Re: Voice annunciated test box circuitry

From: Robert Monsen (rcsurname_at_comcast.net)
Date: 02/17/05 

Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 15:36:00 -0800

Robert Monsen wrote:
> mirach wrote:
>
>> Hello
>> I am a repair tech for medical equipment and am needing to make some
>> test boxes for simple location of the number of a wire that has been
>> cut off in a harnesses with as many as 256 wires in them.
>>
>> These harnesses have a plug on one end and the cut-off unlabled wires
>> at the other end . Up untill now I have used what is called a "light
>> box" these boxes have a plug to plug the harness into.. 128 or 256leds
>> on them and an internal battery and a lead so that when you touch one
>> of the wires with the lead one of the leds will light showing which pin
>> on the plug is associated with that wire (each wire is then labled)
>>
>> Now with what I would like to build.
>> Since you have to look at these wires through a microscope it is very
>> time consuming to look up from the scope to see the led every time.
>> What I would like to do is replace these leds with something that
>> announces the number like "21" "102" "128" etc. with a voice this
>> would make labeling much faster.
>> Does anyone know of a pre-made IC? or EEprom? that would have 128 or so
>> individual areas that could store the voice message for the number and
>> be random accessed. would it need some sort of special trigger? As im
>> sure you can tell my knowlege is limited in this area, I am just
>> starting to work on this project and anyones ideas would be greatly
>> appreciated.
>>
>
> You can buy digital voice recorder chips from windbond
> (http://tinyurl.com/4y4rp) that allow you to record some amount of
> voice. You can cue the voice at any point. Thus, you could record
> yourself saying 1,2,3.. and then cause the chip to replay the individual
> digits on command. You control it using SPI from a microcontroller. They
> go up to 240s of recording time, so you could conceivably record all 256
> numbers, but individual digits are probably easier. You can buy them at
> digikey or futurlec. I'm sure you can also get pre-recorded voices, but
> I didn't spend the time searching.
>
> As to encoding the data, you could use individual multiplexer chips.
> However, you could also get 8 octal buffers with high impedance outputs.
> Tie each input to a correponding buffer pin, and tie the outputs
> together into a bus, all bit zeros together, ones together, etc. Then,
> select the buffer chips one at a time, and read the bits for that buffer
> in parallel using 8 pins on your microcontroller. Once you have a hit,
> just program the SPI device to output the proper voice codes. 16 bits on
> the final device, 8 for input, 8 for output. Plus, of course, the 3 or 4
> bits for SPI to control the recorder.
>

Meh. Multiplication. You'd need 32 buffers, and 32 pins to select them.
You need a pin per input. There are probably better ways to do this...

> The total part count for this solution would be the voice chip, the
> microcontroller, the buffers, and such. You could run it off of a 9V
> battery, or use a set of rechargable batteries, and build a recharger
> unit for it. Alternately, if it didn't need to be portable, you could
> run it off of a wall wart. Total cost would be around $30 for parts, I
> think, including PCB and enclosure, depending on the cost of the plug.
> If you were to mass-produce these, you could probably make them for $10
> each.
>
> I'll work up an estimate for 10 if you want... ;)
> 

-- 
Regards,
   Robert Monsen
"Your Highness, I have no need of this hypothesis."
     - Pierre Laplace (1749-1827), to Napoleon,
        on why his works on celestial mechanics make no mention of God.

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