SCALE went well. Lots of people interested, as usual. Possy, Golgoj4, and I had a great time.
Basically, we took a very different tact when it came to marketing information, this time.
Instead of mowing down dead trees to turn into sheets of paper for our handouts, we managed to get a scanner from the SCALE people, and scanned each interested person's badge. I received a CSV file containing all that data, to send off one email message, which contained:
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Hello,
It's been a week since I saw you at SCALE, and now I finally have some time to put together the Welcome Packet that I promised you.
LinuxMCE is a comprehensive Smart Home platform, unifying:
* Lighting Control
* Media Control/Storage/Playback
* Climate Control
* A Security System
* And a Telecom system
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Contacting Us
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All in the same system, and all pieces are able to talk to each other, and interact with one another.
We have a website, here:
http://www.linuxmce.org/You can download the software here:
http://linuxmce.iptp.org/release/LinuxMCE-1004-final.isoWe have forums here, full of energetic people willing to help everyone set up their systems, and to help people develop new devices and support for the system, here:
http://forum.linuxmce.org/And we also have not one, but two IRC Channels:
irc://irc.freenode.net/#linuxmce -- #linuxmce, which is the main users channel, and
irc://irc.freenode.net/#linuxmce-devel -- #linuxmce-devel, which is the developer channel.
You can get IRC clients for various systems, such as:
X-Chat, for Linux:
http://xchat.org/mIRC, for Windows:
http://www.mirc.com/Colloquy, for Mac:
http://colloquy.info/Feel free to stop by, I am called TSCHAK in IRC.
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Important Tips to Consider When Building A LinuxMCE System
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* BE PATIENT. This system has a lot of moving parts, it will take time for you to reach your goal, be patient, and persistent, and you will succeed.
* USE TWO NETWORK CARDS IN THE CORE. One External, one Internal. Connect the External to your Internet, connect the Internal to your internal network switch.
* USE NVIDIA GRAPHICS CARD FOR MEDIA DIRECTORS/OR HYBRID. Use a recent model NVIDIA graphics card,
* USE THE WIKI. The Wiki is an extensive clearing house of information gathered from all of us using LinuxMCE. Use this information. If you have better information, add to it, make it better.
* USE THE IRC. We are constantly on it, and are the best bet if you want help immediately. If we are there, and we are available, we will help.
* OPTIMIZE YOUR NETWORK INTERCONNECT. LinuxMCE is an I/O bound application, the better your network is optimized, the better it will run overall. Use Jumbo packets, use good switches, use good cable (Cat-5E, Cat-6A,Cat-7), and use gigabit ethernet. Minimize the number of devices on WIFI.
* USE RS232 or ETHERNET for connecting and talking to your Audio/Video equipment, if possible. If not, use a USB UIRT for IR transmission, and use Xantech 286-D emitters for greater reliability of transmitting IR signals.
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Types of Systems you can build
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* Core
You need one of these systems in every LinuxMCE system. Stuff this in the closet, connect it to your router, and to your internal network switch.
2GB RAM minimum
2 Network Cards
250G disk space, minimum
If you want media on the core, hard drives for your media.
* Media Directors
You need at least one of these, to show media on a TV. For simpler setups, both the Core and the Media director can be combined into what we call a Hybrid machine.
2GB RAM minimum
1 Network card
NVIDIA graphics card
For RS232 controlled AV devices, a usb to RS232 adaptor for each one.
For Infra-Red devices, use a USB-UIRT (
http://www.usbuirt.com/)
For hybrid machines, you will also need the items specified in the Core machine, namely at least one hard drive, and two network cards.
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Orbiters
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Orbiter is a piece of software providing house-wide remote control, for LinuxMCE. Orbiters can run on the following platforms:
* Windows
* Linux
* Android
* iOS
* Symbian phones (s60 v2/v3)
* J2ME phones
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Videos
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Here are LOTS of videos, showing the capabilities of LinuxMCE:
* A demonstration video, we made several years ago, showing an overview of LinuxMCE and its capabilities:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7JDX2R_uDc * Here are two videos, showing the phone system:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNaWUM4bX3I -- Part 1/2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dUE9_s6EnI -- Part 2/2
* Showing the SqueezeBox and Follow Me via orbiters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ufVBOf1ir8* various videos showing the Game Player, which allows you to play video games from retro game systems via emulation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0lMzPRNksA <-- scrolling through NES ROMs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDQ92d9nktQ <-- Famicom Disk System support
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XMjWrJpEEw <-- Game Player bookmarks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVGyzCIT8SE <-- 16-bit game system support (Genesis/TG16)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJfn70fkLnU <-- Apple // Support
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADe4OhVthds <-- Multi-Room Game Player part 1/2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpZQ0vABSyU <-- Multi-Room Game Player part 2/2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH4LsBUM5k0 <-- Game Player Recording Functionality
Thanks for reading. This is all I will explicitly send you, and you are not part of a mailing list, nor part of any marketing campaign. We are not a company, and we are not trying to shill a product. We're just a bunch of very passionate enthusiasts who are trying to make the smart home platform to end all smart home platforms, and this requires a community, which requires people like you, and me to participate for the benefit of everyone.
See you there!
