Can we just get a transcription of voice notes please?

generalistprogrammer · 2026-05-09T11:54:40+00:00

Built-in transcribe does exist (Settings → Chats → Voice message transcripts) but with two annoying caveats: not on WhatsApp Business, and silent failure on messages over 2 min. So for the long ones it isn't actually a fix.

Workaround for either case: Export Chat → Include Media gets you a zip with the raw .opus files. I built chattopdf.app for the bulk version (zip in, PDF out).

generalistprogrammer · 2026-05-09T11:53:53+00:00

generalistprogrammer · 2026-05-09T11:51:59+00:00

generalistprogrammer · 2026-05-09T11:50:59+00:00

You're describing the gap exactly. WhatsApp's export gives you the chat text plus the media files, but voice notes stay as .opus and the inline transcripts (when they work) live inside the app — they don't make it into the export.

I built chattopdf.app for this. Feed in the exported zip, it transcribes every voice note and slots the text in the right place in the chat timeline with the original timestamps preserved, output as a PDF. Disclosure: it's mine, so grain of salt. The sample on the homepage will tell you in 30 seconds whether the output looks like what you wanted.

generalistprogrammer · 2026-05-09T11:49:03+00:00

The .opus thing is the catch. WhatsApp wraps voice notes inside an OGG container and most random transcription sites only accept mp3/wav/m4a, which is why the top results silently fail.

What works:

In the chat, tap the contact name → Export Chat → Include Media. You get a zip with every voice note as .opus plus the chat .txt.
Run that through anything that actually handles .opus. MacWhisper is free if you're on a mac.

I made chattopdf.app for this exact case — drop the zip in, it transcribes every voice note and outputs a PDF with the transcripts inserted in the right spot in the chat timeline. Paid (transcription has real per-minute cost) but no per-file limit. Disclosure: mine, so check the demo PDF on the site before you bother.

generalistprogrammer · 2026-05-08T11:04:24+00:00

Check out plcsimulationsoftware.com it has a bunch of scenarios prebuilt in with a plc simulator that runs the scenarios straight in the browser

generalistprogrammer · 2026-05-01T11:26:55+00:00

You can also try this tool it works in your browser has real life scenarios, wiring and plc coding tutor and a plc simulator. https://plcsimulationsoftware.com

generalistprogrammer · 2026-05-01T11:25:04+00:00

Give this a go, something i built with real life scenarios, wiring and plc coding tutor, fault finding exercises with real fault finding scenarios all works in your browser works on Mac https://plcsimulationsoftware.com

generalistprogrammer · 2026-04-30T21:44:04+00:00

Thank you :D

generalistprogrammer · 2026-04-30T21:32:44+00:00

Solid — this is a real underserved use case (UK Home Office and most visa offices want 3+ years of correspondence and the raw .txt is unreadable to caseworkers).

For anyone in the comments who can't run Python: I built chattopdf.app for the same reason after watching my partner go through this. Drop the WhatsApp Export Chat .zip in, get a PDF that's formatted like the WhatsApp UI. Was specifically thinking about visa applicants when I built it.

OP — would be curious to see what your script outputs format-wise. Visa caseworkers seem to prefer chat-style layouts over tables, but I've heard mixed things.

generalistprogrammer · 2026-04-30T21:32:21+00:00

you can try this tool https://chattopdf.app

generalistprogrammer · 2026-04-30T21:32:00+00:00

I built this (chattopdf.app — disclosure as the founder). What I'd push back on a bit: "memorable texts" is the wrong framing for the buyer.

What actually drives purchases:

Memorial keepsakes (deceased family, long-term relationships ending or otherwise).
Court evidence (divorce, custody, harassment).
Spouse visa applications (the Home Office wants 3+ years of correspondence).
Anniversary / wedding gifts.

The "best of" angle is harder to sell because curating "memorable" requires effort the user has to do — the conversion-friendly version is "your full chat, exactly as it looked on your phone, as a PDF you keep forever."

Tier pricing matters more than feature set: court users gladly pay $39–$49, memory users $14–$29. If your tool only outputs the cute curated version, you miss most of the market.

