LinuxMCE Forums

General => Users => Topic started by: gtsupport on November 09, 2010, 01:08:29 pm

Title: New Build for Newbie
Post by: gtsupport on November 09, 2010, 01:08:29 pm
Hi People,  I've been watching the LinuxMCE development for a couple of years now, and I'm finally looking to take the plunge and become part of the "users" group!

Just bought a new apartment, so have spent a small fortune buying Z-wave controllers for lights, blinds and everything else I can think of; I want to run it all through LinuxMCE, as well as the media side of things.

I've just added a load of bits to my "cart" to build a hybrid core, but before I go ahead and pay for it all, I'd like to see if I've listed anything thats a gonna cause me a headache from the start.  I've tried searching through the Wiki, and the forums, but a lot of the hardware category stuff is out of date.  Therefore if any of you think that there's something here that won't work please let me know.

Asus M4A87TD Evo AMD 870 (Socket AM3) DDR3 Motherboard
AMD Phenom II X2 Dual Core 555 3.20GHz Black Edition (Socket AM3)
Asus GeForce GT 430 1024MB GDDR3 Low Profile PCI-Express Graphics Card
G.Skill RipJaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C8 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit
Akasa PaxPower 500W Ultra Quiet Power Supply
Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST31500341AS)
Samsung SH-B123L/BSBP 12x BluRay ROM DVDRW DL & RAM Lightscribe SATAII Optical Drive - OEM Black
Edimax EN-9260TX-E 10/100/1000 Gigabit PCI Express Network Card (EN-9260TX-E)
ThermalTake DH202 Black VJ80051N2Z with 7" Touch Screen Case

I've left out the capture cards for now, as I'd like to try HDMI capture, but from what I read on the forum, its not supported yet.  As a number 2 choice I was going to go for the Hauppauge winTV 4000 version.  Can anyone suggest a better choice?

All help greatly appreciated.

Matt.
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: bongowongo on November 09, 2010, 01:46:05 pm
How many network cards does the motherboard have?
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: gtsupport on November 09, 2010, 02:04:46 pm
The motherboard has one gigabit lan port onboard, hence why I added an extra PCIe card for the 2nd.  Its the closest motherboard I could find to one listed in the wiki.

Matt.
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: gtsupport on November 09, 2010, 09:50:57 pm
Just had a thought, the motherboard I chose doesn't have an onboard 9-pin serial com port.  Was going to use this for feedback from a Sky HD box, are there any recommended pci cards with serial com ports, or are USB-Serial adapters fine to use.  I have had problems with these in the past at work trying to get them to work with Siemens PLC's as some drivers don't seem to work.  This might be totally unrelated, but thought it was worth asking.

Thanks.

Matt.
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: phenigma on November 09, 2010, 11:49:00 pm
The ASUS MB you spec in the first post has an onboard serial port connector.  It's not brought out to the back panel by default.  You would simply need a 9-pin dsub on a piece of ribbon cable with a connector to use the included port.

http://www.amazon.com/Male-Motherboard-Serial-Connector-cable/dp/B000JC31L4

If you look around at a surplus store you may find them easily and cheap.  I used to grab them off of old multi-I/O controller cards from the early PC days.  Most PCs came with 1, if not 2, and hardly anyone actually used a serial port in those days.  If you work with PLCs and serial com devices regularly you may find one of these types of cables lying around your shop even.

J.
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: wombiroller on November 10, 2010, 04:41:19 am
Just had a thought, the motherboard I chose doesn't have an onboard 9-pin serial com port.  Was going to use this for feedback from a Sky HD box, are there any recommended pci cards with serial com ports, or are USB-Serial adapters fine to use.  I have had problems with these in the past at work trying to get them to work with Siemens PLC's as some drivers don't seem to work.  This might be totally unrelated, but thought it was worth asking.

Thanks.

Matt.
Welcome gtsupport :-)

USB to serial works well for me 99% of the time. I do however occasionally get thrown back into the Setup Wizard when my amp gets re-detected. It has been suggested to me that this is because the USB-RS232 device is disappearing/reappearing: http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=10795.msg74443#msg74443 (http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=10795.msg74443#msg74443)

....and that a PCI/onboard serial may be better.

Not sure if this is just an isolated occurrence, but something to keep in mind :)
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: gtsupport on November 11, 2010, 08:55:34 pm
Thanks wombiroller, I'll probably just order one from Amazon, as it will be quicker and look neater than doing it myself!  I don't know what it is about USB serial adapters, maybe just bad luck, but I've had some that refuse to work point blank with some software, and others that are ok most of the time.

