Add a Google Chrome icon in to Windows Media Center

I previously wrote about a method of adding an Internet Explorer icon in to Windows Media Center here using a utility called Media Center Launcher Configurator. There is a newer utility called Relaunch which I think is a better tool for this job. You can use Relaunch to add any icon you wish in to Media Center to launch your desktop applications.  When using Relaunch to create an icon also know as a tile, when you select this icon from the Media Center menu, Media Center is automatically minimized and your desktop application launched, when you then close the launched desktop application, Media Center is automatically maximized.

Download the latest version of Relaunch from here currently version 202. The utility is a standalone .exe file that requires no installation so you can save it and run it from any folder on your PC, I created a folder for it under C:\Program Files (x86)\Relaunch an saved the .exe in to here.
Right click the .exe and run as Administrator



Now there are some predefined tiles you can select and add in to Media Center



We are going to create our own new custom tile.

Under App to Launch select Custom

With: Chrome

Trigger: Change this to Close App (The GreenButton) trigger seems to be problematic and kept crashing Chrome on my PC.)

Uncheck Fullsceen unless you want Chrome to be launched in to fullscreen?

URL: You can add any URL in to the URL field this is the webpage that will be loaded when Google Chrome is launched.

Name: Google Chrome (Name that appears under the tile in Media Center)

Image: Browse to the path of your .PNG icon image for this custom tile. I just found one from a Google image search, if you are too lazy you can download my icon below from my SkyDrive.



Once all the fields have been populated correctly click the Add button.
Note: I recommend you close down Media Center whilst doing this.
After clicking add your new custom tile called Google Chrome will be listed under Current Tiles. You can select these current tiles and click the Remove button to remove the tile from Media Center.



Now open Media Center and navigate to the Extra’s Library your new Google Chrome icon will be in there.



You can then use a program like Media Center Studio if you wish to move the icon on to one of the menu strips in Media Center, I moved it to the Extra’s menu strip.





How Relaunch works is it creates an MCL file under:
C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Roaming\Media Center Programs

Below you can see the code within the MCL file:

<application run="C:\Users\Stuart\AppData\Local\Relaunch\googlechrome.exe"
Name = "Google Chrome"
bgcolor="RGB(0,0,0)"
startimage="C:\Users\Stuart\AppData\Local\Relaunch\googlechrome.png"
thumbnailImage=""
sharedviewport="false" >
</application>

You can download my Google Chrome .PNG icon from here
Now because we selected Close App as the trigger when we setup the tile in Relaunch you need some method of exiting Google Chrome on the TV screen to be returned to Media Center. If you are using a wireless keyboard/mouse or a smart phone mouse cursor app you can just click the Red X in the top right hand corner to exit Chrome and Media Center will be restored.

I have previously programmed my Logitech Harmony universal remote control with a custom button that sends a Ctrl+F4 command to close applications down.

Following on from Ian’s post the other day, my next blog post will be about the new www.youtube.com/tv user interface for YouTube on your big screen, I will also be using Relaunch to create an icon in Media Center to launch this YouTube TV interface in to Chrome. I will also cover some of the setup and how to connect your Android and iOS device for remote control of the YouTube TV UI.

UPDATE: The below is from the developer of Relaunch:

Here is some clarification:
Close App works by waiting for chrome.exe to close and then it relaunches Media Center. Green button waits for ehome.exe (AKA Media Center) to come back into focus.  As soon as Media Center comes back into focus it will close Chrome. This later option is what you were running into.

Close App is intended to work exactly as you are now using it.

Green button is intended to work by launching Chrome. When the green button is pressed, Media Center will come back into focus and Chrome will be closed. By using the full screen (or kiosk mode) you can link to youtube.com/tv and have it launch without all the window trimmings and then close it and launch Media Center with the green button when you are done.


www.phaze1digital.com

mControl & VeraLite integration nightmare!

Most of you who read my blog will know I am a mControl Home Automation user and I’ve done several posts about mControl in the past. I decided to sign up for a dealership with Micasaverde and purchase a VeraLite unit for testing. My plan was always to keep mControl as its integrated in to Windows Media Center on every TV in the house!
I was told by a friend of mine that he had successfully integrated mControl & Vera using the mControl Vera Luup Driver. With my original setup with mControl I was using an Aeon Labs Z-stick as the primary Z-wave controller, this was connected to the back of the WHSV1 server where mControl is installed. The plan when VeraLite box arrived was to use the VeraLite as the primary Z-wave controller and then use the mControl Vera Luup Driver which sends HTTP requests to Vera to control your lights and other devices, thus making the Z-stick totally redundant and no longer required. This all sounded great however now I have got the VeraLite box up and running the integration between the two systems has not gone as smoothly as I would have liked and there are two big problems that are making this integration a no go.
I have done a YouTube video explaining what these two problems are and until I get them resolved my mControl installation is now basically broken!

