# I have an idea: WCA online 15 second announcer



## GAN 356 X (Nov 25, 2019)

Seeing as I'm not a coder myself, I thought it would be easier to share my idea on these forums in the hope that someone who knows how to code will look at this. My idea is basically a 15 countdown for inspection, with an announcement at 8 seconds and 3 seconds, or whatever the number is.

Thanks in advance and I hope that made sense


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## ThatGuy (Nov 25, 2019)

There is a cstimer setting (well, multiple settings) that does this. Under timer settings, you can enable voice alert of inspection (of course, the inspection setting itself has to be on).


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## GAN 356 X (Nov 26, 2019)

ThatGuy said:


> There is a cstimer setting (well, multiple settings) that does this. Under timer settings, you can enable voice alert of inspection (of course, the inspection setting itself has to be on).


I know that, what I meant was for when you use stack mat.


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## JohnnyReggae (Nov 26, 2019)

GAN 356 X said:


> I know that, what I meant was for when you use stack mat.


It would have to be a custom timer which is something that could work. I've been toying with the idea of building a timer seeing as I have already built a LED display unit for a Stackmat. Something with a LCD display with scrambles and a small speaker to announce inspection.


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## charlh_bld (Nov 26, 2019)

WCA Inspection Tool







cubing.net


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## ImmolatedMarmoset (Nov 26, 2019)

GAN 356 X said:


> I know that, what I meant was for when you use stack mat.


I think it’s important that the judge is actively involved in judging. If they don’t have to call out numbers and pay attention, they’re less likely to make sure the solver isn’t breaking any rules. It’s a matter of involvement, and I don’t think it would make running competitions much easier, so I would say don’t go for it and save yourself the time and trouble.


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## GAN 356 X (Nov 27, 2019)

ImmolatedMarmoset said:


> I think it’s important that the judge is actively involved in judging. If they don’t have to call out numbers and pay attention, they’re less likely to make sure the solver isn’t breaking any rules. It’s a matter of involvement, and I don’t think it would make running competitions much easier, so I would say don’t go for it and save yourself the time and trouble.


Not for competition use but for at home


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## PapaSmurf (Nov 28, 2019)

If you get the cable for stackmat and plug it into CSTimer with WCA inspection on, just press one of the pads to start inspection.


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## JohnnyReggae (Nov 28, 2019)

PapaSmurf said:


> If you get the cable for stackmat and plug it into CSTimer with WCA inspection on, just press one of the pads to start inspection.


 The simplest answer is usually the best ...


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## GAN 356 X (Nov 28, 2019)

JohnnyReggae said:


> The simplest answer is usually the best ...


Where can you get a cable from?


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## JohnnyReggae (Nov 28, 2019)

GAN 356 X said:


> Where can you get a cable from?


It's a standard audio cable with a 3.5mm audio jack on 1 side and a mini jack on the other side. You will also need to use the https (ssl) version of cstimer to enable the mic input. Also some internal audio cards do not work that well with the stackmat. I ended up using a cheap usb sound card that I bought on eBay for a couple dollars.

From the stackmat connect the cable to your mic in on your sound card. Then just enable the timer from the cstimer settings. Works very well actually.


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## CodingCuber (Jan 28, 2021)

GAN 356 X said:


> Seeing as I'm not a coder myself, I thought it would be easier to share my idea on these forums in the hope that someone who knows how to code will look at this. My idea is basically a 15 countdown for inspection, with an announcement at 8 seconds and 3 seconds, or whatever the number is.
> 
> Thanks in advance and I hope that made sense


Bump.

Wrote a super simple python script for this a while back when I couldn't find any online options.

Just make sure to "brew install mpg321" so you can have the command-line mp3 tools that it requires.


```
from gtts import gTTS
import time
import os

timer = 15

text1 = "8 seconds"
text2 = "12 seconds"

language = "en"

eight = gTTS(text=text1, lang=language, slow=False)
twelve = gTTS(text=text2, lang=language, slow=False)

eight.save("eight.mp3")
twelve.save("twelve.mp3")

while timer > 0:
    time.sleep(1)
    timer -= 1
    print(timer)
    if timer == 8:
        os.system("mpg321 eight.mp3")
    if timer == 3:
        os.system("mpg321 twelve.mp3")
```


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## abunickabhi (Jan 28, 2021)

CodingCuber said:


> Bump.
> 
> Wrote a super simple python script for this a while back when I couldn't find any online options.
> 
> ...


Nice code, have you posted this on github?


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## qwr (Jan 28, 2021)

abunickabhi said:


> Nice code, have you posted this on github?


Surely there's a better way of playing sounds than shelling out to os.system? That would be my last resort solution.


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## CodingCuber (Jan 28, 2021)

qwr said:


> Surely there's a better way of playing sounds than shelling out to os.system? That would be my last resort solution.


A command line mp3 player is just fast and accurate. There probably is a better way but I wrote this in like 3 minutes and I already had mpg321 installed so I used it lol.



abunickabhi said:


> Nice code, have you posted this on github?


Nah, It’s not that special. I only tend to post major projects and stuff on github.


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## Cuberstache (Jan 28, 2021)

CodingCuber said:


> Bump.
> 
> Wrote a super simple python script for this a while back when I couldn't find any online options.


Just use this


charlh_bld said:


> WCA Inspection Tool
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## abunickabhi (Jan 29, 2021)

CodingCuber said:


> Nah, It’s not that special. I only tend to post major projects and stuff on github.


Oh cool, any major cubing project you have developed recently?


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## CodingCuber (Jan 29, 2021)

abunickabhi said:


> Oh cool, any major cubing project you have developed recently?


No, although I am developing a sort of cubing inspired mobile puzzle game you might have seen in reddit. I’ll post some screenshots on my status later.


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## abunickabhi (Jan 29, 2021)

CodingCuber said:


> No, although I am developing a sort of cubing inspired mobile puzzle game you might have seen in reddit. I’ll post some screenshots on my status later.


Oh nice good to hear. Is the puzzle game connected to cubing hardware, or it is just a screen game.

Like by using bluetooth cubes, I have seen some games where you have colours on the screen, and you have to move those faces on the bluetooth cube to earn points.


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## CodingCuber (Jan 29, 2021)

abunickabhi said:


> Oh nice good to hear. Is the puzzle game connected to cubing hardware, or it is just a screen game.
> 
> Like by using bluetooth cubes, I have seen some games where you have colours on the screen, and you have to move those faces on the bluetooth cube to earn points.


No it just borrows quite a few concepts from the rubiks cube. Anyway, I think we are getting a little off topic. Feel free to PM me though.


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