[mythtv-users] Re: MythTV + ARS + AntennaWeb = MythRotor?

Jason potuncle at enjoyingeugene.com
Mon Oct 4 01:18:16 EDT 2004


I think I found the solution:

http://www.starkelectronic.com/rotor.htm (item on top of page)

It's a rotor that has a IR controlled programmable controller. I could 
get a IR blaster and set it up just as if I had it controlling a cable 
box or satellite tuner.

Otherwise, I'd need a pretty heavy-duty stepping motor to hold and turn 
the 12 foot long antenna. Neither I, or my neighbors, would  want 
several of those antennas mounted on my roof...

The rotor and controller is a great deal at $70, but is there a less 
expensive alternative to the IR Blaster at $50?

Thanks,

Jason

On Oct 3, 2004, at 8:14 PM, myth joe wrote:

> Couldn't one hack the motor control in the optional tracking module of 
> motion?
> http://motion.sourceforge.net/tracking/
>
> Alternatively, couldn't one get several antennas, pre-position them,
> and mux-select them?
>
>
> On Sun, 3 Oct 2004 16:18:11 -0700 (PDT), potuncle at enjoyingeugene.com
> <potuncle at enjoyingeugene.com> wrote:
>> I found the conversation below very interesting because I have had the
>> idea in my head for a while to put a rotor on my directional antenna 
>> and
>> somehow make MythTV control the rotor to point the antenna in the 
>> optimal
>> direction for whatever station we are recording or watching.
>>
>> With my MythTV box I already have plenty of stuff to watch, so I have 
>> no
>> need for cable or sattelite at this time. I can get about 12 local
>> channels with nice crisp images if I can rotate my antenna. 
>> Otherwise, I
>> can leave it pointed in one direction and still get most of those 12, 
>> but
>> many of those don't look very good.
>>
>> So, yes I'd be very interesting in doing what I can to get MythTV to
>> control a rotor.
>>
>> Jason
>>
>> On Thu, 9 Sep 2004 22:28:04 -0400, Nathan Schiffer
>> <edgeofepsilon at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> It occured to me that this could be the makings of a great MythTV
>>> addon. I looked for rotor controllers online, and found one called
>>> ARS (Antenna Rotator System, http://www.ea4tx.com/products/ars.htm ).
>>> They're currently working on making drivers for Linux, but it's still
>>> in beta (they're seeking testers).
>>>
>>> So the question is - is anyone interested in making an addon that
>>> would query AntennaWeb (it would only have to be once, the user could
>>> even do it), then stores the locations and rotates the antenna when
>>> the channel is changed? The frontend wouldn't be much, a manual rotor
>>> screen would be nice, and some sort of indicator on the HUD to say
>>> that it is tracking to a station. And if the extension would
>>> automatically adjust the position based on the signal strength, that
>>> would just be the cat's meow. You have to admit, it would certainly
>>> be something unique that only MythTV would have.
>>
>> There's one minor hiccup in this. With an antenna, or basic cable
>> setup you can split the incoming feed across multiple cards and record
>> more than one thing at a time. If Myth were to rotate an antenna, you
>> could potentialy lose channels. Either folks would need to limit
>> their antenna to one card, risk recording static, or a LOT of work
>> would have to go into the scheduler of Myth so that it could take
>> antenna orientation into account.
>>
>> I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just that it's a lot more complex than
>> it seems on the surface.
>>
>> edgeofepsilon at gmail
>>
>> Sep 10, 2004, 4:12 PM
>>
>> Post #3 of 3 (29 views)
>> Re: MythTV + ARS + AntennaWeb = MythRotor? Remove Highlighting [In 
>> reply to]
>> Great idea - you could call the extension "MythDirection."
>>
>> On Fri, 10 Sep 2004 09:02:27 -0400, Donavan Stanley
>> <geckofiend at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> There's one minor hiccup in this. With an antenna, or basic cable
>>> setup you can split the incoming feed across multiple cards and 
>>> record
>>> more than one thing at a time.
>>
>> Basic cable obviously has no problems, and if you have an antenna
>> plugged in you should be used to signal noise.
>>
>>> If Myth were to rotate an antenna, you
>>> could potentialy lose channels. Either folks would need to limit
>>> their antenna to one card, risk recording static, or a LOT of work
>>> would have to go into the scheduler of Myth so that it could take
>>> antenna orientation into account.
>>
>> It knows which channel it's going to record, point the antenna there.
>> If there's a conflict, have a default direction. Say, what direction
>> the antenna was pointing to begin with. You can't get worst results
>> than you did before.
>>
>>> I'm not saying it's a bad idea, just that it's a lot more complex 
>>> than
>>> it seems on the surface.
>>
>> That's exactly the purpose of this post - to determine feasibility. I
>> hope someone picks up this idea. I've noticed there hasn't been many
>> new extensions lately.
>>
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