For 1-2 days work, some serious HA progress
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Posted by IVB on July 31, 2006, 12:38 am
Please log in for more thread options political, and will likely continue to be so for the next 3 months. Hence, i'm in feast or famine mode - i either want to stay the heck away from everything and chill with the wife/kids, or dive into it and shut out the world. I did a little of both this weekend, bought a bike&trailercar so 2yr old could sit in back, and get some decent progress on the HA side. I got serious progress on 4 major fronts: 1) CCTV webserver working again. it broke when I tried to downgrade to Diginet V4.11 2) Front Door covert MotionDetector Camera working kinda[. Either I got cheap cables, cheap BNC connectors, cuz I had a HECK of a time getting a connection to hold. Plus, see the pics below, the image is a little funky. This part isn't done yet. 3) 3400 can now run kick off a show on another PC which is hooked up to a TV. Uses the SageTV webserver, and I can Play/Pause/skip from 3400. This eliminates the need for any remotes in that room (except for TV on/off). This is more cuz I got excited about the progress beelzerob is making on the SageTV driver than anything else, wanted to start prepping for that. 4) CQC state logic and Elk rules setup so that I can tell if there's been activity in a room within the last X minutes. I initially started with 5mins, but will probably change that to 15 once this is debugged. Wife/kids are gone next weekend, i can't go cuz of work, so i'm coming up with a big list of stuff to get done. With any luck, i'll pound through lots, but that's assuming I don't get slaughtered at work this week and go into hiding this weekend. I've got still 4 cameras, Elk speakers & custom boards so I can play custom WAV files on doorbell/telephone, network&telco distro, and more speakers all sitting in boxes in the living room. Here's screenshots of 2/3/4: http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/screenshots/vladstudio/VladStudio_Camera.jpg http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/screenshots/vladstudio/VladStudio_SageTV.jpg http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/screenshots/vladstudio/VladStudio_House_Motion.JPG ----------------------------------------------------- Note: I am a mere end-user with no financial stake in any products that I may discuss. My Personal Website w/my Home Automation PC: http://www.myhomeautomationpc.com, last updated 4/11 My Home Automation Blog: http://homeautomation.wordpress.com/ | |||||||||||||
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Posted by Robert Green on August 1, 2006, 5:23 am
Please log in for more thread options > old could sit in back, and get some decent progress on the HA side.
My neighbor just got one and their kid loves it. He gets this big, fat grin on his face that gets wider the faster they go. I think he's going to grow up driving in NASCAR. > I got serious progress on 4 major fronts:
> 1) CCTV webserver working again. it broke when I tried to downgrade to > Diginet V4.11 > 2) Front Door covert MotionDetector Camera working kinda[. Either I got > cheap cables, cheap BNC connectors, cuz I had a HECK of a time getting a > connection to hold. Plus, see the pics below, the image is a little funky. > This part isn't done yet. I recall at your site you talked about these items having a low ROI. I thought the same way until I ruptured a tendon. Then I wished I had completed the remote door lock, the front door cam and the video intercom earlier. As it so often happens, when I needed them most, I was unable to move around well enough to complete the task! It just like Mark Twain said about roof leaks. Can't fix them when it's raining, don't need to when it's not! > 3) 3400 can now run kick off a show on another PC which is hooked up to a
the
> TV. Uses the SageTV webserver, and I can Play/Pause/skip from 3400. This > eliminates the need for any remotes in that room (except for TV on/off). > This is more cuz I got excited about the progress beelzerob is making on > SageTV driver than anything else, wanted to start prepping for that.
