Microphone/MMM-voice Help

[tnp0327]

Hi everyone!

Absolute newbie with no real coding background here so thanks in advance for the patience and help!

So I’ve built a MM for my wife and I’ve also installed google AIY so that it functions as both a MM and google assistant. I would also like to be able to use the microphone for MMM-voice and everything appears to have installed properly, however, when I load MM it will not change from “Initializing”. I have a feeling that this is because the microphone is only “ON” when I am running one of the AIY demo.py’s AND giving the command “Hello, Google” or OK, Google but, again, I am a noob and could be completely wrong. Do you have any advice for getting the PI/MM/MMM-voice to initialize the microphone/voice-HAT?

Thanks in advance!

[Mykle1]

@tnp0327

I could be wrong (I often am) but I don’t think the microphone can be shared. It’s one module or another.

[tnp0327]

Thanks for the response, @Mykle1 . @strawberry-3-141 asked me to debug and I added debug:true to the config file but am not sure where the debug log data is stored. Any help on finding the debug data?

It almost hurts to ask that question :(

Thanks!

[sdetweil]

@tnp0327 minimize the mirror window (alt-spacebar, n) and the terminal windows used to start the mirror will be shown… the debug is in that window…

least thats how I do it!..

this debugs the node_helper
ctrl-shift-i will open the mirror debug window (select console tab) this will show the module level debug

[strawberry 3.141]

@tnp0327 the file that gets generated is located at modules/MMM-voice/debug.log

[tnp0327]

@strawberry-3-141 here is a snapshot of the directory. I do not see a debug.log file. Do you know why this could happen?

Thanks

[strawberry 3.141]

@tnp0327 can you show me the mmm-voice part of your config js

[tnp0327]

@strawberry-3-141 I originally had it in the config section but moved it up below “position”. However, I am still not seeing a debug.log file. I rebooted and still nothing.

[strawberry 3.141]

@tnp0327 it needs to be in the config section

[tnp0327]

@strawberry-3-141 thanks! I moved it to the config section.

I still do not see a debug.log file.

When I run MM, the MMM-voice area (bottom left) says Initialising… and underneath that it says undefined.

[sdetweil]

have u restarted the mirror a few times, without reboot?

the sound process does NOT get restarted…

get back to the commandline and do

ps -ef | grep pocket

and then kill that process so it can be restarted…

or reboot…

i created this little script for a prior mirror runtime that I use here too

#!/bin/bash

ps -ef | grep pocket | grep -v "color=auto" | awk '{print $2}' | xargs sudo kill -9
ps -ef | grep node | grep -v "color=auto"  | awk '{print $2}' | xargs sudo kill -9

[tnp0327]

@sdetweil I have restarted the MM process and rebooted the PI - still no debug.log file.

[sdetweil]

@tnp0327 can u minimize the mirror and look at the console log of the terminal window… maybe there is some other error…

minimize = alt-spacebar, n

[tnp0327]

@sdetweil @strawberry-3-141 so I did not find a debug file but was able to follow the instructions to look at the console log and the only message I am seeing regarding MMM-voice is:

Starting module: MMM-voice MMM-voice.js:82
MMM-voice is waiting for voice command registrations. MMM-voice.js:85

[sdetweil]

@tnp0327 before the modules is the startup of the node_helpers… if u can scroll back up the console window, you might find something else…

have u tested to make sure the mic is working? with the rec command?

rec somefile.wav

on the bottom of the console window should be a meter like bar that moves when u speak…
then you can control-z out of the rec command and then play somefile.wav to see how it sounds…

[tnp0327]

OMW to work now - will run it again later and update with my feedback. Thanks for the help so far.

[Abhilash1368]

@tnp0327 I am going through same thing,it displays mic flashing symbol and just says initialising and undefined at bottom(if degug:true).Did you resolve it?please let me how to make it work?
Thanks

[strawberry 3.141]

@abhilash1368 do you have content in your debug log file?

[Abhilash1368]

@strawberry-3-141 I don’t see any content,but its working now.Initially I have my own custom twitter module loaded along with MMM-voice(my twitter.js is not modified yet to support MMM-voice). Once after making changes to my twitter.js according to “Hey Lucy” documentation to receive voice notifications,then it is started working. Thanks

[richland007]

@strawberry-3-141 Ok so i have a very similar situation i have AlexaPi (and MMM-AlexaPi for visual feedback) and want to use MMM-voice and Hello-Lucy. I have 2 USB microphones (a webcam that i talk to AlexaPI and a USB sound card that i want to use for MMM-voice)
On the config.js i have assigned microphone id of 2 for MMM-voice ( arecord -l and the install of MMM-voice show that alsa as 0 USB webcam as card 1 and USB sound card as card 2)
when i start magic mirror MMM-voice says “initializing” than briefly “Waiting for module commands” than settles on “error”
My questions are:

1. and i am pretty sure i have an answer for this is that AlexaPi and MMM-voice can they use the same mic or not … most likely not .
2. why isn’t using microphone #2 straight forward do i have to twitch anything on alsa config, etc will pulse audio be better and what is the difference ?? how do we mitigate this problem??

I have tested and confirmed that both usb microphones work when they are plugged each by themselves but not when they are both simultaneously plugged in only the webcam would record … i am not sure if i am putting the right parameter here “arecord hw:1,0 -d 10 /tmp/test-mic.wav”

Please any help will be greatly appreciated
Denis