Pluto support for lcdproc

[archived]

To my understanding Pluto is currently designed to be controlled via a GUI interface that runs on orbiters (fixed or mobiles).
Besides this there is the possibility to use IR remote controls via any lirc compatible device.

Orbiters may be MD, dedicated orbiters (like web pad), remote pc or mobile phones. So far so good.

Digging in your docs and in the forum I didn't find any mention about the possibility to use LCDs as simple user interfaces besides regular orbiters and IR remotes.

I think that in some situations it would be very simple to send some commands/receive some output using LCD keypad devices.

Ok, they are not as "charming" as web pads or Symbian 60 mobiles, but they may be used for a limited but important set of functionality (emergency calls, simple scenario commands, reading messages and similar) and easily deployed in several places at a low hardware cost.

This requires that Pluto can talk with lcdproc.

Is this already possible, or at least in your "near future" plans?

TIA
Marco

[archived]

Please clarify what you mean by "possibility to use LCDs".  All the webpads, pda's, mobile phones do use LCD (liquid crystal displays).  All the devices shown on our home page have LCD's.

[archived]

Sorry Aaron, maybe I was unclear.

I was thinking about all those LCD devices that can be plugged into a serial/parallel port or even USB port.

If you point to the lcdproc site (http://www.lcdproc.org) you may find some examples.

They are quite simple "old fashion green" LCD displays, sometimes with simple keyboard that may be used to scroll menus and make selections.

In Pluto you may use them in a similar way than infrared devices. They are not exactly orbiters, but still can get some input and have some output.

They could be easily installed in many rooms and may be a cheaper option to the web pad based orbiters (of course with much less functions).

Do you think that this kind of devices may be supported in Pluto?

TIA
Marco

[archived]

Actually I know we've talked about support LCD displays like that for two purposes:  1) status information in the media directors.  Some HTPC cases, like the DVine, include LCD displays to show track number, etc.  2) Those LCD displays don't have buttons (that i saw).  However, there are some companies like HAIOmni that make cheap lcd wall-mount devices that we would like to support.

Do you have any such LCD displays already running?  If so, perhaps we could talk about it on the phone, and if you enable remote assistance, I can have one of our guys work on a GSD device for it, if you're willing to be the 'eyes/fingers' to test it.  It may be a pretty simple thing to do.

[archived]

Just wondering if anyone has written a GSD device to interface with LCDproc to enable display of media title which is playing etc ?

I had a go some time back but was struggling with the Ruby code etc, so any help would be appreciated

Thanks

NOS.

[archived]

I guess that is a no then  :lol:

As a starting point, can someone give me a brief snippet of code, to make a connection on a TCP/IP port and send some txt to it ?

Thanks

NOS

[archived]

GSD already has the connection to your device. All you need is to specify how the device is connected : ttyS[0-N]/usb if it's plugged directly to a computer, IP+PORT if it's a network device.

In Ruby you'll have "conn_" object which is the connection to the device and you can Send and Recv data to/from the device. For more information please search the forums for GSD or Generic_Serial_Device, there are already at least 5 threads with all kind of informations about how to write ruby code for gsd devices.

So if you have any idea how your device can be controlled via serial/usb port or network you can give it a try.
The biggest problem is that often we don't have specifications for the device, so no way to program/controll the device. Also not enough manpower to support all possible devices so please help us to support more devices by writing couple lines of code.