mltechz

all messages by user

11/11/2014 Topic: How To Use This Topic Michael Little	Hello - Im looking for your basic installation FAQ. I've loaded your software and get a prompt for credentials but the ones I used to sign up do not work.
11/15/2014 Topic: Complete Newbie Recommendations Michael Little	Hello - Ive been setting up a number of home automation devices in my house for about a year. I am looking for something like CastleOS to help tie it together with voice activation. Here are my questions: 1. Can multiple Kinects be used throughout the house and is this really the best way to use the voice activation ? 2. My understanding of this OS is that I just dedicate a laptop or desktop that runs the application as a service and the setup is all done via a web UI. Is the "Hub" that is linked on this website (but not shown) coming soon and is this a replacement for a dedicated computer? 3. Some recent home automation locks like "August" have become available. If I want to get those added to your list of compatible devices, how do I go about that? 4. Will there be a native Iphone application built for your OS? 5. Can a microphone from your iPhone or PC be used to issue commands to the system? Thanks!
11/16/2014 Topic: Kinect in every room? Michael Little	Two things. 1. I just realized by reading this thread that the Kinect was not wireless (Im not a "gamer"). That may be a deal breaker for me. Are there any plans to test or construct a device that would have a wireless microphone capable of working with this system? 2. Can this system be used with a PC's internal microphone ? Just for testing purposes. I want to see it in action before I commit to new hardware. Thanks!
11/19/2014 Topic: custom .wav file on castleos Michael Little	Hi - I have a question for you. Where is the documentation for scripting so that I can create my own custom commands in CastleOS? I have a bunch of Insteon devices and I want to trigger them using some short commands, if / then etc.
11/19/2014 Topic: Kinect help Michael Little	Chris Cicchitelli wrote: There are also more commands listed here, but even this isn't a complete list: https://www.castleos.com/forum/topic16-how-to-speak-to-castleos--kinect.aspx Chris - can you provide a complete list of commands? Its like flying blind and I want to see the full potential of this software before committing.
11/19/2014 Topic: Sonos woes.. Michael Little	Hey all - I've been trying to blindly find my way around this software with what little documentation Im finding, mainly in the forums. Can someone guide me with respect to adding Sonos equipment? I have several Play:1's, a Bridge and a Connect. When going to "Add a New Device", I select "sonos" as the protocol. Then I name it: "Test Sonos". Address: "The IP of the Sonos" Group: I've created a "Sonos" group. Slave to: "This is not a slave" (I assume). Model: nothing drops down here. So I cant give it a model. Dimming: obviously "Disable" Wattage: I dont enter anything here ether. Since my entire system is connected wirelessly and I read somewhere in here that it MUST be connected with Ethernet (why?), I just used a powerline ethernet adapter to the sonos. It plays music and gets an IP so I assume thats fine. So, what am I missing? edited by mltechz on 11/19/2014 edited by mltechz on 11/19/2014
11/19/2014 Topic: Sonos woes.. Michael Little	Chris Cicchitelli wrote: Hey Michael, sorry for the lack of documentation on this. Sonos devices are auto detected by the system. You should see a group in your devices page name "Sonos Devices". Is that present? Thanks, Chris I do not. I see "Insteon" and "Nest Devices". Although I can tell you that all of my Sonos Equipment is online and functioning normally.
11/19/2014 Topic: Sonos woes.. Michael Little	Chris Cicchitelli wrote: Oh and about Sonos and Ethernet, as long as you have an Ethernet cable plugged into each speaker, you're good to go! Right, but why would I have an Ethernet cable plugged into a speaker when its obtaining its connection through wireless? Connecting Sonos equipment using ethernet kind of defeats the purpose.
11/19/2014 Topic: Sonos woes.. Michael Little	Chris Cicchitelli wrote: To further clarify, the Sonos bridge is not used - that's just for Sonos' app. When connected to Ethernet, CastleOS finds and talks to each speaker individually. That's just how Sonos set up their system, benefits and drawbacks included... Ok, got it. Sonos must be connected with ethernet to work. Maybe collectively we could help you document some of this stuff so people like me wouldnt ask you 50,000 questions about something that actually has a simple answer. I understand how important and difficult documentation can be. Im in IT myself and its always a challenge. If you want some help with it, I would happily start a google docs spreadsheet. Also, you probably already have seen this: http://musicpartners.sonos.com/?q=node/21 . Maybe it would be beneficial to you?
