Thing. Version 2.0.0 (12/22/2016). Copyright Ā© 2014 Statusbits.com

Is this a firewall issue? I have replaced some numbers with a few xxxx, I wasnā€™t sure this has something to do with a security issue.

Would appreciate any help!!!