Archive for the ‘Home Automation’ Category
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Friday, September 2nd, 2011
Obihai OBi100 – Google Voice To POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service)
I’ve been on the look out for a device that can leverage Google Voice *and* offer up a POTS port that can be tied into my whole house Panasonic telephone system (Hybrid-PBX) as a CO line. The search is finally over — Obihai’s OBi100 does exactly what I need for less than $50 and NO monthly fees! I ordered the OBi100 from Amazon for only $43.99 when it arrived the setup was easy and was up and running within 30 mins. If you were to base the sound quality on looks alone, you’d suspect it’s terrible, however, it’s not! I couldn’t perceive any notable sound quality differences from my landline service and there were no issues sending or receiving faxes over the line either. This little device is a must have for any Google Voice user! If you have any questions feel free to post in the comments.
- Obihai: What is it?
- Obihai: How to use it with Google Voice
- Buy now via AMAZON: OBi100 VoIP Telephone Adapter and Voice Service Bridge
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Monday, August 22nd, 2011
Vidabox iPad/iPad2 On-Wall Mounting Frames
Front view of frame shown with a white iPad2Vidabox has been in the digital entertainment and control business for a while now and offers media extenders to complete home automation control systems. They have a product and/or solution for almost every A/V need — even turning your iPad into a wall mountable picture frame.
The Vidabox iPad On-Wall Mount Frame is actually a pretty good idea allowing you to add an on-wall control interface pretty much anywhere at a very economical price.
USB to Cat5 power extension kitWhen I first opened the box the first thing that popped into my head was, “why didn’t I think of this!”. A genius concept, put an iPad into a high-quality contemporary picture frame and hang it on the wall. The kits come complete with everything needed to power the iPad using only a single Cat5 cable. The installation takes literally minutes after you get the cat5 cable fished through your wall. The frame design is clean and simple and great for anyone that wants a semi-permanent wall installation of an iPad (I call it semi-permanent because you don’t need to cut a hole into the wall) — that’s great because it makes swapping out iPad versions in the future very easy! The kit is available for both the original iPad and the iPad2. The frame kit retails for $99 and comes in a variety of finishes.
iPad On-Wall Frame Kit
Back view of iPad frameFor more information and to order the frame kit visit VidaBox.
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Friday, May 27th, 2011
Myro:Bridge – Kaleidescape to Russound RNET
I have been busy releasing a bunch of new firmware updates for Myro:Bridge and one that I’m especially proud of is the newest Kaleidescape to Russound RNET. The Kaleidescape is a very slick piece of hardware, not only for exact CD quality audio playback but for video (including Bluray). We have had a unit in for testing while we write the firmware and it will be a sad day when I have to ship the unit back. Until then, I’m enjoying every minute with it. Check out the video showing how Myro:Bridge tightly integrates a Kaleidescape with Russounds whole house audio controllers using RNET and the Myro:Bridge.
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Thursday, March 24th, 2011
Arduino Shield: Video Experimenter
Just found out about the Video Experimenter shield (via hackaday) created by Nootropic Design. I’ve been looking for something like this for my screen masking controller project. One has been ordered and will report back once I make some progress getting it tied into the masking controller (which has now been converted to an Arduino project as well).
Here are a few details on the shield, peep the video below for the full effect:
- Overlay text and graphics onto a video signal from a camera, DVR, DVD player, VCR or any other source of composite video.
- Capture low-res video image frames for display or video processing. Give your Arduino the gift of sight!
- Perform object detection for computer vision projects.
- Decode closed captioning or XDS (extended data services) data embedded in television broadcasts.
- Works with NTSC (North America) or PAL (rest of the world) television standards.
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Saturday, February 5th, 2011
Myro:Bridge – Russound RNET HDMI Switcher Controller (firmware)
UPDATE: Now with Octava HDMI Switcher Support!
If you have been waiting for Russound to release a RNET based HDMI switcher to replace the VM1 series look no further! I’ve created a firmware to control Wyrestorm HDMI Matrix Switchers (4×2, 4×4 and 8×8) via Myro:Bridge. The onboard webpage allows you to configure/map the input and outputs of the matrix switcher to the sources and zones of your Russound controller. It’s an elegant system which is future proof and expandable. The Myro:Bridge plugs into the RNET ports and a RS232 cable is connected to the Wyrestorm switcher — it’s that easy! Watch the video for a quick demo on how it works.
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Monday, October 4th, 2010
Myro:Bridge – Product Introduction/Website Launch
Just launched the Myro:Bridge website. Pre-orders begin now and if there aren’t any production issues, we should be shipping orders in a few weeks. The first batch of bridges will be a limited run to see how much interest there is so get your order in now to guarantee shipment!
The goal is to add more support (via firmware updates) as there are requests (via forum). I am also looking to expand support for Control4, Crestron and HAI controllers.
Find out more about Myro:Bridge here.
