RadioRA2

[dh]

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

[dh]

After further investigation, it appears that the RadioRA2 controller might theoretically be supported using the GSD.  Any further help on the GSD (aside from that contained in the wiki) would be appreciated.

D

[bongowongo]

I know there is a big fanbase of zwave here at linuxMCE

[totallymaxed]

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 LinuxMCE 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

Hi DH,

We're doing some work in this area at the moment - Grafik Eye, RadioRA2 & HomeWorks are being looked at. In each case the protocol is very simple in principle and GSD would be one route for sure. We tend to implement GSD type stuff in bash however and thats the route we will almost certainly take on this too.

See here http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Bash_dce_knx for an example of what we have done with a KNX interface using this approach.

All the best


Andrew

[hari]

bash is a command shell :-)

br Hari

[totallymaxed]

bash is a command shell :-)

br Hari

Works for us in production systems though... ;-)

Andrew

[dh]

Hi DH,

We're doing some work in this area at the moment - Grafik Eye, RadioRA2 & HomeWorks are being looked at. In each case the protocol is very simple in principle and GSD would be one route for sure. We tend to implement GSD type stuff in bash however and thats the route we will almost certainly take on this too.

See here http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Bash_dce_knx for an example of what we have done with a KNX interface using this approach.

All the best


Andrew

Andrew,

Any luck getting the Lutron stuff supported?

dh

[totallymaxed]

Andrew,

Any luck getting the Lutron stuff supported?

dh

Hi dh,

Yeah we have Lutron support in Dianemo 10.10 using our bash style DCE devices.

All the best


Andrew

[Marie.O]

Any plans of submitting it into the LinuxMCE svn?

[dh]

Any plans of submitting it into the LinuxMCE svn?

This would be lovely.  Or is it 10.04 specific?

dh

[totallymaxed]

This would be lovely.  Or is it 10.04 specific?

dh

Hi DH,

Its currently Dianemo 10.10 specific because it uses our bash based framework for the device. We will make the framework available at some point probably after we go to Dianemo 11.04 sometime in July.

All the best


Andrew

[Marie.O]

Don't we already have the bash framework in our svn?

[dh]

Hi DH,

Its currently Dianemo 10.10 specific because it uses our bash based framework for the device. We will make the framework available at some point probably after we go to Dianemo 11.04 sometime in July.

All the best


Andrew

Just a curiosity... why is Dianemo running parallel to Ubuntu releases and mainstream LMCE running 3-4 releases behind (definitely not intended as a slam at LMCE developers; just ignorance on my part)?

Is there a substantial difference in the way Dianemo is linked to Ubuntu?  Or could you roll the Dianemo changes back into the main trunk and bring LMCE up to current version?

D

[Marie.O]

One thing that dianemo does not need to really care about, and which is holding LinuxMCE back a lot, are all the different hardware setups. Dianemo, afaik and please correct me if I am wrong, basically has its defined hardware and uses disk dumps for installs.

With the work done by Dianemo and LinuxMCE devs to get 1004 up and running, Dianemo took it even further into the later releases.

There is very little in the LinuxMCE codebase that is distribution specific. And most of the stuff that is, relates to setup and hardware configuration. Two areas, where Dianemo has the advantage of having a controlled environment.

We, LinuxMCE, need to provide a DVD image/network install script, that works on a lot of different hardware setups, and network layouts, and hence have much more work to do in the detection and configuration area.

Those are my 0.02EUR to the question.

[totallymaxed]

One thing that dianemo does not need to really care about, and which is holding LinuxMCE back a lot, are all the different hardware setups. Dianemo, afaik and please correct me if I am wrong, basically has its defined hardware and uses disk dumps for installs.

With the work done by Dianemo and LinuxMCE devs to get 1004 up and running, Dianemo took it even further into the later releases.

There is very little in the LinuxMCE codebase that is distribution specific. And most of the stuff that is, relates to setup and hardware configuration. Two areas, where Dianemo has the advantage of having a controlled environment.

We, LinuxMCE, need to provide a DVD image/network install script, that works on a lot of different hardware setups, and network layouts, and hence have much more work to do in the detection and configuration area.

Those are my 0.02EUR to the question.

Posde is right to say for the last 12 months or so of Dianemo 7.10 system shipments we did install from a range of pre-built system images. But this is merely to make production more efficient and speedier and works particularly well if you need to produce a repeatable standardised install ie 4 audio zones, 4 video zones with specific identical peripherals which is something we do for our installers in some specific markets ie someone doing 20 apartments for example. But to be frank installing this way in no way improves your chances of success unless the underlying hardware has been tested thoroughly and is known to be compatible - if you dont have that then system images will fail on boot too.

With Dianemo 10.10 we do live installs on top of a pre-installed Ubuntu 10.10 installation - essentially no different to LinuxMCE 10.04. But our installation scripts etc are different. Yes we do use a standardised set of hardware components and configurations but we also test against a lot of other hardware we do not actually ship product on too. In Dianemo 10.10 we have massively reduced the non standardised scripts and processes and have worked hard to re-write those so that they work seamlessly on top of Ubuntu without any 'Pluto-esque' hacks. Going forwards we want to be able to transition to new Ubuntu releases smoothly and quickly after they are released. The first test of this will be the transition to Dianemo 11.04 after Ubuntu 11.04 is released. We plan to have Dianemo 11.04 shipping by July 2011 - a conservative date for the first such update. Subsequent updates/releases will i expect happen much closer to Canonical's release dates.

All the best


Andrew