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Messages - twodogs

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1
Users / Re: Kickstarter Campaign to fund a programmer?
« on: January 01, 2014, 08:28:47 pm »
Do I think that having Thom dedicate his worktime on LinuxMCE for a year? Absolutely. Do I think that a kickstarter campaign will attract even 10% of Thom's desired goal? Not in a million years.

Let's face it: The people who are using LinuxMCE these days are mainly cheapskates. They use it cause it is free as in beer. Some are here, cause they think they can make a quick buck out of it for clients.

This seems a little harsh. There are many of us who are not expert programmers, but are somewhat tech savvy, who like the idea of home automation, but who can't plunk down $50-100,000 for a Crestron system. A professionally installed system is out of reach for many of us, so that puts us in DIY territory. Does that make us cheapskates? Maybe it does, so we'll go with that name. Just because a cheapskate can't pay thousands of dollars for a professionally installed system, that doesn't mean he won't pry open his wallet and give $100 to help support his DIY community. But a cheapskate expects a return on his investment, so let's discus this in a little more depth.

The LMCE community is shaped like a pyramid, with the ignorant freeloading masses at the bottom and Thom up there at the top. If we want our community to thrive, we have to reach as far down the pyramid as possible and get those freeloading cheapskates (like me) to contribute their time and money. But here's the rub. LMCE doesn't have much value to the guys at the bottom of the pyramid because they can't get it to work right. Crumble hit it right on the head when he pointed the finger at documentation.

documentation is lacking.  I remember when I started using LMCE, there were like 15 articles on each problem that arose for me.  There are WAY fewer issues these days but the documentation is just not there like it used to be. Perfect example, vdpau.  If I am setting up an nvidia card where do i put my vdpau settings.  Was easy to find that vdpau was an option for LMCE but finding where to set it for a newbie would take a while.  Then if you read about nvidia cards the new drivers are made to work best with opengl for hardware acceleration.  So opengl and vdpau for deinterlace seem to work best for me(I will document this, just figured it out).  My point is, us as users need to start documenting everything we learn about LMCE(as you would to a beginner of linux).  I think this will help the community grow tremendously.  Then guru's like tschack can do what they love, and we all benefit.

Instead of belittling the cheapskates, we should value them and try our best to educate them. Then they stick around, they use the program, they become developers, they contribute money, and we build a thriving community. This is a cultural shift that requires the guys farther up the pyramid to put some time into documentation and making sure that the most important features are easy to use. Just sayin.

2
Users / Re: Setting Up External and Internal Wireless Networks
« on: May 10, 2013, 01:19:21 am »
 :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ :-[ Argh! All is now well. Thanks Techstyle. You were correct and the wiki supplied the answer.  I can now grab my laptop and IP address 192.168.80.129 accesses the internal router. 192.168.1.1 accesses the external router. Problem solved.

Twodogs (embarrassed)

3
Users / Setting Up External and Internal Wireless Networks
« on: May 09, 2013, 09:39:40 pm »
I'm trying to correctly set up two wireless networks with two WRT54GS routers. The first is external to LMCE , so that my wife can always log on regardless of what I'm doing with LCME. The second is the internal LMCE network. I have this partially working, but I always get locked out of the the web-based configuration utility of the LMCE router. If I need to get in, then I have to hit the button that resets it to factory. Seems like I'm doing something wrong. Here is my network configuration:

-DSL Modem
-WRT54GS external, set up as router ( DHCP server enabled, wireless chan 1, IP 192.168.1.1, with its own SSID and security password)
-LMCE Core
-WRT54GS internal, set up as wireless access point (DHCP server disabled, wireless chan 11, IP 192.168.1.2, with its own SSID and security password)

I thought this was the correct way to configure the network, but it behaves strangely.  I can connect my laptop to the internal wireless network and surf the web just fine, but when I try to enter the configuration utility I get "Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at 192.168.1.2." So I turn off the wireless on the laptop and connect via cable. Again I can surf the web just fine, but I get the same error when trying to connect to the WRT54G.

Now I check to see if I can access the external router from the internal network. I thought that this might not work because if could be invisible behind the LMCE core. I enter 192.168.1.1 and get right in to the config utility of the external router.  This blows my mind.

So the bottom line is that I can reach the configuration utility of the external router (set up as a DHCP enabled router) from either the internal or external network. I can't reach the config utility of the internal WRT54GS (set up as DHCP disabled WAP) from either the internal or external network until I do a factory reset and dump my config.

This differs from my expectations. I thought that, to reach the external WRT54GS, I'd have to connect to the external network and enter 192.168.1.1. Then to reach the internal WRT54GS, I'd have to connect to the internal network and enter 192.168.1.2.

Can any smart guys show me the error of my ways?

4
Installation issues / Re: NAS not recognized
« on: April 24, 2013, 03:02:41 pm »
Things are working now. Not sure what caused the initial problem. When I first plugged in the DNS-321 it did not correctly plug and play. LMCE Admin showed that the NAS was in the unknown device list. I clicked the "unlock" button and reloaded the router, but this did not fix the problem. Manually clearing the PnP queue was what finally worked. I installed the device using the LMCE file structure. Then I ran into a problem with my Mint desktop machine that would not let me browse or add files to the NAS. The fix was simply right-clicking and unmounting the NAS folder, then opening it up again. I've copied all my videos over to the NAS and all is well.

Just fyi, while troubleshooting this, I plugged in my Synology DS207+ and this was immediately detected. I told LMCE to ignore it, because I'm going to use the Synology to store backups.

I set up the DNS321 as a samba share. Is there any advantage to using NFS instead? Also, jumbo frames are disabled in the default configuration. Any reason to mess with this?

