Home Theatre Controller (Pioneer AVR + USB PowerMate)

[nayr]

I am expanding this project so anyone with a Pioneer AVR can deploy it w/Domoticz, however right now its BETA software and I need your help getting all the various options implemented fully.

code page: https://github.com/nayrnet/domoticz-htc

Simple Setup:

Multiple Zones and FM Tuner Setup:


Its a NodeJS App that connects my AVR, TV, and a PowerMate USB Volume knob to Domoticz and vice versa, it talks to Domoticz with MQTT, my TV over RS232 and my AVR over IP Sockets.

Combined with my AndroidTV OSD Remote the user experience is quite nice, you'll want your primary input to be capable of changing inputs (via domoticz URL API) to get best use out of the PowerMate, it cant select between inputs very well, so I have it going back to primary device that can then change it to something else.. AndroidTV is great option, Ive hacked Plex Home Theatre themes to add menu options before, and I am sure it can be done with many Kodi players and other PC Media Centers.

Hardware:

• Pioneer SC-1222-K AVR
• Sharp Aquos LC-C3242U TV
• Griffin PowerMate NA16029 USB Volume Knob

PowerMate Functions:

• Left/Right = Vol Down/Vol Up
• Quick tap = Mute toggle
• Double tap = Change to Nexus Input, power on if needed.
• Long hold = Power off
• Down and Left/Right = Dim/Brighten Living Room Lights.
• Down and Left/Right when Tuner is selected = Change Radio Station Down/Up
• LED Pulse on Power/Input change, On/Off with TV & AVR, Brightness indicates volume level.

My goal is to simplify the operation of the home theatre system, and finally rid my self of an ugly IR remote that does nothing but turn on/off the system and control volume/mute.

If you have a Pioneer AVR it should be pretty simple to modify this for your own needs.

[stlaha2007]

Hi nayr, gonna download tomorrow. Having an older Vsx-920. Have build a few script for status of zones, volumes etc.

Ran into a problem, telnet stayed open, so couldnt use the android app iControl-AV simultaniously. Whats your experiance with this issue?

Grtz.

Grtz,
Stephan

[nayr]

you have to use separate ports for each device, my Pioneer lets me configure a handfull of diffrent port numbers.. I went with 50000, 51000, 52000, 53000, etc.

So setup a dedicated port number for your program and only let it connect, or else who knows what will happen if devices start fighting for a port.

I dont have zones added to this but I can if you need it, I am planning on installing some outdoor speakers on the patio this spring.. so I can go ahead and start work on it..

a second zone will likely be a 2nd volume slider, but instead of on/off muting it it would power it up and down..

personally I dont like the pioneer app at all, id rather do it via domoticz without installing anything.. I will be working on getting us a dummy slider with 100 steps instead of 15 or 32 as we got now.

[nayr]

major refactoring of the project, should be massively easier to modify this for your own needs now.. If you have a pioneer AVR it should pretty simple to get it going.

everything is done in server.js now and you likely dont need to touch anything else.. if your Pioneer's commands are different let me know and it should be a piece of cake to make a unique file for your receiver..

fully blown via MQTT, no more HTTP GET API.. makes good use of my node-domoticz-mqtt module.

all the config is broken out into objects now, see:

Code: Select all

// Domoticz Switches - NAME : IDX 
var switches = {
        inputs          : 145,
        modes           : 168,
        volume          : 170,
        displayText     : 0,    // 0 Disables
        modeText        : 167,
};

// Domoticz Input Selector - LEVEL : [INPUT, NAME]
var inputs = {
	0		: [ 0, 'Power Off' ],
	10		: [ 15, 'Nexus Player' ],
	20		: [ 04, 'PlayStation 3' ],
	30		: [ 22, 'PlayStation 4' ],
	40		: [ 24, 'Security Cameras' ],
};


// Domoticz Audio Mode Selector - LEVEL : [MODE, NAME]
var modes = {
	10		: [ '0006', 'Auto Surround' ],
	20		: [ '0151', 'Auto Level Control' ],
	30		: [ '0007', 'Stream Direct' ],
	40		: [ '0001', 'Stereo' ],
	50		: [ '0012', 'ProLogic' ],
	60		: [ '0014', 'ProLogic Music' ],
	70		: [ '0112', 'Extended Stereo'],
};

Of course you need to be running beta for Selector Switches right now.

[nayr]

Wahoo, powermate came in today and I got it working in short order (minus than that github outage earlier).. the status LED is nice, it blinks when changing inputs or muted, otherwise its brightness is the volume level.. easy to find with the lights out.



its very slick, think the WAF is going to be very high.. response time is instant, I dont dig the wire but I do enjoy latency and lack of batteries.. they make a wireless version of this but it has to wake up and be recharged from time to time.. no thanks, and my furniture cost far too much to modify for this little thing, its a custom made leather sectional with a table hooking the two sections together, sitting next to the table is the prime spot everyone wants so the knob will always be in someone's reach.. thankfully it hides most of the cable just fine, I think the first time I am glad to get one of those clear USB cables instead of black.

