What breadkout board or shield do you recommend to make the Mega to talk?

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello, I want to make my Arduino Mega 2560 to talk based on the if then statement.

For example,

If variable > 5
say "value is greater than 5"
else
say "value is smaller or equal to 5"

I don't know how to make the Emic2 to do it. From another thread, there is a compatibility problem between the Emic2 and Mega. Is there other circuit such as breakout board or shield that would allow me to do the above? Breakout board is preferred but if there is no choice, shield is OK. Thank you

2

The 'Emic 2' should work fine with an Arduino. Have you downloaded the Arduino example code from the Parallax website?
It's here:-
Emic 2 Arduino Example Code

You don't do it like this:-

say "value is greater than 5"

You do it like this:-

emicSerial.print("value is greater than 5");  // Send the desired string to convert to speech

Edit: Before sending the text to be spoken, apparently you need to send 'S'. (All covered in the example.)

3

Thanks for the suggestion. It seems that to use the Emic2, I need to set the baud rate to 9600. In my application, I don't use a terminal to input strings and have the Emic2 to convert the strings into speech. In my case, do I need to do such setting? Note that I have set the baud rate to 115200 as I am currently using the Mega in another project. I just plan to add speech capability to my system.

While searching the net, I came across a post saying that the problem a user was facing is due to the fact that Mega does not support software-serial on all pins as it uses pin-change interrupts to monitor the Rx pin. I have no idea what that means.

4

bbqq:
Thanks for the suggestion. It seems that to use the Emic2, I need to set the baud rate to 9600. In my application, I don't use a terminal to input strings and have the Emic2 to convert the strings into speech. In my case, do I need to do such setting?

But the Mega itself needs to use serial to send the strings to the 'Emic 2' board.

Note that I have set the baud rate to 115200 as I am currently using the Mega in another project. I just plan to add speech capability to my system.

I don't understand what you're saying here. Each individual sketch sets the baud rate(s), so the fact that you use 115200 in another project has nothing to do with this project.

While searching the net, I came across a post saying that the problem a user was facing is due to the fact that Mega does not support software-serial on all pins as it uses pin-change interrupts to monitor the Rx pin. I have no idea what that means.

But a Mega2560 has 4 hardware serial ports. Why can't you use one of those to communicate with the 'Emic 2' board?

5

I plan to combine two projects into one. In other words, integrating one sketch into another.

Good to hear that Mega2560 has 4 hardware serial ports. I didn't know about that as there is only one port to connect to the usb port of my computer. If I have combined two sketches, can I set the baud rate of one serial port to 115200 for my original project and at the same time set the baud rate of another port to 9600 for the Emic2?

6

bbqq:
I plan to combine two projects into one. In other words, integrating one sketch into another.
Good to hear that Mega2560 has 4 hardware serial ports. I didn't know about that as there is only one port to connect to the usb port of my computer.

Perhaps you should read up on your equipment, so that you're more aware of it's capabilities. :slight_smile:
From the Mega2560 info page:-

In addition, some pins have specialized functions:

Serial: 0 (RX) and 1 (TX); Serial 1: 19 (RX) and 18 (TX); Serial 2: 17 (RX) and 16 (TX); Serial 3: 15 (RX) and 14 (TX). Used to receive (RX) and transmit (TX) TTL serial data. Pins 0 and 1 are also connected to the corresponding pins of the ATmega16U2 USB-to-TTL Serial chip.

This is the page I copied it from:-
Arduino MEGA 2560

If I have combined two sketches, can I set the baud rate of one serial port to 115200 for my original project and at the same time set the baud rate of another port to 9600 for the Emic2?

You certainly can.
For example:-

Serial0.begin(115200);
Serial1.begin(9600);
7

How good is the Emic2 in playing back pre-recorded sound files?

For example,

If variable > 5
play back pre-recorded file1
else
play back pre-recorded file2

Do I need to get sdcard capability to my system to store the files?

8

bbqq:
How good is the Emic2 in playing back pre-recorded sound files?

I have no idea. I've never used one. A Google search should yield results.
For the tiny bit of speech output that I've needed, I've just used the "Talkie" library.

Do I need to get sdcard capability to my system to store the files?

I thought the Emic 2 had onboard storage. I don't know how much. If you take a good look at the documentation you should be able to answer this yourself.