HouseBot

Hello,

I have several cameras all around my house, all with the Pan-n-Tilt kit and the CR14A Pan-n-Tilt RF remote.

Now I am by no means a programmer. I am an Electrical Enginner by credentials, and a network administrator by profession. So I may be totally out to left field here but is there any way to incorporate pan and tilt control of my cameras through HouseBot ?

The Multiview software (which is really not that great anyways) comes with the virtual on-screen CR14A which essentially looks just like the remote (PanUp, PanDown, PanLeft, PanRight, Center, Sweep,...etc.....) on the screen.

From what I've read, the only X10 module that supports sending out Pan and Tilt commands is the CM19A USB Tranceiver (transmitter/reciever).

So I guess this is a two-in-one feature request. I guess only the CM19A is capable of the frequencies required for the pan and tilt commands. I have no idea what they are though.



If Pan-n-Tilt can be incorporated into HouseBot, it would, BY FAR, be the best software available out there that I have seen. And believe me I've looked.



"Video Streaming" support (from a capture device I suppose, specifically the X10 VA11A USB video capture device), along with Pan-n-Tilt, would make HouseBot 100% perfect and complete.



So I guess it's really a THREE-IN-ONE feature request !! Sorry, don't mean to get greedy



- John

John,



I tried to find a specification for the CM19A, but it seems as though it is not published.



Since the spec is not available, an easier approach may be to run the Multiview software on the HouseBot machine and control it through Windows Messages. You may be able to use the HouseBot Windows Message Device to do this, although it is quite limited in its abilities. If that doesn't work, there's a good chance you could get Girder to work and interface to it through the HouseBot Girder Bridge Device. I don't have the Multiview application, so I can help too much with it.



I've had A/V streaming to the Software Remote on the todo list since the inception of the software. If I had a single camera in my house, it might help inspire me to implement it. However, I agree that it would be a good fit for HouseBot.



I really don't know much about A/V streaming. I'm guessing that there are products that act as A/V servers and you can connect to them with some kind of client viewer software. I have yet to investigate:

• If the client viewers can be easily embedded in Win32 and WinCE applications.
• If the streaming software is free (would hate to start charging for HouseBot just to add a feature).
• If a single streaming solution can work with a variety of camera products. For example, would it hook into a system codec to intercept all A/V or is each product tailored to a proprietary solution?

If anyone can provide some of these answers or point me to a good solution, the project would be off to a start.



Scott

Hi Scott,

I'm willing to help out in any way I can.

I don't think the Windows Message Device will work. Besides, there is a bug inherent in the MultiView software and I have spoken to and confirmed this with Tech Support. It offsets the X10 command recieved but not always by the same offset. Sometimes it's by, 1, other times it's 2 or 3, then back to 1.....It's a real pain. They are supposed to fix it but ....Besides it has no streaming or remote capabilities at all anyways. It just takes snapshots. Really kinda a useless piece of software. So lets forget about MultiView. I just thought maybe the virtual Pan-n-Tilt remote that it comes with might help out somehow to encorporate support for the CM19A and hence for PAN-N-TILT

If you think the software will help you, I can send you MultiView and my registration code (actually it's just a 100KB installer, and it downloads the rest of what it needs through the Internet, and then registers through the Internet as well).



As far as specs for the CM19A, is there anything I can do to obtain them from the device? Like an RF frequency reader or something, to read what it puts out for PanUp, PanDown, etc...? I imagine if those commands can be reproduced, they should pan and tilt the cameras just fine.

OR, I am willing to send you a CR14A PAN-N-TILT remote with all the PAN/TILT buttons on it, if you think you can do something with that. I imagine the CM19A would have to be reproducing the RF commands that the actual remote itself is putting out. Or what about the drivers for the CM19A? Would those help you in any way? I believe they get installed with the MultiView software.



For the streaming stuff, I understand as long as the capture device is connected to the PC, you should be able to grab the input from the device, and pump it into an installed CODEC for compression, and then serve it out (or push it out upon request) on a port. Like Windows Media Encoder (good product to look at, but it encodes to Windows Media Video (WMV) only. But of course, right? Microsoft-to-Microsoft ). Actually this is what I use for now. I start WME in the morning to capture input from the VA11A USB vid capture device, encode it to WMV medium quality or so, and then serve it out on a port. I then connect to WME with Windows Media player (http://<ip_address>:<port_no>) and can see the stream from the current camera. I then use HouseBot remote to swith my cameras.



In all my hunting around for good software, I came across "All House Access" (http://www.allhouseaccess.com) which does video streaming through its web interface (about a frame per second or so), and the web/streaming server is built into the software. It has a 14 day trial period. It's not nearly as powerful and flexible as HouseBot and they want around $150 US for it !!! I think NOT !! But I tried it out for a couple of weeks. Maybe you might want to look at it.



I can email you the installer and the reg codes, and send you the CR14A remote if you think you can use them somehow.

Let me know how I can help out in any way at all with these feature developments. I will do it if I can.



Thanks,

- John

John,



I was considering ordering one of the X10 cameras and a Pan & Tilt kit to check it out. I might be able to monitor the USB data and decipher the protocol (no guarantees at all).



I'll have a better idea of what is possible once I get the hardware myself. I don't want to get your hopes up on a quick solution, as there are still several other items on my list ahead of this.



Do you know anything about NullSofts A/V streaming stuff (http://www.nullsoft.com/nsv/)?



Scott

"I might be able to monitor the USB data and decipher the protocol"



Scott,

Just curious as to what software you use to monitor USB data?

This one?

http://benoit.papillault.free.fr/usbsnoop/doc.en.php

or do you use something else?

I used SnoopyPro when writing the USB PowerLinc plugin. I don't know how it compares to other USB sniffers, but once I got it setup (for some reason it was giving me a hard time), it worked great. The traces were exactly what I needed.



I don't see myself being able to get stared on this for several weeks, so any help you can provide would be appreciated.



Scott

Hi Scott,

Unfortunately I've never heard of Nullsoft's streaming stuff.

I understand your point of view, and that you're really busy. If I can help out in any way, I will. I would much rather see the pan and tilt support first before any audio/video streaming stuff.

I hope you can find the time to look into this stuff. I will try and do some reading as well. But for now, at least it's on your To-Do list



I'm watching the What's New topic in the general forum, so I guess I'll see all your new developments there.



Thanks,

- John