talKKonnect

A Headless Mumble Linux Client/Transceiver/Walkie Talkie/Intercom/Gateway for Single Board Computers (IP Radio/IP PTT <push-to-talk>)

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If you use talkkonnect Please let us know your use case by sending us pictures, and please also STAR talkkonnect/talkkonnect repo on github.com!

So What then is talKKonnect, and why should I be Interested?

talKKonnect is an open source customizable headless, self-contained Mumble Push to Talk (PTT) client designed for linux SBCs such as Raspberry Pi, and Orange Pi Boards. It offers a flexible form factor with an LCD/OLED display, channel and volume control, making it ideal for group communication scenarios. Common use cases include amateur radio enthusiasts, ad-hoc group communications, and replacing expensive commercial intercom systems.

The Potential Uses of talKKonnect

• IP Intercom or Door Intercom or Intercom between remote places
• Mobile Radio Transceiver Desktop unit for communication between workgroups stationary or mobile without distance limiting the quality of communications
• Device to Bridge Between the World of PTT Communications over IP/Internet with the world of RF/Radio
• Open Source Replacement for Camera Crew Communication for Live Production Events
• Dispatch Communications between Dispatcher and Mobile Responders for emergency responders
• Ad-Hoc Group Communications where talkkonnect is used as the base station and Android Phones/IPhones or other rugged Android Devices used in the field.
• Use for IP Based Public Announcements (IP-Speaker Type) (Recorded and Live) with targeting to specific devices or groups
• A Text to Speech Alert Announcement by API/MQTT to either play locally or to remote clients
• Remote IP-Speaker Announciator controlled remotely for public and office areas
• A toy for our big adults like amateur radio enthusiasts (like me and many of you).
• A toy for your kids (so that they can feel how it was like to be a kid in the 80s with a CB radio Now With 7-Segment and Rotary Encoder Channel Changing)
• A customized version of your particular PTT Communication unique usecase as this project is an open souce platform whereby people can build on quickly

Current Use of talkkonnect in real world applications in varying industries by our community members

• Logistics and Transportation
• Fire Fighting and Rescue Operations
• Remote Location Help Request Repeaters
• Maritime
• National Parks
• Military
• Security Guards
• Factories and Warehouses
• Video Production
• Ham Radio

Mode detailed information of builds can be found facebook and blog

Some Interesting Features of talkkonnect

Configurablilty

• XML Granular configurability covering many flexible uses cases.
• Centralized autoprovisioning for multiple talkkonnect devices from a centralized http provisioning server using XML delivery via http
• Configurable choice of GPIO pins for each function on a variety of commercially available SBC boards

GPIO and Hardware Support

• GPIO WIth Optional GPIO Expander (up to 16 x 8 = 128 GPIO using The MCP23017 Chip over I2c)
• Rotary Encoder Support for Channel Up/Down, Volume Up/Down, SA818 Radio Module Frequency Change, Voice Target Change
• LCD/OLED Screen (Parallel and I2c Interface) showing relevant real time information such as server info, current channel, who is currently talking, time, etc.
• Connecting to low cost USB GPS dongles (for instance “u-blox”) for GPS tracking, Panic Alerts integration with traccar GPS tracking software.
• Seven Segment Support For Showing Channel like CB Rado using MAX7219 Chip with Seven Segment Displays
• Panic button, when pressed, talKKonnect will send an alert message with GPS coordinates, followed by an email indication current location in google maps.

Remote Control Features

Local or Remote Control via

• GPIO Pins and Buttons
• Locally attached USB keyboard
• SSH, Console terminal
• HTTP API and/or MQTT with Granular Configurable remote control commands, LED Control, Button Control, Relay Control

Using talkkonnect As a Radio Gateway Interface

• Communications bridge to interface external (otherwise not compatible) radio systems both over the air and over IP networks.
• Interface to portable or base station radios (Beefing portable radios or UART radio boards).
• Tone Based Repeater Opening Function with the ability to specify the tone frequency and duration in configuration.

