Fun With Hardware Synthesizers

I have a DECtalk Express connected to my primary machine, but it’s located underneath my desk, off to the right hand side, and I happen to be deaf in that ear. Needless to say, when I’m testing with Window-Eyes, it’s hard to hear what’s being spoken, and that’s with the volume cranked all the way up(Dell Inspiron 1564 battery).

One might think the simple solution would be to place the DECtalk on top of my desk, nearer to my good ear. And that would be the simple solution to someone who’s never seen my desk. Come to think of it, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen my desk -- its depth of clutter is impressive. Not as impressive as Dan’s desk, mind you, but impressive nonetheless(Dell Studio 1450 battery).

I could look into getting some sort of amplifier, or I could run the DECtalk through the line in of my sound card. But then I’d have to deal with the impedance problems, and I’d have to slap a headset on every time I wanted to do some testing. That’s just more work than it’s worth(Dell Inspiron 1320 battery).

I do, however, have a TripleTalk USB connected to my secondary machine, which also sits off to the right of my primary machine. The TripleTalk is on top of my desk (apparently I built my clutter empire around it), and it’s plenty loud. But it’s also the primary synthesizer for my secondary machine, and I don’t want to move it(Dell Latitude E6400 battery). The TripleTalk, however, has two hookups: serial and USB. It’s connected serially to the second machine, but the USB port is free.

Time for a little mad science. I unplugged the serial cable from the TripleTalk, found a spare USB cable, and hooked the box up via the USB connection to my primary machine. I turned it on, installed the drivers, selected it in Window-Eyes, and it worked perfectly(Dell Studio 1735 battery). Back on the box, I hooked the serial cable back up, and fired up Window-Eyes on my second machine. Success! I have Window-Eyes running with the TripleTalk USB via a USB connection on my primary machine, and Window-Eyes running with the same TripleTalk USB via a serial connection on my secondary machine(Dell Vostro 1710 battery).

Unfortunately, not everyone is happy. On my primary machine, if I have Window-Eyes talking, and then bring up Window-Eyes on my secondary machine, the copy of Window-Eyes on my primary machine freezes up. It doesn’t happen the other way around (interrupting speech on the secondary machine), most likely because of the difference between USB and serial in the TripleTalk(Sony VGN-FZ62B battery).

Communication between Window-Eyes and a synthesizer is a two way street. If the synthesizer says something to Window-Eyes, Window-Eyes will respond. When you’ve got two copies of Window-Eyes talking to a single synthesizer at the same time, there’s no doubt things could get confusing(Sony Vaio VGN-FZ31J battery ).

All I have to do is turn Window-Eyes off on the machine that I’m not using, and the problem goes away. I can successfully use the same TripleTalk box on two machines with two different connection methods, and that’s pretty cool. Before, I couldn’t get the DECTalk to be loud enough(Sony Vaio VGN-FZ31B battery). Now I find myself turning down the TripleTalk because it’s too loud. If I really need to concentrate on what Window-Eyes is saying (for example, when I use Window-Eyes to proofread documents), I’ll still switch to Eloquence, and pop on a pair of headphones. But for every day use, this little bit of hackery is proving to work quite well(Sony VGN-FW11M battery).

I should point out that the concept of running a single synthesizer between two machines isn’t new. The Speak-Out had both serial and parallel ports, and offered the same kind of extendibility(Sony Vaio VGN-FZ18S battery).

Finally, I have to add that we don’t support this configuration, and I doubt Access Solutions does either. If you call with speech problems using a single TripleTalk USB connected to two different machines using two different connection methods, the first thing we’re going to tell you is to knock it off. [grin] But, if you’ve got the hardware, the cables, and the innate gumption to tinker, it’s a pretty cool trick(Sony Vaio VGN-FZ21S battery).