Edge driver for VLC thing?

Would it be possible to create an Edge driver fir VLC thing? Not sure if that’s even possible but thought I would ask…

Edge drivers only replace dth’s, not SmartApps or any server device code.

There are people working on various speaker integrations that might work depending on the exact brand/model of what you have

Why don’t you take a look at the AV list and the edge services list in the quick browse lists in the community – created wiki and see if there’s anything there that might work for you.

https://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Quick_Browse_Lists_for_Edge_Drivers

Otherwise if you can be more specific about your setup people might be able to help.

Since it shows up as a device, I thought it was. My apologies.

It showed up as a device through a DTH, but you needed more than just that DTH to make it work.

Using webcore, I created pistons that both “speak” and play mp3’s’ on two dedicated laptops connected to Bluetooth speakers. Both laptops have fixed IP addresses and are running VLC Player.
I use one laptop to “speak” to a speaker in the house. Things like “freezer door has been open for five minutes” using a smartthings door sensor on the freezer door or “freezer temperature is over 15 degrees” using a freezer temperature sensor inside the freezer.

The other laptop’s Bluetooth speaker is on the front porch. When motion is detected on my ring doorbell, it plays mp3’s based on the time of the year. I have multiple folders on a server containing mp3’s. For example, one folder is called is called zydeco and contains zydeco music. For mardi gras, I copy the mp3’s from the mardi gras directory to the c:\windows/system32 directory. Works perfectly.

I also have it “speak” warnings if the storm door has been opened and my ring doorbell is pressed or the storm door has been open for 20 seconds and my smart lock hasn’t been opened.

I have recreated the pistons to Alexa routines and Sharptools rules for speaking and they work great. With vlc thing going away I’m looking for an easier solution for playing mp3’s than using dropbox with Alexa. Sharptools has verified their rule engine for playing mp3’s will cease to function when vlc thing goes away.

Just to clarify, the SharpTools Rule Engine itself will continue to work and can enqueue MP3s to working media player devices…

…but since VLC Thing is a Groovy Device Handler (DTH), when SmartThings shuts down Groovy then the VLC Thing device itself will stop working.

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I haven’t used it personally, but from a brief review of the code, it looks like it’s just a DTH and doesn’t require a SmartApp for it to run. It looks like it’s mostly just LAN HTTP calls, so it seems like it would be possible for someone to build an Edge Driver for it.

Edit: And reading through the legacy documentation for VLC Thing, it seems to confirm that it’s just a DTH. Of course it needs VLC Media Player running somewhere as that’s what it talks to, but it sounds like Tom already has that. :slight_smile:

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If it’s just LAN calls, there are already edge drivers created that can do those. That’s why I suggested looking at edge services and at the edge AV lists to see what’s already there.

https://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Quick_Browse_Lists_for_Edge_Drivers

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