Radio HAL

Home Automated Living's HAL 2000 software contains an ActiveX interface called HALi where one can create programs that interact with HAL. My first major HALi project was Radio HAL. Radio HAL simulates a radio station, complete with DJ and music from HAL's Digital Music Center (DMC). The programming language used was Visual Basic .NET by Microsoft.

To learn HALi programming, I started with the X10 Demo application that comes with HALi, and made a few minor modifications. The first was the display of Caller ID information when a phone call came in. For Radio HAL, I added a "DJ" button. The button is initially gray. When pressed, the button turns green and Radio HAL starts. I have since performed a rewrite of the program and have removed the X-10 functionality.

When the DJ button is pressed, the program reads and saves a song list specified by the user. Each entry in the list contains (1) The artist and song name, and (2) The path to the song file.

While reading the song list, songs in the "chatter" directory are placed in a separate list. These are optional jingles, commercials, and other non-music audio files.

A text file is read containing short text to speech (TTS) sequences such as the following. HAL's TTS variables are used to add variety. This is the DJ for Radio HAL.

It is <TIME> and time for more music.

Radio Hal, where music is random.

In the financial news <STOCKS IBM>

The temperature is currently <TEMP> degrees.

You're listening to Radio Hal.

Here's a look at the weather, <WEATHER TODAY>

The program then starts off with the following, the first entry in the TTS file:

The time now is <TIME>. This is Radio Hal.

When the previous action is completed, a random number is chosen and one of the following is done:

A song is played.
A TTS message (DJ speaking) from the file above is played, followed by a song.
A commercial, jingle, or example of general nonsense is played, followed by a song.
A special message is played to introduce the next song, followed by the song.

The special TTS sequences introduce the song that has been chosen to follow the message. Here are a few examples. Note that the TTS variables for title and artist are recognized by Radio HAL, not by HAL itself.

Here is a song by <ARTIST>.
Coming up next is <TITLE> by <ARTIST>.

We can also simulate requests:

Female DJ: "Hello, Radio Hal."
Male caller: "Hi, could you play <TITLE>?"
Female DJ: "Certainly."

The program checks off each song as it is played and will only start repeating when it is unable to locate an unplayed song.

The Radio HAL interface contains a command line entry box. The following commands are supported:

/today = Today's weather
/tom = Tomorrow's weather
/bb = Update weather information (and sign if connected)
/events = Events for today (birthdays, holidays)
/wea = Weather summary, current conditions
/stock = Stock summary
/saying = Saying of the day
/call = Last incoming phone call
/song = Information on the song currently playing
/ss <string> = Song search
/news = Speak and display first news item (v3.12 only / experimental)
/about = Version and creator information
<string> = Phone list search

Each time the weather is downloaded, a file called now.txt is created in the RadioHAL directory. This file can be read by HAL using the TTS/File option, and provides the current weather conditions. An example is: "Currently, 73 degrees and Overcast."

Download Radio HAL

Status: Available now for HAL 4.0.65 thru 4.0.132

Step 1: Read the release notes and make sure you understand the requirements and setup procedure. The release notes also contain a change history.

Step 2: Download the Radio HAL 3.12 zip file and unzip it to a C:\RadioHAL directory. If you are upgrading from a previous version, note the configuration changes in the release notes. If the latest version does not work for you, please try Radio HAL 3.00.

Step 3: Follow the release notes in notes.txt to set up the program.

Step 4: Radio HAL is being distributed as Shareware. If you use and enjoy this program, please consider making a small donation. Thank you!

Direct questions and comments to Cynthia at

Radio HAL - Shareware

Questions

Q: Where do the Chatter files go?
A: The Chatter files go in your music folder in a path containing a subdirectory called "Chatter".

Q: A single song keeps repeating. What's wrong?
A: Check that Repeat mode is turned off in HAL DMC.