Voice Messaging using Particle Core and GSM Breakout Board

Send Voice Message using Particle and GSM Breakout Board

I bought a GSM Breakout Board and it was resting on my table for a long time. Last week I decided to work on a project using GSM and Particle Core. Actually I decided to work on 2 project, one is to deliver a voice message to a specified number and other one is an IVR system. Here is the first project I worked, send voice message to a specified telephone number. I am working on second one and will post here once completed.

Overview

This project basically call a number, when the call is picked up on the other end, deliver a voice message and then hangup. This project mainly uses 4 Hardware Components.

1. Particle Core as main processor and for Internet connectivity.
2. A GSM Breakout Board for Cellular connectivity.
3. SparkFun I2C/SPI-to-UART Breakout Board for SPI to UART.
4. Emic2 Text to Speech module for TTS.

Since both GSM Board and Emic2 are Serial based, you need 2 Serial to communicate to these two. So first I tried Serial1 and Serial2 on Spark Core. But only one was working at a time, either Serial1 or Serial2. I was not able to get both working at the same time. So I used SPI to Serial Breakout Board. This breakout board convert SPI or I2C to Serial. The Emic2 is connected through Serial2 and GSM Board is connected through the SPI to Serial board.

Adafruit FONA library is used to communicate to the GSM Board. Even though this is written for Adafruit FONA Breakout Board, it will work with other SIM800/SIM900 boards. FONA is based on SIM800L module. I have slightly modified the Adafruit FONA Library to include the functions to read current call status and set the auto answer.

For voice output I am using Emic2 Text to Speech module. The audio output of this module is connected to the Audio Input of the GSM Breakout Board using 3.5mm Audio connector.

The Particle Core application exposes three functions, one to set the number to which voice message has to be delivered, second one to set the message and third to set the number of rings before automatically answer the call. When we send voice message, the application place a call to the number and waits for the other end to pick up the phone. Once the phone is picked up, voice message is delivered and the application hang up. The status of the current call is obtained using the GSM900 AT Command AT+CLCC. This command returns the status of the current call. This command is explained in this document. The response string contains the status of the current call if any, if there is no active call the command returns just the string "OK". Third field of the response string contains the status of the current call. Following are the possible values of this field.

1. 0 Active
2. 1 Held
3. 2 Dialing
4. 3 Alerting
5. 4 Incoming
6. 5 Waiting

Once the call is placed, the application waits for the active call status to become active and the message is delivered using the Emic2 TTS Module and hangs up the call once the TTS is completed. For incoming call if the auto answer is set, the SIM module automatically answer the call after the specified number of rings. In this case also when the call is active, the application delivers the message and hangs up.

Wiring

Particle Core and I2C/SPI-to-UART

• Core MOSI to I2C/SPI-to-UART MOSI
• Core MISO to I2C/SPI-to-UART MISO
• Core SCK to I2C/SPI-to-UART SCK
• Core SS to I2C/SPI-to-UART SS

I2C/SPI-to-UART and GSM Shield

• I2C/SPI-to-UART Vcc to 3.3v
  
• I2C/SPI-to-UART GND to GND
• I2C/SPI-to-UART Tx to GSM Board Rx
  
• I2C/SPI-to-UART Rx to GSM Board Tx
• GSM Board 5v to 5v
• GSM Board GND to GND

Particle Core and Emic2 TTS Module

• Core Tx to Emic2 Rx
• Core Rx to Emic2 Tx
• Emic2 5v to 5v
• Emic2 GND to GND

Screenshots

Demo Video

Voice Messaging sample demo