Dianemo from CHT - Professional Home Automation

[totallymaxed]

*****Dianemo X86 14.04LTS for 2015!*****....***Now shipping - Dianemo with Free iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad Orbiter App available now from the iTunes Store... v1.5 released - search for 'Dianemo'***....New Dianemo UI skin....***HDMI CEC Control now supported....***UPnP now available...stream to many UPnP devices including TV's...***....***Now integrates with iTunes/iTunes Match/iTunes in the Cloud....***Now Integrates Zoneminder....

Dianemo Professional Home Automation 2015

New - Dianemo X86 Basic : Just $249 USD - New

Dianemo - a short history
As most of you will know CHT Ltd has been shipping a Home Automation system called Dianemo that is based on LinuxMCE since May 2008. We market Dianemo  into the custom installer market worldwide. But now with the release of Dianemo S with many enhancements and improvements we have the perfect system for forum member who just want a working system without all the fuss & low WAF!. Dianemo uses CHT's repositories (not the repositories used by LinuxMCE) and we release updates numerous times per month and now we also closely track Ubuntu releases so that you can always build your Dianemo system with the latest software technologies from Canonical. Dianemo Updates contain either multiple feature enhancements or bug fixes or a mix of the two and are automatically available to Dianemo installations worldwide (we provide an updater script that automatically detects & installs updates for you). Over the last 12 months we have delivered 200 Updates to our customers - Dianemo is in active development. Even better - after you purchase a Dianemo license all future updates are free of charge.

A Dianemo S License only has one restriction - your license is only valid for a single NerveCentre at any given time (you are free to move the license to another piece of hardware at any time though - please contact us before you do so though). There are no other restrictions - you can have as many devices attached to your Dianemo S Nervecentre (NC) as you like and as many Media Managers (MM's), squeezeboes, Squeezeslaves, Nas's etc as you need. Once you have purchased a license from us ALL support (via the LinuxMCE forum) & updates are free - just run our updater script to get the latest updates automatically installed. Whenever Canonical release an updated version of Ubuntu we typically release support for that new OS version inside 4-6 weeks (sometimes sooner) and you can update your existing installation simply and easily - no re-install is required. And as long as your hardware is supported by a Ubuntu OS release your Dianemo S system will upgrade.

Dianemo is currently installable on Ubuntu 11.10 and on Ubuntu 12.04LTS. Existing customers with 11.10 (or earlier customers with Ubuntu 10.10 based systems) can upgrade their systems to 12.04 without re-installing from scratch. See our Dianemo S wiki page for details; http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Dianemo_S

**NEW** Dianemo Configuration Services
Please IM me here on the Forum to arrange or discuss any of the services listed below - we'd love to hear from you. Currently if you purchase a Dianemo License we give you 4 hours of Remote Support free of charge - so get your license while this offer is still available.

Initial Setup - If you want to build your own system but would like some assistance configuring it and setting things up then please ask about our configuration service. For new customers you just need to do the initial install on your chosen hardware then we take over using Dianemo's in-built Remote Assistance service (this allows us to remotely access your system for support purposes - it requires your authoristion of course). This service gets all the basics set up and working for a flat fee of $199 USD
Device Configuration - If you need some devices added to your system at any time eg a Surround Amplifier with IP/RS232 control, a Home Cinema Projector with IP/RS232 control or any other piece or peripheral equipment then please contact us for a price. Device configuration starts from as little as $99 USD if its a device we already have a device template for.
Custom Device Templates - If you have a device that you would like to control from your Dianemo system and you would prefer to have us create a device template for it and configure it for you then get in touch. We will quote you a fixed price based on the device complexity.
System Design & Consulting - We provide a custom design service that will take your requirements and convert those into a System cabling/System Diagram together with a written functional design specification. We will suggest/recommend specific hardware and peripherals that we have experience with and that you can then source locally to you at the best local prices. Prices for this service start from as little as $299 USD for Apartment sized systems. Contact us to discuss your needs.

If you are interested in a Dianemo S software only installation license package and would like more information please contact totallymaxed via PM here in the forum (Include basic information about your hardware please). We're only too pleased to talk about how Dianemo S might fit into your plans for home automation - so get in touch.

