Topics

1

Developers / Help me get started coding: Centrally Distributed Whole House Sound

« on: May 02, 2012, 11:20:29 pm »

I'm taking the plunge.  Time to start building some interfaces... I'm attempting to develop a LinuxMCE 'proper' control system for a whole house audio system.

The ideal result would be the ability to select media from the core (or any media device) and route it through the central distribution system to any/all of the rooms.  Ideally this would be 'proper' in that you wouldn't get two devices fighting for the same output... and ideally you wouldn't have to have hard 'locks' on the devices such that you'd have to go to the other room to 'release' a zone before someone else could use it.

The central distribution system consists of:

Marantz SR6006 AV receiver (Main zone 7.1 speakers, two auxillary zones, each with volume control)

3 matrix 6x6 switches with RS232 control -> 3x12 channel amplifiers -> 2-4 speakers per room.

All 6 inputs on each will be mapped the same and at present include:

Input 1:  Marantz Zone 2
Input 2:  Marantz Zone 3
Input 3:  Airplay from the Core (hopefully)
Input 4:  Hard line input from MP3 players (ipod, etc) via 3.5mm stereo jack
Input 5:  Media Director #1 (master bedroom)
Input 6:  ?

Each of the 6 outputs will be hard-wired to a pair of amplifier channels dedicated to each room.

So, the questions:

1.  How best to design this for LMCE compatibility?
2.  Can I embed multiple RS232 controllers and the code to run each one into a single LMCE DCE device with 18 sub-zones?  Or do I need to frankenstein something up to make each 6x6 switch a separate 'zone controller' with 6 sub-zones?
3.  Anyone willing to tutor a bit if I get stuck working on it (I will)?

Thanks in advance,
Dh

2

Installation issues / Blargh. About to give up.

« on: April 27, 2012, 06:37:47 am »

I think I'm done playing with my current hardware setup.  It's just too painful to get working.  Could anyone point me to a semi-modern, 1080p capable hybrid configuration that I won't have to futz with?

Mainboard
Vid Card
Sound card (if needed)

Thanks.

3

Installation issues / No sound, no vid after 0810 installation

« on: November 12, 2011, 11:55:16 pm »

Displays the orbiter and AV wiz, but Sarah's window is black and there is no sound.

Vid card:  EN9400GT
MOBO:  M3A78-EM
Vid card HDMI connection to TV

Any suggestions or diagnostic assistance would be appreciated.

D

4

Users / Will this be an issue?

« on: August 18, 2010, 06:58:49 pm »

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Critical-Vulnerability-Silently-Patched-in-Linux-Kernel-152678.shtml

dh

5

Users / Alarm question?

« on: April 21, 2010, 06:37:52 am »

Looking for an alarm system that will be LinuxMCE compatible.  Unfortunately, it seems that Honeywell has changed their support of VistaICM.

http://www.security.honeywell.com/hsc/products/wiring/ic/92291.html

I'm curious to know if this has been addressed/fixed or is even a significant issue?

Dh

6

Installation issues / QWERTY buttons

« on: March 29, 2010, 05:30:45 pm »

One of my installation problems was solved by finding out that the 'QWERTY' buttons also allowed me to select output sources.  Where should this information be in the wiki?  I threw it into the 'AVWizard' part of the wiki, but realized I might be duplicating?

Thoughts?

dh

7

Installation issues / Starting over. Again.

« on: March 26, 2010, 05:27:14 am »

Is this still set of instructions still valid?

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Installing_0810

I'm having some significant problems...

dh

8

Installation issues / Quirks with 0810 beta2 DVD install?

« on: February 19, 2010, 01:06:10 am »

Hardware:

CPU:  Athlon X2 245
Mainboard:  M3A78-EM (NIC onboard)
Graphics:  Asus EN9400GT (HDMI)
NIC2:  Dlink DGE-530T
HDD:  2x500 GB SATA

So, downloaded the DVD from the .torrent.  MD5 is OK on the computer.  Burned to DVD (can you md5 the burned iso?).  

Put DVD into drive, start-up successful.  Rebooted removing the DVD.  The system locks up midway through the Kubuntu startup process (Kubuntu splash screen with blue progress indicator).  I restart after 10-15 minutes of no activity... it goes through the progress bar a bit further then locks up again... wait 20+ minutes, restart... etc.  Repeat twice more, eventually Kubuntu loads up.

