AV/IT

ISE 2018

by

Smart Building Conference I don’t do much resi these days, but two weeks before ISE I was asked to help plan a smart apartment for a well-off businessman. He wants to control everything with Alexa. After looking into it, I realized there would not be much programming to do. Music streaming, audio distribution, intercom, lights, … Read more

Infrared Control With Raspberry Pi 3 GPIO

by

Download ControlPi You can find the latest ControlPi image here… IR Database You can find IR drivers here in the LIRC database… Edit IR Driver File To edit the IR driver file on your Raspberry Pi, use the following command with SSH: sudo nano /etc/lirc/lircd.conf GPIO Pinout ControlPi 0.3.0 has GPIO 5 assigned as an … Read more

ControlPi Initial Release

by

The Raspberry Pi has a lot of potential as a low cost automation and control processor. But getting one set up to use in a professional installation is a real hassle. That’s why we decided to create a lightweight image to use as a starting point. Here is a quick look at what is currently … Read more

How To Use IFTTT With NodeRED

by

    IFTTT Key Here is a link to get your IFTTT key (you need to be logged into IFTTT): https://ifttt.com/services/maker_webhooks/settings   IFTTT Trigger Event URL Here is the URL to trigger an event on IFTTT (replace everything between {{ }} with your information): https://maker.ifttt.com/trigger/{{event}}/with/key/{{yourIftttKey}}  

The Cheapest Control System Tutorial

by

  Here are the steps to set up a Raspberry Pi for AV control… Order a Raspberry Pi Kit complete with NOOBS SD card. Connect keyboard, mouse, monitor and network. Connect Power. Install the Raspbian operating system from the NOOBS SD card. Open the Termnial program and update Raspbian with the following commands: $ sudo … Read more

Displaying Content: The Path Of Least Resistance

by

HDMI, VGA, Buit-In PC’s and Document Cameras. Sometimes Bluray, DVD and even VHS(!). How many ways to present content does an AV presentation system really need? If we could steal a play from the IT managers handbook and tell users, “That is not supported”, what would our systems look like? Continue reading on FSR’s Ed … Read more

Custom Remote Management For Super-Yachts

by

Right now, somewhere in the world, a power supply is about to die and there is nothing anyone can do about it. It could provide power for any one of those little black boxes that are strung together to make up your AV, lighting or some other system. No one will know about the failure … Read more

The Cheapest Control System In The World

by

Every once in awhile I run into a customer who has a few rooms without a control system. They say, “There is only a projector in there, we’ll just use the hand held remote that comes with it”. That remote eventually gets lost resulting in frustration and downtime. We could figure out exactly how much … Read more