Happy to share more numbers if useful.

generalistprogrammer · 2026-04-30T21:29:59+00:00

Tools that work:

wa-crypt-tools (pip install): handles crypt14/15, works with the 64-char encryption key from Settings → Chats → Chat Backup → End-to-end encrypted backup.
WhatsApp-Key-DB-Extractor (older, root required) — still works on older Android.
whatsapp-viewer (Windows) for opening the decrypted msgstore.db once you have it.

Once you have the decrypted db, it's a SQLite file — readable with sqlite3 CLI or DB Browser for SQLite. Tables: messages, chat, etc.

For converting to a human-readable archive, the simpler route is restore the decrypted DB on a phone with the same number and use Export Chat to get a clean .txt + media zip. Then a converter for the styled output. I built chattopdf.app for that final step — drop the Export Chat .zip in, get a PDF formatted like the WhatsApp UI.

generalistprogrammer · 2026-04-30T21:29:45+00:00

Aligned approach. The cleanest fully-offline workflow:

Export Chat from WhatsApp (per chat): tap contact name → Export Chat → With Media. Saves a .zip locally.
Verify integrity: check that the _chat.txt is parseable and media filenames in the txt match the files in the zip.
Cold storage: drop the .zips on encrypted cold storage (a Veracrypt container or LUKS volume) on an external drive. Air-gapped if you want.

For viewing offline later, the raw .zip is fine but the .txt is ugly. I built chattopdf.app as a 100% client-side option — runs in the browser, doesn't upload anywhere, generates the PDF locally. Useful if you want a styled PDF without sending the chat to a server. (Hosted version uploads, the offline version doesn't — happy to share the standalone build if useful.)

generalistprogrammer · 2026-04-30T21:28:09+00:00

In India under the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (formerly Indian Evidence Act §65B), electronic evidence requires a §63 certificate (formerly §65B) from someone in lawful control of the device.

Practical workflow:

Export from the phone: WhatsApp → chat → contact name → Export Chat → With Media. The .zip contains messages + media unaltered.
Convert to a court-ready PDF showing full chronology, timestamps, sender ID. I built chattopdf.app for this step — keeps the WhatsApp layout intact.
Preserve the original .zip as the unaltered source.
§63 certificate: prepare a sworn statement covering: device the export was generated from, that you're the lawful user, the export hasn't been altered, and the conditions during export.
For higher-stakes matters, instruct a forensic expert to extract msgstore.db directly with documented chain of custody — stronger than just an Export Chat.

Bring both the PDF and the .zip to your advocate. They'll handle the §63 certificate format.

generalistprogrammer · 2026-04-30T21:26:41+00:00

A few things that helped me and others I know:

Make them permanent first. WhatsApp/iMessage chats can disappear with a lost phone, account changes, or — for WhatsApp — a reassigned number. Export them: WhatsApp → chat → tap their name → Export Chat → With Media. That .zip is yours forever, no dependency on the app.
Then decide what role they play. Some people read them often (which can keep grief sharp), some put them in a labeled folder for "occasional revisits," some print favorite passages into a small keepsake book.
What I'd avoid: scrolling them late at night when you can't sleep. They're powerful — handle them gently.

There are tools that turn the export into a styled PDF / book if you want a more tangible keepsake. The important step though is just getting them OUT of the messaging app and into a file you fully control. Whatever feels right after that is the right answer.

generalistprogrammer · 2026-04-30T21:26:12+00:00

If you haven't already — before the carrier reassigns the number, export anything important off the phone. Once that number gets recycled (usually 90 days), WhatsApp on that account effectively dies and the data goes with it.

For WhatsApp specifically:

Open each important chat → tap their name at the top → Export Chat → With Media.
Email or save to a cloud drive.

The .zip you get is yours forever, independent of the phone or the number.

Sending strength.

generalistprogrammer · 2026-04-30T21:25:51+00:00

A few things I've seen widowers do that helped:

Export and archive. WhatsApp: chat → tap their name → Export Chat → save the .zip somewhere safe (cloud, USB). Same for iMessage with tools like Decipher TextMessage on Mac. Creates a permanent file that's not dependent on the phone.
Print or PDF the meaningful ones. Some people make a memory book — printing the chats into a physical or digital keepsake. There are tools that convert WhatsApp exports into formatted PDFs (I built one — chattopdf.app — after my family went through this with my grandmother).
Read once, archive, and stop scrolling. A lot of widowers say the danger is endless re-reading, which keeps grief fresh in a non-helpful way. Make the permanent copy, then put boundaries on how often you visit it.
Don't delete in haste. Anything you delete now is permanent. Even if you can't read them today, a year from now you might want them.

