jec6613 Posted May 12, 2022 Posted May 12, 2022 A bit of background, I have a Niles whole home audio system with some fairly sophisticated functionality, and I want to be able to use my ISY to play short MP3 (or other file) clips that will pipe through one of the paging inputs on the system. I could probably do this with Sonos or HEOS or a PC or something similarly overkill, but I'd prefer a simpler device for reliability and simplicity. The specific application is to have audio messages play, such as welcome home based on user triggers and the like. And the reason why ... is basically cool factor. I have no need for this, I just want it.
KeviNH Posted May 12, 2022 Posted May 12, 2022 I've researched this before, Sonos is definitely the simplest tool to trigger MP3 playback from ISY. In terms of playing announcements, I ended up going with a Raspberry Pi 3 and network listener. The ISY sends a request for a MP3 file by name or sends a phrase to be announced, and the Pi either plays an existing file, or uses text-to-speech to generate a new MP3 file containing the announcement. More here:
TrojanHorse Posted May 12, 2022 Posted May 12, 2022 A bit of background, I have a Niles whole home audio system with some fairly sophisticated functionality, and I want to be able to use my ISY to play short MP3 (or other file) clips that will pipe through one of the paging inputs on the system. I could probably do this with Sonos or HEOS or a PC or something similarly overkill, but I'd prefer a simpler device for reliability and simplicity. The specific application is to have audio messages play, such as welcome home based on user triggers and the like. And the reason why ... is basically cool factor. I have no need for this, I just want it. I use a raspberry pi for this and some python scripts that I wrote. Wasn’t simple (for me since I had to learn python) but I now get a short .wav file played when the mailbox opens. And it “grabs” the settings from my whole home audio to then return them to the prior state. Could scale it to do more sounds and triggers. Similar to you this was totally unnecessary but when I started on my automation project years ago I thought once I have that feature that means I’m basically done. But of course I’m not…Edit: I’m using a monoprice amp but the rpi could still work.
larryllix Posted May 12, 2022 Posted May 12, 2022 I spent many days and weeks trying to get a GH or Alexa speaker to play an audio file from a RPi with BT. The things will pair, and connect, but the speakers reject any file send to the speakers from a RPi. This seems to be done intentionally, despite the speakers claiming other devices can use them as BT speakers. I tried over a dozen techniques on blogs claiming it works and finally gave up. RPi sound via it's audio output is supposed to be very poor with only 6? bit A/D production.
TrojanHorse Posted May 12, 2022 Posted May 12, 2022 RPi sound via it's audio output is supposed to be very poor with only 6? bit A/D production.Not sure. I use an HDMI to toslink digital converter which gives good clear audio. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
jec6613 Posted May 12, 2022 Author Posted May 12, 2022 If the RPI is the solution I can snag an external DAC easily though ... the sound system handles high res audio beautifully but for this I don't need anhting that great. I suppose I can also get one of those fancy Z-Wave versions of an IOLinc to connect to the GPIO pins. This is starting to get into the realm of quite complex though. I was hoping for something a bit dumber like the old Niles DBI-2, just with more sounds I can play back and some decent quality.
Bumbershoot Posted May 12, 2022 Posted May 12, 2022 2 hours ago, KeviNH said: I've researched this before, Sonos is definitely the simplest tool to trigger MP3 playback from ISY. Yep, dead simple with the Jishi Sonos API and an RPI. There's even a Node server for PG3 that lets you do this directly from your ISY. 1
KeviNH Posted May 12, 2022 Posted May 12, 2022 9 hours ago, jec6613 said: If the RPI is the solution I can snag an external DAC easily though ... the sound system handles high res audio beautifully but for this I don't need anhting that great. I suppose I can also get one of those fancy Z-Wave versions of an IOLinc to connect to the GPIO pins. This is starting to get into the realm of quite complex though. I was hoping for something a bit dumber like the old Niles DBI-2, just with more sounds I can play back and some decent quality. If you've got the Network Module (comes with portal) then it's easiest to just send network requests to rPi, no reason to mess with GPIO and Z-wave.
garybixler Posted May 12, 2022 Posted May 12, 2022 I basically use one Amazon echo and routines to send custom messages through my paging system. Not local but works fine.
BCreekDave Posted May 13, 2022 Posted May 13, 2022 (edited) I've had good success using an ELK-120 https://elk-manuals.s3.amazonaws.com/120v3_Instructions_8.5x11.pdf I trigger it with an Insteon IO linc relay output for an automatic garage door motion warning. Old-tech but rock solid. Edited May 13, 2022 by BCreekDave
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