ARC Microcontroller And Blue Tooth

Question

Hi everyone. This may sound like a silly question but Is there a way to Bluetooth connect to ez-b v4? I am using Bluetooth for several of my items on my robot such as a Bluetooth speaker. The Bluetooth is connected to my computer now. This gives it a different range than my wireless local network. If it would Bluetooth I could also feed my iPhone through the robot. I also have a ez-b v3 that I could hook up for that function but i would prefer to trade that one in. Any ideas?

Steve G · Accepted Answer

@Ellis. Does the Bluetooth speaker your using have an AUX headphone socket? If it does, I may have an idea to help you.

Dunning-Kruger · Answer

Nope... the ezb4 is only capable of connecting via wifi. It was designed to exclusively use wifi. There isn't even a way to add a Bluetooth radio. And of course without wifi you would have to use a different camera than the ezb4 camera... Not sure why you would want to... Bluetooth is way slower and notoriously known for connection issues.. Keeping my ezb3 connected to my PC was a chore in itself... So back it went to EZ Robot this morning for my $50 store credit....

Robot Doc · Answer

Here's a link to a possible solution: Bluetooth to WiFi PC Bridge

Ellis · Answer

Steve, Yes it does have a headphone jack. Rich, I really am trying to get away from Bluetooth from my computer. The audio of the EZ-B v4 speaker is not the sound of the new Bluetooth speakers available today. I would like all my audio to come through my Bluetooth speaker on my robot. Since it would be easy to loose connection on the Bluetooth due to distance I thought that if I could put the Bluetooth transmit on the robot it would never run out of signal. It was just a thought.

Steve G · Answer

Great. As you do have a headphone socket, here's a possible solution for you. What I have done with my set up is to use a breakout mod on the EZ-B which I have linked to here. It's pretty easy to do if you have some basic soldering skills. I have a male headphone jack coming from the EZ-B and plugged in to the speaker. So all my sound files and speech phrases that use the SayEZB() script command on my ARC project, are streamed via its WiFi connection and plays through the speaker. And here's the best bit. While the EZ-B is permanently plugged in to the speaker, the speaker can also pick up a Bluetooth connection at the same time. I recorded a load of sound files using a music editor, to create custom ringtones, email alerts, reminders, sms message and alarm clock alerts that I transferred to my iPhone. So, for example, now my robot (K-9) tells me when I have a phone call coming in and who is calling, and when I answer the call, it automatically transfers to the phone speaker, unless I select otherwise. This set up works great and impresses people who see it in action. Well, I hope this solution helps. It sounds like this is what you are after.

Rich · Answer

Bluetooth doesn't have the bandwidth to cope with the data transfer of the V4. Even using wifi to bluetooth would cause issues with using the V4. Wifi is more stable and has better range. Consider changing the bluetooth devices to wifi rather than the wifi to bluetooth.

Ellis · Answer

Hi Rich, I guess I wasn't very good at explaining myself. I actually want everything to go to my robot wifi. I love the sound of the bluetooth speakers. I was wanting to send all my audio to the ez-b and have it bluetooth to the bluetooth speaker. I now realize that this is not possible because the ez-b does not have bluetooth nor does it look like anything can be done to change it. i did however find a device I am still looking into that will connect to my wifi and output to bluetooth. This will give me the distance same as the ez-b. I never wanted the ez-b to be computer controlled by bluetooth but thanks for the help. Steve, I say your hack of the ez-b to provide sound out from the ez-b. I looked very promissing. I had seen it a while back but didn't want to do anything to my ez-b that could negatively affect it. Great idea. Thanks for the help. Ellis

Steve G · Answer

No problem. It is quite simple to do. I managed it and I'm no expert by any means. I does work really well and sounds great. If you need any pointers, give me a shout. I'm happy to help.

Ellis · Answer

Thanks

Dunning-Kruger · Answer

@Ellis, as long as you understand that the ezb will have nothing to do with the Bluetooth speakers... The Bluetooth speakers are basically wireless PC speakers that you will be locating on your robot with the ezb... All sound commands will be sent as you would normally to your PC speakers... But since you have your Bluetooth speakers on your bot, that's where the sound will come out...

Steve G · Answer

@Richard. Quote:as long as you understand that the ezb will have nothing to do with the Bluetooth speakers... Hey dude. I don't quite get what you mean by that. I know you know about the mod, but using the breakout mod and essentially hard wiring (not using the speakers Bluetooth connection) from the EZ-B to the Bluetooth speaker with headphone socket, your essentially extending or replacing the EZ-B speaker, so not quite understanding what you mean by the EZ-B will have nothing to do with the Bluetooth speakers, because with the mod, it kinda does. confused

Dunning-Kruger · Answer

@Steve, yes I am aware of the speaker break out mod... You essentially attach an external amplified speaker in place of the little ezb speaker... Don't need Bluetooth for that... I got the impression, however that Ellis wanted to use an onboard Bluetooth speaker instead of cutting apart his ezb.... I was merely stating that the Bluetooth will be separate from the ezb, that's all...

