All-in-one home entertainment (satellite TV + PVR, IP TV + apps, and Media Centre)

So I am still undecided on media-center / IP TV (Android, etc) and PVR combo .. I'd like an all-in-one am a little surprised why there isn't a clean one yet.

Bucket-list:

1. 2 satellite receivers
2. a couple of terrabytes of storage - for existing picture, music and movies + recorded stuff
3. a media browser and viewer
4. ability to run Internet apps either native or in browser such as Spotify, various On-demand sites, Youtube,  random web-sites etc

Given all that I could have an Android TV stick, a media centre and a PVR - but really? Each are developing at their own pace and the lines are blurring but still there seem big gaps. Surprising really .. Throwing asterisk in there to be able to make audio and video calls would be good too.

So this thread will be for experiments along this lines to see what works 

First cab off the rank (given I can take the PMD server offline for a bit) is GeexBox on my Raspberry Pi.

GPIO frustrations

Having had issues getting my Raspberry Pi project working I stripped it down to debug what was actually happening.

Turns out I can read 3V3 from P1 and P6 (ground) fine ..

No GPIO ribbon = 3V3

But when I connect my GPIO ribbon cable the voltage dropped to 1V6 stopping even my LEDs working with the 220R resistors I was using. OK so my understanding here may not be fantastic but checking resistance across the M-M wires is only 0.4 Ohms. Measuring again across GPIO ribbon using 2 leads remains at 0.4 Ohms.

Time to get some basic Female to Male leads and be done with it... any ideas as to why the GPIO ribbon is behind the voltage drop?

Pixel CL-N3 Pin out

In case there are others out there tempted to but the pixel CL-N3 as opposed to the Canon one (or other generic). No comment yet on actual use but here are the pin-outs

Thanks to http://www.doc-diy.net/photo/remote_pinout/

Raspberry Pi project - shutter control on Canon 7D

OK so I'm embarking on my first 'real' Raspberry Pi hack. I've got one running as a music server but that's not really what it's all about. It's time to do some GPIO and maybe work my way towards some real electronics.

What I've selected as my first project is to replicate something that's been done before - getting the Pi to trigger the shutter on my partners Canon 7D. As per http://www.ohmypi.com/2013/06/16/control-canon-camera-using-raspberry-pi-gpio-rpi-gpio-how-to/ and many others out there.

Here is my shopping kit:

• Raspberry Pi *
• GPIO ribbon cable*
• Basic Breadboard *
• Jumper Wires 6" M/M Pack of 10
• Asus USB-N10 **
• 0.5W Metal Film 470K 1% resistors (8 pack) **
• 2 x 2N222 NPN transistors **
• Pixel CL-N3 

* thanks to http://www.nicegear.co.nz

** thanks to Jaycar