Key Tones / Roger Beeps that everyone can hear (Zello Noise Toy)
Ok so this might not be something that will make you popular amongst the hams or probably almost anyone else. It might even get you blocked from channels. But it may actually come in handy at times. Even if it's just having fun with your old CB buddies.
As you may know, you can have key up / unkey sounds set up in the notification section of Zello, however, only you hear those sounds. No one else can. But this little piece of "Code" below can change that lol
To accomplish this, you need:
an Android phone
Zello 4.80 or better
Button Mapper
Tasker
Things to keep in mind:
the key up tones and roger beeps would play through the speaker of your phone and back into the mic. It's not a direct audio connection. So as they are playing, your mic is live.
in the tasker "code", the sounds would play as "alarm" sounds. This is to get around increasing or decreasing your volume as you're talking and affecting the volume of key tones and roger beeps. The Tasker code is smart enough to reset your alarm volume after ever key up so that your alarms will still be the same volume they always were.
The only way I've gotten this to work is to map a hardware button (like camera, volume, or ptt button if you have one) on your phone as the PTT, and it only works as a toggle. If I figure out another way, I'll update this. Also, it's possible different phone models and environments may get different results.
If you try to key up and "miss the button" because someone else beat you to it, you will need to click the PTT again to reset.
BIG FYI: In tasker, there's "code" to key up and unkey zello. IF this doesn't work, and Zello isn't reacting at all, I found you need to either reinstall Zello, or clear Zello's storage which resets zello. Once you log back in, do not map any buttons through the zello app or you might run into the same issue.
That all being said, here's the tasker "code":
1. Variable Add Name %ZelloToggle Value 1
2. If %ZelloToggle Even
3. Alarm Volume Level 1
4. Command :: Roger Beeps Go Here
5. Music Play File Download/CB Sounds/rb1.wav Stream: Alarm Continue task Immediately=NO
6. Send Intent Action: com.zello.ptt.up
7. Alarm Volume Level 5
8. End If
9. If
10. %ZelloToggle Odd
11. Send Intent Action: com.zello.ptt.down
12. Alarm Volume Level 1
13. Command :: Key Up Tones Go Here
14. Music Play File Download/CBSounds/BrowningPing1.wav Stream: Alarm Continue task Immediately=NO
15. End If
Notes:
After programming this task, you must go into the Variables section of Tasker and set it to 0.
Be sure to back completely out of Tasker to make sure the task saves correctly.
The way it works is, every time you click the PTT key, the task will increase the %ZelloToggle variable by 1. IF it changes to an odd number, then the task will key up zello and play key up sound. at this point you can start talking. When you're done talking, you can click the ptt button again, and this will change the variable to an even number, which will cause the task to then play a roger beep of your choice, and then unkey zello.
If your roger beep or key up tone is not loud enough, you can adjust lines 3 and/or 11 and increase the volume until you get the desired volume.
Line 7 will reset your alarm volume to your desired alarm volume level. If your alarms are too loud or too soft, you can adjust this value.
Next steps:
Go into Button Mapper
Map the key you want as your PTT
For Single Tap, Double Tab, and long press: Choose Tasker Shortcut, and select the task you programmed above.
At this point, you should be able to key up and unkey zello with the sounds you selected in your task "code".
This opens the door to other possibilities which would require some minor adjustments.. Maybe set another key to play random sounds while already keyed up, or maybe you're running a net and have a prerecorded piece that you can map to another key. If you connect a Bluetooth keyboard, you can then map many keys with different sounds.
Enjoy!