User:Purps

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Introduction

Hello all. My name is Matt and I live in England. Have been playing with LMCE for a number of years now. I would class myself as a user, but am always keen to help any way I can. By profession I am a mechanical design engineer in the space industry. In my spare time I enjoy metalwork, woodwork and various other little electronics/DIY projects. Any remaining free time is spent with my extremely patient and long-suffering girlfriend with whom I live. We have now bought our first house together, so now the LMCE-related carnage can really begin.

I have started a blog for all my major projects, which of course includes LMCE http://projectsofmatt.wordpress.com/

The intention is to keep progress reports and general ramblings to the blog. This wiki page will serve as a snapshot of my setup.


Software

My current installation is based on the 1004 RC. It is fantastic. Don't bother with 810 any more.

I would highly recommend the use of Clonezilla for backing up LMCE at appropriate intervals i.e. whenever you get something working! Clonezilla saves a partition of your choice as a compressed file which can in turn be saved to any connected hard drive. Then, you can attempt to get the next thing working without fear of ruining your life/relationship. If the worst happens, just pop the Clonezilla live CD back in and restore the relevant image back. To use, I found Clonezilla to be very intuitive; my only other advice would be to name your backups with as much detailed information as possible. You won't always necessarily want to restore the last image you made, as you may find a problem that goes back further.


Network

It is highly advisable that you adopt the recommended network setup and use 2 NICs in your core. This means that a) things are a lot more likely to work straight out of the box and b) when things DO go wrong, you are far more likely to receive support. In my experience it is definitely worth it.

Yes, we need a diagram here, a picture is worth a thousand words and all that....

My external network looks a little bit like this...

Virgin Media Cable Modem -> NIC 1 (eth0) on Core

And my internal network...

NIC 2 (eth1) on Core -> Netgear 8-port Gigabit switch

Connected to this switch you'll find...

  • All of the MDs
  • "Normal" computers requiring Internet access
  • IP Cameras
  • IP Phone
  • Wireless Access Point (WAP)

Note: If you have a spare wireless router laying around, it can be used as a WAP (this is what I have done using the much loved Netgear WGR614). Just connect it up to a switch (your internal network) via one of the LAN ports (these are the ports that you would normally plug your computers into, NOT the port that you would usually plug your Internet cable into). In the router's admin page, make sure DHCP is DISABLED, and then set it up in the normal way. Your SSID should NOT be your name or give any clues as to where you live, use the strongest encryption you can (I use WPA2) and it makes a lot of sense to set up an access list (MAC filter). This allows you to specify exactly which MAC addresses are allowed to connect, making your WAP very secure. Finally, and this is important if you wish to access the router's admin page again (perhaps you'll want to add a friend's MAC address for example), you must assign a new LAN TCP/IP. This wants to be in the 192.168.80.X format, and should not be an address that is already in use. I used 192.168.80.254.


Storage

The two internal hard disks in the Core are each dedicated to their respective jobs (OS and cameras). For the storage of all media, and to serve as a backup drive for our other computers, a D-Link DNS-323 NAS drive is being utilised. It has x2 HDD bays, only one of which is currently occupied with a 2TB disk, and I will add another in the near future.

This NAS is plug'n'play with LMCE. If you want to password protect the NAS volume, achieved via the NAS admin page, you must fill out the appropriate boxes in web admin also.


Core/MDs

This section talks about the main bits of hardware in my home that make up the principal elements of any LMCE system.


Core (PA)

Main hardware includes...

  • Case - Nasty old beige ATX case, lives in cupboard under stairs, out of sight.
  • Motherboard - MSI 870-C45 AMD 770 ATX Socket AM3 Realtek GbLAN controller
  • Processor - AMD quad core processor
  • Memory - 3GB
  • Power Supply - Corsair 400W
  • Graphics card - ATI Radeon X300SE 128MB PCIe
  • Hard disks - 80GB for OS, 500GB for cameras.
  • NIC - Realtek RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (non-gigabit, used for external network)
  • DVD Drive - Only used when I reinstall.
  • Z-Wave controller - Seluxit viaSENS Home Controller, this is the recommended interface.
  • Z-Wave inclusion remote - Aeon Labs Minimote
  • UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) - APC Smart-UPS 1400. Powers the Core, modem, switch, cameras (cameras use PoE, so plugs are all in the same place).


Following installation, I carried out the following on my Core to make it work/get it the way I wanted it...

  • Swapped Network Interfaces in web admin -> Advanced -> Network -> Network settings, to put eth0 on the external network.
  • Changed password to something more secure in web admin -> Wizard -> Basic info -> Users.
  • Made use of the folder lock feature in order to stop my desktop backup from appearing in the orbiters.


MD (Living Room)

Main hardware includes...

