RE: IR keyboard (long!)

["Paul Gordon" <paul_gordon@xxxxxxx>]

Well, I've given up! (for now)

I decided to look at the problem from another angle, and try a different=20
approach..

As well as IR control from the pronto, it had always been my intention
to=20
give my Homeseer PC remote control of winamp as well. (The Homeseer PC and=
=20
the MP3 jukebox PC are on dedicated machines). I had planned to use the=20
spare serial ports on each PC, a null modem cable, a serial port control=20
plugin for Winamp, and Homeseers built-in serial port commands in VBSCRIPT.

I had got as far as configuring everything except the actual VBSCRIPTS -
th=
e=20
serial port control worked a treat from hyperterminal, however, after
havin=
g=20
had to uninstall & reinstall Winamp several times, I'm damned if I can
the=
=20
the plugin to work anymore, so rather than waste time, I abandoned that
pla=
n=20
too (for the time being), a went with plan B instead.

Now, I have installed a Telnet control plugin in winamp on the MP3
machine.=
=20
>From any PC on my network I can now telnet to the MP3 PC, (on a
configurabl=
e=20
port) and connect to a simple command line console to control Winamp. I
mak=
e=20
sure the the Homeseer PC always has a telnet connection active and
connecte=
d=20
to the remote Winamp, and then I use HS.keys to send the commands from=20
Homeseer to the Telnet window. I have created a dozen or so events in=20
homeseer, that send specific commands to Winamp (play/pause/next etc), and=
=20
I've set those events to trigger by specific X10 commands. Then I use my=20
Pronto to send those X10 commands via the IR543 in the living room.

Believe it or not, it actually all works rather well! now, from the
Pronto,=
=20
I can control all the Winamp transport controls, and load preset
playlists.=
=20
I have made some custom panels on the Pronto specifically for the purpose.

It's not perfect, but it gives me the basic funtionality I want NOW, while
=
I=20
work on getting plan A to work. - I still want to use a serial port
control=
=20
for the following reasons:

a) The Telnet control has a limited command set and is missing a couple of=
=20
features that I need - randomise playlist for example - currently I
can't=20
get Homeseer to randomise the Winamp playlist, so I have to work around
thi=
s=20
by leaving the "shuffle" feature permanently on in Winamp.

b) I currently have no feedback into Homeseer - it's a pretty
"dumb" system=
=20
right now. - The serial port control provides output back through the
seria=
l=20
port as well, which I can easily read in Homeseer, so that HS will know
for=
=20
example, what track is currently playing, how long the playlist is, how
man=
y=20
tracks are left etc... AFAIK there's no way to get a script to read data
OU=
T=20
of another applications window... (hmmm.... thinks.. "how about a
HTML=20
plugin in winamp, and HS can then scrape a webpage to get this
data"...)

So that's my experience so far!

Paul G.

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