Program to Customize TTS Voices

Okay, I think you folks are great. I went back and downloaded the web updater (I guess it was a different version?) and it said I could download a newer version of "voice file"...which I did. The new voice file has all of the words I've been looking for and it appears all of my editing and replacing the nuvi file has worked. Get to try it out tomorrow.

Thanks for all of your help.

Glad it worked. Mike had a similar problem. Lucky for you, you came just after him... LOL!

Dear Q,

As the Continuum will instruct, English is British. Scottish is also British. Perhaps you meant to compare Yank with English.

david

Yes, I tried it out real time and everything worked great...... My grandkids loved the new messages.

Roy

Will this actually work with any TTS-using model? For instance, I have the C340, which uses TTS but doesn't have mp3 abilities. Is that not necessary?

you need to be able to see the files on the device and you can't do that with a c340.

Unless I'm wrong, in which case I'll happily alter the voices on my c340. (I hope I'm wrong)

Yes, unfortunately, you are correct.

England and America are two countries separated by a common language. (George Bernard Shaw)

So, where does Karen and Australia fit in to all this?
(I guess image tags aren't allowed here, so you'll have to click)
http://www.bluenovemberrecords.com/images/gallery/gal17.jpg

I assume there is no USB, right? In this case, how do you make the firmware update? Through a serial port?

Do you have access to the firmware on your PC? If so, I could modify the firmware before it is sent to your C340. Hum...

Let me know how it is done.

There is USB, but the C3xx's filesystem is not exposed to the outside world.

The C3xx voices are supplied in a .RGN variant - which is just the .VPM with a 60 byte header added. It's downloaded to the unit using Updater.exe. They are available in a self-extracting package.

(Most people probably use Webupdater, which must use a similar mechanism).

From what I recall, there's no means of deleting a voice once it's been transferred - only overwriting it.

See: http://garminc510.tts.googlepages.com/home for details of the header.

In this case, we should be able to make it work. I just need to modify my signature checking and maybe correct a pointer offset or two. I will download a couple of these rgn files and have a look.

Looks like a job for tonight.

Assuming, of course, some C3xx users are interested...

I'm having trouble with my c530 and altering the voice files...any help or do you have a customized file for my c530 that you could possible send?

Now that I think of it, TTSVoiceEditor should already be able to open the C310/C510 vpm file created by stripping the header of the rgn file. Once stripped, it is a regular vpm file. The only reason why it sould not work would be because it is an older version of TTS voice. I can adapt the program if this is needed.

Run the program over the vpm file and then make a copy to 000.vpm and copy them back to your gps as instructed by Phil's link.

allbizz,

Please specify what 'trouble' you have: program shows garbage instead of text, program crashes, ....

How are you going to copy it back?

Let us know when you get this up and running. I would love to use it with my c530.

I'm a chicken when it comes to messing with files and such, but it is good to know you can do such amazing stuff.

I'm guessing the TTS voice is still "Jill" or whomever you selected to modify.

What I would be interested is being able to modify "Jill's" accent. I have not found a voice from GARMIN that will correctly pronouce some of the street names in my SOCAL area.

There are plenty of places on the web that offer TTS with "good" voices that do pronounce my street names correctly, but , How to get them on my NUVI 350?

-jgracey

jgracey,

You can't take other "good" voices and use them on your gps. It has to be a Garmin voice. To correct the accent, you need to change the text. For street names, you would have to edit the street names in the IMG map file and try to find letters that produce the correct phonems sounds.

bentbiker,

See the link proposed by Hornbyp a couple post above yours.

Yes, since on a C340 you can't see the files? I don't understand how you'd copy them over. If there's a way to do it I'm very interested. But in the mean time, I'm puzzled.

There is a support page on the Garmin web-site for the C340, that details all the downloadable Voice files.
http://www8.garmin.com/support/collection.jsp?product=010-00...

