Got a Global Cache GC-100-12/18. I already have an iPhone 4 and an iPad 2. Waiting on buying the iRule pc software until I get an IR blaster to control the G90. My question; will any IR blaster with the correct plug work? At $60, the GC-BL2 IR blaster is a bit too pricey I think.
Okay so maybe knew the answer to this question, MAYBE.
The reply to the question "will any IR blaster with the correct plug work?' is yes. Well maybe not any but I had some extras from another project and they control my equipment without issue. No reason to purchase the GC-BL2 for my application. Maybe for some other setup it may be necessay, I don't know.
Thanks for posting your comment, jcwhite. Single emitters are generally nothing more than an infrared LED, so yes - in general, emitters are emitters. iRule even sells a "generic" non-Global Caché dual emitter. I have no idea why the blaster is so expensive, but nevertheless - glad you got yours working!
Link Posted: Thu May 24, 2012 9:57 pm Post subject:
Sorry I didn't notice this reply earlier!
Lundmark wrote:
Thanks a lot for your reply. I think it's great that you're so supportive of this app and though I don't remember exactly how I found this thread, I do know I was searching for iPad remote solutions.
Speaking of those, there are a whole bunch available now, none of which I've tried myself. After some research, I've concluded that none of them match my needs. Peel, Harmony Link, Gear4 Remote and RedEye among others, of which the latter seems to be the best out of those.
My gripe is that all these apps either have ugly UIs or too bloated UIs that takes away from actually using the equipment. I don't want to watch my remote's screen more than necessary. I want to watch what's on TV. Peel and Harmony Link for example focuses too much on interactive TV guides and RedEye doesn't seem to be customizable enough to actually be any better than a Harmony remote. I think an iOS remote app must be really, really good to be worth the trouble of swiping to unlock the screen and keeping the iDevices charged. Do you have any experience with RedEye or any of the other alternatives?
The other products you mentioned are very similar to the Harmony itself, which it sounds like you have plenty of experience using. What I mean is that they're typically pretty activity oriented, and offer little in the way of customization. Given the choice, I'd still rather use some of the apps over the Harmony, because as you said yourself, the Harmony is just kind of slow, and in my opinion, the graphics and screen leave much to be desired. So, the apps are a step in the right direction, but if what you really want is customization, then I don't think you'll be very happy with them.
Lundmark wrote:
The Harmony 1000 I had came the closest in matching my needs, namely I could get rid of all the crap commands I never use and just line up the ones I need on screen. The problem is that the buttons were text-only (i.e. no icons) and that the OS was excruciatingly slow. With some time, it looks like I can get iRule to display only the commands I need in a way that's both beautiful and easy to use.
If something very task-oriented, and very much customized exactly how you like, then yes - iRule is probably right up your alley.
Lundmark wrote:
I have no experience in Pronto, Nevo, RTI or similar remotes, but they all seem to require professional programming, which is something I don't want to afford or be bothered with. I actually quite like tinkering with nerdy software as long as the results are worth it. Since I sold my Harmony a long time ago, I guess I must have concluded that it wasn't worth it.
I felt exactly as you and did precisely the same thing. Customizing my remote (once I had something I could customize, and be happy with the end product) became a little hobby project just like the theater itself. Now, I have a remote as customized as my theater. It's very personal.
Lundmark wrote:
That said, I'm now using the very ugly and plasticky remote of my Yamaha receiver to operate all my equipment so I don't think I've evolved in terms of how I use it. At least with the Harmony, my girlfriend could watch TV on her own.
I got a good price on a brand new Harmony 1100 (150 euros) which I will probably try to see whether all the bugs of the 1000 have been squished. The touchscreen is still terrible though. I can't seem to find any issues with iRule (aside from the tedious procedure of drawing my own graphics) so while the Harmony might do the job in the meantime, I will also embark on my quest of creating the perfect remote control in iRule.
Good luck. I was never happy with the Harmony. I wanted much, much more. I love that iRule is IP-based, so there are no RF or line-of-sight issues. It just works, whether I'm in the theater, or in the driveway.
