During download and install of 1004 beta I had some time so, I am once again posting about another project of mine...

I have always wanted to make my own cradle/charging station for my favorite LMCE controllers and other always-near items after seeing someone years ago post a photo of a wooden rack they built for the coffee table.  The pinout for my orbiter has been on the wiki page since that time and I finally got around to building the 'guts' of my new console.  My 10+ years working with fiberglass molding, plastics and aerospace composites should help me produce a pretty nice showpiece but I am having some trouble with the wiring.  I was hoping someone either has a OEM dock for this and could give me some info or is good with electronics and can tell me where I am too off the wall.

Proof of Concept Photo  In summary I black taped all 18 pins on the bottom of the DT366.  I then cut out the tape from the pins I wanted to contact, giving me less chance of hitting the wrong pin.  The cigarette box and duck-tape was special just for tschak909.  After struggling for too long to balance and line up my exposed wires to exposed pins I realized this probably will not work unless the 12v hot and GRD is also connected.  So I never actually got proof of concept...

Moving to Something More Permanent  Okay besides bad soldering (it was late and heating paperclip sections that softened the vera before solder could flow sucked)  This is the underside showing the two connections I am making. A dock to charge my iPhone and an open USB-A to charge whatever.  You can also see that a standard PC power cord will power this console when complete.  

Homemade Pins  This view is what will actually face up and the DT will cradle into. Obviously I need to straighten the pins and set the height but that can wait until after this comes out of the mold.  The switches are momentary contact switches on the 12v hot from the transformer.  They must both be pressed down for the cradle to power on.  I added this because I didnt like the idea of 12v + and GRD next to each other in the open.  (The tape was only there to make my pins stay in place while I wired the underside tschak909)

Where I could use some feedback is on my idea of a safety switch, lack of any diodes or resistors on these circuits and any other suggestion that would give me power to the USBs even if the DT is not cradled.  I thought about a nice flushmount pushbutton "ON" toggle on the face of the cradle but decided against it.  If you have an OEM dock for the DT I would really appreciate a photo or component model numbers/colors.

The body is coming along nice but sorry no photos yet.  My mold is built with heavy foam atm and I havent picked up clay to coat the curves and fire it to make a reusable mold.  Much appreciation to whomever posted the wiring pin-out on the wiki.  I thought about chasing down the pinout for the USB-B port but decided 1 open USB is fine so long as I don't have to chase my iPhone cord ever again.

L3top,

Did any of the changes to detection and use of the 260 driver go live yet?  I had some funky hiccups on my 7600gt with the beta installer today.  4 total reboots before av wizard, quite a few manual commands to reboot also that a new user might not follow along with.

During the alpha install this machine always skipped av wizard the first two boots and we suspected it might be audio chip related.  This time around it was pretty specific that it did not like my video card.  Let me know what pastbin files you might need to have another look at this.  The system is working now but I can reinstall to get you logs from various steps.

New beta, new core build

I thought I knew hardware, however after discussing the differences between cpu/gpu bound applications and I/O bound applications I realized I have room for some more knowledge.  I built my current hybrid much like someone would build a gaming rig or MD.  I selected what was at that time a nice video card, a mobo with a mutlicore capable socket and 2 gigs of ddr2 ram. -There was a great comment on the forums about ram requirements that said something about not needing more than 2gigs even with 40 MDs and a climate controlled dog house-  Though I saw the humor in this and followed the recommendation I never quite understood how more ram wouldn't help out.  Well I get this part of it now and am ready to reconsider and rebuilt my core.  Where I used to think I/O was devices connected to the machine, I now understand that all the way down to C++ programs have I/O needs and are only as fast as they can get their I, process it and then O.

A balanced system outperforms a one-device wonder.  So I am looking at timings on things like fsb, memory controllers and ram to get things in-line.  Adding disk writes into this balancing act is where I realize I could use some help.  My current plan is to add a PowerEdge as a core and here is why I think it will be beneficial, if you have suggestions or reasons why this might not give me a good experience please comment.

PowerEdge 2850 or 6850, 4GB ram, 3 small scsi drives in RAID 5

I selected this model for the used price of less than $200, the duel processors with individual memory controllers, its expandability to 16/32? GB memory.  The low cost of server memory compared to desktop memory and the use of 15k SCSI drives.  I then will do a hybrid install using the onboard vga and simply turn off autostart mediadirector option after install.  I think this setup will give me the best I/O capabilities and though processing power may be overkill I will be able to take advantage of things like motionwrapper watching multiple cams at higher frames per second than I am capable of currently with my core.  I know the RAID choice will probably result in some debate but my choice for 5 is based on the use of NAS for everything except system files and my willingness to do frequent backups for recovery in the event of a drive failure.  If another RAID configuration will offer lower latency at the cost of less drive failure persistence and the elimination of write holes I am willing to listen.

