Phidgets.com compatibility

[rthorntn]

Hi,

I like the idea of the PhidgetInterfaceKit 8/8/8 for use in home automation, if I buy the following:

PhidgetInterfaceKit 8/8/8
Light Sensor
Motion Sensor
Temperature Sensor

Is there a way I can have Linux Media Centre Edition, read the values for light, motion and temperature?

Linux MCE supports a "Generic Serial Device" and states "For most external devices that are controlled by RS232, USB or Ethernet, you can use GSD (Generic Serial Device)"

And DCE looks like a way to get at data also.

Is it possible to use PhidgetWebService to expose the light, motion and temperature values to telnet for instance?

Any thoughts?

Thanks for your time.

Kind Regards
Richard

[caederus]

I have been using phidgets successfully for many things and I'd love to see them supported by linuxmce.  The most useful and easily adopted in by linuxmce would seem to be the mains relay outputs for lights and the analogue inputs for reading temperature or motion sense, but there are many other possibilities---I've used the RFID tag reader and a relay to unlock my front door and a light sensor and servo motor to control blinds.

I've been making my own control programs with the phidgets.com C library, so if someone could just show me an example of what commands to put in the GSD boxes to read and write values using command-line tools, I'm sure I'd be able to take it from there.  Alternatively, as Richard says, the phidgets.com library also includes a web-based remote API, so if someone could show me an example of how to get GSD to do HTTP GET and POST, I'm sure I'd be able to get that working too.

Thanks,

Robin.

[colinjones]

You can probably get it to work, but will need a driver developed that hooks into the Pluto database and talks to the DCERouter - this is the element that routes all command and event messages around the system. Go to the developers forum and you will see lots of development going on for HA products, they will be very happy to see you if you are prepared to help add another product. You should see lots of code snipets of what they are doing, and the wiki has plenty of info as well.