Messages

1

Developers / Re: Lua-based alternative to Ruby and Generic Serial Device

« on: June 02, 2008, 07:33:43 pm »

I hear you - a compiled language would definitely be faster and smaller. But C++ and similar are just beyond many of the folks that need to do the interfacing (if I'm reading Aaron's intent correctly). Think folks like home automation installers for Crestron, Netstreams, etc - which is probably Pluto's competition. They often have the odd piece of equipment - a pool controller, or whatever that needs to interface to the system. Most do not have enough background in software development and will find it hard to justify the time to learn - but they can learn to do simple LUA (or whatever) scripts.

LUA or a similar language is really just a "glue" language that you do your high-level control in, checking for button presses, string inputs on the serial port, etc. The underlying C routines do all of the intensive work. Sometimes the drivers only need to be a couple dozen lines long - sometimes they can get quite a bit longer.

No reason you cannot ultimately have both if the market (us demand is enough.

2

Developers / Re: Lua-based alternative to Ruby and Generic Serial Device

« on: May 29, 2008, 06:18:44 pm »

Yes, I would prefer Java too, and it is getting pretty widely available on some pretty small devices.

But my impression is that the LUA implementations are much lighter, and they are more easily available/ported.

Maybe Aaron can provide some more facts instead of my "impressions".

3

Developers / Re: Lua-based alternative to Ruby and Generic Serial Device

« on: May 28, 2008, 09:47:53 am »

I've just started using LUA for Netstreams DigiLinX RS232 drivers - integrating various home automation components. Its not too bad and seems to perform well on very modest hardware.

I groaned at first, because it was new and not as familiar as Ruby or C - but its pretty easy to learn. I don't think I would want to write really large systems in it, but for this type of work it should do fine.

4

Users / Re: PDA / Tablet Suggestion Wanted

« on: May 20, 2008, 09:09:01 am »

Concerning the Nokia N800/N810. I read a review about two months ago in which the reviewer believed the N810 was actually a few steps backward compared to the N800, plus a couple hundred USD$ more. I wish I could remember more, but I believe it had to do with keyboard problems and the WIFI signal strength. Sorry, I cannot find the post now.

5

Users / Re: Proposed forum rules

« on: May 13, 2008, 04:17:47 am »

I think the content of the rules is great - and needed. But I also think colinjones has the right idea here.

One should be able to get the gist of the rules by reading a brief bulleted list - no more than a dozen points. Otherwise they just will not be read by the people that need to read them most.

I realize that there needs to be more explanation - that can be notes or done via hyperlink.

Thanks for taking the time to do this. It should help everyone a lot.

Just my 2 cents.

6

Users / Re: Internal Network Configuration

« on: March 20, 2008, 03:58:15 pm »

John, The 192.168.80.0 network also uses netmask 255.255.255.0. BUT its on a completely separate network from the 192.168.1.0 network (your main existing network). Your hybrid/core is the router between the two networks - letting anything on the LinuxMCE network get out to the Internet.

The netmask of 255.255.255.0 just indicates that all addresses on this particular network (e.g. 192.168.80.1->192.168.80.254) are available/accessible). There's a lot more to netmask that will let you create sub-networks and so on, but that's a bit more complex and not really relevant at this point.

Enjoy your Easter LinuxMCE workshop!

7

Users / Re: Mobile Orbiter for Java Phones

« on: February 28, 2008, 04:36:54 am »

What kind of iPhone do you have that runs Java? or even Flash? Hopefully that will change soon

8

Installation issues / Re: S.O.S about install

« on: February 09, 2008, 06:08:48 am »

Bemfica,

At least one of your problems is well documented in the forums:

• MythTV freezing (it affects me also)

For the other issues can you provide more information?

• Not sure exactly what a "Cellular Motorola V3" is. Is that a V300, V330 or what? Regardless it needs to run Symbian OS (not version 3 I believe) or Windows Mobile (check wiki for versions).
• And what problems with the Panasonic cameras are you having? Did you read and other postings int he wiwi? http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Surveillance_Cameras

As far as trying to get RAID 0 to work, that seems a risky thing to do and should be a quite low priority.

Maybe with more info someone can help more.

9

Users / Re: Internal Network Configuration

« on: January 31, 2008, 05:25:12 pm »

If I understand correctly:

• The external network adapter/interface of the core connects via wireless to the external world through your WRT-54 router and ADSL modem.
• The internal network adapter/interface of the core connects to the media director over a powerline connector.
• It looks like the media director also connects to the WRT-54 router - so it must have two network adapters.

Given the above, with one exception,other than the convoluted connections due to location/wiring issues, thinks look pretty standard:

• Exception: Letting the media director also connect to the WRT-54 is an unnecessary wrinkle to work through. Let the media director connect to the outside world (both the other parts of your home network and the Internet) exclusively through the core.
• The core should be able to assign a DHPC address over its internal adapter to the media director without interfering with the rest of your nextwork. Let it keep the default of 192.168.80.x
• The core can be set to obtain a DHCP address for its external network adapter from your existing DHCP server, the WRT-54 router I assume.

Are we missing something?

10

Installation issues / Re: Information lost after installation. Please help!

« on: January 29, 2008, 11:45:06 pm »

Booster's point is valid - the auto run file/message should not have been left in place for the DVD.

