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[Deemar]

For anyone that doesn't know, a Sheeva Plug is a tiny little computer as big as a cell phone with no moving parts that comes shipped with Ubuntu 9.04. You can SSH into it and install Apache or Heyu or anything else Linux based so has anyone actually used one to run home automation? It could solve a lot of issues for people with tight space requirements, is there anything missing that you can see? It only has USB ports so are there any USB based transmitters which have Linux drivers?

[Brandt]

I'm running everything on a NAS that runs linux and only has USB ports....

[Deemar]

Are you running Heyu? Which transmitter are you using? CM15A? Where did you get drivers? Will the CM11A work with a serial - USB adapter you think? Do you think it would support USB video output to a little touchscreen?

[Brandt]

I bet I could get an HA system up and running on a sheevaplug....

I run Heyu 2.8.0 with a CM11a, all that was required was that I had to cross-compile two loadable kernel modules: ftdi_sio.ko (source from ftdi website), and usbserial.ko, and then do an 'insmod'

I run the php heyu frontend domus.Link which requires apache2.x and php5

I can also run text-to-speech and voice recognition on it using a USB audio adapter and cross-compiled Flite or Festival and Julius or Pocketsphinx

I programmed my own php Dialog Manager as a liaison between Julius and Heyu.

As far as touch screens go, I use the Nokia Internet Tablet series (cheap on ebay; 770, N800, N810, N900) and bring up domus.Link (which i'm on the devel team) on it's browser.

[Deemar]

So after some research it seems that there are some USB-VGA adapters for the Sheeva plug which will work and also some Mimi720 USB LCD which have compatible drivers....you just have to recompile your distribution of Linux with the drivers included. But an easier option is to just pick up a GuruPlug which is the next generation plug computer and includes HDMI video output.

[Brandt]

you don't need to necessarily recompile your kernel, you can just configure the drivers as loadable modules, and load them in during boot time with insmod

[pconroy]

Will the CM11A work with a serial - USB adapter you think?

Mine did not - it didn't work with the cheapo CH341/Prolific chip based cable I bought.
The adapter is fine - as it drives my old Garmin GPS unit.  The CM11A probably wants to see more than the TX/RX and ground pins live. 
Supposedly some of the better adapters (Keyspan ? ? ?) do a better job.

I hadn't heard of the Sheeva plug  - it's cool!

My Home Auto PC is currently a $20 laptop, from 1999, that I bought last year.
It was running XP - but the hard disk just starting showing more and more errors.

Just today, I pulled the hard drive out - and stuck in a $2.00 PATA/Compact Flash adapter from eBay and a $20 8GB Compact Flash Type I card.
I'm loading Ubuntu server as I type.

I'm curious to see how well 9.1 runs on a 450MHz PIII with 288MB of RAM.   



It's weird - with that poor man's SSD as the boot disk - the laptop is completely silent!

[Brandt]

Mine did not - it didn't work with the cheapo CH341/Prolific chip based cable I bought.
The adapter is fine - as it drives my old Garmin GPS unit.  The CM11A probably wants to see more than the TX/RX and ground pins live. 
Supposedly some of the better adapters (Keyspan ? ? ?) do a better job.

No Prolific, No Keyspan...Go for FTDI!!!   

[Brandt]

I ordered a sheevaplug development kit. I'll keep you posted.

[pconroy]

I ordered a sheevaplug development kit. I'll keep you posted.

please do.

I've run across a (or another) darkside of my cheepie Prolific adapters.
I have two plugged into one PC.

When the PC reboots, it seems to be random whether /dev/ttyUSB0 will be the CM11A and /dev/ttyUSB1 is the weather station, or vice versa.

I've googled and dumped attributes and can't see a way to assign them consistently.
Which puzzles me, cuz I'd bet their windows drivers do it.


Oh well - solved with more code.   

[Brandt]

Udev rules

[pconroy]

Udev rules

yeah but I can't figure out how to tell the two adapters apart.

I thought I read that the USB devs are supposed to have some unique ID burned in.
I was thinking I could use that to create the 'udev' rules.

But the two adapters I have seem to be identical.
I don't see any unique data when I dump their USB attribubutes.
 

[Charles Sullivan]

Udev rules

yeah but I can't figure out how to tell the two adapters apart.

I thought I read that the USB devs are supposed to have some unique ID burned in.
I was thinking I could use that to create the 'udev' rules.

But the two adapters I have seem to be identical.
I don't see any unique data when I dump their USB attribubutes.
 

That's the problem with Prolific adapters purchased from the same source.  If you get them from different manufacturers there are sometimes differences you can key on.

FTDI based adapters each have a unique serial number.

[pconroy]

Classic case of "ya get what ya' pay for..."!   

[Charles Sullivan]

Classic case of "ya get what ya' pay for..."!   

We're not talking "big bucks" here.