lost newbie

[dantelope]

First question - what is your attention phrase and your goodbye phrase?

As far as advice, I've got some ...

If your girlfriend is a definite keeper (you're going to convert her from Girlfriend to Wife), then you may want to only do this stuff when she's not at home and not bring it out into the open until you've got it working very, very well.

If your girlfriend is NOT a definite keeper (you're unsure), then you should explain to her that you are an Uber Geek and, darnit, Uber Geeks need their toys, and that sometimes those toys wake us up in the middle of the night to tell us that the fridge is too cold, the garage door is open, and that the dog has somehow managed to get animal porn on the television set -- all in a very, very loud and annoying voice!

Actually, one piece of advice is this -- good VR is a tough thing. Most non-geeks won't understand how hard it is and will have no appreciation for it. It will not work 100% of the time. It will be of limited to value to most people other than yourself. Your girlfriend is highly unlikely to see any positive value in it. Face facts... VR is "neat", but if all you are using it for is to read the horoscope and tell you the time (hey, it's right there in the bottom right hand corner of your screen anyways), not exactly the greatest dollar-for-value.

Having said that, I've spent a considerable amount of time and money trying to get open air microphones to work with HS2 for a VR/intercom/monitor/phone-interface functionality set.... so who am I to talk...

Dan

[Laldaas]

First question - what is your attention phrase and your goodbye phrase?

Attention phrase is: Computer
Goodbye phrase is : stand by

I just didnt like goodbye no reason at jus didnt like it.

As far as advice, I've got some ...

If your girlfriend is a definite keeper (you're going to convert her from Girlfriend to Wife), then you may want to only do this stuff when she's not at home and not bring it out into the open until you've got it working very, very well.

If your girlfriend is NOT a definite keeper (you're unsure), then you should explain to her that you are an Uber Geek and, darnit, Uber Geeks need their toys, and that sometimes those toys wake us up in the middle of the night to tell us that the fridge is too cold, the garage door is open, and that the dog has somehow managed to get animal porn on the television set -- all in a very, very loud and annoying voice!

Rofl the older I get the more "Uber geek" I become.

She is a keeper and we will be married..........Eventually, Basically when I grow some.

Actually, one piece of advice is this -- good VR is a tough thing. Most non-geeks won't understand how hard it is and will have no appreciation for it. It will not work 100% of the time. It will be of limited to value to most people other than yourself. Your girlfriend is highly unlikely to see any positive value in it. Face facts... VR is "neat", but if all you are using it for is to read the horoscope and tell you the time (hey, it's right there in the bottom right hand corner of your screen anyways), not exactly the greatest dollar-for-value.

Having said that, I've spent a considerable amount of time and money trying to get open air microphones to work with HS2 for a VR/intercom/monitor/phone-interface functionality set.... so who am I to talk...

Dan

I have every intention on doing what many of you have done with VR. I am simply playing with it for now to get an understanding for how all this works.

Belive me I already have my eye on audio mixers and mics. I am in baby "Umber Geek"

I just need to show my GF the keeper that it will have some pratical use. I am just starting off with some fun stuff. This way when I start dropping real money on this, Espeacily once we are married, It will be an issue but maybe it wont be an gigantic issue.

For example I showed her the Roomba thread with the robotic vaccum. I said look honey we can work in vaccuming into HS. Her reply was "We dont need to spend money on that, I will vaccum and mop."

I said where is the fun in that?

[dantelope]

Lol, ok, now we're getting somewhere

Your mic may just be ultra sensitive and the ambient noises in the apartment (perhaps your neighbors above/below or on the sides) are triggering. Try turning down the gain on it so that you need to be fairly close to the mic to issue any commands. You can then begin to turn it back up slowly while testing it at various distances. As soon as you start getting false triggers, go back down. You'll find a place where it works most of the time.

Getting into the more expensive, open-air mic systems doesn't need to be killer expensive. Much of the equipment can be had from eBay for pennies on the dollar if you are willing to wait (and use snipe tools *grin*).

Your girlfriend sounds very practical. If you feel like you need her approval for everything, you're going to have a tough time getting this stuff implemented. You might just agree with her that it's not very practical but for you it's a lot of fun. Set a "practical" budget for you to "play". Then one day, when everything is working juuuust right (Paul - does that ever happen?) you might find her talking to it.

Wife: Computer, are there any deals on shoes today????
Computer: Ohhh yeaaaah baby, let's go SHOPPING!!!!!!

Dan

[Malarcy]

I think the speaker listening to itself and answering yes and no is a bug - I am going to open a ticket on it since while it is listening for the attention phrase it should be deaf to everything else - also - it should stop listening while it is talking.


