Unable to get Chatterpi to Use Microphone - Stops execution about chatterpi

[ViennaMike]

Thanks for your extensive documentation on the problems you're seeing! I'll try to take a look at it over the weekend.

[ViennaMike]

I just wanted to give you an update. Strangely, I can reproduce a similar issue (although it mostly plays my audio message, with garbling only at the beginning) when I install and run on a Pi 4 (but it worked on a Pi Zero W, which should have had the same issue only worse. You get way more ALSA errors than I get, I'm not sure why, plus you get Jack errors that I don't get (I don't know why yours has Jack trying to run at all). Did you start from a clean Pi install, or were there other things and audio settings already on the Pi? Because I also get
ALSA lib pcm.c:8424:(snd_pcm_recover) underrun occurred
when I run it and get garbled output, but I get a bunch of them and the Pi recovers and keeps running. I can't reproduce the program crashing at that point.

In a perfect world, we woudn't be getting the underrun errors, I'll try a few more things to see if I can elliminate them.

[naota2k3]

I have the Raspberry Pi B+, not overclocked running a fresh install of Rasbian on a 128 gig Microsd Card. I have a copy of Rasbian on a Noobs SD but I was going to reserve that for a PI Zero so I can install it into the skull in which I am going to be wearing and have it move when I talk. This is the 3d printed Skull Mask I am going to be using. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weCU1Pv9C8o

If needed I can solder on the header and try the RaspberryPi Zero with the Noobs Installed SD CARD. and try seeing if i get different results with the Chatter Pi. I am not too worried about the audio playing as I won't have any speakers but I am trying to have My Microphone which is a throat microphone be used as the input and as I speak it would move the servo in sync to the voice.

[ViennaMike]

Still working on it. It's really strange. There IS one bug for using sound files that I found, but that's not the main problem. In control.py, add () to the end of line 37 (should be a.play_vocal_track() ).

But the core problem seems to be that somehow the callback function that analyzes the sound chunk and drives the jaw completes in sufficient time on a Pi Zero (and I think on my Pi 3, haven't rechecked), but not on my Pi 4 or your Pi B+. This makes little sense to me. However it may be related to the CPU governor. If I install rpi-cpu.gov (https://github.com/DavidM42/rpi-cpu.gov) and set the governor to "performance" my Pi 4, it doesn't work perfectly, but works better for a sound file, with less overruns and only a little garbling at the start, but it still crashes using MICROPHONE mode (which is what you care about). Note: changing the governor does NOT overclock the Pi, just keeps it from using a power-saving mode, so it shouldn't hurt anything.

You can try those two things to see if they help on your Pi B+. I'm also going to try to refactor my code to use blocking rather than callbacks. I don't know if this will work at all for this functionality, but I'll check it out this week and see if that still works and eliminates the problem.

[andreasba1206]

Hello Mike,

First I would like to Thank you for the project. Thats exactly what I was looking for.

So after finding, I wanted to test this program on my Pi.
As first I have tried this on a Raspberry 3B, but I had issues with the microphone mode as naota2k3.
Then I ordered an Raspi zero W, because I have seen that this was working fine on your side.

So I tried to set it up according your description.
Everything worked fine (much better as on the Rasp 3B).
Only 1 additional reboot during the pigpoid installation was needed ;)
I also added the () in the control.py file.

But finally it does not work (The PIR seems to work).
I will get following error

pi@ChatterPi:~/chatterpi $ python3 main.py
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1281:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.bcm2835_hdmi.pcm.front.0:CARD=0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4568:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:5047:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM front
ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.rear
ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.center_lfe
ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.side
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1281:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.bcm2835_hdmi.pcm.surround51.0:CARD=0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4568:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:5047:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM surround21
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1281:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.bcm2835_hdmi.pcm.surround51.0:CARD=0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4568:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:5047:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM surround21
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1281:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.bcm2835_hdmi.pcm.surround40.0:CARD=0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4568:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:5047:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM surround40
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1281:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.bcm2835_hdmi.pcm.surround51.0:CARD=0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4568:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:5047:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM surround41
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1281:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.bcm2835_hdmi.pcm.surround51.0:CARD=0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4568:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:5047:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM surround50
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1281:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.bcm2835_hdmi.pcm.surround51.0:CARD=0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4568:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:5047:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM surround51
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1281:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.bcm2835_hdmi.pcm.surround71.0:CARD=0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4568:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:5047:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM surround71
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1281:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.bcm2835_hdmi.pcm.iec958.0:CARD=0,AES0=4,AES1=130,AES2=0,AES3=2'
ALSA lib conf.c:4568:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:5047:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM iec958
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1281:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.bcm2835_hdmi.pcm.iec958.0:CARD=0,AES0=4,AES1=130,AES2=0,AES3=2'
ALSA lib conf.c:4568:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:5047:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM spdif
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1281:(snd_func_refer) Unable to find definition 'cards.bcm2835_hdmi.pcm.iec958.0:CARD=0,AES0=4,AES1=130,AES2=0,AES3=2'
ALSA lib conf.c:4568:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:5047:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM spdif
ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.hdmi
ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.hdmi
ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.modem
ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.modem
ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.phoneline
ALSA lib pcm.c:2565:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.phoneline

With following config.ini values:

[SERVO]
servo_min = 1050
servo_max = 1250
min_angle = 90
max_angle = 0

[CONTROLLER]
style = 1
threshold = 2500
level1 = 1500
level2 = 2500
level3 = 3500
filtered_level1 = 1000
filtered_level2 = 2500
filtered_level3 = 4000

[AUDIO]
buffer_size = 16384
source = MICROPHONE
output_channels = BOTH
mic_time = 30
ambient = ON

[PROP]
prop_trigger = START
delay = 10
eyes = ON
trigger_out = ON

[PINS]
jaw_pin = 18
pir_pin = 23
eyes_pin = 25
trigger_out_pin = 16

Please could you help me?

Thanks in advance
Andy

[andreasba1206]

Hello Mike,

I have found out the issue! But I am not sure if it's the same for naota2k3.

I had already added the () in line 31 of the control.py
After checking your code, I found also missing () in line 51 of the control.py

Thanks again!

Andy

[ViennaMike]

The missing () have been fixed in the latest update (10_3_2021).