If you cant put this near where you sit, dont worry.. it'll still work next to the TV for when you loose the remote and still give you nice status feedback through led when changing inputs, powering on, etc.

When you press down and turn it dims the living room lights like your pressing the paddle directly, sooo sweet.. so much so I am tempted to get another to put next to the bed, having a dimmer like this on the night stand would be dope and worth dedicating a lil arm computer to.

[HNBC84]

Great job! Was looking for a good VSX control in Domoticz
I just have some scripts in the background, but its a slow process.

Would like to see a basic hot-to install

Btw, nice amp you have i just have a old vsx-920 but still up and running.

[nayr]

I just got it completely functional last night, leme go through and do some more cleanup as these last commits, right now its alot less portable than I would have liked and you'll still have to heavily modify it for your own use.. I'd like you guys to get basic Pioneer functionality without having to comment out half the code.

wish I could proclaim my love for this amp, but I am weary on its long term longevity.. I got lucky and the HDMI board took a shit just days before warranty expired, now I've been worried even though its starting to age just fine.

[nayr]

okay I made the code much more portable today so you can disable any hardware you dont have.. I have not dont alot of testing with the hardware disabled, so let me know if you have issues.. I made it painless to update now.. same as domoticz, git pull.

here is the quick down and dirty to install:

Code: Select all

git clone https://github.com/nayrnet/domoticz-htc.git htc
cd htc
npm install
nano systemd/htc.service
** make sure all paths and users are correct **
sudo cp systemd/htc.service /etc/systemd/service/
cp config.example config.js
nano config.js

Edit the configuration appropriately for your setup, read the comments carefully and expand off my example.. look at screenshots above.

this is the document with the commands I used, might reference it with your own model: Pioneer IP Commands

Your Pioneer could have different input numbers, check your docs specific to your model.. but this is what I worked off of:
https://github.com/nayrnet/domoticz-htc ... inputs.png

You need 2 Dummy Selector Switches, one for inputs and one for audio modes.. they just need to exist in Domoticz, dont put in any url's or script paths.
Optionally you can configure 2 Text Sensors, one for audio mode and one for display, an IDX for lights if you have a powermate, and a volume slider.. (not working with mainstream code atm, trying to get that fixed)

In the example config the powermate and sharptv are disabled, but If you have done like me and remotely located your Pioneer AVR do your self a huge favor and go buy your self a PowerMate and an extension cable!

try running ./server.js first and make sure everything loads and works right.. then:

Code: Select all

sudo systemctl enable htc
sudo systemctl start htc

at this point I wont bother adding support for a 2nd zone until I get a better dimmer in Domoticz... soon though, Ive got code in my repo that works for testing but wont make it into the main branch.. yet.

[HNBC84]

Great job! I will have it a try this or next week.
And i hope to give you some positive feedback on my findings.

Hope to get this big love the pioneer AMP's

[stlaha2007]

Nice, already looked into this one.
Unfortunate dont have beta running so no Selector Switch available yet ...

The AVR from nyar is great but overkill for my livingroom thats why i also have the 920.

Would love the Zone2 if you have some time... Running my AVR in dualzone for kitchen and living.

Grtz,
Stephan

[nayr]

Yes this is going to require the latest beta at this point, no idea when the next stable release is planned.. but I need to get the volume dimmer fixed before that happens.

The selector switches are required, for the longest time Ive been running a TON of lua scripts and NodeJS scripts to make about a dozen switches in Domoticz operate the same way these 2 selector switches do... When Domoticz added support for these and I realized it was the answer to all my Home Theatre problems, so I scrapped all my previous work and started on this solution.. its much cleaner, quicker and easier to maintain.

Zone2 will be a piece of cake, it'd take me just a few mins.. the problem is I need to get the Dummy Virtual Switch to have more steps than 15. When I get volume working with the current switch 1=1%, 7=50%, 14=99%.. The pioneer AVR gives 121-181 steps (depending if and where you have limiter set) for the same control.. Ive made custom modifications to get the switch to dim from 0-100% with 99 steps in between.. works great.. so need to get that into the beta.

The plan is to simply have a 2nd Dimmer if you enable Zone2, it will work exactly like the Zone1 dimmer except On/Off will actually power the zone on and off instead of simply Muting/Unmuting.. Will you need another selector to choose the audio source for your Zone2? I dont think my outside speakers will ever play a source different than my indoor so I was not intending on adding it.. but I could, I can see an occasion where my wife/son wants to play the Playstation inside while I listen to a pandora stream doing yard work/gardening outside.