  • Case - Jetway JC200. Smallest mini-ITX case I could find with space for slim DVD drive.
  • Motherboard -
  • Memory - 2GB (512MB dedicate to GPU)
  • Power Supply - 100 W fanless picoPSU (included with case)
  • DVD Drive - Samsung SN-T083C slot-loading drive.
  • Mouse/keyboard - Fly Air Gyro Sensing Mouse and Wireless Keyboard
  • Display - LG 42LH400 42" Full HD LCD TV (controlled via RS232).
  • Speakers - B&W speakers driven by tube amp.


Also carried out the following...

  • After the initial installation, switch off MD. In web admin under "Media Directors", select "auto" for "Hardware Acceleration" and "vdpau" for "Deinterlace settings". Then click "Update". Switch MD back on.
  • Changed from "H" to "S" in the "PowerOff mode". This suspends the MD when switched off, rather than power it down completely.
  • Installed libdvdcss2 and w32codecs to allow DVDs and DivXs to be played (sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2 w32codecs).


MD (Kitchen)

Main hardware includes...

  • Case - None, lives in cupboard under stairs.
  • Motherboard - ASUS AT3N7A-I
  • Memory - 2GB (512MB dedicated to GPU)
  • Power Supply - 100 W fanless picoPSU.
  • Display - 22" ViewSonic VX2239WM, 1080p LCD, HDMI, integrated speakers.


Also carried out the following...

  • After the initial installation, switch off MD. In web admin under "Media Directors", select "auto" for "Hardware Acceleration" and "vdpau" for "Deinterlace settings". Then click "Update". Switch MD back on.
  • Changed from "H" to "S" in the "PowerOff mode". This suspends the MD when switched off, rather than power it down completely.
  • Installed libdvdcss2 and w32codecs to allow DVDs and DivXs to be played (sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2 w32codecs).


MD (Bedroom)

Hardware will be installed soon for testing before putting in permanent cable runs

  • Motherboard - TBD (atom, fanless?)
  • Display - Foehn & Hirsch 42" Full HD LCD TV


MD (Bathroom)

Bathroom will be redone in near future. Intention is to add ceiling speakers only, driven by squeezeslave/amp


MD (Study)

Debating whether to install MD - probably not necessary


MD (Metalshop)

Indoor workshop will require MD, will probably be a 'normal' desktop


MD (Woodshop)

Main hardware includes...

  • Case -
  • Motherboard - ASUS AT3IONT (dusty environment - fanless atom board)
  • Memory - 2GB (512MB dedicate to GPU)
  • Power Supply - 100 W fanless picoPSU (included with case)
  • Display -


Also carried out the following...

  • After the initial installation, switch off MD. In web admin under "Media Directors", select "auto" for "Hardware Acceleration" and "vdpau" for "Deinterlace settings". Then click "Update". Switch MD back on.
  • Changed from "H" to "S" in the "PowerOff mode". This suspends the MD when switched off, rather than power it down completely.
  • Installed libdvdcss2 and w32codecs to allow DVDs and DivXs to be played (sudo apt-get install libdvdcss2 w32codecs).


MD (Garage)

Attached garage, will require MD, will probably be a 'normal' desktop


Orbiters

Every MD features an on-screen orbiter. In addition to the on-screen ones...


Mobile Orbiters

  • Mobile phone - HTC Desire HD Jellybean (JellyTime) running los93sol's/Thom's AndroidTouchOrbiter. I also use this device a lot for remote access.
  • Netbook - my netbook, uses Web Orbiter 2.0.
  • Laptop - the lady's laptop, uses Web Orbiter 2.0.
  • Nokia N800 - running its own orbiter software. Generally used in workshop areas.


Other Orbiters


Home Automation

This section looks at the remaining hardware in my home, relating specifically to home automation.


Lights

  • Duwi dimmer switch - in Living Room, 2 wire in my case (more common in Europe).


Note: AVOID ACT HomePro ZDW232 as explained here.

Security

Having been the victims of a burglary, I consider this to be a very important area.


Cameras

  • Panasonic BL-C10 - x3 covering indoor areas.
  • Y-Cam Black YCB004 - x2 covering outdoor areas.


Note: All of my cameras make use of Power over Ethernet (PoE), despite not being models that support it! Nor do I have any switches/hubs that "spit out" PoE at the Core end. Search on eBay for "poe injector kit" and you'll see what I mean. Powering devices in this way is very useful in that you only need to run a single Ethernet cable for both data and power. Brilliant for cameras, especially outdoor ones. Also useful if you want your cameras to be on a UPS, as PoE allows all of the power plugs to be in the same place.


Sensors


Lighting

Remember LMCE allows you to set up your lights to turn on and off and specified times - excellent for giving the impression that somebody is in.


Telephone

Siemens Gigaset C475 IP on sipgate.co.uk


Climate

Watch this space!


Thank you for reading

Please contact me if you have any questions or if I can be of any assistance. I might not be so helpful from the software point of view, but any questions regarding hardware, DIY around the house or generally doing things on the cheap, I might be able to help you.

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