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patrickm
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| Posted: December 22 2007 at 11:29 | IP Logged
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Happy holidays,
I just ordered a couple of usb-uirts and have a couple of questions. I am wondering how much of a delay i should expect when using powerhome and the usb-uirts? My experience with Insteon triggers and macros makes me think vol+ and vol- commands passing through uirt -> ph -> uirt might be sluggish. I have looked at some AVR receivers with RS-232 control ports but I'm hoping I wont be forced to upgrade my receivers. I am curious what other folks are using and experiencing?
Patrick
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TonyNo
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| Posted: December 22 2007 at 17:36 | IP Logged
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I use X10 RF devices for going into PH, then, the USB-UIRT handles IR out. Pretty quick.
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dhoward
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| Posted: December 30 2007 at 21:44 | IP Logged
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Patrick,
I havent used the USB-Uirt for incoming IR, just outgoing. What Ive done is similar to Tony...using an X10 palmpad being received by a W800RF32A, firing a trigger and having a volume command played back by the USB-Uirt. This has worked well for me.
The biggest problem you'll have is that you lose the "press and hold" type of functionality that you would normally get with a standalone IR remote. I solved this by creating two different volume commands. A "coarse" volume up and down along with a "fine" volume up and down.
Ive since moved from using the X10 RF to using a Remote Control Center client feeding PowerHome. I still use the coarse and fine volume buttons though.
HTH,
Dave.
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patrickm
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| Posted: January 05 2008 at 02:08 | IP Logged
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Thanks for your response Dave.
I am working on configuring my multizone IR and have a couple of questions about the UIRT implementation. I am trying to set up a bunch of variables that represent the current state of the various IR controlled equipment. I have decided that I need to keep the old remotes around for volume control, which creates the need to have status variables. I created some IR I/O triggers that update the status variables but PH cannot keep up with the UIRT output. I read somewhere that the UIRT communicates at 115k baud and I'm thinking that should be enough bandwidth to keep up with "realtime" IR data. So I have a question in regards to phuirt.dll Would it be possible to have another dll or app with a socket connection to PH that performs IR I/O in realtime? What I'm thinking of is an app that supplies/uses IR command counts rather than the actual individual IR commands to PH. I think the global cache kind of works that way. What do you think?
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dhoward
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| Posted: January 15 2008 at 16:19 | IP Logged
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Patrick,
The USB-Uirt dll will send all received IR commands direct to PowerHome and PowerHome shouldnt miss any commands. All incoming data goes directly into a queue and will eventually be processed. So while PowerHome may not respond *instantly* to an incoming IR command, it will respond eventually and no commands should be missed.
The problem you're experiencing however is a common one. The same problem exists in X10 installations with dim and bright commands on certain controllers. The CM11A doesnt have this problem because it waits until the dim/bright command is complete and sends the total amount of dim/bright that was processed. Devices based upon the X10 TW-523 (Elk M1, Ocelot, etc) instead starts sending dim/bright commands when the dim/bright starts and will continue sending dim/bright commands sporadically until the actual dim/bright is stopped. With this device, it's impossible to know exactly how much a device was dimmed or brightened...just that it was dimmed or brightened. Most incoming IR receivers are the same way. The Global Cache itself doesnt even have incoming IR capabilities (a common misconception) and instead you must have a GC-IRL or GC-IRE incoming IR device (which suffers the same problem). What the Global Cache does have (and may be what you are thinking about) that *most* IR controllers don't have, is a function to send an IR command repeatedly (such as volume up or down) without program intervention until told to stop.
There's no real good way that I know of to handle the use of the actual IR remotes in conjunction with any home automation program and be able to gauge a relative volume level (without having equipment with RS-232 and the ability to report back actual volume level). What may be a real interesting undertaking is a way of hooking up a microphone to an analog input device to measure actual relative volume level. Something that samples continously and averages the values to determine a relative volume level.
Sorry to not be the bearer of good news,
Dave.
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patrickm
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| Posted: January 15 2008 at 18:29 | IP Logged
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Thanks Dave,
The open loop aspect of IR control is a drag. If I could sell of my Denon receivers without taking a huge hit, I would move to receivers with RS-232. But I still have something I'd like to understand with the UIRT and PH. When I was looking in the event log, I can see some instances where I have two or three IR input trigger events but only one event that incremented the global variable. I would have expected an update on all trigger events. It seems kind of choppy in the log like the update process was running out of time servicing the trigger events.
I have been thinking about measuring audio levels using a sound card for line level or SPDIF measurements, but a microphone might be another option. I wish there a easy way to deal with all this HDCP and DRM "stuff" in the digital streams.
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Topic: ph volume control performance