5
Installation issues / Re: NAS not recognized
« on: April 23, 2013, 03:12:45 am »
See my previous post. I just cleared the database and it seemed to get things working. I expected to be able to browse to the file structure that LMCE should have installed on the NAS, but my desktop computer is whining about an unrecognized file type.

6
Installation issues / Re: NAS not recognized
« on: April 22, 2013, 09:23:31 pm »
Making progress. I found the NAS in the unknown devices list. I also found a year-old post from tschak and gave it a shot.

Currently there is a bug which prevents the storage radar from finding the NAS again, if it has made it into the PnpQueue table, for now, do this:

Code: [Select]
mysql -uroot

mysql> use pluto_main
mysql> DELETE FROM PnpQueue;


Then reload the router.

PnP found the device and asked if I wanted to use it. I told it to use LMCE file structure and I think its good to go. My only issue now is how to get my movies over to it. I though I could drag and drop using my desktop computer (running Mint at the moment). No such luck yet.




7
Installation issues / Re: NAS not recognized
« on: April 20, 2013, 12:54:55 am »
Thank you for that. I'll start digging into it. I plugged in a Synology NAS to see if it was recognized, and it was. LMCE also asked me about using my desktop computer and my laptop, so I think my LMCE install is good - its a fresh install so I haven't had time to pork it up yet! I had already concluded that it had to be a problem with the DNS321 configuration. The most detailed LMCE wiki on D-link NAS's is for 0810 so I didn't know if setup was still the same.

8
Installation issues / NAS not recognized
« on: April 18, 2013, 10:15:00 pm »
I'm trying to install a DNS321. I just reset it to factory settings, and I just re-installed LMCE 1004 final. I connected the NAS to the internal LAN, but PNP does not recognize it.  I checked DHCP leases in LMCE admin and see that the NAS has been assigned 192.168.80.133. I can use that IP to access the NAS admin page. I can also browse the NAS on my home network. I expected that LMCE would recognize the device and ask if I'd like to use it for TV, movies, etc but its not happening. I'd like some advice on troubleshooting this.

9
I've been digging around in the documentation.

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/How_to_add_your_own_GSD_device

Quote
If your Ruby code contains an error, LinuxMCE may decide to disable the device. So, check that your device is not disabled: on Wizard-->Devices-->Generic Serial Devices click on "Advanced" for your device and make sure the Disabled box is NOT ticked. If it is, untick it, save, and do a quick reload of the router.

Turns out the device was disabled. I guess that might mean an error in the ruby code on the template. Unticking the box and reloading the router allows me to send commands to the device. I'll have to get it off my test bench, plug things in and see if it is completely functioning now.

10
Thanks for those suggestions. I did not know about the "dont detect serial ports" option. Good info.

However...

The only way I've been able to send commands to the receiver is to install with the script. I have just enough time (before the next PNP script activation) to open webadmin, select the device, and send a command or two. Oddly, even though the receiver works, the template says "please select" in the comm port box (in both the AV and GSD device. When I select ttyS0 and update the template, then I find that the GSD template has been automatically updated with ttyS0. But after issuing a reload router, the Yamaha no longer responds to commands.

Next I tried the "don't detect serial port" option. I added the GSD manually, but again the Yamaha does not respond.

11
Found a screaming deal on a Yamaha RX-V1700 with HDMI switching, so I'm replacing my old Denon AVR-3805. I'm using a null serial cable (not a USB adapter) to connect. After a few minutes, the pnp script starts searching to see what has been added. It correctly identifies the Yamaha and the wizard starts. After the router reloads I can go into webadmin and send commands to the receiver. But then the pnp script starts up again, so the receiver is effectively stuck in installation limbo. Any ideas about what's going on?

Twodogs

12
Users / Re: DSC Security Panel
« on: February 11, 2013, 04:02:22 pm »
Dave,

It would be great to see a short wiki page on how to use the DSC. Most of the LMCE info is on Honeywell, who stopped making the internet connection module (ebay prices are sky high).

John

13
I'm curious if you figured this out. I'm still trying to make sense of Insteon, but I had a light switch that deleted itself. It only worked after I cross linked the devices (switch to PLM, then PLM to switch).

14
Users / Usage Chart
« on: January 19, 2013, 03:50:45 pm »
Perhaps we should make a wiki page with a chart so that everyone can rate their user experience? I think this would be valuable info for both users and devs to see at a glance exactly how LMCE is being employed, and how well things are working. Something like the following (couldn't figure out how to make a chart). We could rate each item on a scale from 1 to 10 (or Not Applicable if you have no experience with something). We'd probably need a lot more columns, but this gives the idea. If we get a significant number of users to fill in their info, we could scan the columns to identify features that are completely unused, popular features that work great, and popular features that work poorly.

User              lights,            movies,           music,          mythtv,         hulu,          satellite/cable box,         climate,           security,           webcams,          telecom
Twodogs         5 (insteon)        9                   2                  0                NA               NA                              NA                    NA                   NA                  5

15
Installation issues / Re: Insteon How-To?
« on: January 18, 2013, 04:01:17 pm »
Success!

I disconnected everything and reset to factory default. Then I connected PLM and Switchlink and crosslinked them. Then I connected to LMCE core and recreated the PLM device. I checked the PLM log to see if it found the hex address of the Switchlink - it did.

I used admin to manually add a light switch device. When I reset the router and returned to admin to look at the device, I saw that the configuration box had been magically filled in (no longer just asterisks). The light did not work at first, so I thought I still had problems. But after a few minutes, I had a working switch. I wish I could say that I identified and solved the problem I was having - maybe the insteon devices were not properly crosslinked.

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