Author Topic: Follow-Me alternatives  (Read 3784 times)

nosebreaker

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Follow-Me alternatives
« on: February 09, 2009, 03:51:29 pm »
Since Fiire won't sell the remotes any longer (they only sell them with fiire stations due to low quantities left), and bluetooth doesn't work reliably (per the FAQ), what other alternatives could we use for follow-me?  I understand you can force it to follow you manually with an orbiter, but I'm thinking of one-button press to get it to follow.  Ideas?

cirion

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Re: Follow-Me alternatives
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2009, 04:12:09 pm »
Once the Follow me is activated, the Orbiters use only 2 buttons to follow...
First the Room button then the actual room.

This makes more sense on a orbiter than having a single button solution, since you have to tell it that you switched room anyway...

The Fiire Chief can do this on a single button press, since it requires a specialized dongle on every MD you want to use the follow me on.
No dongle, no control, no follow me, useless....

nosebreaker

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Re: Follow-Me alternatives
« Reply #2 on: February 09, 2009, 05:13:18 pm »
Yeah I agree, with no dongles they are useless.

What about infra-red?  If you have a IR receiver and could assign a button on the remote to be the equivalent?  This way it is clear to the MD that you pressed a button.  Is this somehow possible?

skeptic

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Re: Follow-Me alternatives
« Reply #3 on: February 09, 2009, 05:23:11 pm »
Yeah I agree, with no dongles they are useless.

What about infra-red?  If you have a IR receiver and could assign a button on the remote to be the equivalent?  This way it is clear to the MD that you pressed a button.  Is this somehow possible?
I can't answer to what it takes to make it work, but it does sound like a great idea.

cirion

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Re: Follow-Me alternatives
« Reply #4 on: February 09, 2009, 05:24:32 pm »
I don't see how a IR remote could have a single press button to follow me...
How would the MD know which MD to follow?

A 2 press solution could be possible, but someone has to make it first...

1. Press to prepare the media to follow from the current MD.
2. Press to follow on the new MD.

tschak909

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Re: Follow-Me alternatives
« Reply #5 on: February 09, 2009, 05:37:21 pm »
Guys,

Follow Me, is nothing more than an event, for the type of data you wish to have persisted into another room.

We can currently do it with the Fiire remotes, as well as supported bluetooth cell phones (mobile orbiters). Keep in mind that other things can also be used to create presence detection, such as RFID tags.

All that would need to happen would be to create a device that can read something that says, "this person is in this room" and fire off the appropriate event.

-Thom

nosebreaker

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Re: Follow-Me alternatives
« Reply #6 on: February 09, 2009, 05:48:20 pm »
Ok, I believe that is how the fiire chief's work, you press the button in the room you are in then press it again when you get to the destination room.

Thom, if we can mimic this by triggering an event please tell me how!  I found this in the wiki but it doesn't describe how to bind it to a button:
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Have_my_media_follow_me

tschak909

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Re: Follow-Me alternatives
« Reply #7 on: February 09, 2009, 06:19:34 pm »
To do this, you must trigger an event programmatically...

But you must understand, follow me requires two main parameters,

* The User
* The Room the User is in.

The first one is especially important, because you can't assume houses only have one user.

If you look inside the source of any created device, you'll see an example section, where there is code on how to send an event.

This can also be mimicked with the MessageSend command.

Use the Advanced > DCE > Events section in the menu, to look up the event, and what command parameters to send, as well as looking at the MessageSend page on the wiki to see how to send the message. Events are message type 2.

-Thom

eNoodle

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Re: Follow-Me alternatives
« Reply #8 on: February 10, 2009, 09:11:49 am »
Regarding presence detection, is there something available using RFID or a similar technic? I've seen some 1-wire (iButton), but I would prefer having a solution, which doesn't need user invention. Bluetooth is ok, but in some rooms I don't have MDs with a Blueetooth dongle...

eNoodle

tschak909

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Re: Follow-Me alternatives
« Reply #9 on: February 10, 2009, 10:08:28 am »
We did have a wavetrend RFID driver, but it was closed.

Anyone with a day or so of time can write a new driver for RFID or comparable sensor technology.

-Thom