I could post this a million other places on the internet where hardware discussions go on, I appreciate anyone who takes their time to comment on their experiences here on this forum about hardware interactions within this specific software environment.

**Edit.  My used hardware supplier recommended an Opteron model over a Xeon model, apparently the memory controllers are very different?

I think the discussion on this topic has been great.  I just want to remind everyone that I placed this thread in this forum for a reason.  This is clearly a new feature/option and as 10.04 is in beta now, even if I polished off changes today they would need testing, debugging, etc that would have to wait for the real work of bug squashing to wrap up.  Where the implementation of this is pretty straight forward for me, what really remains on the table is the roadmap side of this discussion.

Standardization vs. Customization? 
Three years ago there really didn't seem to be any support for non-typical installs.  I brought up virtual options like VMware and was quickly told "nope, no hardware acceleration" case closed, drop it.  Today if you look over the forums or hop in IRC you hear all kinds of setups.  Virtual Core, virtual MD, virtual core and MD in the same virtualbox... Where a dev trying to support someone used to only ask "Is this your core or an MD?" now has to ask "What OS is your virtual box running in?, You're trying to do what with what?" etc. 

Personally I am a fan of customization options, but I completely understand I am not a typical user.  I actually enjoy time adjusting options, rebooting and tweaking settings and for the most part not using my system.  Non-OCD folks just want it to work.  Buy a Z-Box, Revo, Roku, etc and just plug it in. Want network streaming audio, buy the newest Squeezebox off the shelf and turn it on, etc.  To continue giving the typical user this type of experience I feel the only way to add customization is with very brief timeout/default options at first startup. 

What level of customization is too much?  Everyone knows if it were possible I would have Apple II's running 1/2 an application each all around my house. I would replace my gig switch with a 1920's telephone patch panel and manually route media to different rooms myself.  Tschak909 and Posde want to smack me already so before they do I will just clarify again that I understand that is not what LMCE is all about.

Since I tossed this out there I will be the one to have a first crack at it and will submit what I come up with for everyone to review.  Typically I overthink things but in this case I might be thinking its too easy of a change.  The DVD installer adds some desktop applications on the hybrid/core.  It was odd to me then that the Diskless_Setup by default actually creates more desktop applications and programs.  If there is discussion about the usefulness of a desktop environment lets keep it to media director only.  The core/hybrid has a desktop now and if you want to add little progs or apps then put them there or work on changing the primary installer.

My proposal and the task I believe I am up to involved the Diskless_Setup only, it is something I think I have the ability to change myself with my limited programming ability.  Correct me if I am completely off the wall but this is how I think the process works.

A new device is plugged into the network and looks for a DHCP to point it towards a bootloader.
DCErouter (specifically tftpboot.cfg) creates a few new directories based on its MAC address and points it to initrd and vnlinuz
The new device uses these as kernel= and boot=, and builds its image in root=<core>/?/nfs
Based on the content of vnlinuz and initrd, combined with polled info from various scripts the MD image is created just as it would install itself on a computer with a ubuntu install cd.
-add my changes
Because bootloaders can have options in the menu.1st file (sorry I know grub best, even though lmce I think uses something else because of the APPEND options) I believe I can add options here that will point to alternative initrd and vnlinuz versions.
Default option = just like it is now
Option1 = load initrd and vnlinuz that install different applications
Option2 = load initrd and vnlinuz that install different applications
Option3 = load initrd and vnlinuz that install different applications

There are options in the web-admin and warnings about kernel version on MDs so that part I don't think I have any control over.  I have tinkered though and adjusted the bootloader on the core to point a specific MAC address to a custom folder which booted TinyCore, DSL, 12.04 LTS and openWRT on different machines around my house.  I never got my own custom dsl+squeezebox configuration to boot however and is what led me to the idea of taking LMCE's setup and changing it to my desire.

I believe that I can take all of the source code needed to compile LMCE diskless, change and remove certain components and then compile and make options in the bootloader menu to select that version.  Is that an accurate statement?  Obviously I would need to debug and repeat a lot of effort but because I am only altering working source code, I would assume I am only looking at minor necessary work.  The years of hard work and coding behind current LMCE remains and I am just the jack-wagon that stripped some off.