Anyway I see that there have been quite a few reading this post, and nobody's mentioned any potential problems so I'm going to go ahead and order the gear.

One last question about capture cards, I see that Hauppauge do a winTV 4400, this appears to be the latest version of the "Do everything" card, its not listed in the Wiki, so has anyone used them in their machines??

Thanks again for the info, and I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before I'm back with more specific questions once the hardware is bolted together!

Matt.
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: gtsupport on November 26, 2010, 03:31:17 pm
Let the games begin!...

After almost a dozen visits from the courrier man (and one hacked off wife cos none were for her) My core/hybrid is 90% assembled, still waiting for the blu-ray drive to come, so tonight I plan to try and boot from USB stick with the latest snapshot.  I'm too impatient to wait.  Found a nice little program on the net for creating a bootable USB drive.

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

Might be handy for anyone looking to boot their MD from a stick.

Will update on progress, and more likely than not be asking for help next week!
Thanks for all the info received so far.  Lookin' forward to meeting Sarah and the penguin!
Matt.
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: totallymaxed on November 26, 2010, 03:45:27 pm
Just had a thought, the motherboard I chose doesn't have an onboard 9-pin serial com port.  Was going to use this for feedback from a Sky HD box, are there any recommended pci cards with serial com ports, or are USB-Serial adapters fine to use.  I have had problems with these in the past at work trying to get them to work with Siemens PLC's as some drivers don't seem to work.  This might be totally unrelated, but thought it was worth asking.

Thanks.

Matt.

Motherboards have serial headers on-board and these can be used to bring the serial port to the outside world. USB-serial adapters do work but you will need to make sure that the adapter has drivers available - the problem is that in many cases its quite hard to determine what hardware is used inside these types of devices. The other issue is that if the usb-serial adapter is detached and re-attached this can cause the system to re-detect them again...even worse if you accidentally plut the adapter back into a different port... then the system will detect as a different device and this will cause all kinds of problems...all of which are fixable of course.

As a rule we tend to stick to IP addressable Serial Adapters (MRI make a range that work well) as they are far more reliable and can be located on the LAN near to the device that needs to be controlled (even id that device is nowhere near either your Core or an MD).

Anyway hope the above is of use to you.

All the best


Andrew
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: jehojakim on May 16, 2011, 08:50:17 pm
Hi,

I'm considering this Thermaltake case too. Does the 7" touchscreen work with Linux?
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: ggmce on May 16, 2011, 11:55:10 pm
Did your rig work as you specified it? Just curious since I'm ready to take the leap. I was also curious about the power usage, I'm looking for something quiet that doesn't use alot of power...
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: gtsupport on May 17, 2011, 03:26:15 pm
Ok, have been away for a while, sorry about the delay in replying.

Re the thermaltake case, awsome bit of kit.....totally wasted on the linuxmce system.  The touch screen doesn't work at all, and because linuxmce doesn't do dual display, you could only use the screen if you weren't using it as a hybrid, i.e. in a cupboard and not connected to a TV.  The other great features that I was expecting to work, such as the built-in IR receiver, media card slots etc don't work either.  I would say don't waste your money on it if its for a linuxmce system.


The rest of the system is working most of the time.  The hard drive is very noisy, and you can hear it even though its inside a cupboard in the lounge.  The graphics card doesn't do sound over the HDMI, not sure if its a driver thing, or what, so I have to use the optical output from the motherboard and feed it into my amp.  This causes a bit of a headache because linuxmce then has to select a different sound channed from the video channel when watching anything from the core on my TV, but it does work.  However when trying to watch live TV through the hybrid its so pixelated that its unwatchable.  Saying that, I have a Zotag MAG in the kitchen which works great as a media director, and you can watch the live TV on that with no pixelation whatsoever, which is weird as its using the same capture device.  There is a slight mismatch between the sound and video when watching live TV on the MD, but I only use if for watching the news so haven't gone out of my way to fix it yet.  Watching any movies that were ripped to the core works great on the MD and the hybrid, both audio and video work great on both.

Over all I'd say that my unit is way over specced for the use it gets, and having nice new graphics cards etc doesn't mean that they wil work ootb like with windows systems.  I'm considering getting one of the Dianemo units and keeping this box for my home PC needs... undecided at the moment though.

Hope that helps.

