Input plugin? Help me write an X10 plugin

[diehard2]

Hi guys, I recently stumbled across gb-pvr, and I was very impressed with how fast it was to set it up w/ directv. I spent days trying to get it to work with MediaPortal. Now, I was wondering if it is possible to have a remote control input plugin? I wrote the X10 control plugin for Meedio, so I actually do know what I'm doing - just not in C#. All of my stuff is in C++. So if it is possible to write an input plugin, could someone please point me in the right direction. Thanks.

~Steve

[diehard2]

Are input plugins not possible?

[sub]

I dont really know anything about X10, but what exactly are you wanting to build? I'm not exactly sure what you mean by input plugin in this context. You can create screen that are accessable via the main menu, and these can show pretty much anything you want, and collect whatever information your want from the user.

You can probably write plugins in managed C++ so that it is compatible with .NET. I've not tested it myself, but I cant see any reason it wouldnt work.

[sub]

Ah, sorry I just re-read your post and saw the key "remote control input plugin" statement which I missed first time when I skim read.

I've not provided any interfaces for writing this type of plugin. Other than those remotes that I natively support, I've always suggested users that are wanting to write their own remote support should create small external apps and just feed keystrokes message to the GB-PVR window. This is the way the Hauppauge remote works, and the model seems to work pretty well.

[nightwalker]

Just curious, are you looking to do a direct x10 plug-in or a pass through to a home automation software package. There is a plug-in that interfaces with Homeseer, through girder. It works pretty well for for limited control of anything that can be controlled with homeseer. Looks something like this depending on your skin.

[diehard2]

I was looking to do a direct plugin. I have the code that accesses the COM interfaces from the x10 dlls. The Meedio plugin has been stable for years, but I haven't found a tv viewing program I've liked before now. GB-PVR is the first software that works well on my very underpowered machine. I was hoping to write a plugin for the Firefly remote to have (relatively) native support. It works for the other X10 remotes also (ATI RemoteWonder II, etc). If you would like the code to add support I could send it to you. Otherwise, I guess I'll follow your suggestion. Can you tell me the name of the window I would send commands to? Thanks.

~Steve

[nightwalker]

It was a curiousity question on my part. Not being a programmer i would have no idea what window you'd send commands to. I'm always looking for ways to integrate systems. The only problem with a native x10 plugin is you'd only have control of x10. Were it going to interface with a home control software package of some sort you would have far more control over things, x10 and beyond.

[mike_mcs]

An X-10 plugin would be the greatest! I'm a heavy user of X10 and MVP. Whle watching TV you could dim the room lights, close the curtains, turn on the sprinklers, and on and on. I use smarthome to setup and manage my timer but being able to use the MVP to override would be a really good thing.

[KingArgyle]

If you know C++, picking up C# wouldn't be that hard. With that said, there is a .NET version of C++ that would work with GBPVR.

http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/cplusplus/

As some of the others have suggested take a look at the HomeSeer plugin (if it's released source code, not all of them do). BleepBloop can give you an idea of how to have a plugin run in the background and work with GBPVR events, no matter what other plugin you are in.

I believe what you want to do would be possible, but as Sub said he doesn't provide direct support, but through sending the appropriate message keys to GBPVR or placing them on the Windows Queue you could probably get it to work.

Great to see some of the other Meedio guys starting to head over to this app. Meedio had some of the best plugins available.

[picomode]

I can't help author you this but I hope you'll go a different route than the Media Portal X-10 plug-in which uses a client/server system called xAP. It requires you to run a shim between the PVR and the x-10 CM11a. The MP plug-in also lacks macro functions as far as I could tell.

I would be nice to have buttons configurable to execute a series of X-10 commands with a single click. Also might be more useful if it supports multiple interfaces.

Here is a link to a library of X-10 for the CM11a + Firecracker that runs on .NET 2.0.
http://brian.vallelunga.com/code/

xAP site http://www.xapautomation.org