After several delays, we have agreed upon the structure for our LuaUPnP device and have framed out the basic code and are finalizing it to get it to the point of being in ‘beta’ for release. The good news is it’s worth the wait. Along the way we changed the direction a few times and the result is something much more powerful and flexible than originally envisioned. All generic I/O (infrared devices, rs232, etc.), and the Lua engine are combined into one module which also turns everything into UPnP devices, and allows your Lua script to easily control other UPnP devices. And we’re building a collaboration model.
This means that if you, for example, add a new model of infrared-controlled TV to the system, and learn some infrared codes, it should take only a couple minutes, but that TV is now a UPnP device, and any UPnP control point or remote control in the home will see it and be able to control it. There are several projects now creating generic user interfaces built on UPnP control points. So with this new direction, all your Z-Wave, I/R, Lua, etc. devices will be able to control them.
The user adds his infrared transmitter/receiver, such as plugging a Global Cache gc100 into his LAN, or a USBUIRT into the extra USB port on his Vera
Since you mention gc100 and USBUIRT... sigh...
C'mon people, how many customers have wired Ethernet at home these days to connect gc100? USBUIRT is nice too, but how many people put Vera in the same room where The Big Screen TV is located? Technically it's all amazing, but this is not a IR solution as it is now.
So, what do you suggest? I do remember our early discussion on “satellites”. But I would assume MCV has to start something. gc100 seems like a low hanging fruit, as it is supported by parent projects - pluto and linux-mce…
My concern is that this fruit makes an illusion that “we offer IR support”. My suggestion - if you’re going to do something, do it properly and well - or don’t do. For IR support it better to start from analyzing real world use cases, and not from the other - technical - side.
The user adds his infrared transmitter/receiver, such as plugging a Global Cache gc100 into his LAN, or a USBUIRT into the extra USB port on his Vera
Since you mention gc100 and USBUIRT… sigh…
C’mon people, how many customers have wired Ethernet at home these days to connect gc100? USBUIRT is nice too, but how many people put Vera in the same room where The Big Screen TV is located? Technically it’s all amazing, but this is not a IR solution as it is now.[/quote]
Vera is small. I will move it to the living room, hide it behind the bookshelve and a small cable to the IR transmitter will do all the magic… Looking forward to it! And the best: it will cost something like 6 Euros…
I was thinking to put a little Ubuntu box with USB-UIRT in the living room, connected over wifi, and to have Vera to control AV equipment remotely. Is it possible?
What software would be required on the Ubuntu box? Is it LinuxMCE media director, right?
You should be able to achieve it with OpenWRT on a similar cheap Asus 11g WiFi router. You’d need to deal with cross-compilation and such, but it’s doable.
What about plain old Ubuntu?
I couldn’t find if this config (USB-UIRT plugged into media director or any box other then the core) is possible on LinuxMCE, but if it is, then it should work with Vera too… Sigh, where are MCV guys?..
[quote=“325xi, post:10, topic:164434”]What about plain old Ubuntu?
I couldn’t find if this config (USB-UIRT plugged into media director or any box other then the core) is possible on LinuxMCE, but if it is, then it should work with Vera too…[/quote]
I believe so, as it was mentioned in one of the promotional videos of LinuxMCE (unless it was gc100). But I’m not using it myself, so I maybe wrong.
Hmm, every little piece of equipment (in this case transmitter and receiver) requires own separate wallwart power supply - when would they invent wireless power?
I suppose they use simplest RF, so your neighbor will switch you channels
C’mon, we’re talking about a proper (though simple) way to include IR distribution into Vera ecosystem, not some cheap patch that can break any minute.
how about a simple little z-wave module that you plug into an outlet and it has a output jack for an emitter? Vera could send the signal to it via z-wave and the module could convert it to IR
I just realized that those with Squeezeboxes in every corners are lucky - Squeezebox works as wireless bridge, and it’s naturally located with the rest of IR equipment - so gc100 can be connected to Squeezebox.
Last week we released and alpha version of the backbone ( you can control devices/scenes using upnp ), next week we should have an alpha version of the web interface too.
Regarding the talk about the wired infrared control… Yes, we know most people don’t have an ethernet jack behind the TV to support a gc100. The next release does support bridge mode so you can put a slave unit behind the TV with wi-fi. But that’s expensive and not ideal either. So we know both aren’t great solutions. For that reason, we’ve put some effort into using the wi-fi infrared extender that Philips makes for their pronto. But, it doesn’t use an open API and presented other challenges.
What we really need is a Z-Wave A/V control point. The spec exists–you send it the a/v commands over z-wave and it transmits. But nobody makes one yet. Nor a wi-fi a/v transmitter. And we’re not a hardware manufacturer to build one ourself; we do software. This has actually been the hold up for IR. We had the GC100 interface working ages ago. But, since it doesn’t have a UEI chip in it with the i/r codes built-in, and it required hardwired ethernet, we figured it wasn’t a user-friendly solution. We were waiting on another company that was going to make a Z-Wave A/V control point, which would have been perfect. But, due to the economic turmoil, they, along with a lot of other companies that intended to launch new Z-Wave products have delayed their products, such as the power strip in our demo video.
So, we went back to the GC100. It will be out within a week. And we have a new program for developers too.
Guys, so why wouldn’t you make a simple workaround for the meanwhile - make a separate open-wrt build with no z-wave, with a simple daemon-listener and USB-UIRT support - so anyone could flash a spare router and use it as remote IR agent for Vera? Must be a couple of hours effort for you. And it could be a nice solution, may be not for general population, but for many of those who can flash an old router. At least in this config there’s no need for gc100.