I'm very happy with my 3400. It's powerful enough so that I can run a music stream AND full motion video with audio *simultaneously* (which I never expected from a 400MHz Celery processor!) That's probably because they used above-average components for both video and audio. The only problem left is that the angle of view is too narrow. I have it mounted on the wall but there's no way to mount it so that it's equally visible from standing or sitting. The only thing I can think of is a solenoid mount that changes the angle of the screen to the wall slightly whenever I am sitting. Not sure exactly how *that* would work without a seat sensor and a battery powered RF transmitter to alert the wall mount that I am sitting and to tilt downward slightly. > 4) CQC state logic and Elk rules setup so that I can tell if there's been
> activity in a room within the last X minutes. I initially started with > 5mins, but will probably change that to 15 once this is debugged. We'll all need Star Trek comm badges in the future. That's really the only reliable way to determine who's where in the house. I don't mean to belittle your efforts in any way, but every expectation *I* had of reliable occupancy sensing has been dismantled by various real-world issues. Here's hoping that you can get it working well enough for you to fufill your needs. I can guarantee you one thing: It will be a learning experience! :-) > Wife/kids are gone next weekend, i can't go cuz of work, so i'm coming up
> with a big list of stuff to get done. With any luck, i'll pound through > lots, but that's assuming I don't get slaughtered at work this week and go > into hiding this weekend. I've got still 4 cameras, Elk speakers & custom > boards so I can play custom WAV files on doorbell/telephone, network&telco > distro, and more speakers all sitting in boxes in the living room. I've been toying with getting an ADI "Speakeasy" to add voice prompts to the HA but it's not a big priority. Still, it would be nice to have. I want to have all phones ring through a speaker system instead of their built-in ringers so that I can block unknown callers from ringing through at night. The problem with that is sometimes emergency calls come in without caller ID info and hence wouldn't ring through. What I need is some way of answering the phone and giving the callers the option to "press the star key if this is an emergency." > Here's screenshots of 2/3/4:
http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/screenshots/vladstudio/VladStudio_Camera.jpg > > Looks neat. It that all done with Charmed Quark? -- Bobby G. | |||||||||||||
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Posted by IVB on August 1, 2006, 11:00 am
Please log in for more thread options >> I got serious progress on 4 major fronts:
>> 1) CCTV webserver working again. it broke when I tried to downgrade to >> Diginet V4.11 >> 2) Front Door covert MotionDetector Camera working kinda[. Either I got >> cheap cables, cheap BNC connectors, cuz I had a HECK of a time getting a >> connection to hold. Plus, see the pics below, the image is a little >> funky. >> This part isn't done yet. >
> I recall at your site you talked about these items having a low ROI. I > thought the same way until I ruptured a tendon. Then I wished I had > completed the remote door lock, the front door cam and the video intercom > earlier. As it so often happens, when I needed them most, I was unable to > move around well enough to complete the task! It just like Mark Twain > said > about roof leaks. Can't fix them when it's raining, don't need to when > it's > not! Actually, wife changed her mind, which improved the "I" part of it. We had some shrubs stolen, plus there was a home invasion about 2 miles away [granted, much worse part of town]. Situation sucked, but at least now we "get it". >
> I'm very happy with my 3400. It's powerful enough so that I can run a > music > stream AND full motion video with audio *simultaneously* (which I never > expected from a 400MHz Celery processor!) That's probably because they > used > above-average components for both video and audio. Dang; i was trying to run some recorded TV last night, didn't have much luck unless I cranked down the settings. How much RAM do you have? >> 4) CQC state logic and Elk rules setup so that I can tell if there's been
>> activity in a room within the last X minutes. I initially started with >> 5mins, but will probably change that to 15 once this is debugged. >
> We'll all need Star Trek comm badges in the future. That's really the > only > reliable way to determine who's where in the house. I don't mean to > belittle your efforts in any way, but every expectation *I* had of > reliable > occupancy sensing has been dismantled by various real-world issues. > Here's > hoping that you can get it working well enough for you to fufill your > needs. > I can guarantee you one thing: It will be a learning experience! :-) Yeah, learning is all i'm really looking for. After some of the prior posts, i'm not sure about the value of this, but it is at least cool to do :-) > I've been toying with getting an ADI "Speakeasy" to add voice prompts to
That's interesting - i'm not actually sure how i'll leverage this. It's one
> the > HA but it's not a big priority. Still, it would be nice to have. I want > to > have all phones ring through a speaker system instead of their built-in > ringers so that I can block unknown callers from ringing through at night. > The problem with that is sometimes emergency calls come in without caller > ID > info and hence wouldn't ring through. What I need is some way of > answering > the phone and giving the callers the option to "press the star key if this > is an emergency." of those "build it and i'll see how/where it's useful". >
>> Here's screenshots of 2/3/4:
>> >> > http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/screenshots/vladstudio/VladStudio_Camera.jpg
> > Looks neat. It that all done with Charmed Quark? Yep. | |||||||||||||
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Posted by Robert Green on August 2, 2006, 7:22 am
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<stuff snipped>
> Actually, wife changed her mind, which improved the "I" part of it. We had
> some shrubs stolen, plus there was a home invasion about 2 miles away > [granted, much worse part of town]. Situation sucked, but at least now we > "get it". That's a *very* standard pathway to CCTV - the "criminal act." There's a future upside: My neighbors know I've got it and last year, when a row of cars was broken into, mine got skipped. Bolsters my theory that whoever's pinching stuff is a local resident or a low-class friend of a local resident or someone workman who's familiar with the neighborhood. The cameras really aren't visible so I assume when I was skipped during the rash of smash and grabs it's because the perps knew they were there from conversations with my very chatty next door neighbor. > > I'm very happy with my 3400. It's powerful enough so that I can run a
> > music > > stream AND full motion video with audio *simultaneously* (which I never > > expected from a 400MHz Celery processor!) That's probably because they > > used > > above-average components for both video and audio. >
luck
> Dang; i was trying to run some recorded TV last night, didn't have much > unless I cranked down the settings. How much RAM do you have?
