Messages

346

Feature requests & roadmap / GUI Improvements

« on: September 20, 2008, 07:35:57 pm »

Is it just me that notices that nothing seems to work properly in the GUI?  Text does not fit on the buttons properly, most screens look like buttons are missing, when actually using LMCE it frequently allows you to realize that you are in fact using several different programs.  I know that is how it works, but the point is the GUI is incredibly sloppy.  I find it frustrating that the devs are apparently hell bent on keeping their obviously broken system for creating GUI's.  I would gladly help out if the current system was not so horribly difficult to use.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, look at XBMC's skinning engine to see how it is supposed to be done!  Look how many people are creating skins for their software, meanwhile LMCE cannot seem to get a single person to fix the obvious bugs with theirs that gives any demo the general impression the LMCE is clunky and sloppy at best.  Feel free to slam me and tell me how I am bitching and not contributing anything, but the fact is some serious changes need to happen to make LMCE usable and to get it to a stage where it can even be tested properly.  I've been following the project for about a year now and simply find it incredible that nobody is even concerned that their software looks so sloppy.  Sure, there was that whole UI3 "discussion", but what the hell happened to that?  Media organization is simply awful, and the devs concensus is they are doing it "the right way"...again...look at XBMC to see how it is supposed to be done.  For god's sake I even talked to the developer who does all the code on their skinning issue and he said he'd be willing to consult with you guys about the way your UI is created and possible improvements to it.  You know what happened there?  Absolutely nothing, because nobody contacted him from LMCE, they expected him to chase them down.  When you're seeking advice you go get it, you don't wait for it to come to you.  Oh well, I'm over it, perhaps in another year someone will have realized that the general consensus of the clunkiness and sloppiness of LMCE is to great to be ignored or brushed off as people bitching.  When you decide to take a sensible approach to the GUI let me know and I'll gladly contribute something, but until then good luck, I'll be watching.

347

Installation issues / Re: internet unreachable by core/hybrid

« on: August 11, 2008, 03:08:24 pm »

This may seem obvious, but I have this issue with my cable modem connection whenever I switch the box that is connected to it out.  Unplug the cable modem for 30 seconds and plug it back in, mine has to have the connection refreshed whenever the MAC of the device it's connected to changes.  For some reason DHCP on the cable modem gets hosed up and while it will work somewhat DNS gets really flakey and until the connection is refreshed I will continue to see strange issues.  Give it a shot if you haven't already done so.

348

Developers / Re: GSD/Ruby Developers Conferences

« on: August 10, 2008, 08:00:17 pm »

It is wired to the panel as a keypad and must be configured with a keypad address so it is emulating a keypad through a web interface.  There is a spec. document on this device located here: http://www.in2networks.com/PDFs/VistaICMSpecSheet.pdf

The document calls the connection to the panel an "addressable ECP port".  It is a 4 wire connection, one wire for power, one for ground, one for tx, and one for rx.

349

Developers / Re: GSD/Ruby Developers Conferences

« on: August 10, 2008, 07:15:11 pm »

I just confirmed that hitting the links in the proper order for my disarm code will disarm the panel so I'm assuming that means the complexity of the panels protocol is now taken out of the equation since the VistaICM apparently has that logic built in, can you confirm if this is correct?

350

Developers / Re: GSD/Ruby Developers Conferences

« on: August 10, 2008, 06:58:32 pm »

The panel does not directly have an ethernet or serial connection, I used a VistaICM to give the panel an ethernet connection and get it on my network.  The problem now is I don't know Ruby at all and have no idea where to start writing a GSD for this panel.  The VistaICM I am using provides a web interface that emulates and is connected to the panel as a keypad.  When you click a number on the keypad it hits a URL that I'm assuming communicates with the panel as if you had just pressed the button on a keypad.  The url's as copied from the VistaICM's web interface use the following formatting

http://192.168.80.113/pda?cmd=7&tick=2139572809&node=1&ctrl=1
http://192.168.80.113/pda?cmd=2&tick=2139572809&node=1&ctrl=1
http://192.168.80.113/pda?cmd=3&tick=2139572809&node=1&ctrl=1
http://192.168.80.113/pda?cmd=Pound&tick=1348042547&node=1&ctrl=1

There are logs on the VistaICM as well and the web interface shows in real time the status of the panel so it should be possible to communicate with sensors hooked to the panel as well somehow, but I have no idea where to even start with being able to arm/disarm the panel...

