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Topics - bp5

Pages: [1] 2
1
Users / Recommendations for Media Directors? Anyone tried Dell Zino?
« on: February 18, 2011, 10:15:22 pm »
I'm looking for a decent media director and a (non-LMCE) friend recommended a Dell Zino. Can anyone either comment on the Zino or recommend a currently available box? (UK or European availability preferably)

thanks,
Blaine

2
Users / Add all photos in a folder to screensaver (without page at a time)?
« on: December 15, 2010, 11:28:13 pm »
Is there a way to just add all the files in a folder to the screensaver? When I do Files & Media->Screensaver and click on the folder I want, I see about 30 or so per page and 10 pages (or more) of images. It is a bit tedious to select all, save, scroll down, go to next page, repeat...

3
Users / USB UIRT supplier in UK?
« on: December 13, 2010, 12:15:04 pm »
Can anyone recommend a USB UIRT supplier in the UK? Or elsewhere in Europe?  The only source I can find is on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB-UIRT-56k-Enchanced_W0QQitemZ130438954993QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=183990257998&rvr_id=183990257998&cguid=1d9ecc0a12c0a0aa17f1f881ff9f2857 for GBP 43 delivered.

thanks,
Blaine

4
Users / change keyboard mappings to control MD?
« on: October 26, 2010, 11:31:13 pm »
I've been scavenging old parts to make a cheap media director: an old laptop and a USB IR receiver and remote from an old DVB card (no model or brand markings on either). The laptop works fine with UI1 but my USB IR receiver and remote seem to behave like a keyboard (USB HID) not an LIRC: the arrow keys on the keypad do the same as cursor keys on the keyboard and when video is playing it makes the video about 1/4 size and puts soft keys on screen to navigate a cursor around to push the on-screen buttons.

I can see that when I push pause on the remote it is the same as typing "t" on the keyboard, fast rewind types "i" and fast forward types "n".  Is is possible to map these keys so the media director receives a fast rewind or fast forward command like a conventional IR remote?

Or is is possible to convince the MD to somehow see this as an LIRC device?

thanks for any advice...
Blaine

5
Users / MD Controlling Toshiba LCD TV: RS-232 or IR ?
« on: September 08, 2010, 08:43:09 pm »
I would like to have my Media Director be able to power on the TV connected to it. The TV (a Toshiba Regza) has an RS-232 control port but I've been unable to find any documentation on what the control codes are for it. Is it going to be worth persevering or should I go the IR route? If RS-232, can someone point me at an example to start from? I have a USB to RS-232 cable connecting the MD to the TV.

If IR, what will I need to add to the MD? I have a generic USB IR receiver but I don't think it transmits as well (not sure how to tell).

Thanks,
Blaine

6
Users / LMCE compatible PAYG SIP providers and adding manually
« on: September 02, 2010, 03:54:21 pm »
I used the built-in sipgate settings and easily set up incoming and outgoing calls and all was well but I didn't want to commit to a fixed monthly amount, I wanted a pay as you go service. None of the currently installed providers seemed to do this (although I didn't go through the list exhaustively).

I found a US-based provder called voipvoip which seemed to work OK for North American calls but they claimed I needed the G729 codec installed to call UK numbers. Next I tried a UK-based SIP provider called voiptalk.org which was cheap and I could direct dial calls from LMCE to all the numbers I wanted, and they only have a GBP 5.00 minimum so there isn't a big commitment and they provide an 0843 incoming number free and split the revenue from it with you.

I found that I could easily test new providers (at least for outgoing calls) by just choosing the sipgate settings on the Phone Lines wizard and filling in the new SIP provider's hostname, account name and password. But now that I found a decent PAYG SIP provider I thought I would follow the instructions to  properly add new SIP providers (http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/How_to_properly_add_support_for_SIP_providers).  I used sipgate's entry as a template, duly changed all occurence of sipgate to voiptalk. It all seemed to work fine, the new provider came up in the wizard's list of providers, I filled in the host, username and password (which is what I did using the sipgate hack above) and clicked submit, but the list of phone lines appeared empty. So I've gone back to my hack of choosing sipgate as the provider but filling in voiptalk.org's details which seems to work. Does anyone have an idea why I can't seem to add a new provider?

Blaine

7
Users / Clues for event handler to send email
« on: August 28, 2010, 09:44:16 pm »
Can anyone give me some clues as to how I can write some simple event handlers? I'm guessing that using the Respond to Events Wizard with Advanced Events is the way to go and I've managed to put up an alert on an orbiter when a PIR is tripped, but I can't do anything beyond that. For example, I'd like to send an e-mail when there is a Security Breach.

