January 26th, 2010 by admin
9 comments »
philips-mce-remote
Background:
At home I use Windows Media Center available on Windows 7. It’s a great program but it doesn’t play all the video codecs and file types that I have in my library. Even advanced codec packs like sharks “Windows 7 codecs” do not always solve this problem. To the rescue comes VLC . A media player that can handle almost any media file you throw at it. When using VLC however, I’m no longer able to use my Media Center Remote Control. Looking for a solution online, I found this post on the videolan forums: “Using a MCE remote with VLC?” . Unfortunately there is only a commercial third party application, and some failed attempts to integrate this into VLC.
Say hello to mceRemote2vlc:
Because I require similar capabilities in a game project I’m working on, I decided to give it a try myself. I decided not to incorporate this functionality into VLC but use VLC’s excellent RC interface. In short it allows you to control a running VLC instance by communicating with VLC’s built-in TCP-server.
It’s all a bit quick and dirty for the moment but it works.
If you want to give it a try be sure to:
- Start VLC with “vlc –rc-host=127.0.0.1:8765 –rc-quiet” or set this in the advanced menu option (be sure to use two dashes as a copy and paste may result in only one)
- Install the .NET Framework 3.5
- Windows 7 x64 ? (I have tested this only on my own machine, please let me know if it works on other versions)
- A Windows MCE Remote , the following eHome compatible remote devices should be supported:
- Microsoft/Philips 2005
- Microsoft/Philips 2004
- HP
- FIC Spectra/Mycom Mediacenter
- Toshiba/Hauppauge SMK MCE remote
- Hauppauge OEM MCE remote
- Mitsumi MCE remote
- Fujitsu Scaleo-E
- Pinnacle PCTV Remote
- Shuttle MCE Remote
- Centarea Master Remote II
Application:
Update: new version with updates to target architecture, and proper command handling.
http://www.arenddeboer.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Setup.zip
If you want to extend the functionality please feel free to download the project source files (Visual Studio 2008)
Source:
Update: source code available on request.
http://www.arenddeboer.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/mceRemote2vlc.zip
Great thanks goes to the team of MediaPortal as most of the functionality is coming right out of this project
Remember, it’s a quick and dirty solution that works (for me) I might update the project provided there is enough interest.
Please use at your own risk
December 27th, 2008 by admin
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I love to go on holiday by bike. And as a tech nerd I can’t be bothered by plain paper-maps!
Having a GPS-mapping application like OziExplorer on your bike makes navigation very easy.
The problem however is with the rapid draining of the battery-powered GPS / PDA.
Especially mobile phones / PDA’s have a very short (battery) lifespan, often no more then a couple of hours when the display is always on and a GPS-application running. Normally I just dragged a lot of AA aka penlite batteries with me and powered the phone with a simple battery holder like this one:
Of course this isn’t the best solution and I was looking for better alternatives.
Then I stumbled upon this genius, hub-dynamo driven “Bike mounted USB Charger” on an English bicycle forum.
The idea is quite simple. You take a HUB-Dynamo (Shimano DH-3R30) (I ordered one from ebay for less then 40 euro).
The hub-dynamo generates an alternating current that needs to be rectified and the voltage output should be regulated to 5 volts for USB powered devices.
The hub-dynamo:
These are the parts you need, available at any electronic (parts) store.
D1 – D4 1N5818
C1 2200uF 16v
C2, C3 470uF 63v Low ESR
C4 .47uF Tantalum bead
C5 22uF Tantalum bead
R1 47K .25W
Solder the parts according to this schematic:
And there you go, you have the best energy- efficient charger, all done with green energy!
This is my effort. It still needs some good housing and connectors but it works perfectly:
For more detailed information visit the bike forum at http://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php
Many thanks go to Simon Galgut for providing the electronic schematic.
December 27th, 2008 by admin
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The nice folks at google have made a Flash library-api for google maps.
I have made a sample application which displays my “current” position on the map.
How it works:
Mobile phone
On the Mobile Phone, a Windows Mobile 6.1 ( HTC Touch Diamond) runs a .NET CF 3.5 application that sends the current GPS-location to the server. This is done every second, or on a chosen interval.
Live tracking application
The server
On the server there is a simple php script that stores the GPS-location and device-id, send by the phone, in a database.
The web-application
The web-application is build in Adobe Flex Builder 3 and fetches the last known GPS-location from the server.
It then draws a marker on the map and starts updating again.
To get an idea of how it works without me being on the run (and running the gps mobile application) use the simulation mode.
I have recorded two sample tracks, a walking track and a track by car.
Things to do:
Smooth map movement
Select mobile device(s) to show, and zoom map to show all selected mobile devices.
Show (last known) direction, speed, distance, top speed..
(this is partly implemented in the html/javascript version on http://www.arenddeboer.com/liveTracking/)
