Double Talk LT, but no serial port. Where do we go from here?

[Michael Hannon]

Greetings.  We have a blind graduate student in our department.  Several 
years ago we set him up with a desktop PC, to which we connected the 
speech synthesizer that he supplied.  This was a Double Talk LT device, 
and it connected to the PC via a serial port.

We downloaded and installed whatever was the current speakup-modified 
Fedora distribution at the time, and after a bit of fiddling, we got the 
whole thing to run satisfactorily.

Time marches on.  Now the student has purchased a new laptop computer: a 
Dell Inspiron 1200.  He wants us to set up speakup on this system also.

We've got Fedora Core release 3 installed on the system with kernel 
2.6.10-1.766-FC3spk.  Unfortunately, the new Dell has no serial port, so 
it isn't clear to us how to use the student's Double Talk device.  We've 
tried connecting via a serial-to-USB converter, but when we type:

     modprobe speakup_ltlk

we get a "no-such-device" message.  I assume that the ltlk driver is 
looking for a true serial port, not some dumbed-down USB port.  We have 
tested the cable and adapter, by the way.

Hence, we have two questions.  First, is there any chance to make the 
Double Talk LT device work with the new laptop?  I.e., have we 
overlooked the obvious?

Second, if we can't get the Double Talk device to work, do you have 
suggestions as to our next course of action?  We've done a bit of web 
surfing and determined that, as one would expect, there are USB-based 
synthesizers available, although they seem a little pricey, especially 
for a student.  Do you have suggestions for a USB-based synthesizer? 
How about other options?

Thanks.

					- Mike
-- 
Michael Hannon            mailto:hannon at physics.ucdavis.edu
Dept. of Physics          530.752.4966
University of California  530.752.4717 FAX
Davis, CA 95616-8677