The Dianemo S software only is priced at $699 USD +20% VAT (Note: VAT only applies to customers located inside the EU). We can accept PayPal or bank transfers as payment. If you would prefer to pay by bank transfer then please contact us for assistance. If you are planning to pay by PayPal then there will be a 4% surcharge to cover PayPal's transaction fees. Please send the correct funds (see below for the calculation) to our PayPal account at the following email address making sure you clearly state that you wish to purchase the Dianemo S software only installation package;

Please contact PM me here on the forum to place an order;

If you live inside the EU then please send the Inc VAT price above - if you live outside the EU then please send the Ex VAT price . Please note refunds can only be provided if requested within 7 days of your payment being received (Note: this does not apply to special offers or try before you buy). Once your payment has been received we will send you an email with your license key & the Dianemo installer attached.

All the best

Andrew

[wierdbeard65]

Andrew,

You are a Hero! Thank you.

For myself, I have just aquired a beast of a machine which I was planning on using as a dedicated core. (HP DL380GS) but am struggling with all the "add-ons".

I curreently have a "prrof of concept" rig partially built. It is not going too well and I suspect that this is, at least in part, down to under-powered hardware for my MDs.

I have been closely monitoring the forums for some time and have a whole bunch of information assembled, a lot from you! What I would like, however, is a "one stop shop" place I can go for known compatible kit.

My first MD will be in my living room, where my Sky STB is located. I have a PVR150 ready and want all of the neccessaries to get the MD up and running. I know you have mentioned the USB->RF controller for the Sky boxes in the past. Are these now supported by the mainstream 810, or is it still part of your own system?

For me, the ideal would be to come to you for my MDs etc., but use my own core - kind of a backwards version of your offering here! Would I be able to install Cascade on my core?

I fully understand why 710 is no longer supported and why 810 is a little shakey (Alpha) at the moment, but that doesn't help me when the family are whining that they want it working

I'm happy to take this conversation offline if you feel it is not relevant to the general forum, but I would be willing to bet that there are many of us who have partial setups like mine and who would appreciate a source of hardware that is know to work properly. If I have to throw away my current core, I will, but it seems a shame!

[totallymaxed]

Andrew,

You are a Hero! Thank you.

For myself, I have just aquired a beast of a machine which I was planning on using as a dedicated core. (HP DL380GS) but am struggling with all the "add-ons".

I curreently have a "prrof of concept" rig partially built. It is not going too well and I suspect that this is, at least in part, down to under-powered hardware for my MDs.

I have been closely monitoring the forums for some time and have a whole bunch of information assembled, a lot from you! What I would like, however, is a "one stop shop" place I can go for known compatible kit.

My first MD will be in my living room, where my Sky STB is located. I have a PVR150 ready and want all of the neccessaries to get the MD up and running. I know you have mentioned the USB->RF controller for the Sky boxes in the past. Are these now supported by the mainstream 810, or is it still part of your own system?

For me, the ideal would be to come to you for my MDs etc., but use my own core - kind of a backwards version of your offering here! Would I be able to install Cascade on my core?

I fully understand why 710 is no longer supported and why 810 is a little shakey (Alpha) at the moment, but that doesn't help me when the family are whining that they want it working

I'm happy to take this conversation offline if you feel it is not relevant to the general forum, but I would be willing to bet that there are many of us who have partial setups like mine and who would appreciate a source of hardware that is know to work properly. If I have to throw away my current core, I will, but it seems a shame!

Hi Wierdbeard,

I think we should keep things here in the thread for now as the things you are asking are going to be relevant to others too. If you decide to purchase a system them the transaction will be done privately of course.

So trying to take you questions in order...

- Cascade (and Dianemo) are both built on top of the base LinuxMCE-0710 release. We then periodically pass changes fixes to core technologies between our svn and the public LinuxMCE one - its a two way street. We then backport some of those changes into our 710 based Cascade/Dianemo builds. We have not transitioned Cascade/Dianemo to 0810 yet and we may not ever do so...we may jump straight to 0910. This is still being discussed and I cant say which way we will go yet. But what i can say is that there will be an upgrade path from the current release of Cascade/Dianemo to 0810/0910.

The point of Cascade/Dianemo is that the software and hardware have been harmonised and it is this tight coupling between the hardware we supply alongside the software that provides the ease, simplicity and reliability that we can deliver. There are very few areas in general use (if any) where our current 0710 software compares unfavourably to 0810. The whole point of Cascade/Dianemo is to avoid 'whining families' :-). Cascade/Dianemo 0710 is fully supported and will continue to be until we release the next version update.