351

Developers / Re: GSD/Ruby Developers Conferences

« on: August 10, 2008, 03:31:26 pm »

on the next webcast you wanna play with a vista-15p alarm panel to demo adding support for a device like it   Haha, I've been trying to get this panel working/supported for a while now, grasping at hope someone will pick it up

352

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: OpenVPN

« on: August 10, 2008, 01:30:21 am »

Actually thinking about this, yea, I'd also love it if smoothwall was part of LinuxMCE, it would probably ease a lot of people's minds about exposing this box to the internet as smoothwall has recently won an award for best open source network firewall.  It shouldn't effect anything else that your LMCE box does in any kind of a noticeable way because it runs on very minimalistic hardware.  I think it's a great idea, but I have no idea how much would be involved to integrate it with LMCE

353

Feature requests & roadmap / Re: OpenVPN

« on: August 10, 2008, 12:52:22 am »

you want smoothwall

354

Users / Re: Another media browsing thread..

« on: August 06, 2008, 05:39:20 pm »

XBMC's skinning engine is capable of doing just that.  It was not designed to work that way, but could be adapted without a major re-write.  They handle multiple resolutions through an inheritance system in a tree folder structure like:

4x3
|---all skin xml files here
16x9
|---modified xml files that don't display properly on 4x3 here
720p
|---modified xml files for 720p here

I realize exactly what you are saying about multiple devices like creating the skin once and re-using it for your devices like webpads, orbiters, and whatnot and this system was designed for TV.  However, the inheritance concept is in fact employed here, you have your base skin files in your 4x3 folder, and those will be scaled by the skinning engine appropriately for the other resolutions.  Some things will not scale properly so for those times you can load only those specific xml files that are special case, the rest of the skin will load from the 4x3 folder.  This concept could probably be expanded without a major rewrite by adding a conditional to detect the device type and resolution then load the inheritance files for that device.

JM is very good at special application techniques and has done an excellent job streamlining things so that you don't have to do redundant work to make a nice UI.  I honestly think it would be worthwhile for someone who really understands the intricate working of LMCE's engine to talk to him and see what ideas he has to help LMCE.

355

Users / Re: Another media browsing thread..

« on: August 06, 2008, 05:16:27 pm »

That doesn't make sense, I'm not an expert on the intricate workings of XBMC's skinning engine or the skinning system used in LMCE, but I've used XBMC's for huge projects so have a good idea what happens behind the scenes.  Their is an event handler that passes things to the skinning engine as a common event.  That means basically when x happens do this, their are several ways to expose conditionals to the skinning engine as well.  So my understanding is that since the engine probably doesn't understand the DCE commands out of the box, an event handler should take care of the interaction there.  I really don't understand why you are so keen to the HADesigner, the guy who wrote it even said it was a hack never intended to be used more than a few months and that the original issues with it have remained untouched and have not been corrected.  That said, obviously the current solution is broken so shouldn't people start looking for and seeking out alternative solutions?

356

Users / Re: Another media browsing thread..

« on: August 06, 2008, 04:41:17 pm »

I spoke with JMarshall (xbmc skinning engine developer) and he'd be willing to at the very least consult with some of the developers from LMCE to see about how to implement and use XBMC's skinning engine and possibly other parts of XBMC in LMCE.  I've seen the HADesigner screencasts and they are nice, and I will agree that the current system is powerful, but the learning curve is incredibly steep.  I'm a major advocate of the XBMC skinning engine because it is capable of "flash-like effects", yet simple, easy to use, well documented, no special environment required, already built to handle multiple displays, etc.  It really is pretty much a perfect fit, would any developer for LMCE at the very least be interested in speaking to JM and discussing possible implemenetations, issues, etc.

357

Users / Re: Another media browsing thread..

