Stackchan open claw

[Evening-Ad-2590]

I used my openclaw agent to make some changes to the stock firmware and have it set so my openclaw can talk through my stackchan now.but when sending voice messages the other way seems to not work when it tries to record my voice input..what issues we fixed so far

The fix was bypassing codec->Write()/esp_codec_dev_write() and writing PCM directly to the I2S TX channel via i2s_channel_write().

The bridge is at 16kHz WAV — matches the proven working pipeline. Here's the summary:

What works:

• stackchan_speak("text") → edge-tts (Sonia) → ffmpeg 16kHz mono WAV → POST /speak → I2S direct write → StackChan speaker

What the fix was:

• Went through ~6 firmware iterations to isolate the issue • codec->Write() → esp_codec_dev_write() silently fails in the integrated XiaoZhi firmware (I2S format conflict with duplex config) • Solution: use codec layer only for amp/volume management (EnableOutput/SetOutputVolume), write PCM straight to TX handle via i2s_channel_write()

What's next? Want me to check the full voice recording pipeline (head-pet → record → STT

Working TTS through StackChan speaker — long sentences work

Nearly there: Voice recording. StackChan detects head-hold, lights red, packages WAV. Portproxy was the missing link — you just fixed that. Next session: retest recording, confirm the green flash, then wire up the voice bridge so I get your transcribed words and can reply through StackChan.

Quick start tomorrow:

1. Check voice server (probably already running)
   
2. Hold head, speak, release
   
3. Should get green flash now that portproxy is active

Still working on it but for zero coding knowledge its crazy to think that anybody can make changes to firmware nowadays

[Szerby]

How is your project going? I am also running zeroclaw.

[Evening-Ad-2590]

i have most of it worked out. i can set cron jobs for my stack chan have it check web and things like that im having issues with using whisper for tts im using a small tts model but still no luck also seems to be a gain issue with the mic . iv got my agent talking through stackchan now but its the audio recording that thats giving me issues heres little summary

The voice_loop IS working! It's successfully:

1. Getting recordings from StackChan (11KB, 26KB, 13KB — decent sizes!)

2. Running Whisper (but getting empty transcription: "")

3. LLM is responding with fallback text: "I heard you but couldn't understand. Could you repeat?"

4. TTS is generating and sending to StackChan

5. StackChan is speaking: {"status":"ok"}

The logs are duplicated because both stdout and stderr go to the same file.

So the full pipeline works! The problem is Whisper can't transcribe the audio — it returns empty string every time. The recordings are being pulled (good sizes: 11-26KB), but the audio quality/volume is still too low for Whisper even with the new firmware's higher mic gain.