CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[huggy]

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SC

Thanks for taking the time and effort to do this

I really like the software and what it's capable of doing,however,all this techno blabble is just confusing me ( I'm a builder FFS)

This is my Setup

Integra 7.6 http://www.integrahometheater.com/model.cfm?class=Receiver&m=DTR-7.6&p=i

Barco 1209s

HTPC (custom build)


Do I need anything else for my simple setup for the Irule to control everything? I'm talking accessing the p.c (media Browser etc)
I'm trying to make the theatre room as WAF friendly as possible and am hoping the IRule can make life easier for the woman.



Dave

[ecrabb]

Hey, Dave -

What front end are you using for the HTPC? I know Itai has worked out Media Center, and a couple others like XMBC... The HTPC is the only wildcard; everything else should be relatively easy.

If you already have WiFi in the house and the HTPC is on the network, then all you'd need besides iRule and an iPod touch or iPhone, would be a Global Caché GC-100-06 like in my first post... You can buy those for under $150 US. That would give you one serial port for the Integra, and 3 IR ports for the Barco and another device or two. You'd control the HTPC via IP.

Oh, and depending on where your projector is mounted, you may need an extension cord for the IR emitter. You could go serial to the Barco, but you'd want the bigger GC-100 box, which costs mo money.

WAF was one of the biggest reasons I went this route. My wife has an iPhone, too... I loaded iRule and the configuration on her phone, too so we have multiple remotes. She can actually use the theater when I'm not home, now! Yay! If you do it right, you can have one button that fires the whole system up, and another that shuts it all down. You'll really only need a couple of pages, as it's just your AVR and the HTPC that you'll need daily access to.

Does that answer your questions?

SC

[huggy]

[jrwhite]

Hi Athanasios,

Yes, if the Corios are on the network, iRule should be able to send the commands to them directly. The caveat here is as I said, I don't have iRule, so, I don't know if Itai has to create a TCP version of the Corio RS232 commands that are already in his database. Also, he has to beware that the socket MUST remain open until a response is received from the Corio, otherwise the Corio will reject the command. ( many hours of testing and debugging to find this out on our part.)

The Corios can only be in RS232 mode OR Ethernet mode for control. They can't accept commands from both sources at the same time. This should be buried somewhere in your setup menu. What model TVOne boxes / cards do you have? If WCP doesn't see them, and you have the IP/PORT setup correctly, then most likely they're setup for RS232 control.

Jonathan

[jrwhite]

Huggy,

Beware that if Itai's database doesn't include the Barco, you'll have to buy a GC IR learner to capture the IR from a remote. The Barco IR protocol is un-modulated, and is notoriously difficult to learn. I believe GC's internal format uses carrier cycles as a timing reference for pulse widths, so, I'm not sure if it would work or not ... again, I don't have GC, so I'm only speculating, this may not be a problem. You may need Pronto HEX codes.

I control my 1208/2 via RS232, and I ended up having to capture the RS232 stream from the Barco PCS utility, as the Barco RS232 protocol is insanely overly complex to write natively. Let me know if you have issues, and I could either capture the IR to Pronto Hex with my USB-UIRT, or, I could give you the basic Standby / Pause / Input5 / Input3 RS232 commands I captured from PCS.

Jonathan

[huggy]

[ecrabb]

Hey, guys... I've been playing around with some UI designs for for the iPad (which Itai has officially now announced for iRule)... I'm now pretty sure an iPad will make a REALLY kick-ass HT system control remote if you don't mind having some coin wrapped up in it. Imagine this sitting on the arm of your recliner:



Or, maybe wood is more your speed:





SC

[AnalogRocks]

Got wood? You need a different kind of button for that

Nice work.

[AnalogRocks]

Got wood? You need a different kind of button for that

Nice work.

[Nashou66]

Thats it Steve!! I have to get this for sure!!!! That looks sweet!!

Athanasios

[Kramer]

How would one get these backgrounds?

[ecrabb]

[akajester]

very interesting stuff. This just proves you don't need to spend $2k on a crestron system to do simple room control with lots of features. And if you already have a ipad or ipod, the investment for the gateway and software is pretty minor. very cool.

[ecrabb]

[Kramer]

Thanks ecrabb

Yes I was referring to both background and buttons, I just assumed that buttons and background was one image and you where using a transparent image to embed code but I guess that was not correct.

