Hi Brett, I have been emailing Derek back an forth over the last two days after buiding the HAH.
I have to say I am quite impressed that I made it work first time, well almost.
The Build was easy, but I messed up the ini file for the HE rf transmitter.
Derek spotted that, so I now have the RF, Temp sensor, Relay and inputs all working.
Hi Gary,
I am far from being an expert (in fact I am a total newbie in Embedded Linux) so my answer might not be a valuable one… but considering that there are pages dedicated to interfacing Arduino with the HAH, maybe the simplest way to get support for Zigbee could be interfacing it through Arduino (and its Xbee Shield).
Before I'd go in depth trying to modify the firmware by the HAH one or a custom made one… I would like to know why is the Wireless LAN missing in the HAH? is just a matter of not having the source code for the wireless (I've heard it is provided by a mini-pci board inside) or is it due to other limitations? I've seen within the useful links the Thomson source code publication… is it not complete so you can't build the system including the ADSL and/or Wifi functions?
The wireless code supplied by Thompson only allows the LIVEBOX to run in SERVER mode. I'd like HAH to be a client but sadly this is not to be. The Linux 2.6 kernel used in OPENWRT has support for the chipset as a CLIENT but this is a NON-TRIVIAL upgrade. I looked into it once but didn't get far - so now its on the back burner.
NOTE The WIFI code is written by broadcom and as its not GPL so isn't released.
First of all thanks a lot for your response and for sharing with us your knowledge.
Currently for my purposes (livebox as a “audio gateway”-like device) it is not resulting necessary to “go the wild way” and I am progressing by accessing in terminal mode to the livebox.
The point I am stuck at is the following: I was aiming to install and run madplay on the livebox so I have compiled it for mips but its binary (static compiling) seems to be too big (921kb) to fit in my livebox. Shared libraries does not seem to be the solution as the total sum of madplay + shared libs is bigger than the “static” madplay.
Does anybody know about any other small footprint mp3 playing - audio routing software that could fit into the livebox??
Note: I am just -as a first step- plugging a USB-soundcard and I am getting by with insmod and the appropriate modules… next step could be Bluetooth audio… but I am not sure about its feasibility.
I think I tried to this once upon a time using an el' cheapo USB audio dongle. As the kernel is 2.4 I found all sort of problems with the audio drivers. Audio in Linux really didn't get it shit together until the 2.6 kernel. I managed to get some squeaks but that was about it. Regarding the binary size YEP you'll need build new FIRMWARE from scratch to get it in there, alternatively you can put in on an external USB flash drive and mount it up. Just grab the USB drivers. Or you can NFS mount the binary from somewhere else and then run it this is how I operate when I'm developing new code for the HAH.
Thanks a lot Brett. I was just wondering if I could use both USB ports (Audio Souncard and pendrive)…but the NFS idea could be a good option too…
If someone as experienced as you are, found difficulties with Linux 2.4 Audio I think it will be almost impossible for me to get through it (but I am a stubborn guy… simply having not time enough to be stubborn enough). I will let you know about my progresses (if any).
I might have not told you before: congratulations on your website and its contents… they are fantastic.
Btw… have you ever dealt with the built-in bluetooth module?
The livebox is happy to run a USB hub you know? So this always works if you want multiple USB devices plugged in. I looked at the bluetooth module and got it kind of working, in a much as I could get it to play with my bluetooth phone, however it wasn't something I was immediately interested in or had a use for so I parked it.
If you make progress on the audio let me know!
I even backported audio drivers from later 2.4.x kernels to 2.4.17 to see if I could get this working and failed so good luck. Personally I think getting 2.6 compiled up and installed would be the easier route. I briefly played with openwrt on the livebox this might be a better starting place. Eventually I'll move to this as my BASE for the HAH.
livebox/discussion/hah_project.txt · Last modified: 2010/04/20 11:45 (external edit)
Discussion
I've setup a simple discussion system so those who have been playing around with the HAH project have a place to comment and talk to others about it.
