The current version of xLobby voice has the ability to manage multiple audio zones with individual volume and mute controls . Using  xLobby Voice speech technology, users can also use the Android device as an audio zone player which can play any file from the xLobby music library  and stream it wirelessly for private listening.

Multizone Audio Screenshots.

Calrad

The New xLobby Native Android xLobby Voice control system continues to move forward with some amazing features and technology. Below is the Latest xLobby forum post-thread for ongoing discussions and developments regarding the New xLobby Voice control system.

Click the link below for the latest information:

http://xlobby.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=52963#52963

This news post is subject to updates and changes.

Wes Black

There are so many digital storage solutions available today, which product do I purchase plus the constant push for more disk capacity at a lower cost so the drive you use today is most likely gone tomorrow. The competitive cost conscious public sacrafices reliability for savings and so many products suffer from this unfortunately at the loss of all your media content, it takes months of using a new drive to only realize the web is plagued with unhappy people that have had constant problems with specific drive manufactures and that they experienced major failures that tossed all of their data content into oblivion. So it’s very important to do as much research as possible before purchasing a product that simply does not perform well. 

One product that we recommend is by Synology Network. The Synology Network attached storage system provides a solid disk management hardware platform to build your own NAS. It features extensive management tools and it’s DLNA certified. Using Western Digital Caviar Black hard drives has proven very reliable, these drives provide High performance (sustained peak 138MB/s), high reliability, cutting edge technology and a 5-year limited warranty it is the ideal drive for those who demand only the best.  

It’s always important to have a solid backup solution for your content. Hours and hours are spent loading and organizing your content to simply leave it in the fate of a single drive. You can use a Raid setup for a NAS or use the xLobby Sync technology to backup your content between drives.

Western Digital Caviar Black  Hard Drive 

Synology Website: http://www.synology.com/us/products/DS211j/index.php

Western Digital Website: http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=100

Synology Model: DS211J

Synology Model DS411

This news post is subject to changes and updates.

Wes Black

The current bleeding edge release of xLobby now has a native Android xPad application that works with xLobby’s webserver system.  The new start page menu has two options, 1. Connect, connects the device to xLobbys webserver main page menu or 2. Settings, the new setup menu on the start page of the application is for entering the webserver IP location, xLobby Port, optional password feature to keep users out of settings. If connection is lost to the android device, the connecting screen with ip address and port locations are shown. Note the IP address goes only in this field and the port location goes only in the port field.

The new xLobby Native Android xPad system has many improvements over the older origional xPad webserver for android.

1. Faster interface, improved performance

2. Supports Landscape, Portrait modes more efficiently

3. (Future Support) for IP control devices directly without xLobby’s PC based OS or hardware

4. (Future Support) for Playback audio directly from a xLobby systems music library for local device audio playback

5. (Future Support) for Speech recognition directly from the tablet to xLobby control hardware, use your voice to control xLobby.

6. (Flat license fee) for system integrators, use as many iPad, iPod, Android devices on the xPad webserver system as needed.

xLobbys new xPad, Native Android control system

Some future possibilities

xLobby Setup menu, Webserver settings screenshot

Android Screenshots

Android native applicaton, (Splash Screen)

Android Native application, (Settings Screen)

Android Native application, (Settings Screen)

This new platform will continue to expand, monitor your xLobby bleeding edge updates + updates from the native application for improvements, bug fixes and additional features, they will be available on an ongoing basis, stay tuned for continued news updates on the xLobby website.

The Android Native Application download is available at: http://www.xlobby.com/xlobbyandroid.apk

This news post is subject to changes and updates.

Wes Black

A few new features, bug fixes are listed below.

1. Builtin Screen Saver for xLobby that will provide a slide show of either a  Blank screen or images from xLobby’s picture, movie libraries with idle activation time settings none, 1 min, 5min, or anytime frame you want to set it for. The screen saver wakes up on mouse, keyboard, IR, RS232 navigation commands.

2. Bug in auto backups (old auto backups are deleted eventually to save space).

3. Spider for google movie covers changed to look for movie posters (more accurate results that way, and posters give a different look).

4. Misc. ipad interface fixes.

5. Improvements on Client Server syncing.

The native Android support xLobby’s xPad webserver system for Android will be released within the next few weeks.

Wes Black

Where is that new xLobby Android Tablet…..!

We wish you a very safe, happy Holiday Season and a New Year filled with peace and prosperity.

Wes Black, Steven Hanna, Bob Adams and the staff at Calrad

We are busy working on a new web server system based on HTML5 and launching a new control system including our own Android  tablets, the system will still work with any Android device or iPad hardware. The new project management system in the skin editor is almost finished. More details available soon…stay tuned……!

Happy Thanksgiving

Wes Black \ Calrad

The Owner of Calrad is really into Halloween and every year he put’s on quite the show in his neighborhood which takes almost a month to prepare for. Each year we create and add a new prop to his ongoing collection of scary spooky creatures. Below is a video and screenshots, diagrams of how we created the talking pirate prop.

How we created the pirate + Products used:

The talking Skull is comprised of a 16 channel servo controller for use on a DMX network which operates 6 DC servo motors, 4 DMX channels for L.E.D. eye illumination that was purchased from a company called Skulltronix, website: www.skulltronix.com they manufacture some interesting animated servo controlled skulls and other products that are controlled using the DMX protocol, link to DMX information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMX512. We used a DMX to USB controlled interface box from ENTTEC to communicate with a laptop running xLobby and (VSA) Visual Show Annimation software, website: http://www.brookshiresoftware.com/vsa_overview.htm. Steven wrote a custom API to talk to the (VSA) software, available in the current xLobby release. Functions include (Play), (Pause), (Stop).  The skeleton was dressed with a halloween pirate outfit and the chest, accessories were created from scratch using various items from different local stores. The audio L+R speakers are mounted on each side of the pirate head draped in black cloth, the sub-woofer is mounted on the upper step also covered in black cloth and the audio feed connected to the laptops speaker output jack. See the pirate block diagram below for all the technical details.