The problems in short are:
1. Device status not being correctly updated in mControl UI - Turn lamp on via mControl UI and mControl does not update the status of the device and shows it as still OFF when actually the lamp has turned on OK. Also the dim level stays at 0% when should be 100% (Vera Luup Device Type = Dimable Light).
2. ON button not working properly for appliance modules - The off button in mControl UI does work and the ON button also turns off the appliance. ON button does not turn on the appliance module.
(Vera Luup Device Type = Binary Light)
Watch the Youtube video to see what I mean, this is a call out to any other mControl and Vera or VeraLite users that have got this setup and working for any advise or possible solutions.
There is a 3 page thread I started on the Micasaverde forum about these issues, also one here and one here on the mControl forums. I don’t know who originally wrote the mControl Vera Luup driver? I have contacted mControl support but no reply as yet. I may now contact Micasaverde support as well see if they know anything? Although I have contacted them a few days ago about another question of how to make the Z-stick a secondary to VeraLite being primary controller as I see this as a plan B if I can’t get the mControl Vera Luup driver working, but I’ve not heard from their support either yet! Not sure how long is a normal wait time?
I am really liking Vera however in the few days I have been using it, I bought it mainly so I could have timers for lights coming on and off that will work when the mControl WHS server is in sleep mode. But Vera is showing to be a very powerful and cheap Z-wave Home Automation gateway solution. I will probably do some blog posts about Vera when I have got it all setup and know how stuff works more.

Stolen my blog articles and traffic for cash generation?

Update: Blogger aka Google have now taken down the offending site. I have to say their response time was much quicker than I expected it would be, so a big thumbs up to them for sorting it out!

Its come to my attention that there is a cloned fake “The Media Center Blog” on the Internet, the fake blog can be found here: http://phonemediacenter.blogspot.co.uk. Whoever created this blog has stolen a large selection of my past article content, every article on the fake site was originally written by myself. I can only assume they have done this to steal content and traffic to generate cash as there is a Paid-To-Promote banner at the top of the fake blog.

I am currently discussing this with the legal team at Google with the hope that the fake blog will be taken down off the Internet. If you happen to see any other blogs that look like they contain my Media Center blog content please let me know so I can report those as well.

I don’t know how long the fake blog has existed? But the ticker says 2000 + hits and it is now appearing in Google search results for Media Center and related keywords that I write about.

My genuine URL’s for my two blogs are:

http://windowsmediacenter.blogspot.co.uk/
http://thedigitallifestyle.com/w/index.php/author/cw-kid/

If you have a Google Blogger blog and find yourself in the same situation you can contact Google by filling out a DMCA Report.

http://support.google.com/bin/
request.py?&product=blogger&contact_type=lr_dmca 

Thanks

Stuart.

LED Strip Lighting Project–Part5

I wanted to install some LED lights outside on the decking. I figured out I could run two 5050 LED Controllers and LED strips from the one large 15amp LED Driver power supply, so I hooked up my second LED Controller / RF touch remote kit.

Testing the second LED Controller connected to the same 15A power supply



The LED strip in the kitchen and the one just outside on the deck won’t be in colour sync, however I wanted two LED Controllers and two RF touch remote controls, so I could independently control the kitchen or deck lights. As I didn’t want the outside lights on all the time if I just wanted the ones in the kitchen on.

I drilled a hole out in the corner behind the washing machine, through the external wall which I then fed through the cables to the outside.



I did actually buy a 2 amp LED driver power supply but I didn’t need it in the end, I will use this behind the kids wall mounted TV in their bedroom as they now want LED lights in their room, I just need to buy another IR remote control and LED controller, will probably buy the cheaper 24 key IR version.

2 Amp LED Driver Power Supply is allot smaller than I imagined it would be.



Larger 15A Power Supply left and the smaller 2A Power Supply right.



Patio window at the rear of the house / decking area.



The hole in the wall from the kitchen is just below the electric meter box on the left of the picture, this is where the LED strip starts and at the other end on the right the LED strip is just cut off to length.



Pink!



The LED’s are much brighter than I imagined and light up the decking area well. I was going to add a second LED strip at the opposite side of the decking but I don’t think I will bother, one strip seems to be bright enough.



Not the best picture but its very Blue!



I added an ACT HomePro Z-WAVE appliance plug under the kitchen cupboards that plugs into the 15 amp LED Driver power supply, this will enable me to turn on and off the LED lights from the mControl Home Automation system rather than just being able to use the RF touch remotes, I will also now be able to set on/off timers and also to cut all power to the LED Driver power supply which I wouldn’t have been able to do other wise with the kick boards in place.



mControl MCML add-in for Windows Media Center with custom LED Lights device icon.
Back Garden – LED Lights – ON/OFF



Kitchen – LED Lights - ON/OFF



mControl for Internet Explorer

Well that’s it, once I’ve gotten the LEDs up and running behind the kids bedroom TV I think I will be all done on the LED lighting front, for now at least!

Next project? Maybe some bespoke Z-wave enabled motorized Somfy blackout roller blinds!

UPDATE

I replaced the IR LED controller with a Z-Wave Fibaro RGBW module, see here for more about that upgrade.

