QT4 and Eventghost = Crashes

[masterjoe]

*LOL!*

Yeah, we seem to be on exactly the same trip. Hopefully your wife / girl friend does support your "crazy automation disease" You know what I am talkin' about

You seem to be indeed two steps further because I have just begun to go that extreme. But it has long been in my mind before I actually began to work on it. The second iteration now goes way further and I think the third or fourth will certainly go as far as you have gone.
Btw: I am also using One 4 All remotes everywhere here however I have not hacked them but programmed them to be sending toggling codes as this increased the speed as well. But same idea: I want to be able to fire my commands as quickly as possible.
Therefore I am pretty interested in how exactly you modded your remotes so that room detection has become possible. Currently my system must be configured when changing rooms with 2-3 button presses. Each remote has totally different codes and EM does the rest. I only have one single IR transceiver (Tira2) connected to the master PC and room detection using only one is rather difficult. So I am very interested in this modification and also how you managed to let the O4A fire messages that quickly.
From my experience the Tira2 has difficulties when events are coming in too quickly. But this may be due to the fact that the impulses they are not short enough. Toggling the code has been proven to be a good solution and now the trigger rate is roughly 3x better. But my take is: the faster the better

It's cool to see that you do almost the same things that are already in my mind or that I have already done. I laid the foundation with my Eventmagic system this year and want to go further from there.

So if you like to I would be pretty happy to hear about the IR / room detection solution that you have and how you exactly did it. Maybe others reading our discussion here might find it interesting as well

Thanks and Cheers

[kgschlosser]

the one4all remotes have the USB port on them, there is a java program called remote master that allows for modding the remotes. if you are using those heavy black remotes they should use the jp1 protocol so you should be good to go with that program altering the remotes.

all of my remotes all use the same code tho i do have the ability to learn new as well.

the one4all remotes are actually made by URC (universal remote control) so they are very well made for a very low price


i run all the same code on them i used the Sony 15 remote protocol and custom configured all the buttons as as basically hex versions of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 .... in number order to 42 so as small as possible. thing is the Sony code pumps out 3 codes in succession what i used is Arduinos with WiFi in them to pickup the ir and using the xAP protocol broadcast the code on the network. and because there is a source name associated with the code the system now knows what room i am in and it comes up in EG

it works spot on perfect without a glitch

to handle the 3 code thing i have the Arduino set to ramp if you will the codes. so there is a delay of 180ms for a single press to filter the 2 sent codes i do not want. but if the same code comes in it shrinks the delay and keeps on doing so if the same code keeps coming in until the delay is at 0. and after a something like 75ms if the same code hasn't come in it resets the delay back to 180

this is for the purpose of when you press the button once having it only report to EG once and not 3 times.

and the wife thing. well.. she was all like i won't use that we don't need that

then after a bit of it being in place if i took a feature offline because of working on it she would get all upset it wasn't working...
and i would say to her, i thought you don't need it and wouldn't use it? what happened there?

or we would go to someone elses house and she would whisper to me, why does their TV look so crappy? LOL

spoiled and doesn't really even know it


i have been working on this for a little over a year now and i guess you could call it my second iteration because i am now recoding everything for ease of changing and modifying and making it more of a plugin style solution with configuration dialogs and such trying to eliminate a lot of what i call front end code because the thought came to me what if i sell the home? everything will go with it so i have to make it somewhat user friendly on the setup and maintenance end. I have started documenting also. but this thing is to nested into the house at this point to remove it.

insurance company was pretty cool about all the stuff tho. because of how the policy is written if it's bolted to the house it's part of the house so it gets insured under the normal policy and they have also allowed for discounts based on how this system operates because of the security standpoint and fire flooding things of that nature because of the rewire of the house as well as the HVAC

so all in all it's paying for it's self.

funny thing is that monster battery backup reduces my electrical use. funny how that works because all of my equipment and a bunch of the lights in the home is now on 208 volt. and how electrical companies bill is whichever leg in the home is the highest so because i have split the current from most of the electronics in the house to the 2 legs and at the higher voltage the items draw 1/2 as much current and they only draw from the batteries. and the backup operates extremely efficient and all it has to do is charge the batteries.

[masterjoe]

Thanks for the insight
So the additional mini computers (Arduinos) do the room detection for you. Well, currently I only use one IR repeater with many cables in my house so that only one detector is there for IR signal reception. It's virtually impossible to do automatic room detection this way other that using multiple remotes and different codes - the way I am doing it ATM. I am no fan of WIFI devices (many reasons) and my 1000T LAN here is also only cable bound which makes everything very reliable and fast. Also interesting to know is that I prefer low power solutions and the power consumptions of my whole network (two floors, 7 rooms) along with the master PC is no more than about 40W. It's really great what can be achieved going that low with the overall power consumptions However for the room detection my plan was and is to also use some mini computers in the future - I have a few unused several Raspberries here - which will have their own dedicated IR receivers which allows simple room detection. That's something for the thirth iteration however

[kgschlosser]

well i'll tell you what, the arduinos cost about 5 bucks super cheap. and you can get the Ethernet cards for them for like another 10-12 dollars
the WiFi that i run with it is not your usual WiFi, but it's more like a telnet/serial connection with an AT command set and all. and i have no issues with the WiFi at all because i didn't buy any home equipment, everything i have is business class or better
the WiFi cards run on 3.3 volt and consume no more then 500 ma and maybe another 300 for the arduino.

now remember that's at 3.3v.
i can actually run these suckers off batteries.

and the WiFi card is about the size of a dime.
the ir receiver cost maybe another 50 cents

and the WiFi card is 1.50
so you tell me what IP based ir blaster that costs less than 10 dollars and is true wireless (can run on batteries) that's out there.