Well done on your adventures so far - stick with it, no one else will understand why it's so cool to have a PC tell you it's raining while everyone else will look out the window.....

Malarcy

[Laldaas]

Lol, ok, now we're getting somewhere

Your mic may just be ultra sensitive and the ambient noises in the apartment (perhaps your neighbors above/below or on the sides) are triggering. Try turning down the gain on it so that you need to be fairly close to the mic to issue any commands. You can then begin to turn it back up slowly while testing it at various distances. As soon as you start getting false triggers, go back down. You'll find a place where it works most of the time.

I had considered the mic is too sensative I will try what you have suggested.

Getting into the more expensive, open-air mic systems doesn't need to be killer expensive. Much of the equipment can be had from eBay for pennies on the dollar if you are willing to wait (and use snipe tools *grin*).

What is a snipe tool? Yeah i need to start looking at ebay more often!

Your girlfriend sounds very practical. If you feel like you need her approval for everything, you're going to have a tough time getting this stuff implemented. You might just agree with her that it's not very practical but for you it's a lot of fun. Set a "practical" budget for you to "play". Then one day, when everything is working juuuust right (Paul - does that ever happen?) you might find her talking to it.

Ya well lol I dont need an approval for everything it just makes a little easier if I do.

Wife: Computer, are there any deals on shoes today????
Computer: Ohhh yeaaaah baby, let's go SHOPPING!!!!!!

Dan

Get out.

[Laldaas]

I think the speaker listening to itself and answering yes and no is a bug - I am going to open a ticket on it since while it is listening for the attention phrase it should be deaf to everything else - also - it should stop listening while it is talking.


Well done on your adventures so far - stick with it, no one else will understand why it's so cool to have a PC tell you it's raining while everyone else will look out the window.....

Malarcy

HAHA, I just had this very conversation with my roomate. He asked why am I so interested in homeseer I replyed "why did you just add another unneed GIG of ram to ur pc and why do you have 1000 gigs of dvds saved on your pc."

[Laldaas]

Laldaas,
Z-Wave is good.

Will I do the same thing for today's date?
... Use &Date

If your using version 2.2041 This garbled data while uploading is a know problem. This is fixed in the next version. Just hold on tight or as a work around just copy the wav file you want to use to the HS/wave_files directory manually.

I tried that it did not work.

[Rupp]

I tried that it did not work.

What were you trying to do again?

[Laldaas]

What were you trying to do again?

I simply just wish to play a wav file. I created a very simple wav file. It was created in windows voice recoreder. It is me saying "buddy". I saved the file as a .wav file. I named the file "buddy".

I copyed the file to the Wave_file folder in HS.

I still am geting this: error: file not found or 0 legth c:\programfiles\homeseer2\wave


I am not sure what I am doing wrong.

[Rupp]

OK,
After a bit more testing I believe I mislead you. Try copying your wav file to the wave directory and removing it from the wave_files directory. If appears that once the wav is played it is automatically copied to the wav files directory.

[Laldaas]

Ok I will try that when I get home later however I think I might have.

[Laldaas]

OK,
After a bit more testing I believe I mislead you. Try copying your wav file to the wave directory and removing it from the wave_files directory. If appears that once the wav is played it is automatically copied to the wav files directory.

OK OK for example I REALLY wanted to get the Westminster Chimes script running, I followed the directions to the letter. Yet to my disappointment I still can not get wave files to run

The script appears to be running fine just no sound.

[Rupp]

Go to C:\WINDOWS\Media and grab ding.wav. Place this in the C:\Program Files\HomeSeer 2\wave directory. Now set up an event to play this wav file and let us know if it works.

[Laldaas]

Go to C:\WINDOWS\Media and grab ding.wav. Place this in the C:\Program Files\HomeSeer 2\wave directory. Now set up an event to play this wav file and let us know if it works.

ok will do, I am heading home for lunch

[Laldaas]

Go to C:\WINDOWS\Media and grab ding.wav. Place this in the C:\Program Files\HomeSeer 2\wave directory. Now set up an event to play this wav file and let us know if it works.

Nope didnt work!

2/15/2006 9:42:49 PM - Info - Event Trigger "ding"
2/15/2006 9:42:49 PM - Error - File not found or file is 0 length: C:\Program Files\HomeSeer 2\wave\
2/15/2006 9:43:03 PM - Info - Event Trigger "ding"
2/15/2006 9:43:03 PM - Error - File not found or file is 0 length: C:\Program Files\HomeSeer 2\wave\


Very frustrating