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Text To Speech

Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2021 12:34 pm
by mz-80a
Hi,

I've been trying to get this software (for the MZ-700) to work today on both the emulator and the real machine but it just seems to hang. Anyone know what might be wrong? Or perhaps it relies on some additional hardware.
IMG_E6821_1.jpg

Re: Text To Speech

Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2021 11:02 am
by hlide
Can you extract the basic program as a text file so we can have a look?

Re: Text To Speech

Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2021 9:02 am
by S_U_C
Hi,
It crashes due to there is no code a $C000 for the USR() call, there are no data POKES to, or a LIMIT set to protect the $C000 area.

From the listing “USR($C000,O$), I think the program refers to the JAMAR Speackeasy (the micro speech module) that plugs in to the printer/plotter connector.

The code at $C000

LC000: LD A,(DE) ;C000 1A DE points to start address of string
INC DE ;C001 13
AND 63 ;C002 E63F
OUT (PTRDATA),A ;C004 D3FF
OR 64 ;C006 F640
OUT (PTRDATA),A ;C008 D3FF
LC00A: IN A,(PTRSTATUS) ;C00A DBFE
RRA ;C00C 1F
JR C,LC00A ;C00D 38FB
DJNZ LC000 ;C00F 10EF
RET ;C011 C9


The micro speech module has a very simple single sided PCB with 3 DIL ICs,
1, 8 pin (amp)
1, 14 pin (logic)
1, 28 pin (sound)

There are no identification marks on the ICs they have been erased.

Re: Text To Speech

Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2021 4:08 pm
by mz-80a
hlide wrote: Mon Jul 26, 2021 11:02 am Can you extract the basic program as a text file so we can have a look?
I don't think so. But you're welcome to download the file and try yourself.

Re: Text To Speech

Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2021 4:08 pm
by mz-80a
Well that answers my query as to whether I was missing any hardware! Very interesting, thanks!
S_U_C wrote: Tue Jul 27, 2021 9:02 am Hi,
It crashes due to there is no code a $C000 for the USR() call, there are no data POKES to, or a LIMIT set to protect the $C000 area.

From the listing “USR($C000,O$), I think the program refers to the JAMAR Speackeasy (the micro speech module) that plugs in to the printer/plotter connector.

The code at $C000

LC000: LD A,(DE) ;C000 1A DE points to start address of string
INC DE ;C001 13
AND 63 ;C002 E63F
OUT (PTRDATA),A ;C004 D3FF
OR 64 ;C006 F640
OUT (PTRDATA),A ;C008 D3FF
LC00A: IN A,(PTRSTATUS) ;C00A DBFE
RRA ;C00C 1F
JR C,LC00A ;C00D 38FB
DJNZ LC000 ;C00F 10EF
RET ;C011 C9


The micro speech module has a very simple single sided PCB with 3 DIL ICs,
1, 8 pin (amp)
1, 14 pin (logic)
1, 28 pin (sound)

There are no identification marks on the ICs they have been erased.

Re: Text To Speech

Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2021 4:09 pm
by mz-80a
I presume a software only speech program is still possible though. As much as 1-bit sampled sound is also a possibility.

Re: Text To Speech

Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2021 4:58 pm
by hlide
You will need a decent bitrate to output a good speech and 64KByte is not enough.

Re: Text To Speech

Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2021 7:07 pm
by mz-80a
hlide wrote: Wed Jul 28, 2021 4:58 pm You will need a decent bitrate to output a good speech and 64KByte is not enough.
This is what's confusing to me. Because I had a software speech program on my BBC Micro B when I was a kid and that only had 32K RAM. I'm pretty sure I've seen on a Japanese site once an MZ-80K speech program that was just software.

Re: Text To Speech

Posted: Wed Jul 28, 2021 8:31 pm
by hlide
I don't know what's you called speech program: concatenation of some robotic phonemes? They are not what I called decent. :)

Re: Text To Speech

Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2021 7:29 am
by mz-80a
hlide wrote: Wed Jul 28, 2021 8:31 pm I don't know what's you called speech program: concatenation of some robotic phonemes? They are not what I called decent. :)
Yeah :) I mean........... it's better than nothing but was quite common, for instance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8wyUsaDAyI