I'm guessing I start with choosing "Security Breach" as the event, and the device " =  CORE" and then I've tried looking at what the Advanced Wizard offers but there I'm stumped. I've looked at the wiki, and I've seen references to executing a command group but can't figure out how to define a command group anywhere.  Any guidance gratefully received...

cheers,
Blaine

8
Users / When do Cellphone Notifications trigger?
« on: August 25, 2010, 11:30:53 am »
I'm running 0810 2 Aug snapshop and I have SIP working (I can direct dial out from an orbiter to my home landline). I put my home number in the same format in "Other Phone Notifications" (even though the table heading says Orbiter Phone #, which is a typo I'm certain), so it looks like this:


When I trigger a security breach, it plays on all the MDs and it appears in the security alerts log, but no phone calls are made. The FreePBX call log shows all my direct dial calls but no call attempts from the security breach. Did I miss something or is there some other log I can check?

cheers,
Blaine

9
Users / IP Cameras and motion wrapper
« on: August 19, 2010, 11:04:30 pm »
I'm playing with adding multiple IP cameras to my system and have one camera happily working (thanks DragonK!). I've added a second camera with the same setup as a second child of the Motion Wrapper but I can't get it to work. Does each camera need its own motion wrapper?

Blaine

10
Users / Anyone with problems connecting Windows XP Orbiter to 0810?
« on: August 16, 2010, 08:24:09 pm »
Has anyone had problems getting a Windows XP orbiter connecting to an 0810 core? I checked the orbiter is defined correctly in the device tree, I filled in the device number and the ip address of the core (on the external lan) but it just shows the logger trying to connect as in this image: http://picasaweb.google.com/blaine.price/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCNuA2-_T3Kf53QE#5506074289130575394

Has anyone seen this before?

cheers,
Blaine

11
Users / Z-Wave vs X10?
« on: August 16, 2010, 01:37:28 pm »
OK, I've spent a week getting my head around as much of LMCE as I can, I've set up a couple of MDs (using lightweight orbiter UI, but I've ordered a graphics card that will hopefully let me use UI2), got a USB remote working and media playing in different rooms. I'm now ready to dip my toe in the Home Automation water. I've read the wiki and the forum entries and browsed a couple of UK home automation etailers (http://www.letsautomate.com and http://www.uk-automation.co.uk) and still can't figure out which way to go. Here is what I do know:

X10 devices are cheaper, but for security sensors you need wireless as well as mains electrical. This means you need a standard CM10/11 serial interface for the computer to control the X10 stuff plus something to grab the wireless signals and translate them to the electrical wires to get to the computer like TM571. The combined CM15 device does both but seems to not be stable according to what I have read on the forums.  It also looks like X10 is harder to setup and signals can be lost when sending across mains electrical. Is X10 that hard to setup?

Z-Wave devices seem to be more expensive but easier to setup, but I can't figure out what the minimal starting point is. The UK home automation sites suggest that just having a PC serial to Z-wave interface like ZWave ZCU201 (like this http://www.letsautomate.com/12434.cfm?) will also need a Z-wave remote control (like thishttp://www.letsautomate.com/11109.cfm?) in order to setup all the devices like a motion or door sensor.  But reading the wiki it sounds like I can get by with just a Z-Wave USB stick like this http://www.letsautomate.com/12799.cfm? to setup all the z-wave devices and have the LMCE PC control them, is that right?

If someone can enlighten me I'll gladly try it out then write a wiki entry on easy entry to LMCE home automation.

cheers,
Blaine

12
Users / Clues on Interfacing simple detection of closed contact?
« on: August 13, 2010, 04:35:22 pm »
I can't seem to find a plug and play alarm panel for LMCE so I was going to try to get LMCE to detect a closed contact (maybe using a relay) and use that as an event to signal an alarm condition or movement in a room using a traditional PIR or open door contact. Can anyone give me some clues as to where I might get appropriate hardward and where I can find a template to play with so LMCE will recognize the event?

thanks,
Blaine

13
Users / Disked Media Director really not possible?
« on: August 12, 2010, 11:41:42 am »
Greetings all. I've been playing with 0810 for a few days now and am very impressed, but I can't seem to get a MD working other than the hybrid. I tried an old tablet Windows machine with 500MB RAM and got as far as AV setup but then it failed to get much further. I tried a Toshiba Portege (about 12-18 month vintage) and it wouldn't even get that far, it got it's IP address and said it was running DisklessSetup.sh but then hung.  I have a Media Center type PC with a fujitsu bios but even though I set it to boot from LAN it seems to ignore it (if I disable everything but the LAN it refuses to try to boot anything).  So if it is possible to get an image that will boot from USB or something else I'd like to try, can someone point me at some instructions?

I have read lots of posts about why pxe booting is so much more desireable but the hardware I have to hand seems to disagree!

Thanks all,
Blaine

14
Users / WinCE 5" as orbiter?
« on: August 11, 2010, 04:21:57 pm »
Does anyone know if something like this WinCE 5" touchscreen:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=286831&source=1

is likely to work well as an orbiter using the lmce WinCE installer?

thanks,
Blaine

15
I installed the latest 0810 snapshot and setup OK, but from when I access the core via the web admin and click on any of the  "Download Windows Software for Orbiters" links they all download a zero byte file. I also tried to netboot a PC from the dcerouter network but it looks like the files weren't found. I did run the /usr/pluto/bin/Diskless_CreateTBZ.sh
 manually and it seemed to run without problems. Did I miss a step somewhere?

thanks!
Blaine

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