Dianemo from CHT - Professional Home Automation

[totallymaxed]

Just a note to let you know we have just updated the Wiki with a new section on setting up & configuring Motion Cameras in Dianemo;

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Dianemo_S#Installing_and_using_Dianemo.27s_Camera_Features

All the best

Andrew

[totallymaxed]

The following section has be substantially re-written and extended to help those of you configuring HDMI audio on nVidia cards with on-board sound cards;
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Dianemo_S#Configuring_HDMI_Audio_for_nVidia_Video_Cards_with_on-board_Sound_cards

[RayBe]

Hi Andrew,

Can Dianemo S be used to control 2 nVidia graphic-cards in 1 NerveCenter, to control 2 audio/video zones with HDMI-extenders.

In other words, use, for example, this motherboard with 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 slots, with 2 nVidia GT520 cards:
http://www.asus.nl/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A87TD_EVO/#specifications
And configure 1 card for EA-1 and the other for EA-2

br,
Raymond

[totallymaxed]

Hi Andrew,

Can Dianemo S be used to control 2 nVidia graphic-cards in 1 NerveCenter, to control 2 audio/video zones with HDMI-extenders.

In other words, use, for example, this motherboard with 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 slots, with 2 nVidia GT520 cards:
http://www.asus.nl/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A87TD_EVO/#specifications
And configure 1 card for EA-1 and the other for EA-2

br,
Raymond

Hi,

Well in principle there is no reason why that approach would not work... everything is in place to get there. But it would require some work... so yes its doable but I dont see it as 'main-stream' so it would need someone who was willing to support the development of such a system. Any takers ;-)

Andrew

[RayBe]

Why i brought it up is because i see good use of it to do a centralized install and keep the equipment to a minimum.
One could build a NC/Core with multiple video cards and use hdmi-extenders to serve multiple EA.
(You can get boards with up to 4 or 5 PCIe 2.0 x16 slots iirc.)
In a way like you can add multiple audio-cards and use those for multiple EA.

I was under the assumption you guys did more centralized installs then de-centralized, thats why i asked you.
I am thinking to turn my install into centralized, part because of the noise of MD's
Sadly i don't have the skills to do it myself , otherwise i would.

br,
Raymond

[totallymaxed]

Why i brought it up is because i see good use of it to do a centralized install and keep the equipment to a minimum.
One could build a NC/Core with multiple video cards and use hdmi-extenders to serve multiple EA.
(You can get boards with up to 4 or 5 PCIe 2.0 x16 slots iirc.)
In a way like you can add multiple audio-cards and use those for multiple EA.

I was under the assumption you guys did more centralized installs then de-centralized, thats why i asked you.
I am thinking to turn my install into centralized, part because of the noise of MD's
Sadly i don't have the skills to do it myself , otherwise i would.

br,
Raymond

The hardware is the 'easy' part really... the slightly harder part is to have multiple X servers and nVidia drivers all working alongside each other without treading on each others 'toes' and also the re-architecting of the LinuxMCE/Dianemo code to allow multiple instances to be running on the same hardware (much of the code was design with the assumption that it 'owned' the whole system). Our focus currently is to drive down onto much lower power hardware based on ARM wherever we can and to distribute the system as we do that (less single point of failure issues etc).

However that is not to say that the approach of building a multi-headed Core/NC does not have some merit...

All the best


Andrew

[totallymaxed]

We have released an update tonight to Logitech Media Server Version: 7.7.1 - r33735 to handle newer Squeezebox devices and their later firmware versions.

In parallel we have also released a new installer v1.15 which handles pinned packages differently going forwards - your update script will update your system for both of these.

All the best

Andrew

[totallymaxed]

An update for Squeezeboxes/Squeezeslaves that fixed an issue with controlling the volume level of the device when an external Amplifiers volume level was not being controlled has been released.

We have released support for HDMI-CEC control of devices attached via HDMI to TV's with CEC support. Most recent TV's support CEC now (Sony, Panasonic for sure) and many peripheral devices do too eh BluRay players, PVR's, Amplifiers (AV based Denon's from 2310 onwards). The HDMI-CEC device is added as a child to your MM in Web Admin and the CEC interface must be the first device in the HDMI chain (ie MM->CEC Interface->TV). We currently support sending Vol Up/Down, Mute On/Off & Standby On/Off... with more support for the rest of the CEC command set and devices expected shortly. We are also looking at how to support the reverse scenario where the TV remote acts as the control initiator (see the XBMC integration mentioned on the Sense-8 page above). This is really a non-technical issue... more of a how do we want this to work issue.

The HDMI-CEC interface we support is the Pulse-8 http://www.pulse-eight.com/store/products/104-usb-hdmi-cec-adapter.aspx

All the best

Andrew

[Marie.O]

Remember that HDMI-CEC control usually means much higher standby power usage. My favourite example is a Denon receiver. Something like <1W when used with IR oder RS-232, and something like 50+W when controlled via HDMI-CEC or LAN...

[totallymaxed]

Remember that HDMI-CEC control usually means much higher standby power usage. My favourite example is a Denon receiver. Something like <1W when used with IR oder RS-232, and something like 50+W when controlled via HDMI-CEC or LAN...

Actually the increased standby power usage although higher, is typically nothing like 50W at all. For example the Denon 4311 consumes 0.1W in 'normal' stand-by mode and 1.9W in CEC stand-by mode... which is a considerable 'percentage increase' but in real terms very small indeed. See here;

http://www.denon.co.uk/uk/Product/Pages/Product-Detail.aspx?Catid=AirPlayproducts&SubId=AVReceivers&ProductId=AVR4311

All the best

Andrew

[Marie.O]

Thanks for the details for that particular device.

[totallymaxed]

Thanks for the details for that particular device.

It applies to all currently shipping Denon HDMI-CEC compatible Amplifiers (with some very tiny variations in lower models)

All the best

Andrew

[Marie.O]

ok. I do know that older Denons and Onkyos do have high power usages. Nice that some HDMI chipmaker has finally found a way to limit the hunger for the electrons.

[Marie.O]

Check the manual. At least the Denons do provide that information lately.

[totallymaxed]

Andrew, do you have any idea about power consumption of VieraLink devices, or, for that matter, other hardware? (is there a place to find detailed info on CEC for example?)

As Posde says either check the manual or the manufacturers web site... and typing 'HDMI-CEC' into google is always good idea ;-)

Andrew