Oh, yeah. I noticed this, too. It seemed like a filename length issue. I don’t recall the exact length, but it is somewhere around 18, IIRC. To get around this, I shortened the names of the offending files and tried again until they all “fit” with usable filenames. Thanks for the reminder!
Family Appreciation Factor: it was brought to my attention (!) the voices sound “tinny.” Due to the speaker or transducer in the siren. You just can’t stuff a hi-fi speaker into such a small form factor.
In the latest version of files, I plugged an Echo Dot into my laptop & recorded Alexa making the announcements. It sounded a little better. Perhaps finding a “voice” that works best with the little device will improve the sound output.
Regardless, the ZSE50 is a great, versatile device and a good addition to our Smart Home.
Yes. I find the sounds I record in Audacity (with my own voice) or if I use Amazon Polly they sound rather good. My halloween sounds seem fine for my purposes but yes, tinny for sure at times.
Although the howling wolf is driving my dog crazy. He keeps looking for him lol.
Curious if you could solve this with a global variable - that way when the device id changes, you update the variable once? (I haven’t tried this myself, just probing)
Improved Tone File Management: Resolved the tone file ordering issue by introducing fixed, addressable locations for each tone. Adding or removing sound files will no longer alter the sequence of existing tones. This update ensures that scenes remain consistent and unchanged when new files are loaded.
I know I’m reviving an old thread here… but I just dusted off my ZSE50 which was still running the original firmware from back when I did my initial review video.
I updated the firmware to v1.3 and found that my sound files were a mess from my previous tinkering with the device. So, I downloaded all the sound files from the Zooz site, wiped the files off the ZSE50 and installed the fresh downloaded sounds. Then did the reconfigure as usual.
I found the files had some normal and some strange file names with the BL-000~1.MP3 notation, and that some of the names didn’t match the sound? So I did it a second time, and this time I renamed the BL-000 files to their original names - like alert8_leak-detected.mp3. And did another reconfigure.
Now at least I have readable options for sounds, and they match what is played.
But here’s the strange thing:
I have sound files listed that are NOT showing in the directory listing when I connect the ZSE50 to my computer! These files are the custom halloween sounds I added back in October. I can’t seem to find them to delete them; but they are there and they play? Not sure how this is possible. Here’s what I see in the z-box as sound options (pointed out the custom files, and yes they all play):
What does everyone think? Is this haunted from last Halloween?
I’m going to attempt a factory reset and see what happens.
Update: The factory reset didn’t clear up the mystery files. Actually now some filenames appear strange formats in the z-box. (?)
Just out of curiosity, did you delete the device from the hub & re-add it? I don’t recall having this problem, but it’s been months since I last tried loading sound files to the ZSE50.
FWIW, I was using a Windows PC & the directory on the device (via USB) was empty before loading new files. I don’t recall what the Mac does with the .Trashes directory, but it is also empty? The reason I ask is perhaps the ZSE50 on Z-Box searches recursively, thus (perhaps?) picking up files you intended to be gone permanently?
I did try a second factory default with a delete and re-add with no difference. Good point on the .Trashes folder. I’ll dig deeper when I get a minute… Thanks!
@Barkis you were right! It was the .Trashes. I thought I checked the size of that and saw zero but maybe I missed it. On a second look, sure enough, there were my Halloween files. I zapped the trash contents and now they are gone.
However I seem to hear that intermittent noise artifact at the start of some sound files a lot more on this firmware than the old - but maybe that’s just a coincidence… and I know a different thread. Anyway, thanks again. Sometimes the answer is obvious.
Perhaps this is something you could add to your script/batch file earlier in this thread for Mac users?
It’s my guess from my prior experience in this arena, perhaps it is simply a timing issue in the ZSE50. In other words, the output audio is switched “on” when the audio waveform read from the sound file is not at a zero-crossing point–which causes a sharp step in the D/A converter, resulting in what sounds like a “pop” or “snap” on the speaker.
@Sara or @BartekZooz, if you guys are making any application notes for the ZSE50 Siren & Chime regarding addition to or replacement of sound files, perhaps you could note the issue with the appearance of the .Trashes directory on the ZSE50 when files are copied from a Mac?
It might also be useful to include sample batch files for users doing a wholesale sound file update? @darren.stp illustrated how it could be done for Mac or Linux and I showed a Windows approach with a .bat file, both earlier in this thread. I’m pretty sure neither Darren or I would object if you copied our samples.
Regarding the .Trashes on Mac, it is a little complicated on the latest version of OSX (Tahoe), since Terminal does not have full disk access by default. This makes any scripting for that action fail with ‘operation not permitted’. (It would work on some older OSX versions)…
So rather than walking the user through changing Privacy and Security settings, probably the best addition to the process is to delete all the files off the ZSE50, and then immediately Empty the Trash on your Mac. At that point, you have an empty .Trashes on the ZSE50 (as long as it is mounted when you run the Empty Trash command.). With that done, the script above can be run successfully.
I also can’t edit that old post above, but if the Zooz team wants to use my script that is fine with me, and I’d be happy to author a cleaner version of the instructions from the top down.
Home.
