V8600A

The V8600A voice synthesizer is a versatile, modular voice synthesizer designed to satisfy just about any voice output requirement. The onboard RC8650 chipset enables the V8600A to automatically convert plain English text into a high quality male voice. Measuring less than 12 square inches in size, the V8600A requires only a 5 V power supply and speaker to operate. Its small size and low power consumption make it an ideal solution for any application, ranging from robotics to telecommunications.

The V8600A is designed to be piggy-backed onto a host PCB, such as a system's controller board, via two 12-pin headers. An eight bit bidirectional data bus and read/write control pins enable the V8600A to be easily interfaced to virtually any microprocessor bus. Stand-alone applications are also possible with the V8600A's built in printer and serial ports. For applications requiring RS-232 communication, an on-board RS-232 option is available. Pricing for the V8600A ranges from $89 to less than $35 in volume.

V-Stamp

The V-Stamp is a feature-rich, self-contained voice/sound synthesizer and recorder, measuring only 1.7 square inches in size. Among its many features are text-to-speech conversion, audio recording and playback, musical and sinusoidal tone generation, telephone dialer and four-channel A/D converter. Operation is from a 3.3 V or 5 V power supply; low-level line and 1-watt speaker outputs are provided.

All of the V-Stamp's features are accessed using a standard logic-level serial interface. The V-Stamp mates with two standard, 12-pin PC board connectors. Separate power pins are provided for the onboard digital and audio subsystems, allowing for several possible output power and power consumption combinations. Pricing for the V-Stamp with 2 minutes of recording memory (models with up to 33 minutes are available) ranges from $75 to less than $30 in volume.

V-Pod

Develop applications for the V8600A (non-RS-232 version only) and V-Stamp modules rapidly with the V-Pod development kit. Everything needed to evaluate and program the V8600A and V-Stamp modules is included with the kit: docking board with RS-232 serial and 8 bit parallel interfaces, serial cable and AC power supply (modules are not included).

The V-Pod provides an RS-232 serial connection between the module and your PC, allowing you to use application programs such as RCStudio and RCLink with the module. Data files created with RCStudio can be downloaded to multiple modules in a production environment, using RCLink or a batch file running from a command prompt. If your PC does not have an RS-232 (COM) port, any of the many USB to RS-232 DB9 adapters available online can be used with the V-Pod.