[DECtalk] dectalk external question

[Jayson Smith]

Hi,
That was the point of the software.  I assume how this worked is that the
DECtalk served only as a speech synthesizer and touchtone decoder.  The
software running on a computer told the DECtalk what to say and the DECtalk
told the software what numbers the caller entered.  So actually as I
understand it, the DECtalk itself was very dumb, unable to do anything on a
phone line on its own.  And it couldn't transfer extensions or take
voicemail in any case, probably.  To give an account balance, the software
would have to find it out from somewhere but that was the software's problem
and not the DECtalk's problem.
Jayson.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Brent Harding" <bharding at doorpi.net>
To: "DECtalk Discussions" <dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2006 6:16 PM
Subject: Re: [DECtalk] dectalk external question


> Did anyone actually put a dectalk into a phone line like this? I doubt it
> could do anything too useful like transfer extensions or take voicemail.
If
> you wanted it to tell an account balance, it would need to obtain it
> somewhere.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Jayson Smith" <ratguy at bellsouth.net>
> To: "DECtalk Discussions" <dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 01, 2006 2:58 AM
> Subject: Re: [DECtalk] dectalk external question
>
>
> > Hi,
> > You have one of the old DECtalks.  I've never seen one of these so don't
> > have connector info, but I've heard Speakup under Linux can use these so
> > if
> > you ever want someone to take it off your hands...
> > Anyway, you're wrong, any connector with pins or plugs showing is a
male,
> > any jack or serial connector without pins showing is a female.  The
phone
> > jacks, as I understand it, are not used for connection to a computer.
> > These
> > old DECtalk units could interface with a phone line to give callers
spoken
> > information, provided you had or could write the appropriate software.
I
> > think they could even do menu-based stuff, E.G. "For the song of the day
> > press 1, for the DECtalk demo review of the day press 2, for your
current
> > account balance press 3, to use a time machine to make it so that
Digital
> > would never have even thought of selling DECtalk press 4, etc."  Thus,
> > probably the reason that DECtalk versions to this day have touchtone
> > dialing
> > commands.
> > Jayson.
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "hank smith" <hanksmith4 at earthlink.net>
> > To: "DECtalk Discussions" <dectalk at bluegrasspals.com>
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 11:56 PM
> > Subject: [DECtalk] dectalk external question
> >
> >
> >> hello I have a dectalk external its before the express
> >> it is running firmware 1.8 when you turn it on it has test touchtones
> > before
> >> it says
> >> "dectalk version 1.8 is running"
> >> anyways I am having trouble finding out what exact cable I need to hook
> > this
> >> up to a computer to use with a screen reader
> >> it has 2 phone jacks one with a phone simbol and the other with a minus
> > buy
> >> it
> >> btw I just had a custom cable made a mmj cable and it isn't the one
that
> >> goes off to the side
> >> the other 2 ports it has are one port that says
> >> comm
> >> the other port has a square buy it
> >> these are 25 pin think its femail its the port with the pins showing.
> >> anyways what cable do I need to have custom made to interface this
thing
> >> with the computer to use it as a external synth?
> >> I am going to be returning the mmj cable and I need to tell the folks
> >> what
> >> kind of cable I need.
> >> any help  is so so greatly appreciated.
> >> thanks
> >> hank
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> DECtalk mailing list
> >> DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
> >> http://jaybird.no-ip.info/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > DECtalk at bluegrasspals.com
> > http://jaybird.no-ip.info/mailman/listinfo/dectalk
> >
>
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