Matt
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: Schmich on May 17, 2011, 06:29:27 pm
Re the thermaltake case, awsome bit of kit.....totally wasted on the linuxmce system.  The touch screen doesn't work at all, and because linuxmce doesn't do dual display
Out of curiosity how is it plugged in? If it's like a normal display you could probably get some type of splitter. I've got an HDMI splitter and if I remember correctly I did test it successfully (might be wrong). That won't get the Touch part to work of course but you'll have two screens.
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: ardirtbiker on May 18, 2011, 01:58:51 am
Im not 100% positive, but I believe the newer lirc config files have some support for the lcd display.. I have the Thermaltake 202 case but with the smaller LCD display and the ultrabay panel (IMON).   Ive got the volume knob working with lirc, I know the buttons are set up, but I haven't checked them... and the LCD display is somewhat limited... although MythTV seems to have more functionality with it.

you might check into it.

Dennis
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: gtsupport on May 19, 2011, 12:10:04 pm
The screen has a VGA connector, which I initially plugged into the back of my graphics card, this then disabled the HDMI output, and caused a few problems, so I have just left it.  Have been told by the powers that be that the touch input won't work with linuxmceI guess I could use a HDMI splitter, and then converter to VGA to use it as a basic monitor, but it isn't worth the fiddling around now.  Would have loved to have an orbiter displayed full-time on the touch screen, which is what I was hoping for when I bought it, but alas thats not to be.  Wouldn't even know where to begin to get the volume dial, and other buttons working, may come back to that in the future.  Was hoping that when the 10.04 version comes out, a lot more hardware would be supported and that things might fix themselves  :)

When I get some free time I'll check and see what more can be done.
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: ardirtbiker on May 20, 2011, 01:16:13 am
Maybe this will help with the Volume Knob and Panel buttons...

There is already a template defined for the IMON PAD... I created two new templates identical to that one except for the Device Data 'Configuration string'

For the Ultrabay panel (buttons and volume knob) here is the Configuration string:

Code: [Select]
#
# this config file was hand-generated
# using lirc-0.8.4a (imon) on Fri Nov  7 13:55:44 2008
#
# contributed by Ron Frazier - http://www.ronfrazier.net/ronfrazier.net/mythtv/
#
# brand:                       SoundGraph iMon
# model no. of remote control: UltraBay Front Panel
# devices being controlled by this remote:
#       -iMon Ultrabay
#       -Thermaltake DH-101
#       -Misc other HTPC cases with built-in iMon IR/LCD
begin remote

  name  imon_ultrabay_panel
  bits           40
  eps            30
  aeps          100

  one             0     0
  zero            0     0
  post_data_bits  24
 post_data      0x1EE
  gap          123998
  ignore_mask 0x0000000000000301

      begin codes
          iMEDIAN                  0x000000000F
          AppExit                  0x000000002B
          Escape                   0x0000000017
          Up                       0x0000000012
          Enter                    0x0000000016
          Start                    0x000000002C
          Menu                     0x000000002D
          Left                     0x0000000014
          Down                     0x0000000013
          Right                    0x0000000015
          Vol-                     0x0100000000
          Vol+                     0x0001000000
          Mute                     0x0000000001
      end codes

end remote


and for the  IMON Ultrabay Pad remote:

Code: [Select]
#
# this config file was hand-generated
# using lirc-0.8.4a (imon) on Fri Nov  7 13:55:44 2008
#
# contributed by Ron Frazier - http://www.ronfrazier.net/ronfrazier.net/mythtv/
#
# brand:                       SoundGraph iMon
# model no. of remote control: PAD (for iMon UltraBay)
# devices being controlled by this remote:
#       -iMon Ultrabay
#       -Thermaltake DH-101
#       -Misc other HTPC cases with built-in iMon IR/LCD
#

begin remote

  name  imon_ultrabay_pad
  bits           64
  eps            30
  aeps          100

  one             0     0
  zero            0     0
  post_data_bits  0
  post_data      0x0
  gap          139998
  ignore_mask 0x0000000000000301

