[urq] Voice synthesizer

[Phil Payne]

> In Europe the ur-q has a voice .
> It tells you when the oil pressure is low , engine temperature is high
> and other interesting stuff .The voice is called Heidi btw .
> The downside is , she speaks in German , and I don't really like German .
>
> So I was wondering , do UK or US urq's also have this speech synthesizer ?
> And does it speak English ?
>
> If so , does anyone have a working unit and its wiring loom and additional

> parts
> for sale .
> My 1981's never had this feature , and it would be a nice add on to the 
> project car .
> Anyone ?

It's available in four languages - German, English, French and Italian.  In
the UK it was fitted to all green digital dashboard vehicles.

I doubt very much that a 1981 car would have the harness.

I've never heard of her reading the news before - I did hear that she was
working for the Austrian tax authorities some years later. The problem with
German especially compared to other languages is the syllable count - we
used to get video and slide dissolve stuff from the USA and getting the
translated voice to fit into the timing was always an issue.  We used the
guys who read out the traffic information at half past the hour on the local
third radio channel - HR3, BR3, and so on.  They could fit an enormous
amount of information into a few seconds without even sounding hurried.

I'm currently (right now, this instant) preparing a connector and harness
for a refit to a car that's had it cut out completely.  I'm using the
connector from a Type 44 on-board computer with the wires trimmed back to 2"
or so, new pins in the unpopulated holes in the connector, and the correct
coloured wires soldered and heat-shrunk from the 2" point forward to make a
replacement harness.  I'll post a picture somewhere when it's done.