second speaker app

[jcap]

Ok another newbie question, I am trying to run a second speaker app on second sound card, following instructions in help files, I guess i just dont get it. I right clic on the shortcut,change target field exactly as in example and get error message PROBLEM WITH SHORTCUT NAME SPECIFIED IN TARGETBOX NOT VALID, MAKE SURE PATH AND FILE ARE CORRECT.
can someone make this idiot proof for me?


Example

To start the speaker client with an instance name of 'Night':
C:\Program Files\HomeSeer 2\Speaker.exe Night
If you are starting the speaker client from a shortcut that you have added to your Startup folder in Windows, you would add the instance name to the Target field of the shortcut, which would look like this:
<!--(Table)===================================================== ====--><TABLE class=whs3 cellSpacing=0 width="64.09%" x-use-null-cells><SCRIPT language=JavaScript><!--if ((navigator.appName == "Netscape") && (parseInt(navigator.appVersion) == 4)) document.write("</table><table x-use-null-cells width='64.092%' cellspacing='0' border='1' bordercolor='black' bordercolorlight='black' bordercolordark='black'>");//--></SCRIPT><COLGROUP><COL class=whs4><COL class=whs5><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD class=whs6 width="50%">
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

Thanks

Jim

[Rupp]

Jim,
The best way to start another speaker app is to edit the startup.txt file an add the second instance there is you are starting these from the HomeSeer server. Are you starting these on the HS server or a remote server?

[jcap]

thanks for the quick response,

i am TRYING to start a second at the HS server

jim

[Rupp]

Here's the lines from my startup.txt file to lauch 2 speaker apps.

' if speaker client is not running, start it
if not hs.IsApplicationRunning("Speaker") then
hs.Launch hs.GetAppPath & "\Speaker.exe","Main","",0
hs.Launch hs.GetAppPath & "\Speaker.exe","HomePC","",0
end if

Once they startup you need to edit the connection info by right clicking on them.

[ssk]

Some times the second Speaker client may throw an error if two speaker clients are trying to access the grammar file simultaneously. To avoid that give hs.waitsecs between two launches.
Like this:
' if speaker client is not running, start it
if not hs.IsApplicationRunning("Speaker") then
hs.Launch hs.GetAppPath & "\Speaker.exe","Main","",0
hs.WaitSecs 2

[jcap]

Rupp you are a gentleman thanks again,
was that information available somewhere?
I searched everywhere and found only that info on modifying the shortcut

Jim

[jcap]

and thanks ssk I did have a grammar file error on one start up, perhaps due to both apps starting close to simultanously, so i did add your suggested pause

Jim

[upstatemike]

Here's the lines from my startup.txt file to lauch 2 speaker apps.

' if speaker client is not running, start it
if not hs.IsApplicationRunning("Speaker") then
hs.Launch hs.GetAppPath & "\Speaker.exe","Main","",0
hs.Launch hs.GetAppPath & "\Speaker.exe","HomePC","",0
end if

Once they startup you need to edit the connection info by right clicking on them.

Looking for an example for doing this in HS3 with startup.vb (instead of startup.txt). I'm sure there is one somewhere but I can't seem to find it.

[Pete]

Here just run different speaker apps on different directories on my SAPI VB. Each of the speaker apps running use a different TTS and have a different name. On the Oracle VB they all share one audio card on the Ubuntu main OS.

IE:

speaker 1 ==> /homeseer/speaker1/speaker.exe
speaker 2 ==> /homeseer/speaker2/speaker.exe

on and on here for 5 instances of speaker dot exe. You can also run multiple instances using different config files...

speaker.exe name

In the windows Start Up Delayer application to start speaker and if need be Homeseer. If it starts and there is no HS connection then after HS starts it will connect.

It is a PITA to direct SAPI to two different audio cards as it will keep defaulting to primary card even after you save it. Years ago Dan here on the forum did his HS sound using multiple USB audio cards and adjusted the registry to make this work. Today with Windows 10 it will be much more difficult.