Home Hacking Projects for Geeks

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Chapter 6, Control Your Home Theater

Wrapping Up

Perhaps you’ve picked up a new skill along the way or gained a little confi-

dence with some you recently acquired. Your equipment and needs probably

differ from mine, but hopefully you now understand the basic techniques of

controlling IR devices.

Whatever system of control you come up with, there are some important

things to keep in mind. For one thing, Girder is a very powerful applica-

tion—if it’s not doing what you want it to do, there’s a good chance you

haven’t looked hard enough. Consult the Girder forum (http://www.girder.

nl) for ideas and solutions. The Girder community has been around for quite

a while now, so the problem you’re having has likely already been solved

and the solution freely available. Don’t reinvent the wheel if you don’t need

to. And if there really isn’t any way to do what you want to do, consider

developing a plug-in that solves the problem and sharing it with the Girder

community.

Another important thing to remember is that even though you are the

designer and maintainer of your control system, that doesn’t always make

you right. Listen to the other members of your household for ideas—they

may even help you find bugs or gaps in your logic. Remember, you’re the

geek. If they want things to work differently, do it their way (or both if pos-

sible). You will find it much easier to adapt to ...