Users from sweden - Are there any?

[niz23]

Hi.

I´m interested on getting in touch with lmce users in sweden.


What are your lmce experience/setups?
What do you use it for?
Was it easy to get started?
How much linux do you know? (newbie, seen linux before, regular linux user, advanced linux user)

/niz23

[fredrikv]

Well, I'm half. That is I'm from Sweden, but I have not yet installed LMCE.
So I'd also be interested in hearing from others what works and what doesn't work.

Especially, I'd like to know more about:
- Program guides (EPG) for TV (works with recordings etc)
- Interfacing to power control (lights, pumps etc) - inexpensive solutions that actually work

(I'm an experienced Linux user/admin but I've away from Linux for a couple of years, so I'm really excited to see what has happened in the meantime.)

[wombiroller]

I found this interesting. Appears the Swede's are at least searching on LMCE ... 

http://www.google.com/trends?q=linuxmce%2C+linux+mce%2C+windows+MCE&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

[niz23]

fredrikv,

Have been in contact with one swedish user earlier.
Bought a couple of Fiire Chiefs together with him.
I know of at least one other and there are probably lot of others that do not discuss on this forum.

Haven´t seen anything from him the last half year or so.

4-5 month ago there was an article about a swedish guy that was building a new house and had lmce integrated to control lights, media etc.
Don´t know if anyone know more about it.


As for EPG. I have no good input at the moment. Have used mythbuntu earlier with success.
But for lmce I cannot get mythtv to work reliable and therefore I have decided to wait for the upcoming vdr integration that is hopefully available in 2 weeks time or so (it´s in testins now).

To control power, lights and other stuff I believe PLCbus and zwave is the choice.
For control of pumps and other things there is motor controls for both of the above mentioned systems.
however I would go for relay control with some kind of interface to lmce. Either through serial or USB.
Then we can create a GSD device to control the IO board.
It should not be too hard.
There is  always some minor parameter settings and programming involved if you want to control things through GSD.
Luckily there is a lot of helpful people on the irc chat.


I have done som research on using relays already, since I want to control my HVAC at home to automatically control fan speed etc.
Some candidates are:
http://libk8055.sourceforge.net/
http://vesta.homelinux.net/mediawiki/index.php/The_K8056_interface_board_from_Velleman_on_Linux
http://www.easydaq.biz/ - Interesting products but perhaps lack of Linux support. Need to investigate more.

Good luck.
I´m located in Norrköping. How about you?

/niz23

[fredrikv]

I have a feeling that the bar representing Stockholm-based LinuxMCE searches on Google could be just me. 

It seems that there are a number of Swedes using LinuxMCE for their home theatre. I've seen some references to it on e.g. www.minhembio.com.) Using LMCE for control and automation seem to be lagging behind (not very surprisingly).

We're moving to a new house soon myself (in Strängnäs), so I'm looking into what can be done with a limited budget. I haven't read too much about PCLbus, so that's on my list now. Planning is half the fun...

Cheers,

     /Fredrik

[ladekribs]

I live by the swedish westcoast, migrated from MisterHouse to LinuxMCE.

I have tried a little with IP phone and I use X10 to control the light, X10 works great now thanks to jondecker76.
I would like to use Tellstick to control the lights and aplieance but don´t think there are any drivers yet for it, is it difficult to write drivers?

[niz23]

lakedribs.

I live by the swedish westcoast, migrated from MisterHouse to LinuxMCE.

I have tried a little with IP phone and I use X10 to control the light, X10 works great now thanks to jondecker76.
I would like to use Tellstick to control the lights and aplieance but don´t think there are any drivers yet for it, is it difficult to write drivers?

Good to here.

Have a Tellstick with a couple of switches too. Mostly as an experiment.
Don´t think I will stick with this solution as it´s only one-way.

There is a lowlevel driver for Linux available that can be used from command licne with a utility named rfcom.
And a new tellstickcontroller which is written in perl. Have not used it. But it should not be too hard to integrate.
See, http://www.telldus.se/wiki/index.php?title=TellstickController


/niz23

[mami]

I'm not from Sweden, but talks Swedish =)

Finland here.... 

I'm setting up lmce in my department. Have fiire remote and one server + one md.
Have some x10 products too that I shall setup.

/mami

[johanr]

Me in sthlm
Plan to fully control lights and different appliances in our house. Also use a media device in all rooms with a tv. This is just the start. Then security shall be integrated and control/monitor over 3G  I just love the potential this has, but to afraid of going down a dark alley when buying hw so I am pretty careful and search ALOT..(maybe to much)

-johan

[tschak909]

I live by the swedish westcoast, migrated from MisterHouse to LinuxMCE.

I have tried a little with IP phone and I use X10 to control the light, X10 works great now thanks to jondecker76.
I would like to use Tellstick to control the lights and aplieance but don´t think there are any drivers yet for it, is it difficult to write drivers?

I am not a swedish user, but am one of the core developers.

Well, in our opinion, it's not difficult to write drivers. They can be written in either C++ or Ruby, the latter using the Generic serial Device engine.

There is loads of information on the wiki on how to do this, but the basic process is:

* Create a new device template containing the capabilities of the device (what kind of device is it, what commands can it accept, etc.)
* if C++, use DCEGen to generate a C++ skeleton that provides stubs for each command that you can implement... If Ruby, a code editor is provided so you can fill in ruby snippets for each command.
* Import it into sqlcvs, and if a C++ driver, work with us to make a package so it can be distributed to others.

-Thom

[gnaffs]

Hi, I have just installed the 810 Beta and i am just wonder if anyone has got the Tellstick working with LMCE. I will give it a try, but i am a LMCE novice so any help is appreciated :-)

[totallymaxed]

Hi.

I´m interested on getting in touch with lmce users in sweden.


What are your lmce experience/setups?
What do you use it for?
Was it easy to get started?
How much linux do you know? (newbie, seen linux before, regular linux user, advanced linux user)

/niz23

Hi Niz,

We have a number of Swedish customers... most of them are just 'using' Dianemo. But there are a couple of our customers who have a technical background however. Sweden seems to have a very strong interest in Home Automation and the level of interest and inquiries are very high.

All the best


Andrew

[niz23]

wow!

Talk about a bump up.

Have not looked at how to make Tellstick stuff work.
afaik it should not be too hard since there is several examples how to write code against the Tellstick products.

/niz23