Media Center Auto Shutdown and RTC Wakeup Based on tvheadend Recording Schedule
I created a script that runs via cron job that will power off my media center if it is not in use, but will program the real time clock (RTC) on the motherboard to wake up the system in time to run a scheduled recording, and/or to update the EPG data, and from that derive potential new or changed auto-recordings. To determine if the system is currently not in use, I
- Check if the monitor is off
- Check if any audio is playing, e.g., Spotify or KODI is playing anything
- Check if the wireless keyboard is connected
- Check if tvheadend is currently recording something
Also, the shutdown processing can be blocked by creating a flag file. If that file exists, no shutdown will happen.
The wake-up time is either the next recording time plus some allowance for boot time, or every 24 hours, whatever comes first. This makes sure that at least once a day the EPG is updated and tvheadend can update its auto-recording-schedule.
As a result, I reduce power consumption of the media center considerably.
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My Next Media Center Iteration: Intel NUC8i3BEH
My Raspberry Pi 4 based media center has some issues, which I was able to resolve by switching to an Intel NUC8i3BEH platform. I was able to make the device quiet despite of its fan, and set up everything to have live TV and PVR, a web browser, Spotify and other DRM content in a very usable and performant setup.
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European WordPress Bloggers beware: “Abmahnwelle” due to Google Fonts!
WordPress admins are currently sued for using Google Fonts directly from the Google servers without correctly informing users about the data collection by Google. I give a few hints on how to protect yourself against this. Disclaimer: I’m not a Pro in legal regards, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.
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Replacing Fabtotum Hybrid Head v1 Hotend with E3D Lite6
I replaced the stock hotend of the Fabtotum Personal Fabricator Hybrid Head v1 by an E3D Lite6 hotend (The full metal V6 should work the same way). In this post I describe the steps to remove the old hotend, get in the new hotend and the simple modifications to the firmware that were required.
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Floating Table of Contents
I wanted to have a floating table of contents for my posts, but could not find any free plugin that allowed me to do so. Using a combination of plugins, I created a floating TOC myself, which is not perfect, but good enough.
Hiking Maps Follow-Up: Large Area Maps
The approach for creating feature-rich hiking maps described in my earlier post was limited in area, since it uses the Overpass API to download OSM data. The Overpass API has a restriction with regard to the amount of data downloadable in one go. In this post I describe a way to download a much larger area if needed, using the PBF files available from Geofrabrik and processing them with Osmosis.
Le Potato Media Center & German IPTV Re-Revisited
The comment by Argus Nymus on my Media Center for German IPTV post made it clear that my approach with playlist filtering via web proxy was way too overengineered. For several reasons I needed to rebuild my media center anyhow, so it was time to simplify my approch, which I describe in some detail here.
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Interfacing EasyMeter Q3M via Info-Interface
The installation of my fuel cell heating required a bi-directional power meter. Bonn Netz, my local power network provider, uses meters of type EasyMeter Q3M which have two infrared interfaces: A bidirectional D0 interface, and a read-only info interface. I use the info interface (INFO-DSS) to read out power consumption and production of the three phases. For this, I built an optical interface, a 3D printed housing for it, and use the UART of a Raspberry Pi with python to get the values.
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IPv6 in my LAN with Unitymedia, Technicolor TC7200, Ubiquiti EdgeOS on Edgerouter X and Prefix Delegation
This post describes how to set up IPv6 with Edgerouter X (and supposedly any EdgeOS device) in interplay with the infameous Technicolor TC7200 cable modem as provided by Unitymedia in Germany, using prefix delegation to advertise valid IPv6 addresses into the LAN. This guide shows how to configure settings via GUI instead of CLI.
Media Center revisited: Libre Computer “Le Potato” plus LibreELEC
While Raspberry Pi with xbian is already a versatile media center, I’m not 100% satisfied with everything. And, with the advent of H.265/HEVC as German DVB-T2 standard, the technical requirements have outrun the current offerings of the Raspberry Foundation. So I decided to migrate my Kodi media center to brand-new Libre Computer’s Le Potato board with LibreELEC, and here are the steps to do so, starting from the xbian media center described in an earlier blog post.
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