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[HA Dave]

Neither of my LED TVs have channel buttons just up down buttons and not easy to get at.
If my remote breaks I'll be lost.  

Alexa handles the on/off functions for me (she mutes for me too). I am old enough... I naturally am drawn to "theater Remotes"... so my original remotes are always available for back-up. Plus... I have apps on my phone for TV control.

But I am always looking at how can things be done better... more efficient... or with less hassle. I took a class on paradigms years ago.... that changed my life.   

[Tuicemen]

TV currently isn't an issue as I have 10 channels I can get free currently.
Usually I don't spend much time indoors there unless it is raining and very rarely am I up once the sun goes down.
The Cell route is an option but currently to expensive for me to even look at.

[HA Dave]

.... The Cell route is an option but currently to expensive for me to even look at. 

That's where differences in national laws and regs really show up.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Straight-Talk-Z291DL-ZTE-4G-LTE-Mobile-Hotspot/54772941

[Knightrider]

........ My internet connection at my off grid place has now been down for 32 hours and counting, and my ISP has no idea when it will be back up.

Maybe... a cellular solution might work for you. Knightrider is the expert in that field around here.

I have AT&T Homebase. It's a 3g cellular WiFi router. Before that, I had Verizon.
The Homebase unit isn't available through the ATT website. I had to pull strings at my local store to get it. 3 of my neighbor's have it, as does my mother.

[petera]

I'd guess..... that somewhere there is an old grandfather who complains about how tiny the channel selection buttons are on his TV... yet refuses to use his TV remote.

Neither of my LED TVs have channel buttons just up down buttons and not easy to get at.
If my remote breaks I'll be lost.

You've a lot of potential control of your TVs via Homegenie. Lirc IR HDMI etc.

If you're playing about with Kodi here's a little program that will control your x10 lighting between Kodi and Homegenie. You can play around with it and adapt it any way you want. Can easily be installed via the MIG package installer in Homegenie http://old.homegenie.club:8080/www.homegenie.it/forum/indexc3a3.html?topic=379.0

[Tuicemen]

I never had much luck with kodi.
It usually too me longer to find a decent copy then it did to play the content.
However I may give it another chance at some point.

[petera]

I never had much luck with kodi.
It usually too me longer to find a decent copy then it did to play the content.
However I may give it another chance at some point.

Works quite well on the Raspberry Pi3. LibreELEC is probably your best bet as they've stripped back all the unnecessary parts of Linux and its Kodi centric. Kodi Krypton 17.6 is quite stable.

May well be worth your while having another go now that you have the Raspberry Pi 3B +. And no searching around for those elusive TV remotes either. My remote is in my pocket ie my smart phone and the rest of the gang have their own remote too 

[Tuicemen]

Yes the 3B+ was to be a streaming box.
Currently the there aren't many options for images  that work on the 3B+ maybe in a month or so it will be available.

I managed to get Bluetooth sound working on my Zero  (well in desk top mode at least)
I can pull up and see my Dot in the CLI but I've yet to get any sound from it.
Maybe tomorrow.

[petera]

Yes the 3B+ was to be a streaming box.
Currently the there aren't many options for images  that work on the 3B+ maybe in a month or so it will be available.

I managed to get Bluetooth sound working on my Zero  (well in desk top mode at least)
I can pull up and see my Dot in the CLI but I've yet to get any sound from it.
Maybe tomorrow.

As a stop gap I suppose you could pull sound from the Zero via HDMI. A couple of users have achieved that. Run the output through a TV or some sort of monitor.

[petera]

@Tuicemen now that you have your Pi Zero twinned with your CM15 and the ability to control it all remotely via an Android app I'd imagine it's potential usability has far exceeded the WM100.

As mentioned in previous posts, maybe the makers of the WM100 should try and replicate that usability and twin their unit with something like the Pi to give their users far greater versatility with X10 technology.

Looking forward to your write up on how you fully exploited the CM15/Pi/Homegenie combination and exactly what you achieved.

[bkenobi]

I'm curious if the Pi Zero is small enough that you could actually fit it fully inside the CM15 case?  If there was a way to embed it for a compact and clean installation, this SHOULD be a no-brainer for anyone who has a CM15 and is interested in some real capabilities beyond what AHP can provide.

I understand that there are other components that may be an issue for this setup (5v power supply for Pi needed, internal connection for USB on CM15 not directly available, etc).  But, if the Zero doesn't fit then it's already a no-go.

[petera]

I'm curious if the Pi Zero is small enough that you could actually fit it fully inside the CM15 case?  If there was a way to embed it for a compact and clean installation, this SHOULD be a no-brainer for anyone who has a CM15 and is interested in some real capabilities beyond what AHP can provide.

I understand that there are other components that may be an issue for this setup (5v power supply for Pi needed, internal connection for USB on CM15 not directly available, etc).  But, if the Zero doesn't fit then it's already a no-go.

Using the CM15 Pro (Euro version of CM15a) which runs on a trailing lead so with a little careful drilling of the battery compartment there appears to be no difficulty running the required cable to the PiZero which fits in the battery compartment. I will purchase a Pi Zero and check the dimensions myself.

I think Tuicemen resolved all those points you raised above.

Is there a trailing lead version of the CM15a.

[dhouston]

I understand that there are other components that may be an issue for this setup (5v power supply for Pi needed, internal connection for USB on CM15 not directly available, etc).  But, if the Zero doesn't fit then it's already a no-go.

It should be easy to get +5V from the CM15A. See the CM15A schematic link on this webpage...
https://www.laser.com/dhouston/cm15a.html

[Tuicemen]

I'm curious if the Pi Zero is small enough that you could actually fit it fully inside the CM15 case?  If there was a way to embed it for a compact and clean installation, this SHOULD be a no-brainer for anyone who has a CM15 and is interested in some real capabilities beyond what AHP can provide.

I understand that there are other components that may be an issue for this setup (5v power supply for Pi needed, internal connection for USB on CM15 not directly available, etc).  But, if the Zero doesn't fit then it's already a no-go.

Depending on the age of the CM15 one plans on using you could fit the Power supply and Zero W inside the CM15. You can wire the power directly to the Zero  which I plan to do in another mod. It also may be possible to steal power from the CM15 circuit board itself if you can determine a 5 volt run with enough amps.
the newer Cm15A boards have many components incorporated into the board and the Zero W only takes the bottom half of the battery compartment. see my write up here: http://forums.tuicemen.net/index.php?topic=1291.0
Since the Zero fits in the one half of the case you can swap it out with a new or old CM15A.
my mod was originally done with the old Cm15a which had RF daughter boards limiting the placement of the Zero.
I've since moved the moded section to a newer CM15. This has space to fit a separate 5v power supply above the Zero.
the only wire sticking out of the Cm15 case that would be required is the USB connection to the two. These can be ordered in white and only 6 inches long from Amazon.

[dhouston]

The Pi Zero power consumption is shown here...
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blogs/jeff-geerling/raspberry-pi-zero-power
The Zero W is probably similar.
http://raspi.tv/2017/how-much-power-does-pi-zero-w-use

You can even use the CM15A PLC output circuit since it has its own 120kHz oscillator.

With the non-SMD version, you can remove the MCU chip and tap into the RF RX/TX circuits, as well. In effect you'd just be substituting the Pi for the MCU.

For experimenting, I'd keep the Pi Zero external. The CM15A has an isolated power supply and you only need a few leads between the Pi and CM15A.

Refer to the schematic I referenced earlier.