128Mb running W2KP without any other significant programs running in the background. The specs say it can take more, but I think I can get by with 128 although I really prefer 256 for W2KP machines. What's in your 3400? How many other programs are you running? The MPG and WAV files were the only things playing on the machine. One through Window's own media player, the other, a very old but very serviceable copy of WinAmp. > >> 4) CQC state logic and Elk rules setup so that I can tell if there's
been
> >> activity in a room within the last X minutes. I initially started with
> >> 5mins, but will probably change that to 15 once this is debugged. > >
> > We'll all need Star Trek comm badges in the future. That's really the > > only > > reliable way to determine who's where in the house. I don't mean to > > belittle your efforts in any way, but every expectation *I* had of > > reliable > > occupancy sensing has been dismantled by various real-world issues. > > Here's > > hoping that you can get it working well enough for you to fufill your > > needs. > > I can guarantee you one thing: It will be a learning experience! :-) >
posts,
> Yeah, learning is all i'm really looking for. After some of the prior > i'm not sure about the value of this, but it is at least cool to do :-)
I think it's part of the learning curve of HA. I don't think there are many HA enthusiasts with graying or thinning hair that haven't tried occupancy sensing and associated lighting control. After my longwinded speech about never say never I'd still bet that a lot of guys have been forced to retreat from "switchless" automation back to wall switches after enough bad guesses from the household controller. That's not to say they don't still use it - I think they tend to restrict it to "payback" zones like hands-full laundry room entry, front porch lights, floods, etc. I probably said it before, so excuse my repeating but motion sensors lights disappeared quickly all over the house after one managed to trigger with my wife peeking out through the curtains in her, well, in her sleepwear. It was just the new neighbors, having trouble wheeling their trash can to the curb but she was mortified. The next morning I found all the little Eagle Eyes in the muffin basket under a napkin. She had removed all the batteries, too, since I'd already explained how much I hated changing them and losing programming. Her knowledge of the sensor battery came from learning why I had swiped two gold-tipped sewing needles from her sewing kit to build a little battery jig to maintain power to the sensors during a battery replacement. Ironically, I believe when I got here to CHA, I was super enthusiastic about the X-10 ActiveEye PIR/RF gear. I believe it was Mark L. who assured me I was going to be sorry, that the devices were going to cause RF or PLC collisions. I tested and tested them while my wife was away at War College (really!) and they worked well enough to make me smile. When she returned and the two of us began to move through to house in different directions, well, that's when all hell broke loose, at least part "One" of the Days of Hell. (-: (Just kidding, honey!) The bottom line essentially became obvious. She had no problem turning lights on and off as always. The system, as she perceived it, was entirely to cater to my lazy, no good, leaves lights burning, sorry ass. That did change somewhat when she realized the benefits of turning on ALL the lights in case she hears someone breaking in. If you turn on just the bedroom light in a dark house with an intruder, you're essentially lighting the way to your location. It's obvious you're already going through some of the same design motivations and issues that many of us have. I think you're in an enviable position of having a much greater array of solid HA COTS and PC equipment and SW to choose from. Many of us are stuck with some pretty big investments in teeteringly old technology. In a perfect world, I would want the floor of every room in the house to be connected to a pressure grid sort of like a giant touch screen so that objects and motion could be located by examining the output of the matrix. The really smart home of the future will probably have thermal and pressure sensors distributed throughout the building's surfaces just the way we have such sensors in our own skin. Hey, a guy can dream, can't he? > > I've been toying with getting an ADI "Speakeasy" to add voice prompts to
want
> > the > > HA but it's not a big priority. Still, it would be nice to have. I > > to
night.
> > have all phones ring through a speaker system instead of their built-in > > ringers so that I can block unknown callers from ringing through at > > The problem with that is sometimes emergency calls come in without
caller
> > ID
this
> > info and hence wouldn't ring through. What I need is some way of > > answering > > the phone and giving the callers the option to "press the star key if > > is an emergency."
> That's interesting - i'm not actually sure how i'll leverage this. It's
one
> of those "build it and i'll see how/where it's useful".
John Warner has done a lot of very clever and useful things with his Speakeasy and a network of PC speakers throughout the house. It's worth reading over the details the ADI forum. > >
> >> Here's screenshots of 2/3/4:
> >> > >> > >
http://www.myhometheaterpc.com/screenshots/vladstudio/VladStudio_Camera.jpg > >
> > Looks neat. It that all done with Charmed Quark? >
> Yep. What's the CQ CPU utilization percentage on the Fujitsu 3400? Is it high enough so that it will impair full motion video? -- Bobby G. | |||||||||||||
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Posted by IVB on August 4, 2006, 7:48 pm
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>
> What's the CQ CPU utilization percentage on the Fujitsu 3400? Is it high > enough so that it will impair full motion video? Barely much at all. Although when I ran my test, I wasn't actually running CQC at the time. I was looking for a full clean test. I've had some success using SageTV Placeshifter to keep the bitrate down, i'll play with that more. | |||||||||||||
> political, and will likely continue to be so for the next 3 months. Hence,
> i'm in feast or famine mode - i either want to stay the heck away from
> everything and chill with the wife/kids, or dive into it and shut out the
> world. I did a little of both this weekend, bought a bike&trailercar so