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Friday, October 1st, 2010
Myro:Bridge – Russound RNET to Apple iTunes (Remote)
Lots has been going on over the past few weeks… final PCB designs have been sent out for production. A new product web site is reaching completion leaving final assembly and testing left before I can start shipping the Myro:Bridge (that is going to be the final name). As promised, I have a video of the newest firmware which offers Russound RNET to Apple iTunes control. This is like the Russound RNET to Sonos except that you can pair, control and get metadata two and from Russound Keypads via iTunes. Enjoy!
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Thursday, August 26th, 2010
Myro Control – USCe (Universal Serial Converter w/Ethernet)
There’s not much to look at, but don’t let that fool you. This little black box is the Swiss Army Knife of connecting systems together. The platform, based on an ATMEL 1280 microprocessor (Arduino Mega family roots), can be loaded with different firmware that can turn it into a “Russound RNET to Sonos Bridge” or act as a bridge for many other kinds of devices (Apple TV/Windows Media Center, etc). It features an ethernet port for bridging IP based devices as well as two RS232 (prototype of single RS232 version shown above), one for connecting to the master RS232 device (e.g. Russound) and the other for connecting to a slave device (e.g. Matrix Switcher which only has RS232 control). The first of many firmware releases is the USCe-RS which is the Russound to Sono’s bridge (you can find out more about that here). The USCe will be sold under the Myro Control brand and will be soon available for pre-order.
UPDATE: Thanks for the feedback on the name. It’s not set in stone yet and will probably change when it’s officially released. This is a “working” name for now and it may end up being named the “Myro Control Bridge”.
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Monday, August 16th, 2010
Vanco HDMI Over Coaxial (Coax/CATV) Cable Extender
Distributing HDMI signals in a retrofit situation is often a difficult task since the only real cost effective option is to run cat5e/cat6 to a location and use a Cat5e HDMI Extender. That solution requires you to fish new cables (some cases 2 cat5e runs) as most homes do not have Cat5e cables in locations where you need a display. Vanco has announced a new HDMI extender that uses a single coaxial cable (this is your typical CATV cable). That’s right! It allows both HDMI Audio/Video signals to be transmitted using one coaxial cable. The transmission range for 1080p resolution is up to 328 ft (100m) over RG-6 coaxial cable (dual and quad-shielded) and up to 164 ft (50m) over RG-59 Coaxial Cable. The transmitter and receiver units can connect to two flat panel displays and up to 45 receiver units can be cascaded from one transmitter to connect to additional flat panel displays. This product is a custom installers dream device and a must for any retrofit project that requires HDMI distribution when only Coax cable is available.
For more information and to locate your nearest distributor please visit Vanco’s website.
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Wednesday, August 4th, 2010
iPort Control Mount Series – Turns Your iPod Touch/iPad Into An In-Wall Panel
Apple has pretty much killed the wireless touch panel for the home automation market with the iPad and iPod Touch — and if you feel like they haven’t, then let me rephrase the previous sentence with, “Apple will soon kill the wireless touch panel…”. It’s really hard to sell a wireless panel these days that costs more than triple the cost and in most cases, of less quality and has 10x’s less battery life than the Apple devices.
Now, I understand the limitations of using an iPod Touch and iPad for home control and I have heard the argument that a touch panel that is dedicated gives the user quicker access than powering up the i-Device, sliding to unlock, then either launching or resuming the application, wait for a slight delay of the wifi to connect and a few seconds later, controlling the system.
Sure, I agree.
I also agree that some in-wall panels also act as an “embedded” server which needs to be on all the time — something the Apple device isn’t designed to do — those are all valid points. However, for casually controlling your lights, music, security, viewing cameras, adjusting temperature, and so forth, the Apple mobile devices are a home run!
That’s why I got excited to see the NOW SHIPPING touch/iPad in-wall mount system from iPort. The iPort CM-IW100T (CM100) Control Mount for the iPod touch encases an iPod touch in a wall-mounted chassis with a magnetically attached, rectangular bezel, as does the iPort CM-IW2000 (CM2000) for Apple’s iPad, transforming the handheld devices into in-wall touchscreens running apps from any control system over WiFi. The device is powered over CAT5 — audio output is also carried over the Cat5 cable which can be fed as an audio source into a whole house audio system — think Pandora App or even the iPod Player, however, that will require you occasionally pull the iPod/iPad out of the panel to sync as Apple doesn’t offer wifi syncing.
The iPort CM100 retails for $250.00, while the iPad version retails for $499.00. I’ll try to get one in for review soon…
- iPort – CM Series
About the archives
Welcome to the archives here at MAVROMATIC.
These are a collection of our previous posts. If you'd like to read about the latest and greatest, click here.
Welcome to mavromatic! My goal is to bring to your attention the latest DIY projects, the greatest home automation and home theater products. As well as, the occasional offbeat entry, to spice things up a bit.
