Housebot and PocketPC problem!

starmanj · Post by **starmanj** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 6:53 pm

Hi-

I want to use my PocketPC to control my Media-server in my basement, which has an FM transmitter to send my MP3's throughout my house and backyard.

My Dell Axim connects to housebot server just fine, but it loads a theme which is much too large for my screen. In fact, I can't tap any buttons-- there are NO controls as all I see is a tiny portion of a screen that says "HouseBot Sample Th" at the top.

How do I tell the server to send me something the PocketPC can display? I just want a winamp remote control theme (is there one?)

thanks for your help!

Starman

Post by **ScottBot** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 7:19 pm

The size of the screen is determined by the size of the background image for the Panel. When configuring Panels for PPCs, make sure you select one of the 240x320 sized images.

There used to be an old WinAmp sample Theme, but it wasn't for PPC.

starmanj · Post by **starmanj** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 8:05 pm

I guess I'm asking are there any Pocketpc themes? Any for winamp? What exactly does the pocketpc app do? It just looks like this is a raw development platform with no real applications for the pocketpc.

Post by **ScottBot** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 8:15 pm

starmanj wrote:I guess I'm asking are there any Pocketpc themes? Any for winamp? What exactly does the pocketpc app do? It just looks like this is a raw development platform with no real applications for the pocketpc.

Except for the sample Theme, HouseBot gives you a blank slate to design Themes to meet the needs of your particular system. I agree that there are some things, like WinAmp, that we could provide some stock Themes for examples.

I'll work on converting the larger WinAmp sample that I have into a smaller PPC version that you can try. I'll have to sacrifice some of the functionality, since the PPC screen is much smaller, but it should still give you a good idea of how it works.

Stay tuned...

starmanj · Post by **starmanj** » Tue Aug 10, 2004 10:05 pm

Post by **ScottBot** » Wed Aug 11, 2004 6:24 pm

Try this. Drag and drop the attached configuration sample onto HouseBot and then restart it. It will create a WinAmp Device, a Playlist Device, and two Themes. One theme is a very simple Theme that would fit on a PPC. The other is larger and you can experiment from a regular Windows Software Remote (with a larger screen). They are both intended to show how to control WinAmp using a Theme. I'd suggest using this as a starting point and customizing it to your needs. For example, on my personal setup, I have buttons that select the external playlist files that I use often.

starmanj · Post by **starmanj** » Thu Aug 12, 2004 8:50 am

Great! I'll play with it. The great thing about Housebot it you can customize it, you're not stuck with one specific app and skin.

starmanj · Post by **starmanj** » Thu Aug 12, 2004 9:51 am

Scottbot,

I see the theme editor and will play with it.

Thanks!

Starman

starmanj · Post by **starmanj** » Thu Aug 12, 2004 10:11 am

Scottbot,

I'm not sure what to drag onto housebot also. Tried evrything but get error messages. Do I create a directory first under themes? What do I drag onto housebot? Can't find a FAQ on this, and the help file doesn't explain it--

thanks for your help!

Starman

Post by **ScottBot** » Thu Aug 12, 2004 10:53 am

Starman,

Here's what you do:

Start HouseBot
Download the WinAmp sample config from the forum and save it to your PC somewhere.
Drag the WinAmp sample configuration file (it should have a .HBX extension) and drop it right on the HouseBot user interface. After you have dropped it, it should display a message box that tells you to restart HouseBot.
Restart HouseBot. It will ask you if you want to import the configuration file, say YES.
After imported, it will have created two new devices in an Imported group under the Device node in the main list. It will also have created two Themes under the Theme node.
You can edit the Themes in HouseBot.
To use a Theme on a Software Remote, select a Software Remote from the main tree view. For example, select the Local Remote software remote. Then assign the theme you want to use as the Default Theme for that software remote. To start the Local Software remote running on the HouseBot machine, select Local Software Remote from the Meedio HouseBot program group (from the start menu).

If this doesn't work for you, let me know where it fails.

starmanj · Post by **starmanj** » Thu Aug 12, 2004 6:57 pm

I fixed it. The file downloads as a .zip-- I changed it manually to .hbx and it was accepted by Housebot!

I am using Winamp 2.81 and most buttons work, but not all. I can't get winamp to play any music I select from the minibrowser. It does pause and play music already playing. It does not display track name consistently. I am using a PC as a client for testing. It looks like the winamp .dll has problems? Is it possible to fix it using girder?

But if this can work, this is EXACTLY what I'm looking for! Has anyone gotten the winamp functions to work? When I do select and try to play a song, it opens up the previous playlist and plays from that.

Thanks!

Starman

Post by **ScottBot** » Thu Aug 12, 2004 10:03 pm

One thing I should have mentioned is that there is a little setup work on your part to use the WinAmp plugin. You can read about it in the online help, but I'll copy and paste the help text here.

Before the WinAmp Device can be used, it is necessary to install the HouseBot Winamp proxy plugin. To install the HouseBot Winamp proxy plugin, copy the Gen_WinampProxy.dll file into the Winamp plugins directory. This file can be found in the HouseBot Plugins\Devices\Winamp_plugin directory. The proxy plugin does not have any configuration options. It is simply used as a way for the HouseBot Device plugin to communicate with Winamp.

I'd suggest upgrading to WinAmp 5. It's much nicer and compatible with the HouseBot plugin.

starmanj · Post by **starmanj** » Fri Aug 13, 2004 12:58 pm

Thanks Scottbot,

I did see that and the plugin was in the Winamp (both 2.81 and 5.0) plugin directories. I've tried both winamps with same problem.

Odd thing is, winamp sees the plugin, but housebot client works the same way whether the plugin is installed or not! Do some features work without the plugin? If so, then the plugin doesn't seem to be working. It shows up in Winamp as a plugin though.

When I select a song, winamp plays only one song no matter what I choose. I tried deleting the "play file name" value but no luck--it's as if housebot is telling it to play the same file over and over again no matter what I tell it to do.

I'm very excited if we can get this working!

Starman

Post by **ScottBot** » Fri Aug 13, 2004 2:19 pm

Starman,

HouseBot uses the WinAmp plugin for most things. It uses it for playing, so if its causing something to play, it's good.

I have some questions for you:

Are you using the PPC version of the Theme, or the bigger one?
If using the PPC version, be sure to doubleclick on the MP3 file name in the list to select it.
Is the name of the file getting displayed in the edit field at the top of the PPC Theme?
If you look at the WinAmp Device in HouseBot, does the Play Source property get changed correctly when selecting a song?

starmanj · Post by **starmanj** » Fri Aug 13, 2004 6:40 pm

Hi Scottbot,

The odd thing is the PPC theme has some limited functionality WITH or WITHOUT the plugin! Why is that?

I have tried just the PPC theme.

I do double-click; it causes the wrong file to play (the same file plays no matter what I choose).

The name of the file displayed in the edit field is the file I choose, but not what gets played.

The Play Source property gets changed correctly, but the Play Filename doesn't change-- it's the same file over and over again, and that's the file that keeps getting played.

***new flash. The FULL theme works correctly, it's only the PPC theme that's broken. Try it as a Local Remote and you'll see***

Starmanj