Extra Multimedia Features (IP-Speaker)

• Full Duplex Support (No Audio Stuttering on Multiple people talking over each other)
• Sound Files can be tied with events/actions in config (Support both blocking and non-blocking modes)
• Streaming Audio into the channel from locally stored media file or from internet stream by local or API Call
• Announciator Support using Google TTS with Multi Language Support
• Analog Relay Control By Listening Channel for PA Announcements

Mumble And other Features

• Shout and Whisper Support
• Channel Token Support
• Configurable Voice targeting via USB Numpad keyboard, TTY Keyboard, API, MQTT (Shouting and Whispering)
• Configurable functions such as mute,unmute,channel,txptt available on USB Keypad
• Listening on Multiple Channels Support
• Multiple Server Configurations with channel control, channel scanning and server hopping
• Many Other features as per suggested or requested by the community too many to mention here

What is talkkonnect and What's the history behind it?

This project is a fork of talkiepi by Daniel Chote which was in turn a fork of barnard a text basedmumble client. talKKonnect was developed using golang and based on gumble library by Tim Cooper. Most Libraries are however heavily vendored (modified from original). You will need to get the vendored libraries from this repo. Talkkonnect has implemented using the later specs the mumble protocol, so please use the talkkonnect vendored libraries (gumble) for building talkkonnect. Using original gumble library has does not have channel listening features and the build will fail because of missing functions mapped to the vendored version of the gumble library.

talKKonnect was developed initially to run on Linux SBCs. The latest version can be scaled to run all the way from ARM SBCs to full fledged X86 servers. To compile on X86 archectures you would need to revert back to Tim Cooper's version of GOOPUS (Opus) since the older build supports x86 processors. Raspberry Pi 2B,3B,3A+,3B+,4B,400,Zero 2W, Orange PI Zero H2 Chip targets have all been tested and work as expected. For the The enthusiast or those who want to test the features of talkkonnect the newly released Raspberry Pi Zero Version 2W used with a respeaker hat and external speaker is the perfect candidate for test driving talkkonnect. With this hardware no soldering required and ready made images are available for burning and testing.

Why Was talKKonnect created?

I Suvir Kumar created talKKonnect for learning and fun. I missed the younger days making homebrew CB, HAM radios and talking to all those amazing people who taught me so much. My HAM Radio Call signs are HS1FOS/E25OSW for Thailand and KK7HMK (Extra Class) for USA.

Living in an apartment in the age of the internet with the itch to innovate drove me to create talKKonnect. I did it as a hobby to learn, so in no way am I a professional programmer, however talkkonnect is very stable and running in production for mission critical systems all over the world and is production ready. That being said brace yourself for some code from a self taught amateur programmer some parts of talkkonnect are not ideal.

I have tried to make the talKKonnect source code readable and stable to the best of my ability. Time permitting I will continue to work and learn from all those people who give feedback and show interest in using talkkonnect.

talKKonnect was originally created to have the form factor and functionality of a desktop transceiver. With community feedback we started to push the envelope to make it more versatile and scalable as you can see from the rich feature list. We also later added announcement and PA abilities to make talkkonnect support IP-Speaker functionality.

Building talkkonnect Additional Optional Hardware and Precautions

You can find the typical circuit diagram in PDF format for raspberry pi 2,3 Series, Zero 2W here

You can use an external microphone with push buttons (up/down) or rotary encoder for Channel navigation for a mobile transceiver like experience. Using a rotary encoder makes talkkonnect very usable with minimal user interface.

Currently talKKonnect works with 4×20 Hitachi HD44780 LCD screen in parallel mode. Other screens like 0.96" and 1.3" OLED with I2C interface is also currently supported. Currently for SPI only seven segment displays are supported using MAX7219 chip.

Low cost Class-D audio amplifiers like PAM8403 or similar “D” class amplifiers, are recommended for talKKonnect builds.

A good shileded cable for microphone is recommended to keep the noise picked up to a minimum for mics when using analog soundcards. Instead of the onboard