VOICE BOX

"CUCKOO..."

Run the pole with your hands full. Say the wake word, then a command - the voice box sends it to the base, checks the pole really did it, and tells you.

FROM YOUR VOICE TO THE POLE
All of it runs on the Pi on the boat - no internet needed.

HOW TO TALK TO IT

  1. WAKE ITSay cuckoo. It answers Yes, captain? (or a beep, if you picked TONES).
  2. SAY A COMMANDWithin 6 seconds: scan hold, hard left, how is the wind...
  3. IT CHECKS, THEN ANSWERSIt looks at the base to see the pole really did it, then says so - or the pole didn't take that if nothing changed, or Sorry, say again? if it didn't catch it.
  4. KEEP GOINGFor 8 seconds after each answer it takes another command without the wake word - e.g. stop right after slow left.
WHEN IT'S LISTENING
STOP STOP STOP

Works any time, no wake word: stops the pole right away.

LISTEN MODE

Say cuckoo, listen mode: commands work without the wake word until end listen mode / stop listening, or 10 minutes without a command. Things it doesn't understand are ignored.

TIPS

  • Directions are measured from the bow: hard right is 90° to starboard of the bow wherever the boat is pointing. In SCAN they move the sweep and it keeps scanning.
  • Plain spot isn't a command - it sounds too much like stop. Say spot mode or lock on.
  • Everything it heard and answered is in the flight log: phone app LOGS › MORE › VOICE COMMANDS.

EVERY COMMAND

TURN IT ON

  1. POWERSwitch on its power (or plug it in). It takes about a minute to start.
  2. READYIt says Reporting for duty, captain.

TURN IT OFF

  1. ASKSay cuckoo, then shut down (or power off).
  2. CONFIRMIt asks "Shut down the voice box? Say yes to confirm." - say yes (or confirm) within 8 seconds. It answers Going down with the ship! and shuts down safely. Anything else keeps it on.
  3. WAIT, THEN SWITCH OFFAbout 15 seconds, then switch off its power. Works even with the base off.
  4. START AGAINSwitch its power off and on.
DON'T JUST PULL THE PLUG

Unless you have to. Shutting down first protects its memory card. (If its USB mic resets on a power dip, it quietly reopens the mic by itself.)

SETTINGS

Kept on the base, changed in the phone app at SETUP › VOICE BOX. The voice box reads them at every wake word, so a change works the next time you say cuckoo.

WORDS OR TONES

WORDS: she talks. TONES: a short beep when it's listening, a rising tone when the pole did it, a low tone when it didn't. Questions (battery, wind, time) are still spoken. By voice: quiet / talk.

SCAN SPEEDS

What slow scan, scan and fast scan mean: 25 / 60 / 100% to start with.

TURN SPEEDS

Motor power for slow left and fast left: 25 / 70% to start with. A slow / fast turn runs until any other command, one full turn, or the pole stalls.

HER VOICE

A British woman ("Jenny") who talks boat - port, starboard, astern - and calls you captain. There's also a pirate. (Picked in the voice box's script.)

HOW IT WORKS

LISTENING

Vosk runs on the Pi with a small English model. It only listens for a fixed list of phrases (plus a few "decoy" words so random noise isn't heard as cuckoo), which makes it fast and hard to fool - even next to the motor.

DOING

It sends the base the same one-shot command the phone would (/a), reads the base's status (/st) to check, and writes what it heard and said into the base's log (/vn). Answers about battery, wind, speed and time come from the base's /i.

TALKING

Piper makes the voice on the Pi. Every answer is made once and kept, so it plays instantly the next time. Numbers (battery, wind) are put together from cached pieces.

KEEPING IT RUNNING

It's a system service: starts at power-up, restarts by itself if it ever crashes, picks the wireless mic first (USB mic as backup). Updated from the Mac with update-pi.sh.