« on: August 04, 2008, 07:24:19 pm »

This is more of a question/feature request I guess than anything.  What currently handles media?  Is it MythTV or is it some LMCE code that is handling it?  If it is LMCE code doing the work...or even MythTV for that matter, has the idea of using XBMC to handle media been tossed around?  It would seem like a very logical choice given how good their playback quality, support, skinnability, and reliability is.  Also, while on the topic of another application, has anyone worked directly with the dev teams of asterisk, mythtv, ha, etc. to see about creating a common trunk and bringing devs from all respective teams together?

358

Help Wanted / $$$ for Device Template

« on: July 31, 2008, 12:36:23 am »

Alright, I can't seem to wrap my head around Ruby, GSD devices, etc. so I'm willing to pay whoever can get my alarm panel working with LMCE.  If you are an official LMCE developer or well known on the boards I am willing to pay a deposit upon starting work, and the rest upon completion.  I will do whatever I can along the way to help out with this whether it is providing remote access to my setup, talking over IM/IRC, etc. while working on it, seriously whatever I can do to help.

Okay so my alarm panel is a Vista-15P, I have a VistaICM that emulates a keypad, connects the panel to the network, and provides a web interface.  The web interface has a keypad, when you press each button on the keypad it triggers a specific URL and sends the appropriate button press back to the panel.  The VistaICM can view the status of the alarm and various sensors connected so I should be able to use the sensors connected to my panel in LMCE this way.  I can provide more information if someone is actually serious about taking this on, ditching my existing panel is not an option so integrating is my only option and something I have made a priority before I go further with LMCE.  Soooo....if anyone out there can help, name your price.

359

Feature requests & roadmap / Let's pull together for hardware support OTB

« on: July 22, 2008, 12:24:53 am »

I am assuming I'm not alone here in that I have been unsuccessful in wrapping my head around GSD and device templates and ruby and all that jazz, so I've been trying to come up with ways to help.  I understand this is open source and the general consensus is if you want something then buckle down, read, and learn, but what about this.  I think everyone would agree there are regularly posts about support for xx or yy hardware on the boards that come up, some get resolved by the community, others just forget about it and give up, and some scrap their existing hardware in favor of buying supported gear.  That said, are any of the regular developers would be interested in getting paid for adding support for xx or yy hardware?  I know I'd be willing to put down $50 and could provide remote access to help aid the development to save me having to buy a whole new alarm panel or buying a bunch of GC100's and re-wiring/scrapping my existing panel.  I can only imagine there are several others that would be willing to do the same.  I'm know there are people here that could care less what my opinion is since I'm not really an established member, but I'd like to see the development turned toward hardware support for awhile to get a broader range of support running to make setup easier and more versatile to what people already have.  That said, the only way I see to attract someone to work on development for something they don't care about and aren't getting paid for is to pay them for their time and help where I can.  So...am I the only one who would be willing to pay to get xx or yy hardware supported?  Are any regular developers interested in this route?  Should we pull together and get a list going of hardware we'd like to see support for/how many people have xx or yy hardware and the pools involved for each?  If this is something that takes off, can LMCE's long-standing developers hold funds in a pool until development is complete so that nobody will get shafted on their money (I mean both users and developers)?  Just some questions that would need definitive answers to them if this is going to happen, let me know what you think.

360

Installation issues / Re: Vista-15P

« on: July 17, 2008, 03:19:34 pm »

I can't figure out what direction I should be taking on this and I'm hoping someone who's more familiar with this kind of thing can point me in the right direction.  The ICM module I have connects to my panel exactly like a keypad would, you have to address it through the web interface for the module so the alarm panel will actually see the ICM as a keypad.  I was able to capture the URL's that are used by the ICM to trigger it to then send the appropriate ECM message to the alarm panel.  From this it looks like I should be able to just map it so when the numbers on the keypad in LMCE's GUI are pressed it attempts to connect to the appropriate URL and then triggers the ICM to talk to the Panel.  There is also a log of the panels activity on the ICM I'm thinking I could somehow parse the states out of.  The disadvantage I see here is that I wouldn't be able to talk to the sensors connected to the panel at all.  Is there some way around this problem anyone is aware of?