- Because of the above we can only offer Cascade on our NerveCentre hardware I'm afraid.

- Any MD/MM hardware you have already may be usable if it on our supported list.

- Cascade supports various forms of Sky integration and all of these use a Dusky RF2 controller to send commands to the Sky Box (Sky Digibox, Sky+ and Sky HD models all supported). In our next Update we will be transitioning to our new MythTV based TV and this will further extend the Sky options and will also add support for Virgin Media Digiboxes too.

I think that covers all of your questions...let me know if I missed anything.

All the best

Andrew

[wierdbeard65]

Andrew,

Thanks for the rapid, and detailed, reply.

I think we should keep things here in the thread for now as the things you are asking are going to be relevant to others too. If you decide to purchase a system them the transaction will be done privately of course.

I figured my questions may well be common ones.

- Cascade (and Dianemo) are both built on top of the base LinuxMCE-0710 release. We then periodically pass changes fixes to core technologies between our svn and the public LinuxMCE one - its a two way street. We then backport some of those changes into our 710 based Cascade/Dianemo builds. We have not transitioned Cascade/Dianemo to 0810 yet and we may not ever do so...we may jump straight to 0910. This is still being discussed and I cant say which way we will go yet. But what i can say is that there will be an upgrade path from the current release of Cascade/Dianemo to 0810/0910.

Does this mean that the 710 MCE is still being updated by yourselves?

The point of Cascade/Dianemo is that the software and hardware have been harmonised and it is this tight coupling between the hardware we supply alongside the software that provides the ease, simplicity and reliability that we can deliver. There are very few areas in general use (if any) where our current 0710 software compares unfavourably to 0810. The whole point of Cascade/Dianemo is to avoid 'whining families' :-). Cascade/Dianemo 0710 is fully supported and will continue to be until we release the next version update.

- Because of the above we can only offer Cascade on our NerveCentre hardware I'm afraid.

That is a shame. I fully understand why this would be the case with a hybrid system, but as I already said, I intend to go with a dedicated core which, unless I'm very much mistaken, is less hardware sensitive. Still, I know you guys have support costs to consider and having some old rubbish nailed together in a shoebox and held together with string is not going to be very supportable!

- Any MD/MM hardware you have already may be usable if it on our supported list.

Apart from 1 PVR150 and 1 USB-UIRT, I doubt it Like I said, proof-of-concept at the moment, but for this discussion, I started at the wrong end

- Cascade supports various forms of Sky integration and all of these use a Dusky RF2 controller to send commands to the Sky Box (Sky Digibox, Sky+ and Sky HD models all supported). In our next Update we will be transitioning to our new MythTV based TV and this will further extend the Sky options and will also add support for Virgin Media Digiboxes too.

I guess this is one of the BIG ones (for me). Has this support been back-ported to 710 as well? If so, I may well just go for a 710 rig for the time being....

I think that covers all of your questions...let me know if I missed anything.

Thanks again!

[totallymaxed]

Andrew,

Thanks for the rapid, and detailed, reply.

I think we should keep things here in the thread for now as the things you are asking are going to be relevant to others too. If you decide to purchase a system them the transaction will be done privately of course.

I figured my questions may well be common ones.

- Cascade (and Dianemo) are both built on top of the base LinuxMCE-0710 release. We then periodically pass changes fixes to core technologies between our svn and the public LinuxMCE one - its a two way street. We then backport some of those changes into our 710 based Cascade/Dianemo builds. We have not transitioned Cascade/Dianemo to 0810 yet and we may not ever do so...we may jump straight to 0910. This is still being discussed and I cant say which way we will go yet. But what i can say is that there will be an upgrade path from the current release of Cascade/Dianemo to 0810/0910.

Does this mean that the 710 MCE is still being updated by yourselves?

No we are not updating LinuxMCE-0710 but many of the changes we make to base packages are uploaded into the LinuxMCE-0810 svn.

The point of Cascade/Dianemo is that the software and hardware have been harmonised and it is this tight coupling between the hardware we supply alongside the software that provides the ease, simplicity and reliability that we can deliver. There are very few areas in general use (if any) where our current 0710 software compares unfavourably to 0810. The whole point of Cascade/Dianemo is to avoid 'whining families' :-). Cascade/Dianemo 0710 is fully supported and will continue to be until we release the next version update.