Support for Zone3 and Zone4 will be added at the same time, so if you have them you can use em.. I been thinking of putting some speakers in the hallway outside the bedroom for zone3 so might as well do them all.. if you dont need them simply dont use them.

I am not affraid of having too many switches, as long as they are used from time to time.. I created a "Home Theatre" roomplan and added all these media devices and then hid the buttons rarely used.. if I want to get access to them I just change the room to "Home Theatre" and they appear on the dashboard ready to go.. with my AVR behind a lock and key its a pain to go into the server room and mess with the buttons on the front when I need to adapt to some unforeseen situation.. (ie, house parties I end up reconfiguring everything for the event, then switching back after)

[stlaha2007]

We're almost thinking alike...

Kids watching television on Zone1, wife and I listening radio and having tea in the kitchen. Or listening a Spotify stream...

I do understand the switch seperation / reducement(s). Its al about planning/thinking ahead. Just like coding.

I hope you can build the Zone2 part. Have looked into dev papers from Pioneer about your and mine. Out of my head no difference, only the short selection codes...

Now i have to make up my own mind if i want a Beta version to control my lightning and energymeters or stay with Stable for now and build a beta with remote to stable for some status to activate stuff in beta...

I'll markes your topic, so i will be watching your progress.


Grtz,
Stephan

[nayr]

domoticz supports master/slave configuration, you could turn your stable config into a slave and run the testing as the master.. if you have any stability problems with the master node the slave node will still cook along fine and have its own UI (limited to only its devices)..

This is how my beaglebones operate, my master CuBox instance is testing and my slave nodes all run my own stable version and get updated much less frequently.. each slave can operate entirely by its self, all scripts are local, the master is mainly used for a unified display, more resource expensive logic, and longer logging periods.. Only once have they broken compatibility master/slave links and I had to update them all, its rare.

Right now I am working out of ~/dev-domoticz and I have it linked to ~/domoticz, I keep all my scripts in ~/bin and link them back into domoticz.. When I get everything working I will copy everything to ~/stable-domoticz (after making an oldstable.bz2 archive) and link that in and then copy the build to the beagle's, while still being able to keep up with and follow new features on dev branch until I see a reason to jump back to dev and go start re-testing everything.

works well for me, a few times a year I check out the latest version and see how much shit's broke.. then fix it and make it my new stable while enjoying the new features.. Switching versions is just changing the ~/domoticz symlink to a new branch.. all the scripts use that path.

right now I am working on putting all my scripts on github so I can just have separate branches for each devices and sync them between devices automatically while maintaing a backup, revision control, and quick access to provide sample code on the forums.. i dont care if all of it is public, there is nothing but dummy credentials in the code because I use external authentication mechanisms.

[nayr]

Does your Zone2 have a fixed volume? I am wondering if even bothering with the volume knob now that I started planning this out further.. I am thinking for my situation it'll be best to fix the Zone2 Volume and use a nice weatherproof knob near the backdoor.. so I could go ahead and start working on that, and then get both volume knobs working later.

I can also do a 3rd zone, and I plan on it.. I have some powered speakers in the garage that just need the wires ran to em.

Starting to mock up the entire setup:

yeah its allot of switches, but I think for the level of control I am getting thats pretty reasonable.. I will hide the FM Tuner and other Zones from the default dashboard.

Ive already started work on Zone2/3/4 and FM Tuner support, the Pioneer library has been extended with all the nessicary commands, and the configuration example has all the variables defined, so I've got ZoneN support about 80% implemented so far.. but saying how I dont have any zone speakers hooked up at the moment it'll be a hard for me to test well.

[stlaha2007]

What do you mean by fixed Volume on Zone2?

As far as i know and hopefully understand, i only have one Volume, which is mainly Zone1. Need to switch on the remote and use up/down Master Volume buttons to turn the volume Up/Down.

It does remember when zone is switched off and returns at that level when turned on.

Grtz,
Stephan

[nayr]

so your volume is linked when master goes up, so does the zone2 if its on.. or does it stay static. thats slightly different than mine but close enough.

With my current configuration, I can control Zone2 volume independently but thats because I am running 5.1 on a 7.2 capable avr.. If I move to a 7.2 configuration or use my Zone3 I loose powered output and thus volume control.. it would be considered a fixed volume @ 0db and the external amp handling the zones would have its own volume control.

My current plan is to hookup Zone2 powered directly by the amp, set it to a fixed volume, then use a physical knob installed outside to control those speakers volume... My Zone3 cant be powered by the amp and a stereo output will run to an old set of 4.1 computer speakers in the garage.. they have there own volume control locally also. In the future I'll install a couple more speakers in the living room and change to a 7.2 configuration; at that point I'll have to get an external amp for the outdoor speakers but they will have volume control locally so it wont matter.

