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The original project is located at https://github.com/azylman/webmote and was written by Daniel Myers, Alex Wilson, and Alex Zylman. This rewrite serves to improve extensibility by using a plugin architecture with a minimal core and plugins for features or protocols.

High Level Concept:

This project aims to allow any type of device to be controlled by a common web interface (IR, X10, etc.).

How It Works:

• Devices - these are things like your TV, Stereo, Light, etc.
• Actions - these are things you do to your devices like, turning them on/off, changing channels, etc.
• Transcievers - for the devices that need them (so far IR and X10), these are pieces of hardware that transmit/recieve data between the server running Webmote and your devices.
  • These are built with arduinos connected to the server via USB that then have additional circuitry for IR, X10, etc.
• Remotes - there are both custom (user defined) and default (all available actions for a device) remotes that allow a user to trigger actions.
  • For custom remotes, users can pick where buttons should be placed, what actions they should trigger, what they should look like etc.
  • One motivation for this project was the numerous remotes I had to control my entertainment system. With custom remotes a user can make a remote that has actions from any device or macros. In other words, a remote might be named "Watch TV". That remote might have a button like "Watch Cable" that turns on the TV, cable box, and stereo and also changes them to the correct inputs. There might also be a button called "ESPN" or "CNN" which will automatically navigate you to the channels without having to remember channel numbers (phew...).
• There are already a few different plugins for example XBMC control and Scheduling which allows you to schedule things like your lights to go on or off at a given time throughout the week.

Goals:

• Extensible - plugins for new protocols and functionality
• Mobile web interface - works on any browser on any platform
• Simple enough for my parents (old) to setup
• (eventually) Serve media connected to the server, upload to, download to, etc (this is more of a long term goal...)

Core:

A set of abstract base classes (and associated methods) for the plugins to expand on.

Plugins:

A set of subclasses, files and routines that expand the functionality of webmote.
The format is as follows:

A top level directory containing at least:

• templates (directory)
  • html files containing pages specific to the plugin
• static (directory)
  • images, javascript, etc.
• models.py
• urls.py
• views.py
• __init__.py
• info.json
  • authors
  • version
  • name
  • url

Tasks:

• Need to implement a method for installing plugin dependencies
• Need to implement a method or plugin for managing USB port changes manually, or better yet automatically
• Secondary:
  • Remote/Local Media player
  • In browser file browser
  • Mobile playback
  • Local playback

Setup Server:

#install virtualenv, pip
sudo apt-get install python-virtualenv python-pip
cd webmote
./install

Setup Transceivers:

X10

• Basics can be found here: http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/x10
• Pins in sketch:
  • Zero Crossing - 12
  • Data TX - 13
  • Data RX - 1 (rx isn't actually used at the moment)
• Download the X10 library and put it in the arduino libraries folder
  • on ubuntu 12.10 - /usr/share/arduino/libraries
  • will probably need to be root to copy to this directory
• Flash Sketch
  • Open X10_transceiver.pde via arduino (found in webmote/modules/X10/X10_tranceiver)
  • Click 'upload' - circle with right arrow

IR

• Basics can be found at http://www.arcfn.com/2009/08/multi-protocol-infrared-remote-library.html
• Pins in sketch:
  • Recieve - 11
  • IR - 3
  • Status - 13
• Download the library and put it in the arduino libraries folder
  • available at https://github.com/shirriff/Arduino-IRremote
  • on ubuntu 12.10 - /usr/share/arduino/libraries
  • will probably need to be root to copy to this directory
• Flash Sketch
  • Open IR_transceiver.pde via arduino (found in webmote/modules/IR/IR_tranceiver)
  • Click 'upload' - circle with right arrow

• One thing to note is that by default, arduinos are reset when a serial connection is initiated (which webmote does from time to time...) which can cause problems with commands being lost while the arduino is in its reset sequence.
  • You are experiencing this if:
    • When sending a command your tx/rx lights are active (you are talking to the device correctly) AND
    • The console or logfile does not have a message saying "Failed to play" AND
    • When sending a command nothing happens
  • The simplest fix is placing a small capacitor (2.2 uF works for me) between "reset" and "3v3"

Run (development server):

./run