- Because of the above we can only offer Cascade on our NerveCentre hardware I'm afraid.

That is a shame. I fully understand why this would be the case with a hybrid system, but as I already said, I intend to go with a dedicated core which, unless I'm very much mistaken, is less hardware sensitive. Still, I know you guys have support costs to consider and having some old rubbish nailed together in a shoebox and held together with string is not going to be very supportable!

Actually its just as relevant to any type of Core/NerveCentre...its why we know that when we ship a system out the door that it actually works and its a large part of the 'value' you get from buying a Cascade system.

- Any MD/MM hardware you have already may be usable if it on our supported list.

Apart from 1 PVR150 and 1 USB-UIRT, I doubt it Like I said, proof-of-concept at the moment, but for this discussion, I started at the wrong end

- Cascade supports various forms of Sky integration and all of these use a Dusky RF2 controller to send commands to the Sky Box (Sky Digibox, Sky+ and Sky HD models all supported). In our next Update we will be transitioning to our new MythTV based TV and this will further extend the Sky options and will also add support for Virgin Media Digiboxes too.

I guess this is one of the BIG ones (for me). Has this support been back-ported to 710 as well? If so, I may well just go for a 710 rig for the time being....

Because of the way we do our Sky control currently not much of the code has been backported to 0810 as it could break other stuff. Its one of the key areas where our codebase diverges a little from LinuxMCE. So if you want slick Sky/Virgin integration (or potentially another flavour of STB) then Cascade will be a very good choice I promise you! This side of Cascade wins our professional installers a lot of customers.

I think that covers all of your questions...let me know if I missed anything.

Thanks again!

No Problem

All the best

Andrew

[wierdbeard65]

Ok, you've pretty much sold me

I checked your site and, if this new offering is on there, it's pretty well hiddedn Do you have a URL for pricelists and various specs?

Also, one (final) question. I am not intending to route the HDMI around the house in the way I know you often advise, but rather use the network (i.e. capture with the PVR and then use Myth/VDR to stream etc.) This is partially because I want to use "pause Live tv" and "record from when I started watching" and partially because I want to reduce my family's reliance on live TV at all. (A lot of what they watch, and which causes arguments, is the stuff that is endlessly repeated on the kids channels. For example, my youngest is a huge fan of Ben10. I'm hoping to get the system to automatically record all the episodes as / when they air and then he can go away and watch them without tying up the reciever when someone else want to watch something.) Can cacade currently be set up like this?

Cheers!

[totallymaxed]

Ok, you've pretty much sold me

I checked your site and, if this new offering is on there, it's pretty well hiddedn Do you have a URL for pricelists and various specs?

The systems shown on our Web site are our professionally installed Dianemo CI range. Cascade is our new affordable product line and my post here is the first public announcement of it...apart from some press briefings and such like. I will post an open price list here in the next day or so but our base base 'under-tv' NC120 has twin DVB-T tuners and a single capture port, 1TB of Storage, 2 gig of RAM and an E7400 Processor this NerveCentre is available for £850 + VAT (**original price was a typo). We also have some 'discontinued' hardware that might be suitable dependant on your needs - these are again 'Under-TV' but use an older Intel 915 based motherboard and are priced from £485 for a similar Spec.

Also, one (final) question. I am not intending to route the HDMI around the house in the way I know you often advise, but rather use the network (i.e. capture with the PVR and then use Myth/VDR to stream etc.) This is partially because I want to use "pause Live tv" and "record from when I started watching" and partially because I want to reduce my family's reliance on live TV at all. (A lot of what they watch, and which causes arguments, is the stuff that is endlessly repeated on the kids channels. For example, my youngest is a huge fan of Ben10. I'm hoping to get the system to automatically record all the episodes as / when they air and then he can go away and watch them without tying up the reciever when someone else want to watch something.) Can Cascade currently be set up like this?

Our standard 'non-streaming' Sky integration package can indeed use HDMI-CAT5 technology to distribute the Sky video output around your home. However it can also use RF and an RF distribution Amplifier if the lower quality is acceptable. If you want to 'stream' your Sky box then our forthcoming TV upgrade does exactly that and integrates all of the Sky control capabilities of the 'non streaming' version to. This is in the final stages of testing now and I expect this to go out as an update very shortly - you would receive this update automatically of course. This version is based on MythTV 0.21 and supports the VDPAU hardware acceleration capability in nVidia based supported Media Managers (see my first post in this thread for a list of the supported MM hardware) and includes all of the recording and scheduling features that MythTV supports including automatically recording all of the shows in a series etc.

