Scenario Setup Help

[kyfalcon]

I am ready to take my installation to the next step. I have a core/hybrid and 2 MD's in my setup, with a dish network 722 dual tuner DVR for live tv. I am able to watch what I want on any of the systems because I understand the whole setup, My wife on the other hand, is completely lost. So to make things easier for her and in return for myself I want to set things up so that one remote can control everything just like linuxmce is supposed to. I have read several of the scenario helpers and other posts and nothing seems to work as expected.

Here are the details.

TVs - LG series P with rs232 control. Will only need to turn on and off and switch between HDMI1 and Component1. This works using the TestSerialPort and have tested it thru the generic serial device test command on the web admin. - Discrete On/Off

Amplifiers - Onkyo  TX-SR703 have added as IR contolled thru the USBUIRT and have confirmed working in web Admin. Discrete On/Off

Dish Network dual tuner DVR will control channel changing and dvr function thru usbuirt.

X10 - CMA11 working fine in all rooms.

What I would like to do.

Use the special buttons on the remote to kick off different scenarios, ie pressing the movies button would:

1. Turn on TV.
2. Switch TV to HDMI input.
3. Turn On Amp.
4. Switch Amp to CD input.
5. Switch the media director to movies list.
6. Dim lights to movie setting.

Live TV button would:

1. Turn on TV.
2. Switch TV to Component1 input.
3. Turn On Amp.
4. Switch Amp to Video1 input.
5. Switch the media director to movies list.
6. Dim lights to movie setting.
7. Recognize I am in live tv mode and direct remote key presses to control Direct TV.

Therefore the remote special keys would be navigational shortcuts until I have time to get an android orbiter working.

I know this is possible but haven't had much success getting things working.

Also my TV was getting turned off whenever I switched from a movie to another menu item. Why would an event be triggered to turn my tv off. I only want this to happen when I ask it to be shut off either from the remote power button or from the power menu item on the orbiter. And yes I have set ignore on/off to On, but I assume this will disable the system from turning my device on or off even when I specifically ask for this.

Any direction would be appreciated as I have already spent 10+ hours trying to get this working the way i want to no avail.

Thanks,
Kevin

[gonesurfing]

hi kevin
just wondering where you found the testserialport,i am having trouble with an interface and it would be good to test the serial port
thanks steve

[kyfalcon]

not at my system but I believe the correct location is /usr/pluto/bin

[kyfalcon]

Would really appreciate some help on this.

[jimbodude]

There's no clean way to do this... You have to change the list of commands supported by IR devices.  There is an SQL table dedicated to this.  Let me send you to these links so you can get a feel for what is happening - if you don't understand any of it, just ask.  There's too much to explain without you looking at it first, though.

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Add_support_for_new_remote_controls
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Infrared_Remote_Buttons_Understood_by_LinuxMCE

[kyfalcon]

There's no clean way to do this... You have to change the list of commands supported by IR devices.  There is an SQL table dedicated to this.  Let me send you to these links so you can get a feel for what is happening - if you don't understand any of it, just ask.  There's too much to explain without you looking at it first, though.

http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Add_support_for_new_remote_controls
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Infrared_Remote_Buttons_Understood_by_LinuxMCE

Jim, I was hoping to get the scenarios working first and then tie them to the buttons associated with them. Trying to take things one step at a time, but I will take a look at the links you provided thanks.

[jimbodude]

...But the scenarios you want are already there, no...?  Have you set up your audio and video pipes either in the Setup Wizard or the "A/V Devices" section of the web admin?  If you have those set up right, all you should need to do is select the auto-generated scenario you want (watch live TV, playback a movie, watch a DVD, play PlayStation) and LinuxMCE will automatically turn the right things on and set the inputs on all of them.  If you have lighting control, that's usually taken care of automatically, also.  I use this all the time with my DT360 - it's sweet.

If the TV and whatever the MD is connected to aren't on, I believe you can turn them on by activating the Orbiter menu from an IR remote.  If not, we can work on adding a "Display On" button (there is already a command for that - you can see it on the orbiter).

The tricky part is to get the remote to trigger those scenarios, since that sort of thing isn't in the usual remote setup.

[kyfalcon]

...But the scenarios you want are already there, no...?  Have you set up your audio and video pipes either in the Setup Wizard or the "A/V Devices" section of the web admin?  If you have those set up right, all you should need to do is select the auto-generated scenario you want (watch live TV, playback a movie, watch a DVD, play PlayStation) and LinuxMCE will automatically turn the right things on and set the inputs on all of them.  If you have lighting control, that's usually taken care of automatically, also.  I use this all the time with my DT360 - it's sweet.

If the TV and whatever the MD is connected to aren't on, I believe you can turn them on by activating the Orbiter menu from an IR remote.  If not, we can work on adding a "Display On" button (there is already a command for that - you can see it on the orbiter).

The tricky part is to get the remote to trigger those scenarios, since that sort of thing isn't in the usual remote setup.

I have but I may have done this incorrectly because what expect to happen never does for those scenarios, outside of the lighting part.

[jimbodude]

Look at the web admin under Wizard --> A/V Devices.  Check out the Connection Diagram or whatever it's called - there's a link in the top left of the A/V Devices screen.  Select a room, then you can "draw" the audio and video connections.  You can drag the components around if things get too cluttered.  When you're done, it should resemble the cabling job you did to connect the devices physically.  Press the "Update" button to commit the changes.  Reload the router to put the changes into effect.

If you don't have any luck there, you can re-run the setup wizard on the orbiter and specify all the connections that way.

I like the graphical representation presented by the the connection diagram.  It's a bit more intuitive, and I think it's faster than the Wizard.

[kyfalcon]

Jim,

I had done that using the wizard. Here is a picture of my setup. I still get nothing when trying any of these scenarios.

Kevin

[jimbodude]

What you have here looks fine to me...  I'm assuming that you've tried reloading the router?  And that each of your devices has the "controlled by" field properly set?  And the serial port is set properly for any RS-232 devices?

Are you able to control the devices by the Infrared Codes section of the orbiter? (in UI1, select the LinuxMCE logo, then "Infrared Codes".)  When you activate a scenario, look at the commands that are sent in /var/log/pluto/DCERouter.log - make sure they are the right things, and that there are no errors.  If you're using an IR transmitter to control your devices, check that device log also.

[kyfalcon]

Okay, I've got my scenarios working the way I want them. For some reason I was only able to edit the scenarios by choosing show device tree and then clicking on the My Scenarios link and choosing the scenario from the tree.

I don't need any remote keys mapped for my TV since on and off are scenario based. And for my amp the only buttons needed are volume up, down and mute, since all other functions are again scenario based, although eventually I would like to get zone 2 mapped and working. The volume buttons work, mute does not so I need to work on that mapping

The remote mapping which is going to be a pain is going to be the dish network dual DVR. I have ordered the dish network tv2 ir to rf converter and that gets in on Monday. That is when I wat to map as many of the dish remotes functionality to the mce remote and I will be down to running everyting off 1 remote and the wife will be happy.

One question to help with my mapping could someone tell me what each of the numbers stand for in this remote button description in the DB

tv;live_tv;LiveTV;|0 -106 1 43 29 1

This will help me better understand the mapping. Does -106 stand for room, 1 stand for live tv 43 stand for a command number 29 a remote code etc etc.

Thanks