Matt Webster
March 2nd, 2005, 08:51 PM
I’m posting this to a few message boards. Sorry if you had to see it multiple times.
Hello,
I’m beginning a project that I think some of the board members have experience with & I’d greatly appreciate some pointers to get me going in the right direction.
I’ve been using a Slinke with CD changers for a few years & have recently begun migrating to a HD based system using J Rivers Media Center 10.
I have:
6 audio zones (more in the future) – 2 are controlled via slinke IR & 4 are controlled via Slinke parallel (lowlevel device)
HomeSeer – I’m a new user.
Girder/NetRemote Pro – Just bought these thinking they might be a “out of the box” solution.
The first phase of my project is to control the Slinke & Media Center from my Pronto. I tried first to get HomeSeer to handle all of the Slinke tasks without CDJ & it’s map files. I have been successful with one exception. I can’t get HomeSeer to recognize my lowlevel device file for control of Slinke parallel outputs. I found SlinkSeer on the HomeSeer message board & thought I had a solution, but couldn’t figure it out. The application seems to be working as I can see Slinke traffic, but I can’t figure out how to create an event in HomeSeer to send the commands to the Slinke. The instructions for SlinkSeer are:
6. If you want to send some commands to your Slink-E, just set the "To Slink-e" device
DEVICESTRING to the "device:command" you want to send, then set the DEVICEVALUE to 99 and it will be automatically sent to your Slink-e.
I can see HomeSeer enrolling the devices (including lowlevel) on startup of SlinkSeer, but haven’t been able to create an event that allows access to DEVICESTRING or DEVICEVALUE. Are these only accessible from a script? Do I need to create a device?
Through my research to solve this problem I stumbled on Girder & NetRemote. Wow, so cool! At the price, I decided to buy these & investigate. I got Girder up & running a few nights ago & ran into the same problem with their Slinke plug-in. No support of lowlevel devices files, so no Slinke parallel control.
Then I saw an almost exact solution using NetRemote with HomeSeer & MediaCenter scripts on the NetRemote download page. This confirmed that what I want to do is possible, but this solution (I think) requires replacing my Pronto with a Dell Axim or HP ipaq. I have decided to make this phase 2 of my project. I think I need to pick up some advanced skills with HomeSeer to correctly modify the scripts.
My questions are:
What’s the best way to get control of the Slinke parallel outputs?
Should I ditch the Slinke? I haven’t been able to find a solution in my price range that provides zoned IR & parallel data IO. Also, I just spent several hours building a custom IO expander to control my multichannel amp.
Which of the packages I’ve mentioned should I be using? For example, is the solution HomeSeer with the Girder plug-in for Media Center control & HomeSeer for IR control. Or should I skip Girder & start learning NetRemote with its MediaBridge plug-in that seems to be directly compatible with Media Center 10? Does NetRemote work without Girder?
Would it be easier to spend the bucks, buy an ipaq & go with NetRemote from the start? This is the holy grail, but I’m thinking I need to pay my dues and learn the nuts & bolts of HomeSeer & Girder to have a shot at implementing with NetRemote.
Thanks for any help,
Matt
For reference, I’m an EE by trade (control electronics, embedded C, visual basic 6 hack).
Hello,
I’m beginning a project that I think some of the board members have experience with & I’d greatly appreciate some pointers to get me going in the right direction.
I’ve been using a Slinke with CD changers for a few years & have recently begun migrating to a HD based system using J Rivers Media Center 10.
I have:
6 audio zones (more in the future) – 2 are controlled via slinke IR & 4 are controlled via Slinke parallel (lowlevel device)
HomeSeer – I’m a new user.
Girder/NetRemote Pro – Just bought these thinking they might be a “out of the box” solution.
The first phase of my project is to control the Slinke & Media Center from my Pronto. I tried first to get HomeSeer to handle all of the Slinke tasks without CDJ & it’s map files. I have been successful with one exception. I can’t get HomeSeer to recognize my lowlevel device file for control of Slinke parallel outputs. I found SlinkSeer on the HomeSeer message board & thought I had a solution, but couldn’t figure it out. The application seems to be working as I can see Slinke traffic, but I can’t figure out how to create an event in HomeSeer to send the commands to the Slinke. The instructions for SlinkSeer are:
6. If you want to send some commands to your Slink-E, just set the "To Slink-e" device
DEVICESTRING to the "device:command" you want to send, then set the DEVICEVALUE to 99 and it will be automatically sent to your Slink-e.
I can see HomeSeer enrolling the devices (including lowlevel) on startup of SlinkSeer, but haven’t been able to create an event that allows access to DEVICESTRING or DEVICEVALUE. Are these only accessible from a script? Do I need to create a device?
Through my research to solve this problem I stumbled on Girder & NetRemote. Wow, so cool! At the price, I decided to buy these & investigate. I got Girder up & running a few nights ago & ran into the same problem with their Slinke plug-in. No support of lowlevel devices files, so no Slinke parallel control.
Then I saw an almost exact solution using NetRemote with HomeSeer & MediaCenter scripts on the NetRemote download page. This confirmed that what I want to do is possible, but this solution (I think) requires replacing my Pronto with a Dell Axim or HP ipaq. I have decided to make this phase 2 of my project. I think I need to pick up some advanced skills with HomeSeer to correctly modify the scripts.
My questions are:
What’s the best way to get control of the Slinke parallel outputs?
Should I ditch the Slinke? I haven’t been able to find a solution in my price range that provides zoned IR & parallel data IO. Also, I just spent several hours building a custom IO expander to control my multichannel amp.
Which of the packages I’ve mentioned should I be using? For example, is the solution HomeSeer with the Girder plug-in for Media Center control & HomeSeer for IR control. Or should I skip Girder & start learning NetRemote with its MediaBridge plug-in that seems to be directly compatible with Media Center 10? Does NetRemote work without Girder?
Would it be easier to spend the bucks, buy an ipaq & go with NetRemote from the start? This is the holy grail, but I’m thinking I need to pay my dues and learn the nuts & bolts of HomeSeer & Girder to have a shot at implementing with NetRemote.
Thanks for any help,
Matt
For reference, I’m an EE by trade (control electronics, embedded C, visual basic 6 hack).