If some off-the-shelf hardware doesn't quite fit the bill for a full MD, why not have the option to boot as audio only MD?  If an MD is going on the bedroom wall where a keyboard will never touch it why not have the ability to boot it without a desktop?  If I want to build a minimal media MD for use as an intercom outdoors, why can't I load a boot template designed for just that?  These are all just pipe-dreams of mine at this time as I haven't done yet any modification or compiling of lmce code.  I have just booted other pre-compiled kernels using lmce tftpboot. 

Hopefully this novel of a comment clears up what I plan to do and how I plan to do it.  After everyone has a laugh at my ignorance please feel free to correct me.

It appears we are pretty down the middle for use of MD desktop environments.  Thank you for your opinions, especially from the developers who commented as I always appreciate that level of input to get a grasp on the goal or focus of LinuxMCE.

I personally feel strongly about the ability to choose the type of LinuxMCE experience you want, as long as 99.9% of processes go on without requiring user input.  As the current MD creation process goes all a user needs to do is set a PC to network boot from BIOS and turn it on.  No other input is necessary until the AV wizard starts, we even have a pretty splash screen so you don't have to see the text.

I have just started looking through the code necessary for these diskless creations and although I haven't found the exact loader yet for the desktop items I do have a suggestion.  Yes, I know my formating is not loader formal but I am expressing function here without eye glazing anyone with code examples.

timeout 5
default 0
 -run diskless_setup as is
 -init= as is
 
 -run nodesktop_diskless setup
 -init = newly altered by me

 -run custom_diskless
 -advanced option for things like putting the image on a NAS, audio only MD, etc

This is simple enough that users who choose to alter the MD creation process can, and those who like everything done for them can still turn it on and watch it go and the entire process is only 5 seconds longer.

I hope to compile my first installer this weekend for another project. Depending on how that goes and how comfortable I am with the process, I will grab some lmce sc and see if I can put together some testable scripts.

*Edit, just re-read tschak909's post and will check out the package database in web-admin.  The code I was looking at was coming from wiki>sourcecode>lmce site. 

This is just an observation, but from it there may be room to strip down some installer components and improve the disk-less creation process.  This actually may be part of the design and a wanted feature so I will leave some options open in my suggestions for that case.

I entered KDE on a media director to see if I could adjust some nvidia settings using their x_config_prog.  What I found was a pretty large application list installed, considerably more than is installed on the core machine during DVD install.  Five or Six media players (additional to LMCE flavor, such as amarock and dragon), a lot of office applications and other features you would expect from a 10.04 install with KDE desktop.  It seemed a little excessive to me on a diskless MD that most users probably never access.  Perhaps by stripping down a lot of these packages, install times and load times could be improved?

Questions:

Is this "full" desktop a design feature?  Are these components present so that the MD can optionally function as a desktop?
Did I by going to KDE desktop on that MD load or unpack applications that otherwise would not have fully installed on that MD?

As I start loading more and more Media Directors to my setup I am (unreasonably) concerned about the growing core install location.  Although it may sound controlling and like I want to manage things LMCE can do by itself I would like to move to tiny fast drives in raid on a core machine with all media files stored on a NAS.  Because of that desire I have a few other questions about the way diskless devices are managed on the core.  This will help me understand what might be necessary to formally suggest any new install features.

Where I used to imagine diskless images like .iso files stored on a remote machine, I now better understand that installers are files and folders with commands that spawn more files, folders and commands.

 Are the /lib files shared among MDs or are they duplicated on the core for each MD?
 Is there a reason these /pluto/diskless folders couldn't be stored on a NAS?
 Is there room for development work on the Diskless_Create.sh?  I would be willing to take a look at slimming down some components where possible.
 Would anyone benefit from a prompt on the MD creation process pre-AV wizard that asks "Would you like add desktop functionality?", "will this be a designated media only location?" or even
 "Would you like this location to function as audio only?"

I think the MD creation process works wonderfully and am not reporting a buggy feature, I am just looking for ways to add a customizable experience while remaining as automagical as possible. 

Ok so this may seem like a noob question but it's been a while since I did an install . I just downloaded the beta iso of 1004 and before when I burned an install to a dvd it had kubuntu bundled with it . . . Is this not the case anymore ? I hope I did something wrong as the dvd  I just burned does not boot so I was thinking  I must of missed a step ? Sorry in advance it's been a while

What I think you may be remembering is the 8.10 (and maybe early 10.04) install DVDs first booted to a KDE environment where you ran a script to get the rest of the LMCE packages.  Where the new installer first comes up to your basic Run Live, Install Headless, Install Hybrid, Mem Test etc.  As L3mce said the new installer should be complete and give you a better install experience where LMCE is treated more as the object being installed and not just an add-on to a Kubuntu install.

