Caller ID through 12 volt interrupt on whole house audio

I have a Russound CAV6.6 whole house audio system which supports 12 volt interrupt input which will mute any existing audio source and play some sound over all speakers (for example, tehy have a doorbell module which mutes everything, regardless of which source you have on, and plays the doorbell sound).

What I am looking for is a way to have caller id numbers or names spoken over the house speakers and have it done with the 12 volt interrupt (so that I can have any source on and the caller ID will still come on).

I looked for a pre-made module to do this and don't see anything. I have caller id software on a server that supports text-to-speech (which is also a source for the Russound system) but don't know how to make this go through the 12v interrupt (if I make the caller id a source on the Russound system, I would have to have that source chosen to hear it).

Thanks for any suggestions

Reply to
Greg
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Reply to
Art Todesco

There are a number of sound triggered relay circuits and kits around. Split the feed from the text-to-speech output, and also feed it into one of those. Use the relay output to provide a 12V interrupt. You might have a problem with the relay not switching in time to hear the first syllable -- I don't know how configurable your text-to-speech software is, but perhaps you could add some sort of pre-announcement sound, like a gong triad used on some station announcements, or even a short sample of phone bell?

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

I can definitely control the timing, so that should not be a problem.

Do you know of specific kits available? I searched, but didn't see anything. I am definitely more on the software side than the hardware side, so I might be missing something obvious.

Thanks again for your help.

Reply to
Greg

Pennsylvania. United States.

Reply to
Greg

Which likely explains why he asked for a specific recomendation, after admitting to being weak on hardware knowledge.

I've had great luck with

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for this sort of thing. Not the most affordable kit builder out there, but they have great instructions and a great selection.

One thing to note -- If you can find a line level kit, that'd be superior to one which uses a microphone. You could solder the line directly to the mic input, but you'd run the risk of frying the comparator or whatever is doing the triggering. Someone who actually knows something about electronic theory (as opposed to me, who just knows how to make things work) could tell you if some resistors would protect you from that. Or maybe an audio matching transformer.

Reply to
E. Lee Dickinson

If you indicated where in the world you live, someone might point you to something local, or at least in the same country.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Well, that's a different continent from me, but a google search turns up 139,000 results...

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Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

I asked Russound technical support and I wanted to post their response to my query:

Yes you can have the computer's audio trigger the page on the CAV 6.6. All you would need to connect is a 600 ohm Line Level Output to the CAV's audio Paging input ( the page input is signal sensing) Simply connect the Computer's Line output to the CAV with a 1/8" mini plug to RCA available from your local radio shack set the volume on the computer and your done. the page will stop 6 seconds after the last signal is received from the computer.

Thanks everybody for their help.

Reply to
Greg

If you intend doing this using a telephone please note that the output on most of these is the same one used for the speakerphone function. Simply connecting this to the CAV6.6 will result in every speakerphone conversation being broadcast throughout the house.

There is a solution to the above, however. There are telephone ring detectors which will throw a relay whenever the phone gets a ring signal. Couple one of these to an inexpensive timer or connect it to an input on your HA system and you can keep the speakerphone's output off line from the Russound system except when there's an incoming call.

Some Caller ID devices (such as the 6-line model from Rochelle for which I developed a software app years ago) send separate data strings to your PC or HA system when the phone rings, when the ICLID (Caller ID) data is received, when the phone goes off hook and when it is hung up. This sort of unit might be more suited to the HA experimenter's use since it is easily integrated into just about any kind of PC or HA system with a serial connection.

Here's a link to information on some of their products.

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The multi-line adapters are a bit pricey but ISTR they also have (had?) a single line that was quite reasonable.

Reply to
Robert L Bass

Hi Dan,

That's unfortunate. It was an elegantly simple device to implement CallerID based functionality to a system. I had several of them (might have been an earlier model) before I bought the 6-line model.

Reply to
Robert L Bass

| Here's a link to information on some of their products. |

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The multi-line adapters are a bit pricey but | ISTR they also have (had?) a single line that was quite reasonable.

It sure seems like "had." The ANI-232 became harder and harder to find and more and more expensive ($70 last time I bought) until it disappeared (except for the picture on the above site).

Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com

Reply to
Dan Lanciani

One thing I didn't mention in my earlier post is that I am running this off of a modem on the server in the basement, which has the sole purpose of detecting caller id. So, the speakerphone will not interfere with what I want to do. Your point is good - any output on that sound card from my pc triggers the whole house page (windows startup, etc.) so I had to turn everything else off.

Reply to
Greg

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