It is an unusual situation, and Booster should have read more, but to publish a DVD that under reasonable use pops up  a message that says reboot and no harm will be done is not good.

Booster, I think its worth opening an Mantis issue for this so that it can be removed from the next DVD that's created.

11

Users / Re: Best Practices for setup of 710 beta3

« on: January 21, 2008, 06:04:50 pm »

1audio,

Thank you for the detailed reply and approach/guidance. Just a bit of followup needed if you (or someone else) does not mind - let me explain.

Under 704, watching TV under MythTV was not possible - it would consistently freeze after about 15 seconds. Although I want all of the other automation features too, we had to at least be able to watch TV.

I checked the forums and this post indicated it was a known problem.
http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=3170.0
and maybe this one too, though it seemed a bit DVB-S related:
http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=2273.0

I read elsewhere  (cannot find it after looking quickly) this would be fixed in 710. Do you know if that is so?

Anyway, that's why I moved to the 710 beta3, I understand that it is a beta and will have issues, and hoped I might help out by testing.

As far as the remote, I'm not hurting here (yet) - my wireless keyboard and mouse will suffice until everything else is close to working. Then I will try and follow the procedure in:
http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=3678.0
If all else is working, I'll probably upgrade to the gyro remote anyway - but any remote seems better than the keyboard/mouse in the long run

Thanks again to all who provide such great support and help.

12

Users / Best Practices for setup of 710 beta3

« on: January 21, 2008, 03:46:17 am »

I'm looking for some help for specific questions, but also for a general approach to setup. I have watched the video and read (and read and read) on the wiki and forums (not that I might not have forgotten some of the stuff I've read .

I've installed 704 a half-dozen times before, usually with mixed results. I just installed 710 beta3 - things are better but still not pretty.

Here's my equipment:

• Asus M2NPV-VM motherboard with AMD64 X2 4400, 1GB Ram, 400GB Seagate SATA
• S/PDIF optical out bracket setup and works fine.
• Hauppage PVR-500, only using 1st half to connect to my cable provider.
• Silicon Dust HDHomeRun, used for two sources of OTA television.
• Zapstream remote with included IR receiver
• Wireless keyboard/joystic combination with its own IR receiver (PS/2 based)
• ZWave ZCU000 controller with three lights.
• Global Cache GC100 that controls following three A/V components using IR:
  • Sony STR-DB830 receiver
  • Akai PT50DL14 DLP 50" TV
  • Motorola RG2200 cable box (connects to Qwest Choice TV over VDSL)

In my latest install attempt of 710 beta3 here's what I did

• I went through the setup wizard as far as I could, until it needed my A/V equipment.
• Exited
• Modifed the /usr/pluto/bin/gc100-conf.pl script and added my GC100
• Used the web admin pages to add my receiver, TV, cable box and Zapstream remote control
• Went back to the wizard and tried to define my inputs and sources. It would not let me define the lineup for my PVR-500->RG2200 cable source, only the two HDHomeRun tuners.

OK, I can watch TV via my RG22xx cable box, but not switch channels yet. I've had the IR switching for the cable box working before, so I'm sure I can get that handled with a bit of time. I cannot watch via the HDHomeRun sources.

My questions:

• Is there a recommended or better approach(s) for setting this up
• Why do I not see the S/PDIF and DVI outputs on my core/hybrid when I try and use the A/V wizard to connect the various equipment. I've looked for a way to define this, but do not see it. On the digram it just shows a generic input and output for the core/hybrid - unlike the specialized input/outputs for TV, receiver,etc.

Thanks you in advance for any ideas/suggestions.

13

Users / Re: Choosing VDR versus MythTV

« on: January 19, 2008, 10:42:58 am »

OK, thanks for the confirmation. MythTV it is then, I'm hopeful it will work much better.

14

Users / Re: Choosing VDR versus MythTV

« on: January 19, 2008, 07:52:05 am »

Actually I have Qwest ChoiceTV (Scottsdale, AZ), its not really "cable" in the sense that there is no cable modem with coax input. A single twisted pair provides phone, TV and internet via a special set top box - a Motorola (aka Next Level Communications) RG2xxx. It that provides cable-equivalent programming to three different TV's. No coax really, so I don't believe the QAM channels would apply, at least any way I can figure.

Thanks though. I think I'm good with the PVR-500 and using the HDHomeRun for OTA.

15

Users / Choosing VDR versus MythTV

« on: January 18, 2008, 11:45:59 pm »

Just wanted to make sure I am understanding the discussions I am seeing.

In general those of us in the USA should be using MythTV, otherwise VDR has some advantages, especially for supporting DVB cards.

In particular, I have a core/hybrid Asus M2NPV-VM motherboard, AMD 64 x2 4400 with 1GB RAM, a Hauppage PVR-500 connected to my cable box and a HDHomeRun for two independent sources of OTA TV. Using 704, MythTv would freeze often usually after 15 or 20 seconds of viewing. Will MythTV work "better" in 710b3, or would VDR offer any advantages?

Thanks!

I'm still waiting impatiently for my 710b3 DVD ISO for AMD64 to download - Its taken over a day and is only 75% complete. At least I've uploaded as much as I've downloaded