Spares of what? Remotes, extenders, etc.?

Hello,

I just want to put the spotlight on some European law stating that a manufacter has the obligation to keep during 10 years AFTER the end of the production, spare parts for their units. Don't know how it is in the US, but a manufacterer can't get rid of that.
That being said, a certain continuity is assured, for at least a certain time ...

Of course, it's extremely sad for the PRONTO team. I never met them personnaly but have been a lot of time in contact with them, here on RC or directly via mail. I also think about all the pro installers that will have some problems in the future with their custommers, and all the time they've spent making nice layout's and unique configs.

I'm not sure that this stop is due to bad sellings, but on more economical problems. Here we still don't have a government, after more than 100 days, and the hourly fairs are pretty high. A lot of companies are running away from the country due to very high costs, and relocate in "less cost expensive" countries... Even Philips has done this lots of years ago with, if I remeber good, televisions.

I won't bee surprised to see Philips Pronto-Look-A-Like remotes on the market within 2 or 3 years .

Best regards to everybody

Can you guys expand on what you want to see open sourced?

the panel
the firmware of the panel
the templates in PEP
the pronto edit pro itself
the access to the backend boxes
the IR codes in PEP (I think this one is not their property?)

I think IR is here to stay for a little while longer and the CEPro thread seems to be veering in the direction of the hardware is what killed the margin. However i agree with many posters here that there is a lot of know-how and good-will that could keep on going. When you mean GPL I assume you mean free software and know what it means :) if that is the case, can I ask you to expand on what you would see viable in OSS?
the panel rendering?
the firmware
PEP
templates in PEP
IR codes in PEP
protocols to back end
etc?

Personally, I think the most valuable asset is the Pronto community and know-how and good will in that community, after all, here is where the whole touch programmable thing originated... I don't think we have seen the last of it

hey barry, most definitely the clam-shell is a plus but I think that in this category we will see a flood of Android devices. Android devices have the advantage of being open ended on hardware which is why we will start seeing them custom. While at CEDIA representing OpenRemote I was talking with these chinese manufacturers in the back of the show, they had a clammy panel and it didn't feel right but upon discussion with these guys it was clear that custom panels was not an issue with them. Walking back through the expensive remotes with touch resistive screen or the clammed shell Ipad, all i could see was dead remotes...

It is the reason why I think the Android platform will have an edge in the CE community (and the reason I code for it at OR)

Nice to see you here aswell. ;)

For the others here. I'll be trying to build a openremote module for Pronto TSU and a RFX protocol so the RFX can be used as a micro-controller based protocol translation unit for openremote.

I'll also have a go with openremote protocols for:
XBMC HTTPAPI
XBMC JSON
XBMC EventServer
Denon Receiver
Denon Player
Onkyo/Integra Receiver
Sony BD Player

Thanks for the link and props on Open Remote. Like you I think that Android will finally take the cake because of the open ended hardware. OR supports android.

One of the key differences is that OR is meant as a full automation platform, more like a C4 than a Pronto. It has a controller (written in java). Most of our current business is industry consulting for people that build around the ORB.

Some people think the lack of controller is a plus, which is true in simple control scenarios like most of the home theatre setups. But for industrial or commercial a controller is usually needed. But even with HT setups most people will want 2 way to take advantage of newer features. In the case of OR, the controller and PEP equivalent (v 0.8) are free.

I also am coding in android to provide a controller less configuration so you can support any IP based device (KNX, GC, whatever). The porting from java to android is straightforward. This would be comparable to the iRule offering.

While we support Global Cache for IR, it is not the only option. In fact most of our CE deployments are in Europe around the KNX standard. KNX is for high-end residential as well as industrial and commercial. Open ended integration.

The further differentiator is that we are open source. To some people it may be irrelevant or even a negative (where is the support?), but we follow the professional open source model. What this means is that most of the people are actually professionals, we just happen to release under OSS licenses (GPL) and encourage community participation.

We are trying to marry DIY and CEPro.

he he, well at first I assumed you were coming from CEPro, which is where I usually read and post on industry topics. But then i realized
1/ you were actually offering to help in a very DIY fashion :)
2/ this morning I realized a lot of folks were coming over from RC.com and I decided to check it out. As you can see I just opened my account.

I am actually very interested in hearing what folks would think is OSS' able. I am not clear myself. Let's keep the discussion going. Will ping you privately as well.

Yeah, the RFX line is a no brainer. I coded the v 0.1 of the GC integration it was a couple of hours of "lookup in UDP, open a socket, send the stuff". Then of course there is the question of the integration in the online designer. This is where an integration with CCF could be interesting so that we replicated the PEP experience. At the end of the day, you click on a button, it sends to the controller, the controller has the CCF command and pipes it on a TCP socket, done. For the folks that have invested in RFX hardware this would be a life saver. more on that privately.

As a hobbyist, I am primarily interested in the panel/extender firmware, it would allow, say, making Pronto directly compatible with other backends and devices, not just the RFXs and the short list of likes of Lutron, etc. PEP would also be nice, however without the panel/extender firmware it would certainly be limited.

So you are mostly interested in keeping the pronto handheld panel and extending its capabilities.

On PEP, help me understand. Isn't it a fairly advanced piece of software with templates and CCF integration and whatnot? For example would it retain attraction if it targeted iphone/android/web instead of the pronto hardware panel only? As I read it, you seem to imply that for you Pronto == panel. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

I think what I'd want to see open sourced as an enthusiast is:

the firmware of the panel
the templates in PEP (could do without this if someone created an open source template)
the pronto edit pro itself

The above items would mean that you could emulate the actions of the pronto on a non-philips device or have people improve functionality on prontos. I could personally deal with having to learn/obtain codes manually through forums, though I can see the hassle it might cause for pros that have many configurations.

Going off topic here: the Logitech Harmony touchscreen (and most of the others) device gets on my nerves. They have a touch screen device that makes you stick to the wizard without flexibility. Most people tend to look at devices that cost £50/$60-70 and cry about how expensive it is. I see that enough from people that see things like the Harmony devices. The harmony touchscreen is something that most people that want to use the wizard wouldn't go for. People seeking that kind of ease of use tend to not want to pay so much unless it's an apple type device. If they'd created a properly programmable interface and tool (maybe even created an open source tool), much of their development would have been done for them and it could have been a real challenger for the Pronto. It's a web wizard as well (so glad the pronto has an offline editor that gives you the chance to properly customize actions and interface to your desire). At least the Pronto can be used with old software and firmware as long as the hardware lives. If logitech were to kill their harmony website or stop access to website based on old devices, you'd be stuck.

I do feel sorry for any of the Pronto Team who may have abruptly lost their employment following this decision. I guess many of them will be absorbed elsewhere in the Philips empire. However for those with prontoscripting skills who don't, if one was ever to come down to Australia for a holiday, I'd be happy to put them on my payroll for a day or 2 to help me make my XCF as good as it can be.

Take a look at these reports:

[Link: cepro.com]

[Link: smarthouse.com.au]