Yes, even my wife can use the theater, now. Setup isn't trivial... It will take some time investment, but the payoff is well worth it in my opinion.
Link Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 5:00 am Post subject:
Of course! It's CEDIA, so the updates are mostly interesting for professionals, but there are some goodies the DIY enthusiasts like us will enjoy, too. Can't say anything right now, but everybody is working really hard to bring some cool, new stuff to the show!
Joined: 14 Nov 2008 Posts: 11 Location: Baltimore, MD
Link Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2012 3:10 am Post subject: help with rs232 setup
After two years on and off- mostly off- I finally changed the channel on my satellite box using iRule and a global cache gateway. I thought this project would be a bit more plug and play... but with the help of many google searches and learning about networking, I am up and running. Not too bad for a trombone player. Now I would like to get my Marquee 8500 working through serial commands, but I don't think I can figure this one out on my own. Would one of you be willing to coach me through getting this part of iRule up and running?
Thanks
Trent _________________ Trombone player by day. CRT nut by night.
Page 13 of the protocol manual shows sample command strings, such as this one for POWER ON:
01 07 00 00 03 FF 08 1B 81 00 0E
The Builder uses a "\x" to denote a hex byte, so the string would look like this in Builder:
\x01\x07\x00\x00\x03\xFF\x08\x1B\x81\x00\x0E
There's a tutorial on the iRule support site for learning IR commands. The process of creating a device and device codes and pasting in the code in the Builder is similar; you'll just be creating "Network Codes" instead of "Global Cache" or "Pronto Hex" codes, which are IR.
Copy/paste the commands you need (I wouldn't recommend duplicating the entire Marquee command set in iRule unless you don't have a remote. Program the stuff you use 80 or 90% of the time and use the factory remote the other 10%; doing geometry touch-ups for instance.
Then, make sure you have the GC serial port set up like the Marquee, and you should be good to go. Let me know how you make out.
Joined: 14 Nov 2008 Posts: 11 Location: Baltimore, MD
Link Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2012 9:54 pm Post subject:
SC
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! I would not have connected the dots by myself. I have a couple of codes ready to upload and am waiting on a serial cable. I will post back when I try it all out. Thanks again!
Trent
Link Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 8:09 pm Post subject:
ecrabb wrote:
Lights Page
These tap the serial part on the gateway to send simple X10 commands, that my home automation controller receives, and runs Insteon and X10 "scenes". I sort of "abstracted" it that way so I can tweak the lighting without touching any of the remote stuff. Plus, I only execute one command from iRule, but that can do a whole number of things without setting up a macro in iRule. I added a "clean" button that runs my lights up "retinal scan" mode, which is otherwise never used.
I dont have any equipment, yet.
I have some x10 at home and planning to buy nexa or more x10.
I guess you have an itach with rs232 port, correct?
But what commands do you send, have you found the commands yourself or can you choose it in iRule builder?
Another question:
Do you or anyone else know if it is possible to control tellstick net from irule?
Link Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2012 11:23 pm Post subject:
Hi Flopp,
I'm not very familiar with Nexa, but if it's relatively "open" in that the command protocol is published and available, and there's good support, then I would think iRule should be able to control it. I do see some Nexa devices shared in the user library - both IR and RS-232, but I don't know anything about it.
As for X10, something has to go between the iOS or Android device and the X10 devices, and that "something" is an X10 controller. The controller can be a network device that iRule talks to directly, or an IR or RS-232 device that iRule talks to through an iTach or GC-100 IR emitter or serial port. The controller you use will dictate what the command protocol looks like.
In my system, I first used a Smarthome Insteon controller, so my commands were formatted for that device... They were basically a series of hexadecimal codes like this:
\xFF\x0A\x0F\x33\x21
Later, I switched to controlling my lights with Indigo software for OS X, which uses a RESTful API, so now my commands look like this:
devices/HT%20Rack%20Light?isOn=1&_method=put
That gets mapped to an HTTP gateway since Indigo is basically a web server.
