I’m currently forced to use three remote controls, and I don’t particularly want to shell out for a Logitech Harmony universal remote. So, I got the idea to construct an IR relay myself, which would pick up signals from the Media Center Remote (the one that I use all the buttons for), and then be able to replicate the functionality of the two remotes that I only use power bottons on.

Continuing my previous post on this topic, I realized I needed a message broker in order to permit me to have a daemon polling the ENVI-R for data, processing it, and then making it available in a palatable form for various scripts and for MRTG.  It would have been possible for me to simply have a cron job dump a summary table to disk every few seconds, but since my Linux box uses a CompactFlash card for disk storage, that would quickly kill the flash chips.  I needed something that held the messages in memory only.  That’s where a MQTT message broker steps in.

Update:  Well, I got a logic level converter, and it made no difference to the outputs.  Seems the clones just weren’t any good.  No matter, I’ve already got an ITG-3200 gyro and a BMA180 accelerometer waiting in the wings. Chalk that one up to experience.

I recently had an ENVI-R wireless power monitor installed, and I set it up to record data to an always-on Ubuntu Linux box I have sitting around using MRTG.  The setup required a fair bit of scripting in Perl, Bash, and a couple of extra bits of software.

For home and gaming use, I wanted something a bit different.  I was after a mechanical keyboard which was lower cost, had a standard 104 layout and had key legends.  What I wound out settling on was the Razer Blackwidow Ultimate.

As discussed earlier, I got a Das Keyboard Ultimate S Silent for work.  It’s a normal layout 104/105 keyboard, with two USB ports on the right, no key legends, and high quality Cherry MX Brown keyswitches.  It’s pretty expensive, too.