The pirate is triggered by either the IR motion detector or by a wireless 2 button RF remote that can initiate (Play) or (Stop) animation commands detected by the 72-USB-IO4 module. We wrote a 10 second delay between having the IR motion detector trigger the pirate automatically and allowed the handheld 2 button RF remote to work all the time. We placed white L.E.D strip lighting in the pirates chest so at the 10 second DMX timeline xLobby sends a trigger to Relay no. 1 on the 72-USB-IO4 module to activate the L.E.D lights. At 50 seconds into the pirate aninmation, DMX timeline a lamp above the pirate display flashes on\off while the pirate is laughing, not show in the video because we filmed the clip before we connected the lamp. We wanted to do some other intersting things to the display but ran out of time there were 2 other relay output’s left on the 72-USB-IO4 module to use + we can add additional modules to create other effects if needed. We used xLobby boolean logic events and triggers + API commands to the (VSA) software to create the end result.

Obviously the Pirate Manual Control Screen shown below can be controlled using a IR line of sight remote system or a RF to ir remote, or the xLobby xPad webserver system using  an iPad, Iphone or andeoid devices, etc. as well.

What you see in the video: The video starts off with a dialog, 10 seconds into the video clip the pirate chest lights up, 50 seconds into the clip an overhead lamp flashes until the end of the animation then the pirate is reset and all lighting is turned off ready for the next IR motion detector trigger or manual RF remote control trigger.

Download Video, High Resolution: xLobby Halloween Pirate

xLobby Pirate Block Diagram

PDF File: Halloween Pirate Diagram 2011

(VSA) Visual Show Automation Screenshot

xLobby Manual Control Screen

(BOC) DMX Controller board.

DC Servo’s used for hobbyists applications can be used to move differnt types of elements in a halloween setting, the possibilities are limitless for creating movable figures and objects the creations are limited only by your imagination.

Electrocution Guy

Download Video: Bob’s Halloween Electrocution Guy

The Electrocution guy consists of the following items to make it all work.

1. Mounted IR Motion detector to trip the control board that starts the whole animation sequence

2. Air compressor delivery system + Control Board with relays to activate air valves that make him move around, media playback system for the screaming-frying, electrical sound track

3. Fog machine activated by the control board, fog is directed out to a tube that runs up his left leg and into his body to simulate smoke.

4. large sub woofer, speakers with amplfied audio system to simulate the electical activity and screaming effects

5. Not shown in the video but look at the picture above, their is a cable near the cement that moves around + flashes bright white L.E.D.s and has a speaker mounted in the end that emmits a loud sparking sound…simulating sparks at the end.

6. Dimming, flashing spot light to simulate surging or loss of electicity.

7. Flashing Strobe Light for added electrical effects

Time permitting I will update this post with other details or things I forgot to expand on.

Intersted in xLobby technology visit the main website here: www.xlobby.com

Wes Black

The current xLobby build supports the current list of Mantis bug fixes and updates below.

When using Android Droidx or other phones the size was not always correct or switching from portrait to landscape caused sizing issues. 

UIRT Variables for IR transmit and IR Receive 

See this news post: http://xlobby.com/news/2011/09/14/calrad-xlobby-72-usb-io4-inputoutput-module/ 

Inside the skin editor under properties, allows a user to add a button to the design menu quickly without text. 

Wes Black

The Calrad 72-USB-IO4 module provides a simple method for interfacing with different devices for input and output connectivity for control with xLobby. The module connects to a standard USB type ‘A’ port. Use as many modules as needed. Remember any system wide resources available to xLobby can access this module to create all types of usable control scenarios. Relay Contact Ratings 1A, input voltage 0-30Vdc (Optically Coupled), Includes USB A to mini-B cable. Use Calrad USB extender solutions to extend the 72-USB-IO4 up to 150 ft. . 

72-125K-S-2, 50 ft. Passive USB extender: http://xlobby.com/news/2008/11/23/calrad-72-125k-s-2-usb-over-cat5e-6-adapters/

40-UE04H, 150 ft. Active Extender: http://xlobby.com/news/2007/12/13/40-ue04h-4-port-usb-hub-over-cat5-extender-150-ft/

Front View

Rear View

xLobby Project Screenshot

List of applications

Module Inputs:

1. Use a motion detector to trigger a lighting scene

2. Use a motion detector to trigger a music playlist

3. Use magnetic contacts to monitor doors and window status

4. Use fixed outdoor IR beam system to monitor property intrusion

5. Electronic Device power on detection

6. Water intrusion, flooding detection

7. Push button inputs to control any function inside xLobby or it’s services

Module Relay Outputs:

1. Open and close a garage door

2. Activate a electric door or gate

3. Control a motorized TV lift

4. Control the lighting ignition on a fireplace

5. Control pool-spa pumps, heater, lights, waterfalls

6. Control L.E.D. lighting

7. Control Irrigation

8. Control landscape lighting

9. Control Amplifier power on\off input triggers

10. Speaker Selector

11. Automate your blinds & curtains

12. Turn on\off relay driven power strips

PDF File Link: 72-USB-IO4 Brochure

Garage Door Example

PDF File Link: 72-USB-IO4 Garage Door Example

This news post is subject to updates on a regular bassis 

Wes Black