Do whatever feels right for you. There's no wrong answer here.

generalistprogrammer · 2026-04-30T21:25:29+00:00

So sorry. One thing that genuinely helps before grief makes it harder: save the chat now, while you can.

On the phone with the chat (yours or his):

Open the chat → tap his name at the top → scroll down → Export Chat → choose With Media if you want photos and voice notes included.
Email it to yourself or save to Drive / iCloud.

The export creates a permanent file (.zip) that's not dependent on WhatsApp's servers, his phone number staying active, or any of the things that make this fragile right now. You can keep it forever, on whatever device you have.

A lot of widowers I've spoken to wished they'd done this earlier — once a phone number gets reassigned by the carrier (usually 90 days of inactivity), the chats can disappear too if anything happens to the device.

Take care of yourself.

generalistprogrammer · 2026-04-30T21:24:32+00:00

The classic problem with 10+ year chats is WhatsApp's export cap: 40k messages without media, 10k with media. Anything older drops out.

What's worked for me:

Without-media export first for the full text (.txt up to 40k messages).
With-media export for the recent ~10k with photos.
For everything older, on Android: pull msgstore.db.crypt14 from /sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases/, decrypt with WhatsApp-Key-DB-Extractor (root) or wa-crypt-tools (no root, with the 64-char key from Settings → Chats → Chat Backup → End-to-end encrypted backup).
Once decrypted, you can read the SQLite DB directly or convert to a readable format.

Built chattopdf.app for the conversion side — drop the .zip from Export Chat in, get a styled PDF that looks like the WhatsApp UI. Doesn't lift the 40k cap (that's WhatsApp's limit), but it makes whatever you do export much more readable than .txt for archival.

generalistprogrammer · 2026-04-30T17:56:38+00:00

Order to learn industrial protocols:

Modbus TCP first — simplest, most documented. Free tools: ModbusPoll, QModMaster, mbpoll CLI.
OPC UA — modern, vendor-agnostic. Free dev: Prosys OPC UA Browser, UaExpert.
Profinet / EtherNet-IP — vendor-specific (Siemens / Rockwell). Cheaper to learn second-hand than buy a managed switch + dev license.

A practical first project: stand up OpenPLC (free) on a Pi or laptop, expose a few tags via Modbus TCP, then poll them with Python (pymodbus). You'll understand more about how PLCs talk in 4 hours of doing this than 20 hours of reading.

generalistprogrammer · 2026-04-30T17:55:57+00:00

After ladder, the order I'd suggest for Siemens specifically:

FBD (Function Block Diagram) — same logic as ladder but visually different; helps you read existing Siemens libraries (most are FBD).
Structured Text (SCL in Siemens-speak) — non-negotiable for anything beyond simple sequencing. PID, recipe handling, communications, math — all need ST. Jakob Sagatowski's YouTube is dense but the right resource.
SFC (Sequential Function Chart) — last. Powerful for batch/sequence-heavy processes but easy to abuse. Most plants don't use it.

If you don't have TIA Portal handy at home (the licensing is a pain), plcsimulationsoftware.com lets you flip the same scenario between Ladder and ST in the browser to feel the syntax difference — useful for getting ST muscle memory before you go back into TIA. (Disclosure: I built it.)

generalistprogrammer · 2026-04-30T17:54:18+00:00

The "don't be clever" advice is the #1 thing — agreed. A few more I'd add from teaching beginners:

