Messages

16

Developers / Re: using http to take a measurement, possible?

« on: February 18, 2008, 10:31:34 pm »

Hi Dan,

Aye LEGO for geeks :-)

I found some more info:

http://www.phidgets.com/documentation/Tutorials/Phidget_Networking.pdf

and

http://www.phidgets.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=6843&sid=6536f0d3cab2396efa85b245d4eb5df3

Looking forward to getting my hands on this.

Cheers
Richard

17

Developers / Re: using http to take a measurement, possible?

« on: February 18, 2008, 09:56:14 am »

Hari, thanks for the information.

Dan, great stuff thanks for that, I will go ahead and order the following:

PhidgetInterfaceKit 8/8/8
Temperature, Motion and Light Sensors
Force Sensor (to use as a clicker)
Slider (possibly to control volume or light levels)

So the plan would be to use the www.phidgets.com/documentation/Tutorials/PhidgetWebService.pdf to provide temp, motion and light data to LMCE which it could use to dim lights or start a fan in a particular zone through PLCBUS.

I will buy a small wireless system with USB (maybe from pcengines), this will have the sensors attached and the PhidgetWebService running on it, this will be my telemetry box, I may add a webcam that is compatible with http://linux-uvc.berlios.de/.

Phidgets.com are canadian, so I will have to wait a bit until it gets delivered to me in Sydney.

I will come over to the chat when it arrives, thanks again.

Cheers
Richard

18

Developers / OK lets make a list of Australian PLCBUS stuff we want?

« on: February 17, 2008, 11:22:07 am »

Hi,

Below is a thread I started in Users, basically, I would like to know is it possible to poll a device (phidget) using http, parse the results and feed this in to LMCE?

For instance i have three sensors (temp, light, motion) linked to a small wireless computer, I use http and can retrieve the data from the sensors, can I then get this to be useful to LMCE, so for instance I can use the temperature reading to switch on a fan using PLCBUS?

Also does anyone know where we can get Aussie PLCBUS?

Thanks for your time.

Kind Regards
Richard


Phidgets.com compatibility
« on: February 03, 2008, 10:12:16 pm »
   
Hi,

I like the idea of the PhidgetInterfaceKit 8/8/8 for use in home automation, if I buy the following:

PhidgetInterfaceKit 8/8/8
Light Sensor
Motion Sensor
Temperature Sensor

Is there a way I can have Linux Media Centre Edition, read the values for light, motion and temperature?

Linux MCE supports a "Generic Serial Device" and states "For most external devices that are controlled by RS232, USB or Ethernet, you can use GSD (Generic Serial Device)"

And DCE looks like a way to get at data also.

Is it possible to use PhidgetWebService to expose the light, motion and temperature values to telnet for instance?

Any thoughts?

Thanks for your time.

Kind Regards
Richard

caederus Newbie   
Re: Phidgets.com compatibility
« Reply #1 on: February 14, 2008, 05:51:31 am »

I have been using phidgets successfully for many things and I'd love to see them supported by linuxmce.  The most useful and easily adopted in by linuxmce would seem to be the mains relay outputs for lights and the analogue inputs for reading temperature or motion sense, but there are many other possibilities---I've used the RFID tag reader and a relay to unlock my front door and a light sensor and servo motor to control blinds.

I've been making my own control programs with the phidgets.com C library, so if someone could just show me an example of what commands to put in the GSD boxes to read and write values using command-line tools, I'm sure I'd be able to take it from there.  Alternatively, as Richard says, the phidgets.com library also includes a web-based remote API, so if someone could show me an example of how to get GSD to do HTTP GET and POST, I'm sure I'd be able to get that working too.

Thanks,

Robin.


colinjones
Guru
Re: Phidgets.com compatibility
« Reply #2 on: February 14, 2008, 12:46:58 pm »
   Reply with quoteQuote
You can probably get it to work, but will need a driver developed that hooks into the Pluto database and talks to the DCERouter - this is the element that routes all command and event messages around the system. Go to the developers forum and you will see lots of development going on for HA products, they will be very happy to see you if you are prepared to help add another product. You should see lots of code snipets of what they are doing, and the wiki has plenty of info as well.

19

Users / Australian PLCBUS, can hari help?

« on: February 11, 2008, 04:35:02 am »

Hi,

I have read with interest the "Home automation in Europe?" thread.

I am in Australia and looking for a powerline solution, hari mentioned PLCBUS, just trying to figure out what is supported in LinuxMCE?

I guess I need to buy the PLCBUS USB Computer Interface [PLCBUS-1141] and at least one australian appliance  plug in module to begin testing, does anyone have any idea where I can get this?

So if manage to get the PLCBUS-1141 and a module, will this work in LMCE without many problems?

Thanks for your time.

