Advanced Pages Devices

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This page lets you edit all the settings for a device.

Don't use this page unless you know what you are doing.

Description: Is free-form. You can call the device anything you want.

Controlled via: Choose the device that is responsible for controlling and/or starting this one, also known as the parent device. In the case of something like some infrared a/v equipment, this will be the interface module. For security sensors, motion detectors, etc., this is likely the alarm panel. For most software modules, it is the computer itself. The ***"Device Info"*** section should explain what is the appropriate controlled via device. To learn more about the concept and what this is for, DCE.

Room: The room where the device is normally located.

Entertain Areas: If this device is media-related, choose all the entertainment areas in which this device will be used. Rooms

IP Address/Mac Address: If the device connects directly to the network, you can supply this information here. If you leave it blank, and the core assigns an IP address automatically, the core will fill this in for you.

Ignore On/Off: If checked, all 'on' and 'off' commands will be intercepted and not reach the device. You can check this if you want the device to stay on all the time, or turn it on and off manually.

Reconfigure device: Refer to the device info to learn what effect this will have on this particular device. Most devices don't do anything with this.

Use 5 second pings to ensure connection stays alive <add information>

State The device state. This value is device-dependent and different devices will set a different value here. As an example, for simple device this might be ON or OFF.

Status <add information>

Disabled If this device is enabled or disabled. If it is disabled it will not be started if it is a binary.

Registered Yes or No. Yes if the device has registered to the router. Note that not all devices register, so some will show up as No even though they are OK. "Only devices that have Implements DCE checked (and are thus typically parent devices providing an interface, or direct control to a device), have Registered, set to Yes...child devices which are dummies (generic children, only meant to hold device data), say Registered: No." <- Tshak

Device Pipes Used: Here you select what command pipes and connections this device has. The most common use is to show how a/v equipment is hooked up. Example: You have a DVD player. The audio output is connected to a stereo receiver on the input "DVD", and the video output is connected to a tv on the input "VIDEO 3". When you are using the DVD player, you are going to want all audio commands (like volume up/down) to go to the receiver, and all video commands (like brightness up/down) to go to the tv. And when you start using the DVD player, LinuxMCE should turn on the receiver and set it to the "DVD" input, and turn on the TV to the "VIDEO 3" input. So, you will create a pipe for this device to the TV. The Type is "video", the input on the TV is "VIDEO 3". In this case you would probably leave the output blank, since most DVD players do not require a command to set an output. But, if the DVD player would have multiple outputs, like Component, DVI, etc., you could select the appropriate output, say "Component". This means that when you start to use the DVD player, LinuxMCE will turn on the DVD player, the TV and the Receiver. It will set the Receiver to DVD, the TV to Video 3, and the DVD player to Component. Any audio commands will go to the receiver and video commands to the TV.

Groups: You can create groups for your devices. The purpose is to be able to control all the devices in a group at once. Let's say you want all to be able to turn all your outdoor lights on and off at once. Of course you could create a lighting scenario that did this. But what if you want to do it interactively on the floorplan? The easiest way is to create a device group "Outside lights", and make all your outside lights members of that group. Then, when you go to the lighting floorplan, if you touch one of your outdoor lights you can control it individually, but if you touch it again you will control all the lights in the group.

Related Devices: This is not used for more devices. If it is used, the device info section will explain how to use it.

Device Data: Here are all the data parameters this device requires. These parameters were chosen by whoever created the Device Template. The manufacturer of the device should have provided a thorough explanation of what each parameter means, and this information will be shown here beside the parameters.