Dectalk USB mini-review

[Adam Myrow]

Well, I just received my Dectalk USB yesterday.  I ordered it last week, 
since I'd been limping along with software synthesis for several months 
after purchasing a new computer.  So, here is a sort of mini-review of the 
unit.

The synthesizer itself is somewhat smaller and lighter than the old 
Dectalk Express.  It does not contain a rechargable battery, but instead, 
comes with a removable plain old 9-volt battery.  The documentation 
indicates that you can only get an hour out of the battery, so it's pretty 
useless.  I'd advise saving the battery for the next time your smoke 
detector needs one and forget using it in the Dectalk USB.  It can be 
powered either through a computer's USB port, or a normal wall wart.  The 
device does not have the word "DecTalk" in Braille on the top as the 
Express did.  It does, however have the thumb wheel which serves both as 
power and volume control.  Like the Express, it clicks off if you turn it 
all the way to the left.  When it is powered on, it says "Dectalk USB 
ready."

In addition to the power/volume thumb wheel, there is a small switch 
behind the headphone jack.  This switch selects either serial or USB mode. 
When the switch is flipped towards the headphone jack, you are in serial 
mode.  It comes out of the box with the switch set away from the headphone 
jack, meaning that it defaults to USB mode.  Of course, you need serial 
mode for Linux.  Even in serial mode, the supplied USB cable can be 
plugged into a USB port to supply power if you don't feel like using the 
wall wart or the useless battery.  The back of the synthesizer sports the 
USB and serial connectors, and the jack for the wall wart.

As for the synthesizer itself, it sounds very similar to the Dectalk 
Express.  However, it does use the newer speech engine from Fonix, which 
has a few little quirks.  For one thing, it seems to pronounce a lot of 
words with short o's as if they had an ou sound.  It sounds like it is 
saying "boudy" instead of "body."  It also doesn't handle those demos 
which make the Dectalk sing.  This is a pretty useless feature, but it 
does suggest that it may handle commands slightly differently from the 
Dectalk Express.  The voices sound slightly different as well.  It's not 
as painful as the Dectalk run time 5.0, fortunately.  I still prefer the 
older software, however.

Some of the other problems I've observed could be Speakup-related.  For 
example, I have both the Dectalk Express and software synth compiled 
directly in my kernel.  I've used the appropriate append line in lilo.conf 
to select the Dectalk at boot.  While Speakup finds it, I cannot mute it 
during boot with a keypad enter until fairly late in the boot process.  I 
have to listen to a lot of boot messages before it will work.

The second problem, is that if I start reviewing the screen too quickly, 
the speech will suddenly slow to a crawl.  I have the speakupconf utility, 
and have to do a "speakupconf load" to restore it.  Lastly, it has the 
same problem as other Dectalk models where words with apostrophes get 
pronounced as if the apostrophe were a space.  This seems to be a Speakup 
bug.  So, I'm wondering if others using Speakup with a Dectalk Express 
have noticed these problems, or if they are Dectalk USB specific?