[mesh-talk] Idea: Talking nodes!

[Marc Juul]

I was thinking about how to make the experience of operating a node really
smooth and engaging, and I thought: What if there was a big button right on
top of the node that you could press and the node would tell help you
troubleshoot?

*press*

<node> I am connected to one other mesh node via my dish antenna on the
roof. I am connected to the Internet via the Internet connection in this
home. I count four clients currently connected to the mesh through me.

--- another home ---

*press*

<node> I am not connected to the mesh. I am not connected to the Internet
but I remember being connected to the Internet only four hours ago. Please
check that a cable is connected to my port labeled "Internet" and that the
other end of the cable is plugged into one of the ports labeled LAN on your
Internet router.

I checked prices on aliexpress and I predict that it would cost about $4
per node plus some work to do this:

Components:

* USB Sound card $1.25 -
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/USB-Sound-Card-7-1-Channel-3D-Audio-Sound-Card-Mic-Adapter-3-5mm-Jack-Stereo/1592791853.html
* Amplifier: $1.21 -
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1-PCS-Mini-Digital-For-Audio-Amplifier-Board-3W-3W-DC-AMP-Module-5V-USB-Power/1945959724.html
* Speaker with case: $0.96 -
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/3-5mm-Audio-Portable-Wired-Multimedia-Speakers-Sound-Box-for-PC-Computer-Laptop-Notebook/32250400078.html
* Button (ok not very big, but best I could find cheap): $0.30 -
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/10pcs-Push-Button-with-Cap-12x12-mm/1915074831.html

or instead of the speaker and amp, just cut one of these in half and
super-glue it to the top of the node:


http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Mini-Portable-Hamburger-Speaker-Amplifier-For-iPod-iPad-Laptop-iPhone-Tablet-PC/32266758231.html

For the My Net N600 there's likely a secondary unused USB inside of it
where we can solder the sound card and tap power for the amplifier.

I know this is kinda silly. We probably don't want to be doing this to a
whole bunch of routers, but if we ever do a large enough custom order of
mesh routers (e.g. crowdfunded) it might be cool to add this feature + if
we show it off as something we're working on it could gain us some
attention.

For now I might make a prototype at some point.

For software I'd go with pre-recorded messages that are combined as needed,
since it will sounds _much_ nicer than speech synthesis. You can do 10
minutes of very nice sounding human voice in about 800 kB, so i think we
could fit enough voice samples on there without running out of storage.

fiverr.com is a good source for really inexpensive high quality voice
acting talent.

-- 
marc/juul
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