SailfishX: OsmAnd freezes using prerecorded voices [answered]

asked 2017-10-31 16:48:02 +0300

1713 ●23 ●53 ●42

updated 2017-12-04 20:49:24 +0300

On my Jolla1, I have been using the Android app OsmAnd for 3 years now to navigate from point A to point B. Installing the very same app on my newly flashed Sailfish X device results in application crashes as soon I use start navigation.

Details:

If I disable voice output in OsmAnd completely, navigation works fine, but is not very useful, since at driving I have to watch the road and not the smartphone. Like on my Jolla1, TTS (text-to-speech) voice output does not work on my Sailfish X device. You simply don't hear anything. See https://together.jolla.com/question/54254/osmand-voice-navigation-no-sound/. So I switched to prerecorded voices on my Sailfish X device, too.

Behavior on Sailfish X:

Open OsmAnd
wait for GPS fix
tap target
select "navigate to target"
route calculation starts and finally displays the route to drive
press "Go" in the lower navigation bar
application freezes

Expected behavior (like on Jolla1):

Open OsmAnd
wait for GPS fix
tap target
select "navigate to target"
route calculation starts and finally displays the route to drive
press "Go" in the lower navigation bar
the voice is telling me "distance and time of the tour" and navigation starts with first instruction

Other information:

It makes no difference whether I use German or English prerecorded voices.

It makes no difference whether I use the up-to-date version 2.7.5 of OsmAnd or the previous version 2.6.5.

Maybe I could get TTS working as described in this Answer: https://together.jolla.com/question/19666/text-to-speech-tts-for-android-apps-in-alien-dalvik/ But there should definitely be a more user friendly way for people, which do not want to live edit sqlite databases on their smartphones.

Update on the workaround: I installed "Flite TTS" as alternate TTS-engine. This is the only TTS-engine I could find in F-Droid repository.

Result: OsmAnd talks exactly one sentence to me, then the TTS-engine stops working until I restart OsmAnd. So this is sadly no workaround for this problem. Does someone know of other TTS-engines for Alien Dalvik?

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The question has been closed for the following reason "the question is answered, an answer was accepted" by olf
close date 2018-02-23 20:16:07.583320

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Same here. Trying to use Finnish prerecorded voices.

Pesasa ( 2017-10-31 17:19:34 +0300 )edit

1

answered 2017-11-02 01:16:31 +0300

olf
10393 ●104 ●201 ●158

updated 2017-11-02 01:27:06 +0300

I just realised, that a description how to easily set up a working TTS in AlienDalvik seems to be missing on TJC, although I have been researching this topic and have found a well working solution more than two years ago. So I documented this now: https://together.jolla.com/question/19666/text-to-speech-tts-for-android-apps-in-alien-dalvik/?answer=172280#post-id-172280

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answered 2017-11-02 19:31:20 +0300

rinigus

4011 ●42 ●58 ●59

While not solution to TTS in Android layer, there is an alternative solution to navigation software with spoken routing instructions. During a summer, I worked on adding voice directions to SFOS native navigation application Poor Maps. The corresponding patch has been submitted upstream and is under review. Since this is rather large amount of code, it takes time for review, but you could expect native application to be released that will allow you to get from A to B with the spoken instructions. If you wish, you could use the unofficial version with the voice support, as described in Poor Maps thread at talk.maemo.org. I am using this version every time I need it for a while now and it works quite well for me.

What has been done:

mimic and picoTTS engines packaged for SFOS (OpenRepos). This gives a good quality TTS in English and few other languages (German through picoTTS). Note that Mimic uses Flite as a base and adds an additional voice with a good quality.
separate voice instructions are supported in Poor Maps and converted to WAV through native TTS software. Mimic and picoTTS should be the best available at SFOS right now, use espeak only if you want to amuse your kids.

The best results are obtained when using Valhalla routing engine, as used by Mapzen (online) or OSM Scout Server (offline). Valhalla supports several languages and has separate instructions for voice and directions shown as text by the device. Poor Maps has a great support for this engine, just select the required provider in routing engine setup.

While its not solving TTS in Android, as requested by you, it should allow you to use a native solution for the original issue.

As an alternative to Poor Maps with the voice prompts, you could also use Saera. How that works, I don't know personally. As far as I understand, it can find the route and then guide you by voice only.

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1

Thank you very much for this information and your work on this topic. These are is very interesting and good news! :)

ralooyar ( 2017-11-03 19:14:48 +0300 )edit

SailfishX: OsmAnd freezes using prerecorded voices [answered]

The question has been closed for the following reason "the question is answered, an answer was accepted" by olf
close date 2018-02-23 20:16:07.583320

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SailfishX: OsmAnd freezes using prerecorded voices [answered]

The question has been closed for the following reason "the question is answered, an answer was accepted" by olf close date 2018-02-23 20:16:07.583320

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The question has been closed for the following reason "the question is answered, an answer was accepted" by olf
close date 2018-02-23 20:16:07.583320