Webbaserad styrning av TV-apparater

Sammanfattning: This project is based on a wish from the employees at Umeå Energi to have a solution for remote control of TV monitors in the office. The idea is a web-based solution to make it possible for the employees to open a web page and access basic functions on the four monitors in the office. The project has been done with the help of an old PC that works as an intermediary between the monitors and the users. The PC was running a webserver that could control functions on the monitors using scripts. The server was connected to the monitors through a serial interface (RS-232). All software being used was free and open, and most of the hardware Umeå Energi already had on site, thus costs have remained low. The final solution was a Linux-based server with Ubuntu and Apache, and the scripts used Bash code. A USB hub and four USB-to-serial adapters were used to connect the monitors to the server. All basic functions worked as intended, except that commands sometimes had to be applied twice by pressing the refresh button in the web browser. This is believed to have been caused by weak power supply to the USB hub.