ED_BioAlert

A PowerShell script that monitors Elite Dangerous journal files in real time and announces biological and geological discoveries via text-to-speech and console output.

Purpose

Elite Dangerous Odyssey introduced biological life forms that can be scanned for significant credit rewards. Finding the right species on the right planet requires knowing the spawn conditions before landing. ED_BioAlert monitors your journal as you play and alerts you when a body's properties match known species conditions - so you never fly past a valuable or rare find.

Features

• Live journal monitoring - tails the newest journal file and reacts to events as they happen
• FSS alerts - announces probable species when bio signals are detected during Full Spectrum Scanning, based on body properties (planet class, atmosphere, temperature, gravity, star type)
• DSS confirmation alerts - announces confirmed genus after Detailed Surface Scanning, with a separate message per species
• Color variant alerts - additional alert when body and star properties match a specific color variant, useful for codex completion hunting
• Text-to-speech - spoken announcements on Windows (PowerShell Desktop edition); green console output on Linux / PowerShell Core
• System scan summary - announces total body count when FSS scan is complete
• Geological signals - logs geological and resource hotspots to console
• Mining alerts - optional announcement for pristine icy rings
• Tourist beacons and stellar phenomena - announced when detected in FSS

Requirements

• PowerShell 5.1 (Windows Desktop) or PowerShell 7+ (cross-platform)
• Elite Dangerous with Odyssey

Installation

1. Clone or download the repository
2. Edit ED_BioAlert.config.json to set your journal path and preferences
3. Run ED_BioAlert.ps1

Configuration

Edit ED_BioAlert.config.json:

{
  "LogPath":    "",
  "Debug":      false,
  "ListEvents": false,
  "TTSVolume":  80,
  "TTSVoice":   "Microsoft David Desktop",
  "Mining":     true
}

Setting	Description
LogPath	Path to your Elite Dangerous journal folder. Leave empty to use the default Saved Games location.
Debug	Enable verbose debug messages
ListEvents	Log every journal event to console
TTSVolume	Text-to-speech volume (0-100)
TTSVoice	Windows TTS voice name
Mining	Enable pristine icy ring alerts

Usage

# Live mode - monitors the newest journal file
.\ED_BioAlert.ps1

# Process all journal files in the log folder (no TTS, console output only)
.\ED_BioAlert.ps1 -ScanAll

# Test mode - process a single journal file with TTS active from line 1
.\ED_BioAlert.ps1 -TestFile "path\to\Journal.log"

Species Data

Species alert conditions are defined in JSON files under the SpeciesData\ folder. The system uses a two-layer approach:

• Base file (genus-species.json) - defines spawn conditions and alert levels (possible / likely / jackpot) based on planet class, atmosphere, temperature, gravity and bio signal count
• Color file (genus-species-color.json) - defines additional alerts for specific color variants based on parent star type or mineral composition, loaded on top of the base conditions

Alert levels

Level	Condition
jackpot	All conditions met, body never previously visited
likely	All conditions met
possible	Minimum conditions met (e.g. only 1 bio signal)

Adding new species

Create a new base file in SpeciesData\ following the existing stratum-tectonitas.json as a template. For color variants, create a matching genus-species-color.json referencing the base file via the base field.

Currently supported species

• Stratum Tectonitas - including Emerald (F-type star) and Amethyst (T-Tauri star) color variants

More species will be added as field data is collected.

Platform notes

• Text-to-speech requires Windows PowerShell 5.1 (Desktop edition)
• On Linux / PowerShell Core, TTS alerts are printed in green to distinguish them from regular console output
• The script stores per-system scan data in a SystemData\ subfolder of the journal directory, allowing bio scan state to persist across game sessions