Question 1.  Is it expected that you may have random (apparent) lock-ups during Kubuntu startup?  Is it symptomatic of a hardware issue?  Or is it realistic that there would be 10-20 minute periods of 'no activity' during a standard startup on the above hardware?

The desktop script works without issues (after I figure out which NIC is eth0)... though it did take a while.

Restarted, same behavior as above with long pause midway through the kubuntu splash/blue progress bar.. followed by a sound (bluh-do-buh), it finished the load, then rebooted without further intervention...  and then locked up in a permanent loop whereby eventually it would get to:

Boot from (hd0,0) ext3 d3a4cd99-d497-4344-b65f-f7cb70ad1814
Starting up...
Loading please wait....

And then hung for a loooooooooong time and making frequent beeping noises as the monitor powered down repeatedly (I kept hitting 2 and 6) and eventually it flipped into the AV Wizard...

Question 2:  Is this expected behavior?  Or is this indicative of a hardware issue?

Now in the AV Wizard!

Step 1-3, no worries, just selected the lowest end stuff to make sure it would work with my VGA->component system (haven't bought the new HDMI-enabled TV yet).  

Step 4 (Adjust Image Size) - Limited options to change the actual screen size... appears to grey out buttons quite early.  OK button isn't appropriately non-grey (have to use Enter, can't use mouse)

In fact, most of the button behaviors were quirky, with some things greyed out when they should have been 'clickable'.

This caused me to double-tap Enter once and skip through the 'testing' phase (Step with no way to go back?

Question 3:  Is there a way to go "backwards" in the steps in the AVWizard (ie: undo a selection and choose something different)?

I tried to 'restart' the AVWizard by hitting 'I do not agree' which then instead moved on in the the launch process and started installing many many many packages.

Then it was stuck at a blank grey screen with the mouse cursor mobile, but nothing else happening...

Question 4:  Is it broken?  It's been now 20 minutes hanging out here and I'm unclear as to whether to go get food or leave it overnight... or?


====

Comment:  Generally, the LinuxMCE install process needs a bit more user-feedback so users (especially new ones) know what's going on with the installation process.

If anyone could enlighten me as to what I should be doing now, I'd greatly appreciate it.

D

9

Users / Starting the project

« on: February 16, 2010, 01:31:54 am »

I've read through the wiki (including Installation) and much of the forums.  Unfortunately, a lot of the wiki seems out of date, so I'm left with a question that I was hoping someone might be able to answer for me:

1. Initial test hardware for a Hybrid - I'm currently looking for a cheap but functional testing system.  I'm trying to stick with the nVidia chipset recommendation, but was wondering if anyone could comment on the below system for any obvious flaws:

AMD Athlon 5050e 2.6GHz
Asus M3A78-EM HDMI (known issues with LAN workaround known, unclear if further issues have been resolved with current 0710 or with 0810?)
Kingston 1G DDR2
Seagate/WD 320G SATA2 HDD
LiteOn/LG 22X DVDRW
Asus EN8600GT Nvidia GeForce 8600GT 256M
Dual DVI Display
Sound & LAN On Board (Realtek® ALC1200 8 -Channel High Definition Audio CODEC- Optical S/PDIF out port at back I/O, Gigabit LAN)
A609 w/450W ATX Case

2.  One of the issues noted with the above hardware setup is that some of the components are noted to be working well better 0810, but not as much under 0710.  Would anyone recommend starting with 0810?  Or should I just go with 0710 and wait for a full stable 0810RC build to be released?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
D

10

Developers / RadioRA2

« on: February 14, 2010, 07:19:16 pm »

I'm in the process of deciding what lighting control devices I'm going to install as my house is renovated.  My builder has suggested Lutron, and I'm curious if anyone has looked into implementing support for the RadioRA2 protocol.

Lutron appears to have a reasonably good protocol specification document (http://radiora2.lutron.com/pdf/Integration_Protocol_Guide/040-249d_Integration%20Protocol.pdf).  Since I know basically nothing about the way new protocols are implemented in LMCE currently, I was hoping someone might be able to tell me just how difficult it would be to implement the RadioRA2 protocol given the current architecture?

Thanks in advance,
D

11

Users / Toronto...

« on: February 11, 2010, 06:36:14 pm »

Anyone working on LMCE in the GTA?  I'm interested in getting started on my home project, but would always be interested in meeting up with more knowledgeable folks in the area.

Thanks,
D