For my setup I will only have one volume slider, for the main zone.. it sounds like you'll be the same.. so i might leave support dangling for those and implement them if anyone actually has a system that can use em.

I got the radio tuner working just now, and realized this will be great for my vacation scripts that simulate activity... now I can turn on talk radio and set the volume low enough its hard to tell its radio.. but not continuously.

I think I may change a gesture on my PowerMate, so when the Tuner is the selected input a push down left/right wont change the lights.. instead it will change the radio station up or down.. I doubt when radio is on anyone will be lounging on sofa wanting to dim the lights.. in our house we turn the radio on when cleaning, working on projects, card/board games.

[stlaha2007]

No 1 and 2 ARE controlled Independed !

Also running zone1 as 5.0(1) and zone 2 as 2.0

Dont have zone 3. Maybe next replacement

So 1 volume wheel for master (zone 1), zone 2 controlled with ir-remote or app. Or in case of Domoticz integration perhaps second slider?

As i have read the instructions correctly integration is permanent connection, cant assign different ports for multiple devices like you do. So the second volume slider is needed for my setup. Maybe handle it with a settingsfile or uservariable on/off in domoticz, so anyone who wants it can enable disable the function.

A little function can check for existense of the switch and by absense create it as well.

Currently don't have the need for 7.1/7.2 and quite happy with the 5.0 and 2.0. As Z2 is also directed (line out) to the bedroom stereo as an input.

Grtz,
Stephan

[nayr]

ah yeah that sucks you dont have more than one telnet port, do you have a serial port? I could probably make that work without much hassle.. you can get USB to Serial adapters for cheap, its how I am hooked into my TV.. Ive been contemplating switching the AVR over to Serial just because its more rugged and wont depend on the network.. if you look at the spec sheet it only guarantees a response via serial.

All the configuration is stored in a separate file now from the code, this will make it easy to update now without overwriting your config.. any switch in domoticz can be enabled or disabled depending on if you need it or not.. you wont have to create anything you dont need, they are only there to provide flexibility.. I tried to make everything as configurable within reason because I dont expect many people to have similar configurations.

see: https://github.com/nayrnet/domoticz-htc ... ig.example

Once I get better resolution out of the dimmers you'll be able to control both volume levels independently through domoticz, and select each zones's input independently.. I'll be working on that once I get the rest of the zone support implemented.

The software bridges the Pioneer and Domoticz and reacts to both instantly, so it has to keep a connection open between the two and translate the actions back and forth.. if you change something externally without domoticz the software is instantly aware and keeps everything in sync.

[stlaha2007]

Nice the seperation of config and code... Last time i checked was after your introduction post... So need to update first...

Anyway, no dont have a dedicated serialport at the back. Was only ethernet (iphone / android app control) or much expensive newer model almost like your, which i couldnt convince the wife for...

Maybe the mainboard has some unsoldered pins, or i can tweak the usbport or iphone adapterport... Both are usb-tty's internally. So Prolific usb-rs232 ot directly onto my rpi (openelec) located beside the AVR is also an option to look into.

Gonna do that somewhere this week, need to rebuild my energymeter scripts first. Lost the readings 50 days ago.
Wanna start fresh at the new month now.

Grtz,
Stephan

[nayr]

Let me know if there is any functionality sorely missing from the Pioneer Remote App.. I found it mostly obnoxious and rarely used it because work policy dictates phones get locked after a very short timeout

With any luck you'll find domoticz ui more convenient also, and will never miss the fact its using up your telnet port. Since its web based its portable to any device with a browser.. even guests could get access without installing something.

The controller also does alot of stuff without domoticz, infact it operates just fine when domoticz is down (although recovery is another issue).. Stuff like reset volume to a default and execute commands on every input change so you can setup safe defaults automatically.. Maximum volume, etc.. I tried to make it very hackable so you can get just the behavior you want and none of the stuff you dont..

Without easy access to my AVR and all the IR remotes locked up, I dont want to have anything major missing.. I got mine for a bargain, did not pay anywhere near list price.. but having RS232 and good IP control was always a requirement so I could implement stuff like this... thats why my TV has a serial port and so will the next UHD TV I'd like to get.. but then my AVR dont do 4k and it'll need upgrading to take advantage of it... its never ending I fucking say.. I am likely to sit here as long as my TV holds out.. its showing its age so hopefully it'll be the first to fail.

Once I get these zones implemented and the slider support in the mainstream code, I'll make the first official release version.. right now its considered beta code but if you manage to get good results I'll call it stable.

note the switch level descriptions in the configs are used mainly for your own tracking and normal/debug logging, they dont have to be 100% identical on both ends, just close enough so if you see a log entry you know what input 23, or mode 0401 is by name... only the IDX and Levels are used with domoticz.. sadly I dont get that information from Domoticz via API or I would already have it