[Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Hey guys,
i wrote a few lines with 'meegoproject' on facebook, he forwarded me to this site. My English isn't that good, i hope you can still understand me.
I want to introduce a small project I'm currently working on. This is my first project with Qt so be nice to me. ( Please :) )

I'm going to get my Raspberry PI in the next weeks, and i want to use this thing as a small server. I don't want to connect a keyboard or a mouse, so i need some kind of remote. That's why i wrote pimote.

It's a module based RPC-Server which should be platform independent. (I tested Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Arch Linux)

The communication is based on the HTTP protocol. It's expecting JSon requests. It's slot/signal based and requires a client and a server module. You can add filters also, but thats optional.
I don't want to go too deep into the detail. This would make a long long text. If you want more details about it, i can add them later. Maybe someone is already interested in it.

To make it quick, you can place a server somewhere on your PC or even on your N9. The server contains modules. For example a module to control a media player. The client is now able to tell the server to change the song. Very easy stuff. More about RPC is here on wikipedia(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_procedure_call)

Since this library is module based, i want to ask the community, what modules do you want?

I thought about something like this:

- Media Player control (Winamp, Windows Media Player, Amarok, VLC, FooBar, Clementine, Rhythmbox, omxplayer, Zune, S&MPlayer ...)
- PC control (Mouse movement, virtual keyboard, auto refreshing screenshots, shutdown/restart, ...?)
- File manager
- JDownloader control
- Process control (start, stop, taskmanager stuff)

since you can place the server on the N9/N900/.. too, i would add a SMS/MMS sender. So you can send messages from your phone via pc.

What do you think about this idea? The server/client part already works. I just need suggestions for modules and gui stuff. I'm as creative as a brick, so some design ideas for the gui would be great :)

I can't provide much screenshots, everything is just console based stuff at the moment. All i can provide is this:
http://img6.imagebanana.com/img/ztgwqq3o/HolzShots.png

I hope getting some responses. I think this project has a good potential, and it would be sad, if the project dies just because of the lack of interest ;)

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Since getting the N9 Ive wanted an app that can make the N9 be used like a remote to control Windows Media Player on my PC, using wifi to communicate - not bluetooth.

If this is only one thing the app you want to make can do, I and no doubt many others will be interested!

Hope you understand!

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Could you add control for the Zune app on Windows...thanks...

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Possibility to have a page of buttons to launch applications on server, think of N9's launcher but for server's applications which you can customize. The ability to have jdownloader pushing captchas to n9 so you can fill in would be awesome too but dunno if possible.

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

F2thaK:
Yes, i'm going to integrate more than one module. Would be a waste of time to write the whole module based functions, if i just add one :)

thedead1440:
probably. I never used Zune and i don't know the api. Can't promise it.

Kozzi:
yeah, that would be possible. But i can't guarantee pushing captchas, since the whole protocol is request-response based, you have to ask every time for new captchas. Would eat much resources. But as mentioned you can place a server on the n9 too. In the same app of course. This could work, but would be very hackish i think.

Thanks for the answers :)

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

My vote to mediaplayer control for Clementine and (S)MPlayer.

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

great app. Since i have n9 im looking for app for sending sms from pc. This would be awesome.

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Very cool. I've been missing a client for WifiRemote for MediaPortal. I don't know how hard it would be to use your project as a replacement?

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

shanttu:
I added S/mplayer into the list

slarti:
I put it on the list, but i can't guarantee it.

P4d0uch:
Thanks to Qt this could be very easy :)

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Windows Media Center remote control. That would be awesome!

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Absolutely gorgeous idea, especially, if it would be possible to use N9/50's screen as a touchpad, and N950's keyboard as a... keyboard :). It would make it kinda "feature complete wireless keyboard/mouse", connectable via wifi, bluetooth PAN, or cable.

/Estel

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Even better would be XBMC :)

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

I honestly don't even know how to do that. As mentioned it's a request/response protocol. So a request to the server takes some time. I don't know how fast the whole movement works. The Keyboard will not be a problem. But the mouse could take some time, i don't want to spam the server with position commands every second.. :/

jalyst, yeah, since i put this on my Raspberry, XBMC could get support then. :)

Morpog:
I think Windows Media Center has the same API like Windows Media Player, we'll see :)

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

This is a very good project.
I would like to see, if possible, connecting to a linux machine and mouse interaction. This can be a nice presenter mouse. Probably over bluetooth....

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Sorry, this project requires a internet / private network connection. Bluetooth will not be supported. But you could share your wlan connection on your notebook, and connect it with your N9.

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

mediamonkey?

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

1. MPlayer
2. XBMC
3. Audacious
4. Whatever nice uses you find for RP as I'm getting one myself too.

For client UI maybe a screen that shows installed/enabled modules as buttons. Pressing "MPlayer" would then show controls for that module. (Open file/select subtitle/play/ffd/rwd/volume etc.) and also a button to add custom argument(s) for the program being run.

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Correct me if I'm wrong, but bluetooth PAN shouldn't act as a full-fledged network, with IP, correct protocols, and so goes on?

/Estel

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

I still don't know anything about the UI, i think you will have one "Player-UI" and every player module will load this.

Estel,
i don't know anything about bluetooth. My App requires access to your server via tcp/ip.

I have holidays at the moment, so i won't code that much. But i have changed the protocol, which is much more faster than it was before. A request takes around 8msecs now (1.8 _Seconds_ before), and the server can send blind commands to the client. Like push messages, or later requests. The library is growing, but still a lot of improvements have to be done.

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

I would like to see:
- foobar, vlc, xmbc, mediamonkey
- sms from pc

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Sounds good and promising! Your work is and will be appreciated. For now, enjoy your holidays!

