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How to Configure and Use Speakers with sound_play
Description: This tutorial is an introduction to setting up and using USB speakers connected to a desktop computer. After reading it, you should be able to bring up the speakers, configure the speakers, and play sounds.Keywords: sound, speakers, driver
Tutorial Level: BEGINNER
Next Tutorial: How to Create a Sound Interface sound_play/Tutorials/How to Create a Sound Interface
Contents
Compiling
$ rosdep install sound_play $ rosmake sound_play
Powered On and Plugged In
Make sure that your USB speakers are connected to your desktop and powered on.
You can check that the speaker/sound card is recognized by the unix kernel by using:
$ cat /proc/asound/cards
You will see something similar to:
0 [Intel ]: HDA-Intel - HDA Intel HDA Intel at 0xfdff8000 irq 16 1 [Speaker ]: USB-Audio - Logitech USB Speaker Logitech Logitech USB Speaker at usb-0000:00:1d.7-6.1.3, full speed
Configuring the Sound Driver to Use Your Speaker
To designate which sound card the driver uses, run:
$ asoundconf set-default-card [device #]
(i.e. In the above example, asoundconf set-default-card 0 would configure the driver to use the Intel card .)
This will create .asoundrc.asoundconf in your home directory. To make the driver use these settings, add the following line to ~/.asoundrc by using the command:
$ echo 'include ".asoundrc.asoundconf"' >> ~/.asoundrc
(Optional) To set this default to all users, copy this to the system-wide driver configuration file:
$ sudo cp ~/.asoundrc.asoundconf /etc/asound.conf
Starting a roscore
For sound_play to work properly, a ros core must be running. In a new terminal:
$ roscore
Starting the sound_play node
In another new terminal, start the sound_play node. This node will play sounds when it receives sound messages:
$ rosrun sound_play soundplay_node.py
You will see:
sound_play node is ready to play sound
Playing Sound
In a new terminal, test that your speaker is configured properly and playing sound. Try saying "hello world":
$ rosrun sound_play say.py "hello world"
You will see:
Saying: hello world
And you should hear "Hello world"
Troubleshooting
If you encounter problems in this Tutorial, have a look at the Troubleshooting page, it may have a solution for you.