      begin codes
          AppExit                  0x288195B700000101
          Power                    0x289115B700000101
          Record                   0x298115B700000101
          Play                     0x2A8115B700000101
          Open                     0x29B195B700000101
          Rewind                   0x2A8195B700000101
          Pause                    0x2A9115B700000101
          FastForward              0x2B8115B700000101
          SkipBack                 0x2B9115B700000101
          Stop                     0x2B9715B700000101
          SkipForward              0x298195B700000101
          Keyboard/Mouse           0x299115B700000101
          Backspace                0x0200002A00000000
          Select                   0x0200002C00000000
          LeftMenu                 0x0280000000000000
          RightMenu                0x0200006500000000
          Up                       0x0100800000000000
          Down                     0x01007F0000000000
          Left                     0x0100008000000000
          Right                    0x0100007F00000000
          LeftClick                0x0101000000000000
          RightClick               0x0102000000000000
          Enter                    0x0200002800000000
          Escape                   0x0200002900000000
          Eject                    0x299395B700000101
          AppLauncher              0x29B715B700000101
          Function                 0x2AB195B700000101
          TaskSwitcher             0x2A9395B700000101
          Mute                     0x2B9595B700000101
          Vol+                     0x28A395B700000101
          Vol-                     0x28A595B700000101
          Ch+                      0x289395B700000101
          Ch-                      0x288795B700000101
          Timer                    0x2B8395B700000101
          1                        0x0200001E00000000
          2                        0x0200001F00000000
         3                        0x0200002000000000
          4                        0x0200002100000000
          5                        0x0200002200000000
          6                        0x0200002300000000
          7                        0x0200002400000000
          8                        0x0200002500000000
          9                        0x0200002600000000
          *                        0x0220002500000000
          0                        0x0200002700000000
          #                        0x0220002000000000
          Videos                   0x2B8515B700000101
          Music                    0x299195B700000101
          Pictures                 0x2BA115B700000101
          TV                       0x28A515B700000101
          Bookmark                 0x288515B700000101
          Thumbnail                0x2AB715B700000101
          Zoom                     0x29A595B700000101
          FullScreen               0x2AA395B700000101
          DVD                      0x29A395B700000101
          Menu                     0x2BA395B700000101
          Subtitle                 0x298595B700000101
          Audio                    0x2B8595B700000101
      end codes
end remote




After both Templates are created I then added them as remotes under Media Directors "Infrared Remote Controls"



That should get ya a bit further (hopefully)

Dennis


Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: gtsupport on June 15, 2011, 11:16:18 pm
Hi Dennis, thanks for the info, I've been trying to find the templates for the imon-pad, but without luck.  Would you happen to know the number of those device templates, then I'll try your scripts and give it a go.

Many thanks.

Matt.
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: tschak909 on June 18, 2011, 02:42:55 am
ardirtbiker: you should create a ticket in trac, and then do an sqlcvs diff, with the ticket # in the comment field..select both the IR and DCE repositories.

Let us know when you've done this, so we can look it over, and if it's okay, commit the change, so everyone can have it.

-Thom
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: ardirtbiker on June 18, 2011, 03:29:03 am
Hey.. sorry... been busy (and this heat is KILLING me!... sorta!)

gtsupport,
     Device Template for IMON_PAD is #2005

Thom,
    I'll do your recommendation sometime this weekend.. its supposed to be HOT again and I wont be doing too much outside work.. just mowing my lawn and power washing my house!


Dennis
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: ardirtbiker on June 19, 2011, 04:01:29 am
okay guys... Trac Ticket #1119 submitted for the Imon Ultrabay (Pad and Panel).   SQLCVS Diff completed at 2100 hrs today.

Dennis
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: tschak909 on June 19, 2011, 04:43:59 am
ok man,

looks like you weren't paying close attention, and checked in all your stuff you've changed in the database. I see stuff for a few other templates, as seen here:

http://schema.linuxmce.org/sqlCVS/?site=batch/detail&repository=dce&batchid=-235 <-- 6 deletions in DCE

http://schema.linuxmce.org/sqlCVS/?site=batch/detail&repository=dce&batchid=-236 <-- the actual IMON stuff
http://schema.linuxmce.org/sqlCVS/?site=batch/detail&repository=ir&batchid=-92 <-- ir for kenwood and other stuff.

I will not approve these until you can explain a bit of what you did.

-Thom
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: ardirtbiker on June 19, 2011, 02:10:02 pm
Thom,
  I have several other 'test' ir and dce definitions for my kenwood receiver.  They're not complete yet... minimal functionality so far....  as for the 'deleted' items, i have no idea what those are.

I unchecked those items during 'diff' but i guess you got them anyway...

I will re-submit 'sqlcvs-diff' and if I did it 'wrong' again can you explain how to only send up what I need just for the IMON templates?

Dennis
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: tschak909 on June 20, 2011, 03:46:10 am
if what you're saying is correct, and they are new templates (all of them), I will submit them.

-Thom
Title: Re: New Build for Newbie
Post by: ardirtbiker on June 20, 2011, 04:54:47 am
Thom,
 The Kenwood Template is working... it turns on/off, volume works, and selecting inputs works... thats all ive figured how to integrate into the system   There is some other 'experimental' stuff in the template (i was trying to figure a way to store local radio stations and be able to select them from a list... maybe for another project and maybe over my head programming-wise).

I dont know how many people use Kenwood Sovereign receivers with their LMCE setup... If you feel it helpful.. its up to you to include it.

I did re-submit the sqlcvs diff --double-verifying what is checked to send up--   

Dennis