If you could share the buttons for now I can get started on my layout. Funny thing is that your equipment and what i have are very similar so it should work for me.

Will post over in AVS what other images that could be added.

Thanks again!

[Spanky Ham]

I see Crestron has their own Apple solution. This is one reason my best friend wants to keep his game close to the vest. A big company can easily implement another alternative for the Idevices. Have you seen this, Crabb?
http://www.crestron.com/solutions/apple_mac_iphone_ipod_ipad_control/

I did a search and found that someone else has an Irule alternative. Any thoughts, Crabb?
http://www.imastercontrol.com/


Oh, I haven't checked in lately, but isn't there just one thread over at AVS? Maybe Itai might want to do some sort of deal with Kal and have a forum over here.

[ecrabb]

Hi, Spanky -

The Crestron app to me isn't really a direct competitor to something like iRule, nor is it really an alternative so much... To me, the days of Crestron being able to charge $2500 for a wireless touch panel are over. Not that the price they were charging is even out of line... I'm sure it's expensive to develop and manufacture in small quantities, etc. But, when you can buy a "touch panel" for 20% of the cost, but is superior in every way - industrial design, size/feel, weight, flexibility, and does a LOT more than just acts as a touch panel/automation UI, what choice does Crestron have but to sell an app for that?

Yeah... A big company can do something competitive... But, what interest does AMX or Crestron have in competing with a $50 app? They have a big company to run, and $50 licenses ain't gonna run it. Hell, I've talked to dealers who aren't even interested in iRule... It's not "high end" enough. That can't see the value, apparently. Never mind that that they could sell it to WAY more customers since it would be 1/5 the price of even an entry-level Savant setup. Lots of people spend $10k or so to put a "living room" system in their new home, but how many can justify another $5k on top of that just for an automation setup? They can't? They just get a Harmony instead? Yep. Now, what if they could get nearly Crestron or Savant-level control with a slick custom UI for $1000 or $1500 and use their existing iPhone, iPod touch, iPad?

As for iMasterControl... I haven't really taken a very close look at it. Just at a quick glance, it's not for me. It's very restrictive in that you have to lay your remote out pretty much how they want you to... Meaning no grid setup like iRule - just some predesigned templates to choose from. The show stopper for me though is no custom graphics.

With iMasterControl, you get this:



With iRule, you can build this:



That's what I love about iRule - I can make a UI that looks and works pretty much like a high-end panel for an AMX or Crestron system... Better in some cases.

Also, since it looks like iMasterControl was really designed around controlling AMX/Crestron (where all the device commands and programming reside in the controller), and since they haven't shipped their Global Cache version yet, it remains to be seen how they'll handle device commands... iRule has a really robust device command library integrated. Add your AVR to your device list, drag the "VOL UP" command from the device list to your custom button, and you're off to the races.

Also... The whole Java app vs. web app thing... They play it off as a negative (a web app I mean), and if you'd have asked me a year ago before I started playing with it, I probably would have said the same thing. But, honestly... Now that I've been using it awhile, I LOVE it. I love that it syncs wirelessly. I love that there's no client software to install or update. I love that I can do it on any machine, whether I've installed software or not.

I'm probably even missing a few things... Hell, it's not like I'm the developer - I'm just a user!

SC

[Spanky Ham]

[ecrabb]

I thought I'd update this thread, as there have been a couple of new releases of iRule with new features and improvements, and a new version of the app that runs on iPad. I also worked with Itai and designed completely from scratch an all-new default UI with brand new button graphics, over 150 buttons, and it's all included. One of the neat things about iRule is with your single license, you can install and use iRule on multiple iPhone/iPod touches and/or multiple iPads, all with the same, similar, or different devices and configurations. For instance, you could have a whole-house "master control" UI set up on an iPad, and a condensed room-dedicated panel on an iPod or two that you leave in those rooms - all included with the single license.

Here's a little taste of the new UI look/feel:



The UI for the iPhone and iPod touch is exactly the same look/feel, just designed for the smaller screen.

Here are most (not all) of the buttons already in the builder, with more getting added all the time:



Cheers,
SC

[Nashou66]

WOW!!!! looks great Steve!!!

Athanasios

[ecrabb]

Thanks! It probably doesn't really look like it I suppose, but it was a LOT of work... Towards the end, I started feeling like the Dunkin' Donuts guy... "Time to make the buttons..."

SC