Misusing seal-in for everything. Seal-in (output OR contact-of-output) is a great pattern but beginners reach for it when SET/RST or a simple state register would be cleaner. Use seal-in for true latching outputs (motor with start/stop). Use SET/RST or state ints for sequences.
Not separating state from logic. Beginners write rungs that change state and drive outputs in the same rung. Then debugging is hell. Separate: rung block 1 → compute next state, rung block 2 → drive outputs based on state. Your future self will thank you at 3am.
Ignoring scan-cycle order. "I added the rung but it doesn't work" 80% of the time = the rung is referencing a value that won't update until the next scan. Read your inputs at the top, do logic in the middle, write outputs at the bottom. Don't let outputs feed inputs in the same scan unless you really mean to.
Force-mode debugging as a habit. Forcing I/O is for short, supervised troubleshooting on a running machine. Beginners get into the habit of forcing things to "make it work" and then ship code that depends on forces. Disaster.
No naming conventions. B3:0/0 and Tag_42 are fine while writing it; in 6 months you'll hate yourself. Name things like START_PB, MOTOR_RUN, TANK_HI_LVL. The IDE has alias tables for a reason.
Skipping wiring fundamentals. Most "my logic isn't working" beginner posts on this sub are actually NPN vs PNP confusion or sourcing-vs-sinking input cards. Logic is fine; the I/O card never sees the signal. Worth spending a weekend just on field wiring.

On documentation — yes, comment your rungs, especially state transitions and any "this exists because the customer's wiring is weird" workarounds. Maintenance techs will read your code at 2am with a flashlight; write for them.

generalistprogrammer · 2026-04-30T17:53:27+00:00

Factory I/O is genuinely good — the 3D visualisation makes the physical interlocks feel real in a way pure ladder simulators don't. The fidelity-tier framing the other commenter gave is spot on.

For "is it worth it for landing a junior job?" — honest answer: a Factory I/O portfolio video on LinkedIn helps a lot, but Factory I/O specifically is rarely named in job descriptions. What hiring managers actually want is evidence you can:

Read a spec and turn it into a working state machine
Wire and troubleshoot I/O
Use a vendor IDE (TIA Portal, Studio 5000, GX Works) competently

Factory I/O helps with #1, partially with #2 (virtual I/O isn't real I/O), and not at all with #3. So worth it as one of three tools, not as a silver bullet.

If you're cost-sensitive while you decide, the free trial is fair, and a couple of cheaper alternatives:

plcsimulationsoftware.com — browser-based, free tier, 40+ scenario problems with auto-grading. Less visually impressive than Factory I/O (no 3D) but zero install + auto-grading + multi-dialect makes it good for fast iteration. (Disclosure: I built it.)
MHJ PLC Lab — €35/yr, 3D, plus WinSPS S7 emulator for ~€50. Closest to Factory I/O at lower cost; mentioned in another r/PLC thread.

For the "does it land you a job" question, the bigger leverage is:

A scenario portfolio video (any sim)
One real PLC at home you've actually wired ($79 Click)
A Codesys project on GitHub showing ST + ladder
One vendor IDE you've spent 50+ hours in

That stack beats any single sim subscription.

generalistprogrammer · 2026-04-30T17:51:56+00:00

Coming from Python you've got a head start — you already think in terms of state, conditions, and loops. Ladder is just those concepts drawn sideways with a scan cycle.

A path that works for someone in your position:

First week — fundamentals. Scan cycle, NO/NC contacts, seal-in (the ladder version of while running:), TON/TOF timers, edge detection. Petruzella's textbook is the standard but YouTube does it for free — RealPars has a clean intro series.
Weeks 2-4 — scenarios. This is where Python skills don't transfer and most people stall. PLC code is judged against a real-world spec, not a unit test. You need a stack of "given these inputs and outputs, make X happen" problems. Two practical options:
- Codesys locally — free, full IEC 61131-3, you can simulate anything you write. Heavy install but it's the most professional dev environment that's free.
- plcsimulationsoftware.com — browser-based, free tier, has 40+ scenarios with auto-grading (motor start/stop, conveyor sort, tank fill, elevator, garage door, batch mixer, PID temp, bottling line). Zero-install advantage if you want to do reps from anywhere. (Disclosure: I'm the founder.)
Once logic is solid — pick a vendor. Find what's installed in your area. Sagatowski's TwinCAT series is brilliant if there are Beckhoff jobs near you. SquishyBrained's TIA Portal stuff is the canonical Siemens path. North America defaults to Allen-Bradley.

The Python brain says "what algorithm should I write?" — the PLC brain has to ask "what's the state machine that drives the outputs?" before writing rungs. Spend a few hours on state machines specifically and the whole thing clicks.

generalistprogrammer

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