Steve G · Answer

Cool, got it now. Thanks for explaining, I see what you mean now. I think he wants the set up I have in K-9 where all the EZ-B sounds, speech ect are played through the BT speaker for better quality sound, and use the actual BT connection to connect his phone for alerts ect, so it all comes from one speaker.

Ellis · Answer

Yes Rich you are right. I am mostly bypassing the ezb with the bluetooth speaker. However by doing this I am now universally able to add any other items on my robot that can now use the Bluetooth speaker on my robot. Such as the new echo from Amazon. It will allow me to ask the robot for information. The echo will contact Amazon supercomputer on their system and verbally answer the question. I will also be able to carry on a conversation with my robot by using sites on the Internet. The robot will act like it has artificial intetelligence. All I need to do is find a way to get all the different voices to become the same voice to make it real. The possibilities are only limited to what is available on the Internet.

Dunning-Kruger · Answer

Hmmm echo from amazon? Is it like Pandorabot?

Robot Doc · Answer

Richard R, check it out HERE

Ellis · Answer

Any ideas on how to make everything one voice would be awesome.

Steve G · Answer

I've got a feeling you can only use the installed voice that comes with it, but I could be wrong. If your using the EZ-B as the main hub for voice synthesis it will use the voice/ voices installed in your PC that basically use text to speech. The Echo seems to have its own on-board voice. The only way I can think of is to find a voice that sounds similar. Looks like a pretty cool peace of kit though. Just wondering if there's a catch, such as paying a subscription to use some of its online services.

Steve G · Answer

Bearing in mind, with a little work the EZ-B can do a lot of the things the Echo can do. Set alarms Set reminders Tell you the weather or news using RSS feeds Play music Have a conversation using Pandorabots chatbot software Tell random jokes. And can probably do more that I havn't discovered yet. All using speech recognition and speech synthesis. My robot does all this using the EZ-B and uses the same voice for all its responses.

Dave Schulpius · Answer

Instead of using the EZB Soundboard control how about installing the PC Sound Board in ARC instead. You find both controls under the Audio section of Add Controls in ARC. You can then use that control to play your sound files through the PC. You then configure Windows to use the Bluetooth as your PC speaker and that adjustment will send audio to your BT Speakers. I've done it like this and it works nicely.

Steve G · Answer

Actually Dave brings up a good point. Using the "PC Soundboard" option in ARC can play all your audio stored on your PC through the EZ-B, and use the Say() script command instead of SayEZB() for speech synthesis. The reason why I hesitated to mention this though is because one draw back is, if you want to connect another Bluetooth device to your robots B/T speaker such as the iPhone that Ellis mentioned at the same time, you would have to keep manually swapping the connection when that device is used. A lot of Bluetooth speakers can only handle one device being connected to it at any one time, although there are some that can handle multiple devices too.

Ellis · Answer

I am already useing the pc sound card and Bluetoothing it to my robot. My original post was to find a way to wifi this signal to the robot then Bluetooth the audio to the Bluetooth speaker. Since then I think I have found an answer with a wifi/Bluetooth device. I have been thinking about turning everything to text then have the pc speak the text. This would make the one single voice work.

Dave Schulpius · Answer

Ya @Ellis, after re reading your first thread I see that I misunderstood your original question. Sorry for stating a different solution then you were looking for and confusing the thread. I'm looking forward to see how your text to speech test goes. Please keep us posted. I'll back out now and do other more productive things.

Steve G · Answer

@Ellis. It sounds like a possible way to go. What sort of WiFi/Bluetooth are you thinking of using? EDIT: Sorry. I pressed send before I finished writing. eyeroll What I was going to say was you may run in to issues connecting the WiFi/Bluetooth device you mentioned and your iPhone to your B/T speaker at the same time like I mentioned in post#22, as you may need to keep swapping device connections. Check the specs on the WiFi/BT device to see if it can handle multiple devices connecting simultaneously. Otherwise this may not be the fix your looking for. If you did decide to use the breakout mod, it does away with the need to use a third device, so less peace of hardware, and one less device to charge/charge batteries on. Something to think about.

Ellis · Answer

Thanks everyone. Steve helped a lot. I will keep everyone informed how the system turns out.

Steve G · Answer

&Ellis. Yeah please do. I'd like to find out what solution you end up using, and how well it works for you. And, your welcome. Glad I could help.

Ellis

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