As it comes to media players I would suggest:

• MediaMonkey
• XBMC
• VLC

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

why the need for Xbmc remoter? I mean we already have xbmcremote which is damn good.

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

I found some time to fix bugs, and already started writing modules. I think there are much more improvements to make, this is still my first C++/Qt project.

As already mentioned, every player will inherit a base mediaplayer class which contains functions like onPlay, onPause, onStop, onGetInfo(mediatags - artist, title, length, ...)

Going to try my first Harmattan UI soon which will be a proof of concept and include winamp for windows, and clementine for linux.

I still can't provide good screenshots, mostly everything is still code. But i was able to improve my code, so you/i will need just one line to (safely) invoke a method on the serverside.

Here is one screenshot from my archlinux system, i invoked the "onGetInfo" method which returns infos about a track (console below):
http://imageupload.org/thumb/thumb_235197.jpg

I'm still open for requests and ideas :)

Going to integrate push messages soon, which means, the server can send messages to the client without requesting them. Will be helpful for events. For example the mediaplayer changes the track, then the client gets notified about it.

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Great app :) Could this also work the other way? I.e. enable to use PC keyboard to type on N9?
I love the idea of writing SMS from my laptop - good luck man!

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Sure, as mentioned you can place a server on your n9 too. If i write a module for it, it's possible of course :)

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

I keep working and working.
It's really incredible what I learned in these weeks and I'm happy that i started this project.

I mostly finished the QML UI learning part, and I'm implementing it right now within the code. I wrote a Login and a Mediaplayer UI for the first try.

Later you will get an extended Login UI where you can save several servers and a Module UI which will manages every module on its own.

In the moment the LoginUI shows the Mediaplayer UI directly after a successful connection to the server.

I also noticed, that the Server just takes around 2.5MB Ram, and 3.1MB after a (really) huge usage (500+ Requests). I think there are small fixes to do, i wont stop coding, i'm pretty optimistic right now. :)

Still nothing fancy. I was more fixed on the code side. Now i will concentrate on the UI. The Buttons are already working by the way. The coloured background will be replaced by the albumcover later. Clementine (Linux music player) already works great. Winamp is now in development.

http://s1.directupload.net/images/12...p/bu7f2eky.jpg

So far.. I thought about starting a small blog where i post more informations and guidelines about this app. Any interests?

Have a nice day! ;)

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Great progress! Please make UI buttons bigger for a start :D

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Sooo I was working on a design for my media player module.

What do you guys think?
http://image-upload.de/thumb/gsmkju/dc1bb81690.png

I finished the module manager, and will complete the loginmanager tomorrow.

The pages are stacked now. So the backbutton works flawlessly on every module :)

Greetings

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

looks absolutely awesome, im looking forward to this! keep up the good work :)

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Looks awesome so far!

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

So, pimote is still under heavy development.
But libPimote was my first project. It has some very ugly code, which can be much smaller, faster and more reliable.

So currently i'm rewriting libPimote, which will be more stable, faster and customizable. It will support JSon and XML, but because of the flexibility, you can even implement your own language.

I'll post news when the library is almost done.

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

*Bump*

Any updates ?

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

It's sadly to say, but i had some serious personal problems which stopped my project for a month.

I'm able to find some time, but it's not that much. I can provide screenshots in the next 2 weeks i hope.

Sorry for the inconvenience

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Get those RL problems fixed and nevermind the app (until then). :)

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Hey there my dear fellows.

As already said, I had a few problems, sad that it had taken 5 months to get rid of them.

Anyway, I rewrote pimote from scratch and it's based on the new Qt 5 framework. Which means for me: porting on Android/iOS/Maemo/Meego/Mer - Jolla! is only a click away.
It means for you, a flexible way to automate your whole house with any kind of tablet, phone or computer.

How? I tell you how.
Pimote will run on any kind of platform which supports Qt. Even computers like the Raspberry Pi will run pimote.

Pimote is written very flexible, modular, fast, and secure. It provides an Authentication API which you can extend if you want to. And you can connect any device which has a WLan/Lan connection. Your PC, your MediaCenter, your A/V Receiver, your Coffee machine and even your god damn toaster. If it has an API, you can use it.

Great? Maybe - Free? Yeah!

I always was annoyed about the huge cost of remotes and there incompatibility between each other. I will get rid of this problem.

When pimote is in beta state and is doing great on PC's, I'll start to write implementations for other devices. I already have a proof of concept working for my Yamaha A/V Receiver.

Maybe when pimote is doing great, I find a way to publish pimote optimized servers for a cheap price. Maybe a Raspberry PI in a fancy box with WLan and a few Ethernet Ports to connect everything you need.

Let's see how the future goes. I'm looking very wide forward. But for now coding is the only important plan right now before thinking about releasing hardware.

Wish me luck! I'll release the first results here in the next few days.

Have a great weekend!

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Good luck! Looking forward to see how far you get =)

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Useful project looking forward to your sucess:)

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Good luck, solves something I struggle with often. For each platform I have to use different set of tools, API's and programs.

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Are you sure Fremantle can run QT5 things already?

Re: [Announce/WIP] Pimote - remote application
 

Hey Guys, sorry for the late response. I had again some trouble in my real life, first me, then my girlfriend went to hospital and I had to clear some things up. Had to switch my job too, and now I'm finally able to do something again.

Some information's about the project now. Ive switched to node.js and mongodb for the server. This way it's possible to use pimote on every modern phone using a webbrowser.

It will also make it easier to write extensions for me and other people. I don't have to write a complete server platform since node.js brings it directly.

All you need is a node.js and mongo installation. I don't know how performant this will be on a raspberry pi, but it should run. I hope this time nothing will interrupt my project. Sorry for making you waiting this long time. It really pisses me off to some point.

What ever. Have a great sunday. I will provide details the next days.