Hi Brett, I have been emailing Derek back an forth over the last two days after buiding the HAH. I have to say I am quite impressed that I made it work first time, well almost. The Build was easy, but I messed up the ini file for the HE rf transmitter. Derek spotted that, so I now have the RF, Temp sensor, Relay and inputs all working.
Thanks
Hi guys, can this project include Zigbee devices as part of the HAN?
Hi Gary, I am far from being an expert (in fact I am a total newbie in Embedded Linux) so my answer might not be a valuable one… but considering that there are pages dedicated to interfacing Arduino with the HAH, maybe the simplest way to get support for Zigbee could be interfacing it through Arduino (and its Xbee Shield).
Best regards.
Hi everyone,
I've recently acquired a Livebox router.
Before I'd go in depth trying to modify the firmware by the HAH one or a custom made one… I would like to know why is the Wireless LAN missing in the HAH? is just a matter of not having the source code for the wireless (I've heard it is provided by a mini-pci board inside) or is it due to other limitations? I've seen within the useful links the Thomson source code publication… is it not complete so you can't build the system including the ADSL and/or Wifi functions?
Thanks a lot.
The wireless code supplied by Thompson only allows the LIVEBOX to run in SERVER mode. I'd like HAH to be a client but sadly this is not to be. The Linux 2.6 kernel used in OPENWRT has support for the chipset as a CLIENT but this is a NON-TRIVIAL upgrade. I looked into it once but didn't get far - so now its on the back burner. NOTE The WIFI code is written by broadcom and as its not GPL so isn't released.
Hi everyone again,
First of all thanks a lot for your response and for sharing with us your knowledge.
Currently for my purposes (livebox as a “audio gateway”-like device) it is not resulting necessary to “go the wild way” and I am progressing by accessing in terminal mode to the livebox. The point I am stuck at is the following: I was aiming to install and run madplay on the livebox so I have compiled it for mips but its binary (static compiling) seems to be too big (921kb) to fit in my livebox. Shared libraries does not seem to be the solution as the total sum of madplay + shared libs is bigger than the “static” madplay.
Does anybody know about any other small footprint mp3 playing - audio routing software that could fit into the livebox??
Note: I am just -as a first step- plugging a USB-soundcard and I am getting by with insmod and the appropriate modules… next step could be Bluetooth audio… but I am not sure about its feasibility.
Thanks a lot
I think I tried to this once upon a time using an el' cheapo USB audio dongle. As the kernel is 2.4 I found all sort of problems with the audio drivers. Audio in Linux really didn't get it shit together until the 2.6 kernel. I managed to get some squeaks but that was about it. Regarding the binary size YEP you'll need build new FIRMWARE from scratch to get it in there, alternatively you can put in on an external USB flash drive and mount it up. Just grab the USB drivers. Or you can NFS mount the binary from somewhere else and then run it this is how I operate when I'm developing new code for the HAH.
Thanks a lot Brett. I was just wondering if I could use both USB ports (Audio Souncard and pendrive)…but the NFS idea could be a good option too…
If someone as experienced as you are, found difficulties with Linux 2.4 Audio I think it will be almost impossible for me to get through it (but I am a stubborn guy… simply having not time enough to be stubborn enough). I will let you know about my progresses (if any).
I might have not told you before: congratulations on your website and its contents… they are fantastic.
Btw… have you ever dealt with the built-in bluetooth module?
Best regards.
The livebox is happy to run a USB hub you know? So this always works if you want multiple USB devices plugged in. I looked at the bluetooth module and got it kind of working, in a much as I could get it to play with my bluetooth phone, however it wasn't something I was immediately interested in or had a use for so I parked it.
If you make progress on the audio let me know! I even backported audio drivers from later 2.4.x kernels to 2.4.17 to see if I could get this working and failed so good luck. Personally I think getting 2.6 compiled up and installed would be the easier route. I briefly played with openwrt on the livebox this might be a better starting place. Eventually I'll move to this as my BASE for the HAH.