Picking one at random (Voice, British English-Daniel (TTS), Ver. 1.20, as of Jan 02, 2008)
http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=1299 it contains a link that lets us download a self-extracting installer. (Voice,BritishEnglish-Daniel_TTS__120.exe)

If we rename that .EXE file to .ZIP and open it, we will find it contains:

Directory of C:\TEMP\voice

17/12/2007 11:31 15,017,020 English_British_Daniel_0120.rgn
06/08/2004 09:22 720,896 Updater.exe


The .rgn file is the equivalent of the .VPM file that other users are familiar with, but with the addition of a 60 byte header.

You can copy it to the C340, after you've modified it, by invoking the Updater.exe that was shipped with it:

C:\>cd \TEMP\voice

C:\TEMP\voice>updater c:\temp\voice\English_British_Daniel_0120.rgn


This will raise a dialogue, asking you where the C340 is connected - select "USB Device".

(Obviously, substitute directory names that are appropriate for your system.)

Actually performing the modification of the .rgn, is outside the scope of this post!

Also, please bear in mind, that I've never even seen a C340...

I downloade the voice, extracted the two files. Will TTS Rditor open the rgn extension or must I change it? After editing it close and save as original name ???.rgn. Then put in folder with updater and run updater?

In this current version, you cannot open the rgn file directly. Renaming it would not change anything. I need to do a small modification. I will post back when done (after dinner).

Thanks for the response. I have two GPSr. I have used the editor on my c550. My son has the c340 and he feels slighted. He is some distance from here so I don't see him often. - no hurry. Once again thanks.

Done! Please post feedback and specify your model number. Thanks. Usual site:

http://turboccc.wikispaces.com

Alright, I love the idea of playing around with what my GPS says, "recalculating!" is about as annoying a word in existance IMHO.

Problem: I have a c340 and I need step by step directions to do ABSOLUTELY anything the first time.. ..I'll give you all a moment...

Anyhow, I am so glad to see that your working for us "c3xx owners but can someone, if already done, do it again give me a blow by blow discription of what I need to do? Please pretend I'm an idiot, because... well you know!

TIA, And once again thanks to turboccc for his time and talent!

Jafoz28,

I am not an expert at the C340, but I thought Hornbyp's post was pretty clear.

1- Use his first link to download a voice from Garmin

2- Renane the .exe in .zip and extract the 2 files (update.exe and **voice**.rgn) to a directory on your PC.

3- Run TTSVoiceEditor v2.60 and do a file open on the **voice**.rgn file you just extracted.

4- Modify the voices as per the readme.txt coming with TTSVoiceEditor. Pretty hard to miss.

5- Save the modified voice file back to **voice**.rgn

6- Run update.exe **voice**.rgn and let the C340 update through USB.

Re-read Hornbyp's post. It should be all clear.

Very interesting. Thanks!

HUGE thanks turboccc and hornbyp sorry had tunnel vision and completely glazed over his post, most certainly will give it a try.

And again thanks!

OK new problem, dan't get the updater to work. Say no update files could be found.

Told you I was hopeless!

Got everything else down but now I can't find a way to put it on my GPS. Sorry for being such a PITA

works just super on my 780! Love the changes.

I still can't alter my c530 voice file...

Opened the file (rgn) and changed text with no difficulty. Will upload with updater later but don't anticipate any problems. Thanks

Streetpilot c340

Jafoz, allbiz,

I read your posts, but I just can't help you. I simply have no experience with these models. Hopefully someone will respond.

In the meantime, read carefully what is posted and try again. You will get it.

Cheers!

Turbo

'Roundabout' is gone.

Since I live in New Jersey, 'Traffic Circle' is in.

Others may prefer 'Rotary'.

I as well as others have been trying to sucessfully use the software to alter the voice file, but have been unsucessful. I have a c530 and the alternative voice utility tool is a bit more work than the softwares others have been sucessful with.

I enjoy the new phrases on my 760 but I haven't got around to the 650 yet, too much time spent golfing.
Although, now that I think about it, changing one should be enough.

Hey, thought I'd give you what I did and others having problems can maybe learn from what hasn't worked for me.