Congratulations!

In commemoration I will go 24hours without asking ridiculous questions in IRC!

Thanks.  I have looking around for different remote options.

The Dinovo Mini looks pretty nice.  I have had lots of issues with mute on orbiters not functioning properly and sticking in a mute state.  When you set up:

FN + Mute is f8 (vol/lighting)

did you leave the Mute functionality?  I could remove the mute function in my own device data but wondered how you did it.

*To describe "sticking in mute", if I accidentally bump mute on any orbiters I can not get audio to resume.  Re-pressing mute often doesn't work, Vol +, Vol - sometimes works but usually requires quiting playback then restarting playback with auto-resume. 


Adesso ARC-1100, from its online description uses a usb ir receiver.  You mentioned you had several of these running around.  Are you able to carry one remote around the house and control different MDs, or do you have a usb IR + remote for each MD?


GC1005m, I believe you completely and wouldn't test one.  My faith in you would be crushed if I had to call you and liar and then you wouldn't be my hero any longer ...

You're looking at $100+ US for outlets and $45+ for appliance modules, easy. With dimmers, the $45+ range for all of them is pretty much where you are. I can't cost justify (one Z-wave controlled plug in a) receptacle for more than double the price.

I have actually found the reverse to be true.  I have priced the appliance modules as nearly double the in-wall variety from the manufacturers I am looking at.  It makes sense to me that a movable device would cost more than a fixed device which would be less desirable to most and cost less...

Tim,

Thank you for the link, somehow when looking over your site I overlooked the word switch on that product and dismissed it as part of a future project (energy management) that I haven't considered much yet.  I really like getting the idea of getting multifunction out of a single device and it doesn't have the typical (ugly) box shape of other appliance modules.  I want to keep this thread out of marketplace so will just say that I will be getting with you shortly.


Thanks to everyone who supplied feedback on this thread.  I did not realize that I could add Insteon devices alongside my z-wave devices (if I am willing to do some code work) this hopefully adds some new feature options that I haven't found in z-wave available devices.  Without a SWMBO, I actually do have a lot of control over outlets and in the event I do want to move something, 4 screws and 3 wire nuts is nothing I can't manage.  In very quiet areas of the house where I can tolerate the ramp-up time I will go with the Aeon-Labs modules and everywhere else go with relay switches in-wall.

[GHP EF26 26" ELEC FP]

I have recently acquired a usb-uirt to do this template the right way, it will arrive in the next few days so I am getting started on the template now.  If anyone has a similar device, please let me know about any additional commands I need to add to incorporate special features.  This will be very very basic IR to device template with no device feedback, in similar fashion to a generic VCR with less commands and without the media screens. 

GHP EF26 26" ELEC FP
IR Controlled Electronic Fireplace
Operational as lighting only, heater only, or light and heat
IR controlled (will get pronto codes from usb-uirt)
-Template would also work for EF22, EF26FG, EF33 & EF36

Current IR functions and limitations: (from original remote)

Lighting Function (flickering flames)
Lighting On (no saved state, it turns on at 10% brightness)
Lighting + (increase current brightness by 10%)
Lighting - (decrease current brightness by 10%)
  -issues1:  I would love to write this into controlled by lighting plug-in so that the lighting effect can respond to events as any other dimmer light.  The dim can not be sent as 60% though, it has
   to be sent as 5 separate "+" commands with no state memory.  As response to an event calling for 50% it could execute (on, +, +, +, +) buttons on the orbiter {+} and {-} would also work but
   the specific percentages without state information would be difficult if not impossible at this time to make functional.
  -issues2:  The command for On is the same as Off. This is definitely going to be problematic and possibly require me to create a current state memory for the device.  Otherwise an ALL_OFF to
   lights would turn this on.   

*Edit.  After controlling this more and reviewing the manual, The various lighting {+} and {-} buttons are not adjusting brightness levels, they adjust the flame effect speed.  So to simplify the template I will add control for "fire effect on/off" and will leave the speed setting for individual adjustment via OEM remote. 

Heater Function - Electric space heater
Heater On (no saved state, turns on at 10% output)
Heat + (increase current heat output by 10%)
Heat - (increase current heat output by 10%)
  -issues1: Unattended space-heaters cause a huge percentage of house fires, I am uncertain still to even write this template..
  -issues2: Pulling this into the climate plug-in could add comfort control in the immediate area.  It would be user input only however and would function similar to a thermostat with + or - control.
  -issues3: Once again the On/Off is a toggle and LMCE would not have state memory unless devised and placed into the template as a field.  A poorly written lighting command that incorrectly
   toggles a light on results in a bulb or string of bulbs wasting electricity, an unwanted or unexpected space-heater turning on has much more costly possibilities.