I'm not familiar with the TellStick, but a quick bit of googling leads me to believe the TellStick Net may be controllable by iRule in the same way that Indigo is for me. How difficult it is depends on several things, but primarily how widely-used the device is (for support), and how much documentation is available on the control protocol. I did some googling, and found a couple of forums in a language foreign to me talking about iRule/TellStick Net integration. From the translation, it seemed like somebody was doing it, but I'm not sure how it was working - possibly controlling a computer. If you can point me to some protocol or support documentation, I can forward it to the iRule techs to see if control is possible.
Link Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 12:13 pm Post subject:
ecrabb wrote:
Hi Flopp,
I'm not very familiar with Nexa, but if it's relatively "open" in that the command protocol is published and available, and there's good support, then I would think iRule should be able to control it. I do see some Nexa devices shared in the user library - both IR and RS-232, but I don't know anything about it.
As for X10, something has to go between the iOS or Android device and the X10 devices, and that "something" is an X10 controller. The controller can be a network device that iRule talks to directly, or an IR or RS-232 device that iRule talks to through an iTach or GC-100 IR emitter or serial port. The controller you use will dictate what the command protocol looks like.
In my system, I first used a Smarthome Insteon controller, so my commands were formatted for that device... They were basically a series of hexadecimal codes like this:
\xFF\x0A\x0F\x33\x21
Later, I switched to controlling my lights with Indigo software for OS X, which uses a RESTful API, so now my commands look like this:
devices/HT%20Rack%20Light?isOn=1&_method=put
That gets mapped to an HTTP gateway since Indigo is basically a web server.
I'm not familiar with the TellStick, but a quick bit of googling leads me to believe the TellStick Net may be controllable by iRule in the same way that Indigo is for me. How difficult it is depends on several things, but primarily how widely-used the device is (for support), and how much documentation is available on the control protocol. I did some googling, and found a couple of forums in a language foreign to me talking about iRule/TellStick Net integration. From the translation, it seemed like somebody was doing it, but I'm not sure how it was working - possibly controlling a computer. If you can point me to some protocol or support documentation, I can forward it to the iRule techs to see if control is possible.
Regards,
SC
Thanks for a very good and long answer.
This is what I have got from telldus, manufacturing of tellstick net.
Link Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2012 12:17 pm Post subject:
ecrabb wrote:
Hi Flopp,
I'm not very familiar with Nexa, but if it's relatively "open" in that the command protocol is published and available, and there's good support, then I would think iRule should be able to control it. I do see some Nexa devices shared in the user library - both IR and RS-232, but I don't know anything about it.
As for X10, something has to go between the iOS or Android device and the X10 devices, and that "something" is an X10 controller. The controller can be a network device that iRule talks to directly, or an IR or RS-232 device that iRule talks to through an iTach or GC-100 IR emitter or serial port. The controller you use will dictate what the command protocol looks like.
In my system, I first used a Smarthome Insteon controller, so my commands were formatted for that device... They were basically a series of hexadecimal codes like this:
\xFF\x0A\x0F\x33\x21
Later, I switched to controlling my lights with Indigo software for OS X, which uses a RESTful API, so now my commands look like this:
devices/HT%20Rack%20Light?isOn=1&_method=put
That gets mapped to an HTTP gateway since Indigo is basically a web server.
I'm not familiar with the TellStick, but a quick bit of googling leads me to believe the TellStick Net may be controllable by iRule in the same way that Indigo is for me. How difficult it is depends on several things, but primarily how widely-used the device is (for support), and how much documentation is available on the control protocol. I did some googling, and found a couple of forums in a language foreign to me talking about iRule/TellStick Net integration. From the translation, it seemed like somebody was doing it, but I'm not sure how it was working - possibly controlling a computer. If you can point me to some protocol or support documentation, I can forward it to the iRule techs to see if control is possible.
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Joined: 13 Mar 2006
Link
but with the help of many google searches and learning about networking, I am up and running. Not too bad for a trombone player. Now I would like to get my Marquee 8500 working through serial commands, but I don't think I can figure this one out on my own. Would one of you be willing to coach me through getting this part of iRule up and running?