NONE!!! never mind the cost i have never seen one, and these suckers are small about the size of a lighter in total
and wait there's more!!!!

because of the large about of GPIO pins, i didn't just stop at IR, they send and receive IR also monitor temp and humidity, also control my fireplaces and operate the zone dampers in my home. i have a couple of sump pumps in my basement and they also tell me what the water level is in them and what the moisture content of the soil is around them.
all but the IR blasters in my house are wired through 2 24 port gigabit switches with a 7 gigabit backplane in each

they also have serial ports on them so if you have a deice that has serial communication and is not near a PC

perfect solution!!! you can use something like realterm to echo the data to a virtual serial port on the computer, or you can just code something up to read the telnet data stream
and they just run, no problems. fast for what they are. very limited memory tho no operating system. just runs whatever code/firmware you put on it yourself

the actual wifi card you can program also and it's no bigger than a dime. and it's a 32 bit 80 mhz risc processor on it with 14 GPIO pins. can run on coin cells for a very long time. perfect for the windows security sensor that not a sole can see. because you can hide it in the jam of the windows and use a micro magnetic reed switch (almost as thin as a hair)

[masterjoe]

Sure I believe you without a doubt that the Arduinos with WIFI are cheap, low power and reliable. I do not want WIFI due to health considerations - that's the main reason. Other than that the Arduinos might be a good solution for my home as well and I will look into this topic at some time but for now I have those Raspberry Pies left here and they can also do many other stuff and already have LAN integrated.

The blaster that I am using was quite inexpensive (25Ôé¼ with cables) and I only have one of them with multiple IR receivers. The signal goes directly to the Tira2 (sticked the blaster output cable directly onto the receiver of Tira2) and is extremely reliable. I can press a button on my remote in the opposite direction of the receivers and still the signal bouncing off the walls is correctly detected. This is due to the sensitivity of the receivers and also due to the signal strength of the O4As.

For me only a wired solution will work because I avoid WIFI whenever I can. Also your setup is quite huge and I'm not there yet I have integrated several subsystems of the house but there's more to come some day. For me currently the software side (as I am a software developer) needs to be solid and flexible and that's why I have developed this platform independent Event Processor which I'm pretty happy with. The hardware items will follow but for now this second iteration will do it.

Your setup is where I will be going some day, too. But it must be a wired-only solution and the only exception are radio controlled power switches (for light and other devices) which will only send or receive signals in the moment I switch them and which happens only shortly and not that often. Permanent WIFI traffic does more damage to our health than anyone would admit or that is commonly known. For me this is a no-go for any home automation because no matter how smart these things are I want to stay healthy

[kgschlosser]

i don't use wi all that often either i prefer wired. not for the health things but because the ratings are complete BS and the speeds are terrible. and the disconnecting problems that occur because of outside interference. a 300N (300 mbps) can only achieve speeds of around 100 when you have wep and all the stuff shut off. because of packet loss???? when you are only 10 feet from the AP???... come on now that's what one MFG told me because they only put put 100 mbps ethernet jack on the thing. and the guy told me that i would never max it out. well i did with my cell phone and it was the only device connected. returned it, so now i have a 600 with gig port and i get the max from my internet but from wired device to wifi device i get only about 250.

so i really have no idea how they rate these things, but i do know the higher the freq on it the more issues they have with EMI from something like say an electric motor or fluorescent lights

and just about every kind of wireless device is using the 2.4 so that's a problem and the 5ghz is very sensitive to EMI.

and i also have WEP shut off. because the AP i have does mac filtering at the connection level not DHCP because it has no DHCP built in.

the above is the big reason why i got it most just won't issue an IP if it's not a proper mac address meaning if they put in a static one they are on your network because they are connected. so only my blasters are on the wifi because of convince in hiding them

i ran 3 cat6 to each room in my home plus specific ones to like my doorbell and one to each fireplace the water heater hot tub and also ran an hdmi to each of the 3 bedrooms my living room and the media room

funny thing is it's the wall plated binding posts and keystone jacks that cost. not the wire. i picked up a nice specialty drill bit that is used in running cable, it's almost 4 feet long and has a 1/2 inch drill on the end and the shaft is super thin and there is a handle for it that slides over the shaft so you can arc the thing. so you can drill a hole through a stud from the hole for the wall plate

and it has a small hole in the flutes of the drill that you feed some wire through (or some of the strands) so you can pull the wire back through without having to try and fish it

i got that a really long time ago at like a yard sale or something and thought it would be useful. and guess what best tool during the whole project. saved me hours and hours of work, that and the steel fish tape. nothing like being able to drill sideways down a wall through the studs for 4 feet to run a wire very little wall repairs running cable in a 3 story home with no attic and only about 1/3 of the lover level is actual basement is not an easy task. so i wasn't going to run wires for all the blasters. i have a small tv i am installing one of them inside of. i want to see if i can tie to the actual receiver and blast the IR signel right into the wires instead of using the LED i am also attached to the same receiver for receiving remote presses. i know that will work just not to sure about the blaster portion of it. and i tied the thing to the standby power inside of it and i am attached to the power on the service port (turns on and off with tv power) for state notification.

i am almost done with it but got sidetracked on this case thing to hole the 4 full sized computers with full size video because i want all the TV's to be able to run 1080p video with a second monitor attached so i can maintain the machine or change something without having to use a 3rd party remote desktop which is a huge performance hit to the video because it attaches a 2nd 1080p monitor for the remote desktop

and the boards built onto the mobo just won't do it without getting video anomalies