Instructions | Voices of the past, speak up!

1
Step 1
- You will need the text to speech board from Mikroelektronika: https://www.mikroe.com/text-to-speech-click Don’t forget to jumper it for 5 V! By default it is set of 3.3 V!
- You can solder it in directly, but make sure you have enough clearance for the PAM amplifier board below it. I am using Arduino headers: https://www.amazon.com/Hilitchi-110pcs-Arduino-Stackable-Assortment/dp/B01IP60YQA
- The MCU / ATMega 644 needs a 16 MHz crystal, e.g.: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B083R3F29K
- Make sure you get matching capacitors for the crystal (20 or 22 pF usually).
- The 40 PIN IDC connector goes ON THE BACK of the PCB, and the notch is facing TOWARDS the Talker/80 edge connector.
- Solder in the LEDs before the IDC connector.
- Use pin header strips for the amplifier board (break them into pieces of required length), e.g. https://www.amazon.com/MCIGICM-Header-2-45mm-Arduino-Connector/dp/B07PKKY8BX The short side of the pins goes into the Taker/80 PCB, the long side sticks through the holes in the amplifier board. Solder from the top. Cutting the pins is not required (there is enough space / clearance such that the Epson speech board will not touch them).
- Header pins can be removed simply by pulling them out of the plastic strip, with a small side cutter where the amplifier doesn't have holes). Carefully, the strips break easily!
- 10. Also, the loudspeaker pin header "port" on the back of the PCB can be made from 2 of these pin headers from the strip. The software and pictures (helps with assembly) etc. are in the Talker/80 GitHub repository: https://github.com/lambdamikel/Talker-80
- The stereo connectors can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077D1NY4T
- 40 pin TRS 80 Model 1 Crimp Edge Connectors can be found online, for example here: https://www.btw-electronics.net/product/idc-card-edge-connector-40-pin/
- For the cable, just use a 50 pin IDC IDE cable and strip out the 10 superfluous wires.
- Enjoy and best of luck!

Voices of the past, speak up!

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