All the best

Andrew

[wierdbeard65]

Thanks again, Andrew!

I guess I'll have to wait for the forthcoming upgrade and the official price list! I definately want my TV over my IP network - less cabling!

[totallymaxed]

Thanks again, Andrew!

I guess I'll have to wait for the forthcoming upgrade and the official price list! I definately want my TV over my IP network - less cabling!

Well I would suggest sending me a PM describing your exact requirements (or post them here if your happy to do so) and I will get back to you with a suitable NerveCentre spec/price. From what you have said so far I would expect the two NC's mentioned in my last post here to be suitable .

The TV Update will be pushed out automatically to all customers and I would expect this to be in the next 10 days or so anyway.

Kindest regards

Andrew

[totallymaxed]

Just to let anyone monitoring this thread know that I have added some additional info to my first post at the top of this thread (I added it there as it seemed easier for if all this info was in a single place and not spread out over the length of the thread) regarding Media Manager support in Cascade, some further explanation that you can build your own Media Manager's and dont have too buy them from CHT... and also there is now a URL to the Cascade Web site...which now has some PDF data sheets and will have pricing details too soon.

Thanks so much for all you PM's and emails too!...you have certainly kept me busy ;-) However I would really encourage you to post here in this thread if at all possible unless you have something confidential to discuss as then everyone can benefit, can read your questions and my responses and any other discussions we get into.

All the best

Andrew

[hari]

cool stuff Andrew!!

best regards,
Hari

[totallymaxed]

Hi all,

Below are a few items that have passed through our demonstration suite and are no longer used. None of the units below have been heavily used or abused and all are in excellent condition and come with our standard 12 month 'return to base' warranty on the hardware

We have a small number of 'Ex' demonstration lightly used under-TV NerveCentre's available currently from £495 UKP. These units are FIC manufactured and have the following spec; i915 motherboard, 2.8GHz Pentium processor, 2Gig RAM, 1 TB HD Storage, Optical DVD-R/RW drive, 1 x T500 twin tuner DVB-T, 1 x PVR150, nVidia 9400GT (these units have two full height PCI slots on a Riser and two 'half height' slots on the motherboard). The configuration of these machines can be modified if you require it. These units ship with a Cascade Smart Home installation pre installed.

We also have a few ASUS Eee Top 1602 models for sale. These units work very well as UI1 Touch screen MM's and will Automatically add themselves to a Cascade Smart Home system. All have been lightly used in our demo suite only and are priced at £295 UKP - Colour White, Asus Eee Top, Intel Atom 1.6 Processor, Windows XP® Home, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 15.6" Touch Screen, Integrated Graphics, ETP1602-WT

If any of these might meet your needs let me know via PM here on the forum.

Thanks. All the best

Andrew

[totallymaxed]

Hi all,

I just wanted to clarify that if you purchase a Cascade NerveCentre (ie a Core) and then add a Media Manager (ie an MD) to it that matches the spec on our 'supported hardware' list then it will 'just work' - no fuss or special setup is required at all. Cascade has in-built plug-n-play support for the hard ware spec'd on our 'supported hardware' list. In addition any of the hardware listed that is based on nVidia GPU's and is listed as supporting HDMI/Audio will automatically support that too if you choose it in the AVwizard.

...and again you can freely add Media Managers to you Cascade NerveCentre that you have built yourself or purchased from any vendor you choose.

I hope the above clarifies the situation for everyone that has asked me about how this works...if not please post a question here and I will add any additional clarification needed :-)

All the best

Andrew

[colinjones]

What do people think of having a simple page on the www.linuxmce.org web site indicating that although LMCE is fundamentally an OSS product, there is also a "fully supported commercial" version of the product for those that wish to pay for a "solution"? This could be used for referrals to other companies than CHT, as well, as and when/if they come on board. There are other products out there that are OSS in their core, but also have references to comercial versions or commercialised services based on the product, on their web sites. Ubuntu doing so for Canonical is one example although Canonical effectively is Ubuntu (Vendor:Product) but there are other examples where the separation is clearer.

Just a thought.

[dlewis]

Ubuntu is doing this for Canonical because Canonical owns/runs Ubuntu. We'd have to discuss this... There could be certain implications...