11/19/2014 Topic: internet radio Michael Little	I would like to know how to do that also, but for use with my Sonos system. I found an interesting remote control webserver that I can get to interact with Sonos, wirelessly. Basically I followed these instructions. http://www.openremote.org/display/docs/OpenRemote+2.0+How+To+-+Sonos With some tweaking and effort I got it to launch the webserver on my CastleOS designated laptop. Whenever you then send a command like http://localhost:5005/living room/play it will play music through that speaker. It works with playlists, groups, pretty much anything the Sonos app does. So now if I can get a custom command setup in CastleOS, voila! Voice activated Sonos and wirelessly! =) I just need to know the scripting language parameters.
11/19/2014 Topic: internet radio Michael Little	Nick Bento wrote: From the scripting I've done so far, it's basically just straight C# code; Anything you can do in C# within reason can be done in CastleOS Scripting. I actually make some web queries to my Plex server with a script to have CastleOS announce new shows as they come on deck in plex, the only special thing I had to do was add a scripting reference for CastleOS in order to call the speech API function from CastleOS to do the announcement, everything else was native to C#. I just used the demoscript.cs as a template to write mine. I think it's in %programdata%\CastleOS\scripts or something to that effect? (Don't remember the exact directory, I can't check as I'm at work at the moment) Ok, so Im not a coder per se. Just an IT guy. So I can follow directions if you have them. =) Basically I can get this thing to work the way I want it if I can just get the correct code to open a specific URL. So if you have that snippet of code, Ill test it out and post my results! Thanks!!!
11/19/2014 Topic: internet radio Michael Little	Nick Bento wrote: Assuming the server just requires a web request to a particular address, this would be the file for the play command (note I couldn't really test this, just cobbled it together quick at work) Also not sure that having a space in the URL is allowed or not, generally there can't be any spaces. Also forgot to mention, you'll need to change the url in the script to the appropriate server and command and such edited by nikku on 11/19/2014 Now we're talking! Worked like a charm. Many thanks! https://www.dropbox.com/s/ck95guz85zsc5jw/2014-11-19%2019.12.04.mov?dl=0
11/19/2014 Topic: Sonos woes.. Michael Little	I was able to kinda hack it together. Thanks to another forum member who helped with the C# code. Its pretty much lag free and I have all the functions I need. I'm sold Chris. My Beta testing is over. =) See my post here: http://castleos.com/forum/topic274-internet-radio.aspx?lastpage=1#post2269
11/19/2014 Topic: internet radio Michael Little	I would love to see any other useful scripts you might have put together. With enough of them posted, Im sure people like me could start to utilize them in ways that benefits everyone! =) My next task is to create a script called "I'm Home." And have it turn on the lights, music, give me the status of my house, tell me if I have any messages waiting etc. Making it a really useful. Maybe even throw in a random "haiku" every day. lol. edited by mltechz on 11/19/2014
11/20/2014 Topic: IFTTT Integration? Michael Little	Im just wondering if anyone thought about IFTTT integration with CastleOS? The reason I ask is that it seems like a perfect combination and makes good use of proximity (outside of the immediate home) tools built into IFTTT's application.
11/21/2014 Topic: Enable Comand Prefix Michael Little	This option does not appear to do anything. Unchecking it still requires a command prefix for the software to respond.
11/21/2014 Topic: IFTTT Integration? Michael Little	Chris Cicchitelli wrote: Hey Michael! We've looked at it and have a preliminary plan for implementation, no time frame yet though, stay tuned! Thats awesome! There are huge benefits to their proximity tools I would like to play with.
11/21/2014 Topic: Command Wildcards / Groups / Sorting Michael Little	1. Can you tell me if the custom commands has the ability to use wildcards? For instance, I have to create variations on the same command to make sure it gets recognized: "Computer, turn off the music" "Computer, Music off" "Computer, Stop and turn off the music" etc etc. If I had a wildcard I could use: "Computer * OFF * Music" 2. It would be great to be able to group commands together. i.e. Lighting, Switches, Sonos, etc 3. It would also be great to be able to sort the commands. edited by mltechz on 11/21/2014
11/21/2014 Topic: Enable Comand Prefix Michael Little	Chris Cicchitelli wrote: That's really just there for diagnostic purposes, in practice you always want that option enabled, as without it there are lots of false positives. Thats true. So, could you add the ability to set a tone for a false positive? Theres one for an accepted command which is changeable. And one for "silence10s" that I cant figure out what it does.
11/21/2014 Topic: Enable Comand Prefix Michael Little	Chris Cicchitelli wrote: The silence file is for system purposes, but if you want to change the tone just replace the command_accepted.wav. It needs to be a wave file and it needs to keep the same filename, but it will play whatever file is present there. But there isn't a way to have a tone for a false positive, as the system doesn't know it's false... 4 If the system hears the command word, but doesnt recognize the command. Cant there be a tone that we could use similiar to the accepted command wav file?