Dynamically change GH TTS target groups - how are you doing it?

[Wade]

I would like to have certain TTS notifications sent to 1 of 3 different GH/chromecast speaker groups depending on occupancy conditions (handled separately by various means). E.g., send only to downstairs speakers when someone may be sleeping upstairs, include outside speakers when we're working in the yard, etc. One way would be triplicate notification events with each conditioned on one of the 3 occupancy conditions, but hopefully there's a more efficient way.

I also played with muting certain GH/chromecast devices depending on the situation, but when they're used for other purposes muting is problematic.

Anyone doing this? Ideas of how to efficiently handle it?

Thanks.

[mrceolla]

I've started to migrate all of my TTS to go through a script. This script can send audio to the speakers as well. I have a condition in there to only do something if somebody is home...aside from the dog. The dog hates the voices lol It will also show the text of the TTS on my TV, if it is on. With this script method you could apply additional logic to determine which speaker or speaker group to target. It also makes future changes to this logic much easier to have it centralized in a script vs in every event.

Here's what I've started with. Parameters separated with a pipe | and if it has ".wav" it attempts to play that sound file, otherwise it speaks the text. Send as many parameters as you want.

Example Parameters strings:

weather-warning.wav|A severe thunderstorm warning has been issued.|weather-warning.wav
airport-bingbong.wav|Your attention please. I have something important to say.

Note: the .wav files must exist on your system in the proper place

Sub Main(Params As String)

 ' soundFile|speakText
 Dim ParamsArr() As String
 ParamsArr = Params.Split("|")

 ' check Home Occupancy status
 Dim homeOccupancy = hs.DeviceValue(###)
 'hs.WriteLog("SpeakWithSound", "homeOccupancy: " & homeOccupancy)

 If homeOccupancy > 10 Then

  Dim lg55Status = hs.DeviceValue(###)

  For Each param As String In ParamsArr
   If InStr(1, param, ".wav", vbTextCompare) > 0 Then
    hs.PlayWavFile("C:\Program Files (x86)\HomeSeer HS3\Media\" & param, "", true)
    hs.WriteLog("SpeakWithSound", "Playing: " & param)
   Else
    If lg55Status = 202 Then
      ' This actually shows a toast message on the screen, not TTS audio
      hs.Speak(param, false, "$MC$TVName Remote$:*")
    End If  
    hs.Speak(param, true)
    hs.WriteLog("SpeakWithSound", "Speaking: " & param)
   End If
   hs.WaitEvents()
   hs.WaitSecs(1)  
  Next

 Else

  hs.WriteLog("SpeakWithSound", "Skipped due to no occupancy.  homeOccupancy: " & homeOccupancy)

 End If

End Sub

[Wade]

spud I apologize if I've asked previously. Can't find the post if I have.

Would you consider making the TTS enable/disable parameter controllable via event and/or immediate script?


Thanks.