Smart Home Blog

I decided to build a new LinuxMCE hybrid core for my home installation. I spent a lot of time to find a right hardware for it. The most difficult thing was a case. It isn’t so easy to find something nice looking, not so big, with reasonable price and possibility to ship on Cyprus.

Finally I found Nmedia HTPC 500 BA for €149.95. I like its design, size, price. Everything. But I couldn’t see any information about shipping to Cyprus (bad luck). The rest parts are following:
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HTPC case AVC-S1 produced by Korean company GMC doesn’t look like a PC at all. It supports Micro ATX motherboards. The aluminum front panel of AVC-S1 sports 16 X 2 VFD display, menu navigation jog button and enter button. Detachable internal 3.5″ drive cage allows to install HDD easily. The AVC-S1 has four expansion slots for low profile cards. Additionally it can be equiped with IR receiver and remote control.

The price of the GMC AVC-S1 is about €150 which is very reasonable for such kind of HTPC cases. By some reason GMC products are not available in Europe but I found a lot offers in Russia. It looks a strange a bit for me.

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American company A-Tech Fabrication offers interesting cases for HTPC and NAS. The stylish aluminium cases include integrated HeatSync cooling system for CPU and video card. That system uses side panels as radiator. So, it doesn’t need coolers with fan. Also, cases are equiped by HDD Isolation System to eliminate noise from vibrations.

The price is not so cheap as we’d like :). For example, the price of the case on the picture is $749 + additional options.

P. S. I was really surprised when I found the suggested dimensions for the expansion cards to use with A-Tech Fabrication’s cases. Usually the proper hardware can be found by testing only.

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After a few months silence Fiire has announced its new products for LinuxMCE smarthome system. They include Fiire12TB, FiirePrestigio, FiirePrestigio Lite and FiireInvisible.

New core Fiire12TB comes now with 12TB storage with built-in RAID to store media content. Additionally the box sports Intel E8400 Core 2 Duo 3.0 GHz, 2GB RAM, 500GB system HDD, Dual Gigabit Ethernet, 7.1 HD Audio with analog, SPDIF optical and coax/RCA, nVidia 7150 graphics with HDMI and VGA connectors and DVD RW. It’s quiet and low-heat/power model and fits in a standard A/V rack. The price of Fiire12TB is $1899 without HDD for media storage.

FiirePrestige is an elegant media director fitted into aluminum case a built-in VFD display and i/r receiver. It’s equiped by Intel® Core 2 Duo E4600 2.4 GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 120GB HDD (to use it as a core), Gigabit Ethernet, 7.1 HD audio, with analog and SPDIF coax/RCA fro digital audio, nVidia 7150 graphics with HDMI output, DVD RW. The FiirePrestige Lite has the same spec except luxury case and VFD display. The price of FiirePrestige and FiirePrestige Lite is $899 and $549 respectively.

FiireInvisible is a slim 2″ silent VESA and Wall mount media director. It features AMD BE 2400 processor, 1GB RAM, 120GB HDD (for core/hybrid installation), Gigabit Ethernet, 7.1 HD audio, with analog and SPDIF coax/RCA fro digital audio, nVidia 7050 graphics with HDMI, VGA, Component and S-video connectors. Plus VESA and WALL mounting kit is included into package. The price of FiireInvisible is $799.

Fiire core and media director use noiseless components and support HD (1080i), de-interlacing, OpenGL 3D effects, and alpha blending. Also all media directors can be used as core/hybrid as well. Core (Fiire12TB or some of media directors with HDD) comes with pre-installed and pre-configured LinuxMCE 0710.

It seems Fiire took in to account negative experience with its previous hardware. Especially with FiireStation 1″ and 2.2″. According to opinion of folks who bought previous Fiire stuff, only remote with gyroscope FiireChief was a good acquisition. Hope the new Fiire products justify hopes and spent money.

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Recently I found a list of X10 devices which are compatible with opensource smarthome system LinuxMCE:

• CM11 PC interface (USB & RS232)
• AM12U Appliance Module
• LM12U Lamp module
• LM12 Lamp module
• TM12U Transceiver module (on/off switch)
• MS13E Occupancy Sensor/Motion Detector
• Dimmer Module (wired)
• LM15EB Bayonet Lamp Socket
• TM13U Trans receiver module
• LM12U Lamp module
• LM12U Lamp module
• LM15EB Bayonet Lamp Socket
• Marmitek EasyControl 8 (X10) Remote control

It’s good for me especially I’m going to by a test X10 kit in Russia next week. I think it should be enough to have CM11 with USB interface, MS13E Occupancy Sensor/Motion Detector and TM13U Trans receiver module. Those devices are gonna be used for test purpose only. But after some time maybe me and my family will use them practically.

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