Global Cache GC-100

[electron]

While I am planning on my new HA setup, I started wondering what the GC-100 can do for me. Up until a few weeks ago, I used an Ocelot with my M1 to do the IR processing, but I am wondering if could use the GC-100 instead. Does it store the IR codes on the device itself? Can I interface it with the Elk M1 using ASCII commands?

 

[Mike]

I only just started looking at Global Cache, it seems it is possible to do something like connect to the elk. I haven't heard of that being done yet though.

If you know the Elk capabilities better, check out:
http://www.globalcache.com/files/Documenta.../API_GC-100.pdf

as you may be able to interpret it from an Elk perspective better than I can.

-Mike

 

[PeterW]

I use a GC100 to interface one of my computers to my AV gear to do automatic source switching.. We make heavy use of our tivo "peanut" remotes and haven't found any satisfactory universal remotes to replace them that both my wife and I like. That means no macros or anything. The AV receiver needed its input selection signals though because we have two tivos there (a his and hers).

So anyway, we use a speakercraft distribution block with an IR blaster FROM the gc-100. There is a GC-IRE plugged into a serial port, listening to all the IR travelling past.

The computer decodes all the IR signals and identifies which remote is in use. If necessary, it then generates the IR to change the AV receiver to match the remote you just picked up.

It actually works really really well. But you do have to write your own code to use it, including some heuristics to decode the IR remotes that you use etc. What I wrote is really really quick and dirty but gets the job done.

Anyway, thats one thing that you can do with one of these.

 

[Mike]

I use a GC100 to interface one of my computers to my AV gear to do automatic source switching.. We make heavy use of our tivo "peanut" remotes and haven't found any satisfactory universal remotes to replace them that both my wife and I like. That means no macros or anything. The AV receiver needed its input selection signals though because we have two tivos there (a his and hers).

So anyway, we use a speakercraft distribution block with an IR blaster FROM the gc-100. There is a GC-IRE plugged into a serial port, listening to all the IR travelling past.

The computer decodes all the IR signals and identifies which remote is in use. If necessary, it then generates the IR to change the AV receiver to match the remote you just picked up.

It actually works really really well. But you do have to write your own code to use it, including some heuristics to decode the IR remotes that you use etc. What I wrote is really really quick and dirty but gets the job done.

Anyway, thats one thing that you can do with one of these.

Not sure if you are aware: You can program a universal remote with Tivo ID's. I did this with my Harmony 880 (you might cover your no macro item with the RF version, but that is a little more).

I have two tivo's in the basement and have them modulated to various rooms. By using the ID's any room can change the channel and get a different tivo, yet still control the proper one. With the Harmony, it is changing activities (from Living Room Tivo to Bedroom Tivo as my wife likes to reference it).

There are version of the peanut remote with a 1-2 switch for the same purpose. The way to set the id's should be on the Tivo website. If you go with a harmony remote, I believe you need to call them to set this properly (they took it off the user portion when people misunderstood it). It only takes a few minutes to have them add it to your setup should you go that way.

I am sure you could do the equivalent with other remotes but I do not have experience with them.

Regardless, that is pretty neat what you have done.

 

[PeterW]

Yes, we use the tivo peanut remotes with the switches. We actually have four remotes, each a different colour, and scatter them around the TV room. They all do the same thing (left switch = my tivo, right switch = my wife's tivo), but the different colours mean it is usually easy to find at least one of them...

I've looked at the Harmony style remotes before and have never really been all that impressed. Mind you, the tivo remote sets the bar very high for usability. And given that 99% of remote use in the house is on the tivo, it makes sense to keep using what's best.

I might try one of the later harmony remotes again, especially if it can now support the tivo device addresses. It might be possible to get rid of all the other device remotes except for the tivo remotes. I still don't like the button layout of the 880 though. The 688 might be better.