Regards
Richard
aussiehomeautomation.blogspot.com

20

Users / Phidgets.com compatibility

« on: February 04, 2008, 07:12:16 am »

Hi,

I like the idea of the PhidgetInterfaceKit 8/8/8 for use in home automation, if I buy the following:

PhidgetInterfaceKit 8/8/8
Light Sensor
Motion Sensor
Temperature Sensor

Is there a way I can have Linux Media Centre Edition, read the values for light, motion and temperature?

Linux MCE supports a "Generic Serial Device" and states "For most external devices that are controlled by RS232, USB or Ethernet, you can use GSD (Generic Serial Device)"

And DCE looks like a way to get at data also.

Is it possible to use PhidgetWebService to expose the light, motion and temperature values to telnet for instance?

Any thoughts?

Thanks for your time.

Kind Regards
Richard

21

Users / Re: headless core, wol storage, n800 orbiter, will it work?

« on: January 21, 2008, 09:00:16 am »

Cool, great stuff, the SR5600 automation is the Marantz SR5600 receiver, it has a serial port and two separate zones.

22

Users / Re: headless core, wol storage, n800 orbiter, will it work?

« on: January 21, 2008, 08:43:20 am »

Thanks again :-)

The PC I could use is a SFF with integrated audio (spdif) and video (hdmi), the processor is a Celeron M410 at 1.46GHz using 27W, it all runs from a 120W fanless PSU, it has a single PCI slot.  This PC should WoL when I ask for music in its zone and possibly do a network boot, possible?

Also for my main living room zone could I have slimserver send the music to my Vista PC, and control that using the n800?

Also anybody tried to boot linuxMCE from compactflash, with swap and media on another hdd?

A recap of the hardware I have:

Linux: commell ls-570, dual core, 2gb ram, 4gb flash, 160gb hdd, quad gigE, 802.11agn card, adsl card and one spare pci slot

Vista MCE: asus modt, dual core, 2gb ram, dvb-t card, 40gb disk, 250gb disk, 8500gt connected to 30" dell

Solaris 10 Intel: supermicro mb, D420 proc, 2gb ram, 4 x 400gb and 8 x 80 gb.

spare
=====
asus modt, dual core, 2600pro
abit modt, single core, empty pci slot, integrated spdif and hdmi
2 x 1gb ram sticks for above two boards
7.1 sound card
marantz sr5600
dvb-t card
17" tft

I basically want to end up with:

firewall, asterisk server, mythbackend and sr5600 automation (with more HA to follow) on the commell, always-on for downloads, music streaming and recording tv
n800 orbiter for management, selecting tracks and showing whats playing in both rooms
separate audio to two different rooms, wake-on-lan
storage on solaris, wake-on-lan

i have to keep the vista mce box as is.

Any thoughts on what I could do better would be appreciated?

23

Users / Re: headless core, wol storage, n800 orbiter, will it work?

« on: January 21, 2008, 07:02:22 am »

OK, thanks for that, so if I use the spare PC for a single instance of a slimserver client, with slimserver running on my core, can I do all the things above, like control it using the n800 and have the n800 show tracks and cover art and such?

24

Users / Re: headless core, wol storage, n800 orbiter, will it work?

« on: January 21, 2008, 02:46:09 am »

1audio thanks for all the info :-)

So I guess I hoped I could use a SFF PC i have lying around with two sound cards to drive to the two separate zones over spdif on the SR5600 and have all that controlled with the n800, so the n800 would allow me to select one of the two zones then select the songs for that zone and show the status and cover art.

I was going to use the info here: http://plutohome.com/wiki/index.php/Adding_support_for_Marantz_SR_5600_A/V_receiver to power it on, configure the inputs and volume levels in the two zones when I start playback using the n800, also I could select a windows mce mode which would set the source and volume for movies and tv.

Cheers
Rich

25

Users / headless core, wol storage, n800 orbiter, will it work?

« on: January 20, 2008, 10:39:12 pm »

Hi

I would like to do the following, will this work?

Core: dual core, 2gb ram, 4GB CF boot disk, 160gb media disk, 4 ethernet ports, dvb card, adsl card, wifi card (all linux compatible) can I use this as a music server, tv recorder and firewall as well as the core?

Storage Server, dual core, 2gb ram running solaris 10, store all movies on here and wake-on-lan when movie is required.

Media Director, single core, two sound cards, two spdif connected to receiver, each card used to send a different source to the multiroom audio, headless if possible, network boot preferred, use n800 to select room and music to play there, n800 displays cover art and track listings.

Windows Media Centre PC used for live TV and watching HDDVD disks, partner friendly config :-(

Either the core or media director connected using serial to my Marantz SR5600, to control, all devices will be in the same vicinity, only the core will be always on.

A nokia n800 as orbiter, I would prefer to have this as the only controller for the core and media director, if maintenance is required on the core or media director i can use vlc or connect up a screen, I would prefer to not be running X on the core or media director to save space and resources.

Will all this work, any experiences, caveats?

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Cheers
Richard
http://aussiehomeautomation.blogspot.com/