*Edit.  I was incorrect about saved state on this.  The device does remember the last heat setting.  There is also an integrated thermostat that switches off at different internal temperatures dependent on the users defined output setting.  This is a common feature of most electronic space-heaters.

Incandescent Light - a brighter output light from the inside ceiling of the fireplace "box"
Light On
  -issues1: Use of this light requires that the flickering flame function be On already, sending this command does nothing if not preceded by Light on (above)
  -issues2: Turning off the flickering flame lighting also turns off this light.

So as you can see by this outline of features I have some challenges and things to consider before continuing.  I would love to tie in the lighting so that a playing media event could turn off room lights (via z-wave) and also toggle the fireplace light effects via IR.  I would be not as happy to get an inbox message from someone whose house burned down because I tried to automate their space-heater...

Input welcome.

I also was reluctant to make the move to 10.04 as I thought I had a pretty stable 8.10 install functioning.

10.04 is clean!  For me personally there was nothing working under 8.10 that did not function in 10.04.  What I actually found is that new devices, templates, etc functioned better after I moved to 10.04.  As I have seen your input on these forums going back a long ways I know you are familiar with lmce and should not have a problem getting any of your 8.10 configured devices up and going with 10.04

 

[nVidia GeForce 5200 AGP 128MB]

Disappointing test tonight.  I had pretty high hopes for this card and wanted to test multiple output modes.  Supported yes but not good in any way.  I will keep it up for a few days and perhaps see if I can't adjust it and edit this post if I get better results.  Here you go L3mce:

nVidia GeForce 5200 AGP 128MB
VGA, DVI & S-Video outputs
Fanless, PCI powered, full PCI card height

lspci | grep VGA

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200] (rev a1)

lspci -nnk | grep VGA -A2

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5200] [10de:0322] (rev a1)
        Kernel driver in use: nouveau
        Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau

/etc/X11/xorg.conf (portion)

Section "Device"
       
Identifier   "Card0"
   Driver      "nouveau"
   VendorName   "Unknown Vendor Name"
   BoardName   "Unknown Board Name"
   Option      "LinearAlloc"      "16384"
   #BusID      "PCI:0:2:0"
#   Option      "NoDDC"            "true"
   Option "XvmcUsesTextures" "true"
   Option "renderAccel" "true"
   Option "NoDDCValue"
   Option "UseEDID" "true"
   Option "ExactModeTimingsDVI" "true"
   Option "NoLogo" "true"
   Option "NoBandWidthTest" "true"
   Option "ModeValidation" "NoDFPNativeResolutionCheck, NoEdidMaxPClkCheck, NoMaxPClkCheck, AllowInterlacedModes, AllowNon60HzDFPModes, NoEdidModes"
   Option "DynamicTwinView" "false"
   Option "UseEvents" "true"
   Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"
   Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "true"
   Option      "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
   Identifier   "Screen0"
   Device      "Card0"
   Monitor      "Monitor0"
   DefaultDepth   24
   SubSection "Display"
      Modes      "1280x720"
      Virtual      1280 720
   EndSubSection
   Option "XvmcUsesTextures" "true"
   Option "renderAccel" "true"
   Option "NoDDCValue"
   Option "UseEDID" "true"
   Option "ExactModeTimingsDVI" "true"
   Option "NoLogo" "true"
   Option "NoBandWidthTest" "true"
   Option "ModeValidation" "NoDFPNativeResolutionCheck, NoEdidMaxPClkCheck, NoMaxPClkCheck, AllowInterlacedModes, AllowNon60HzDFPModes, NoEdidModes"
   Option "DynamicTwinView" "false"
   Option "UseEvents" "true"
   Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"
   Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "true"
   Option   "TVStandard"   "720p"
EndSection

/nudge bump

[From the Forum Home Page:]

No need at all to thank me, I am just a grateful user.  I have been using LMCE in some form or another for 3 years now and I enjoy doing my part to make it even better.  With enough effort I will eventually help write code but until that time I do what I know, which is piecing things together until they POST, then dumping the results on your lap. 

From the Forum Home Page:

89580 Posts in 12106 Topics by 18821 Members. Latest Member:

Imagine if 18,821 people gave hardware and setup feedback from their unique systems!  For me to find unsupported junk I would have to dig out a IIgs or C128 cassette drive.