First thought that maybe it didn't see an update since I was trying to replace an unaltered Jack1.40 with an altered Jack1.40 (did that come out right???), so I changed the name from Jack_0140 to Jack _0141. You know version 1.41 vs 1.40. Didn't work.

Next tried to change the new folder to a .zip folder then to a .exe file. This was the closest to looking like it worked. A "black box" opened then closed in less then 1 second on my computer screen, but no change in the voice on the GPS.

turboccc, you've gone above and beyond the call on all you've done with this file I completely understand that you've done all you can, probably a loose nut on this side of the keyboard that's the problem.

zuma... if you figure out what I'm doing wrong for the love of all that is good PLEASE let me know. Thanks!

After downloading the Garmin voice.exe, you have to rename it to .zip and then extract the file inside. It is suppposed to have 2 files, the rgn file and the updater.exe. Use TTSVoiceEditor and open the rgn file. Modify your text and save back to the SAME name. Do not rename.

Connect your USB. Then, drag the rgn file over update.exe. This should start the program and the update. Do not run update.exe alone. You must specify a rgn file or it will not work.

I hope this helps.

So that was the answer that would have saved handfuls of hair pulled out of my head... drag the rgn file... Feel like a complete moron. Never tried to update the voices through my computer always did it directly from the web! Awesome, thank you once again turboccc!

Now does anyone know a good barber that could make my many now bald spots look better???

Changes I made to Jack:
22-Hang a right (from: Turn right)
23-Hang a left (Turn left)
34- Traffic Circle (Roundabout)
68-What did you buy me for (Recalculating)
70-Where are my glasses (Lost satellite reception)
71-Let me find my map (searching for satellites)
79-Here we are at (Arriving at)
83-Enter the traffic circle (Enter roundabout)
87-When you get a chance (When possible)
93-Follow the yellow brick road (Please drive the highlighted route)

Not sure if it makes a diference when the GPS "speaks" but I made my changes in CAPS so I can find and change them again if I decide.

Thought about changing recalculating to for Jackie Chan fans "Do you not understand the words coming out of my speakers" or (using the . as a 1 second pause) "Oh . my . gawd .. are you an idiot" That would probably sound better as a female like Jill. Now that I have an idea what to do I may do just that.

I have never laughed so hard at some of the phrases and after imputting them (programme works GREAT!) teh expression on my wife's face when she heard the new instructions was priceless.

Thank you so much this is fun. The way GPS was meant to be.

I'm now madly setting up new files with different words depending on where we are going and who we are going with....simply upload from teh PC before the trip....

Very glad to see confirmation of success with a C340!! I will have to play with this on the holiday weekend.

Dear Q,

Although Shaw's comment is correct, it does not address your original malapropism.

david

Back on subject...

I am curious to know if it works on 8x0 models. If not, I am willing to have a look. Just notify me.

I have noticed with my Nuvi 760 that most of the time, it does not update the map display until Jill has stopped talking. This can be troublesome in heavy urban traffic where the streets are close together.

I noticed that the program also has a speech 'speed' setting, and on the 760 it defaults to 45. Bumping this up to 50 or 55 makes Jill talk faster and it gets to the screen update after a turn or missed turn much faster.

turboccc,

This may be off topic for this discussion, however is there a way on Extra_POI_Editor to convert from metric on km/h to m/h?

finalatom,

I was expecting this to come soon or later.

There ya go! Check for Extra_POI_Editor v1.60. Read history for limitations.

Okay, I finally changed a few things. But better still, I secretly hacked my older daughters C550, too.

A long time ago, when my younger daughter (now thirteen) was in pre-school, the older one and her brother tried to teach the little one to count by tens...but they inserted "larley" between twenty and thirty. I went in and hacked her Garmin so instead of 30, it says "larley." Since thirty isn't commonly spoken, it may be a long time until it is spoken, but when it is, I'd sure like to see her face.

can I use my c320

No. That unit doesn't have TTS voices.