Anyway, the GC100 is filling its niche here nicely. The only time I ever had trouble with it was when somebody plugged a vacuum cleaner into the UPS (don't ask!) that the tivos and GC100 are plugged into. It (the gc100) lost its settings in the chaos and reset back to the default IP address. That caused some head scratching till I figured out what happened.

Also, the GC100's tcp/ip stack is very minimal and NOT standards compliant. It is good enough to interact with it's controlling connection though, but you don't want to do anything more than that.

 

[Dean Roddey]

It doesn't store the remote codes in itself, they are sent to it via socket from the computer doing the control. You have to convert them to GC-100 format before sending, usually from something like Pronto format for which there is a documented translation.

 

[PeterW]

Yes, I know. That's precisely what I do. Except I also have a GC-IRE that listens to the IR traffic and sends me the strings via a socket connection. I parse the strings and use them to identify which remote they came from, and use that to trigger a source selection IR message to be sent.

What I did find amusing what that I have several remotes (including the tivo peanut remotes) that appear to have the same IR chipset family. One decoder I wrote will recognize 4 different devices by the first 10 bits or so of the message. They all have the same bit count in each message and the same structure, with the obvious exception that there is an ID bit string at the start and a different way of encoding the button number at the latter half of the message. The tivo remotes also have the last 4 bits being used to indicate the tivo device ID.

An earlier version from a few months ago is here: http://www.wemm.org/ha/autosource/autosource.c

It is cheap, nasty and a bit fragile, but it works. The GC-IRE isn't too precise. Current versions allow me to detect a couple of harmless key sequences on the tivo remote to trigger exernal scripts that turn lights on/off etc. I can also turn the TV off from a few Insteon KeypadlincV2 buttons in some other rooms.

eg: clear-clear-1-clear on the tivo remote turns off all house lights via insteon. clear-clear-2-clear turns on certain lights. clear-clear-9-clear turns on the garden sprinklers for 10 seconds to water the neighbor's cat if I see her hiding in the bushes and trying to catch birds at our bird feeders. (actually, I ALSO currently turn the bush sprinklers on for 10 seconds every 2 to 20 minutes at totally random intervals to keep the cat on edge)

There are lots of possibilities. Actually, a true universal remote like the Harmony should enable you to program a panel of actions for lighting control etc without having to worry about interfering with a device. I'm just using the tivo peanut remote for this since it is the one that is always around.

Incidently, I really like doing this stuff in such a modular fashion and using unix scripts to glue it all together. Having Unix, X10-RF, Insteon, UPB, X10, IR, rain8net, RCS TR40, ADR2205 etc all working together is a lot of fun. Especially since you can tweak things on the fly without disturbing other things. No reboots etc. My main controller machine has a 14 month uptime right now and that last disruption was to install more serial ports and switch to a different UPS.

This level of hacking isn't for everybody though. It suits me though, and I have as much fun figuring things out as actually using them. This is why Z-Wave is utterly out of the question for me it is a closed system.

 

[CFGuy]

Does the Global Cache just hook up to your existing home network or do you have to setup a seperate network for it?

If it uses your existing network, does Internet traffic interfere with the response time. I have 4 kids so it's not uncommon for us to have 6 computers all surfing the internet, playing online games, etc.

 

[PeterW]

I don't see any traffic problems with the GC-100 that I have. It is plugged into the same local switch in the media area that my media player and two tivos are plugged into. The switch has a gigabit uplink to the core house switch though. Even with both tivos having recordings downloaded at once, and watching something at high res on the media player, I have never had a problem with response times on the GC100.

Mind you, I don't saturate the uplink. And network switches only send traffic to the device that is explicitly addressed to it. Well, except for broadcast traffic that is, but there is not much of that on our network.

If you really want to know, I can fire up a medium sized broadcast storm on my network and see what the GC100 does...

 

[CFGuy]

No need to do that.

Sounds like it runs great on a typical home network.
I like that it has sensors so it can test the status of the devices as well.

Thanks for the info.