LED Strip Lighting Project–Part4

In part 3 I used about 3 metres of 5050 LED strip in the kitchen, that left me with about 2 metres to create something for the back of the wall mounted HDTV in the living room.

With the length of LED strip I had left I measured and worked out the lengths of four pieces. You can cut these LED strips at the marked intervals.



As this was a waterproof LED strip I was working on, I had to slice back the silicone cover with a Stanley knife to reveal the four golden contact pins. The peg was used to keep the silicone cover held back out of the way. Using the LED cable I bought I had to use maybe 2 inch lengths of this cable that would join the 4 LED strips, this will become clearer in pictures further down the page.



Now I am not going to lie soldering these cables on was allot harder than I imagined, keeping in mind the LED strip is only 8MM wide and the contact pins are very close together, I’ve done quite a bit of soldering before but I am by no means an expert and my shaky hands don’t really help either. Ideally you need a keen eye and a steady hand for the job.

You should tin the ends of each cable first with solder and I found if I put a small blob of solder on each of the four contact pins on the LED strip first, when I came to attach the cable it was much easier. However the biggest problem as the contact pins are so close together, is ensuring that you do not bridge the gap between these contacts with your solder or wires etc.



This is the desired result joining two of the LED strips with our LED cable so we can create a right angle bend behind the TV.



You can buy right angled LED pieces off eBay like the ones shown below, but I can’t see how they would help? As you still need to solder them on?



I think its important to test each join you create before proceeding to the next one.



Here you can get an idea of how it might look when stuck behind the TV, once I had finished soldering I carefully attached some black electrical tape over the ends.



Here you can see the completed loom laid out on the kitchen floor.



Note there are only 3 corners that I joined using the LED cable, the last one top left is just cut off at the end and does not join back round to the start.



As this loom is going behind the TV I opted for an IR remote control and not RF. This is so I can program my Logitech Harmony universal remote control to control the LED lights, I will then not use the original 44 key LED remote control.

The LED controller is also allot smaller than it looks in the pictures on eBay when compared to the top off a bottle of Coke.



OK so now I am starting to attach the LED strip to the back of the TV, I forgot to mention in part 3 that these LED strips all have sticky 3M backing.





Completed installation.



On all these photographs and in the YouTube video there is a light halo, you don’t actually see this in real life and the pictures and video don’t really do it justice to how well it really looks.





Well that’s it for part 4. In part 5 I may cover programming and teaching your Logitech Harmony universal remote control to be able to control the LED lights instead of using the supplied IR remote control. Or I may look at my LED installation in the back garden, but I’ve not done that yet and its raining allot here in the UK so maybe a few weeks away.

Part 5 here.

LED Strip Lighting Project–Part3

The rest of my order arrived yesterday from China, no import tax or duties either as the seller I used ships from Hong Kong via Sweden to the UK.
I was keen to get started and install some of the LED lights in the house.



This is the LED Controller that comes with the RF touch colour wheel remote control.



RF touch colour wheel remote control, takes 3x AAA batteries, the reason I picked this particular RF remote over the other variation that is available on eBay is that this one has more lighting modes, 15 in total.



After testing the LED reels I was not happy with the 3528 indoor one it only seems to do Red,Green,Blue and not multi-colours or white, perhaps I didn’t read the specs. I did plan to use this 3528 reel in the kitchen and behind the TV in the living room, however decided not to use it and instead use one of the 5050 outdoor reels instead. Will probably resell the 3528 reel and buy another 5050 one.



Below is a picture of the four pin connector / cable that came with the LED Controller, this connects to the LED reel. Four cables, Blue,Green,Red and White which is V+

For the actual 12V power supply input I think you can wire in to the INPUT + and – sockets on the green connector block, however you can see top right I purchased a DC power jack connector instead.



COM / V+ on the LED driver power supply two cables.

The colours should have probably been COM = Black V+ = Red however I just used a bit of blue and brown cable from the inside of a 3 core electrical cable.



Which connect to the DC power jack connector which then plugs in to the LED controller unit.



Using a multi-meter to double check I am getting 12 Volts DC from the DC power jack connector.



First switch on!



Installing the 5050 reel under the kitchen kick boards



60 LEDs per metre



Here you can see under the kitchen cupboard which will be hidden by the kick board. I had to install a new double electric socket, this powers the LED Driver power supply unit, which I sat on a box in case my washing machine leaks which you can see is right next to it. The LED Controller unit can be seen fixed to the underneath of the cupboard. I will probably tidy this up and mount everything up out of the way.



To get round the right angle of the cupboards, I thought I would have to cut the LED strip and join with cables however the strip was flexible enough just to kink it and get round the right angle.



The finished installation





I mounted the RF remote control on the kitchen wall next to the under floor heating controller, using velcro. You can actually buy proper wall mounted colour wheel controllers that fit in to a backbox, but that's more money and more wiring.

That’s it for part 3 in part 4 I will look at creating a custom LED strip loom for behind the wall mounted HDTV in the living room. Get your soldering iron at the ready!

Part 4 here.