Is that a landline 
hehe
Looks good!
Ha ha, yes, I’m so ashamed! At least give me some credit - it’s through a VoIP provider and is useful for getting both kids on the phone with relatives at the same time.
Awesome stuff @j_wittenzellner, thanks for sharing.
I’ve been recovering from minor surgery over the past few days, but I now have a project for the coming weekends… 
Matt
Well, here’s another idea: I intentionally chose not to bother ‘going tidy’.
I’m following the ‘divide and conquer’ principle: don’t put everything in a central location, but create ‘sites’ of reasonable (handleable) size. Create as many of these as needed and link them using Ethernet (or WiFi if wiring is impossible).
I actually also aimed to reduce the number of subsystems first (each ‘subsystem’ is to bring a HW gateway box such as a hue bridge or MAX! cube) down to the minimum number possible, plus I chose small form factor devices (RPi and 5- or 8-port ‘pocket’ switches), so all of those devices, I can ultimately stuff them into a drawer (or IKEA box, actually 
).
It doesn’t really look ‘tidy’ inside but thanks to the limited number of devices, it’s ok. Just label the cables and you’ll find quickly enough what you’re looking for.
That approach also helps minimizing wiring works in your home, and helps solving ‘distribution’ type of problems.
For example, I need my router to be connected to my DSL line and via USB to my printer, so it needs to be located close to where I want the printer to be. Initially, I placed my NAS there. too. But it turned out to be too noisy, so I’ve opened another ‘site’ and banned it to the basement.
At the same time, the Pi running the media server needs to be HDMI-connected to the TV, as do my satellite receiver and AVR. All need to have ethernet, so another site with a 5-port switch for those three.
Done right, distribution can even improve resilience. It also gives you more choices where to place radio transmitters (i.e. closer to receiving devices, at least on the same floor) which I found to be important because many radio based systems don’t support routing at the radio layer.
Markus
PS: in my other (professional) life, I’m working as a data centre design engineer. I showed my ‘data centre’ to my boss, but only after he promised he wouldn’t fire me
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Lol, I know this feeling well!
I have two primary drivers for tidying up:
- My wife doesn’t like the rats-nest of cables behind the TV at the moment and worries it’s a fire hazard
- I’m an IT consultant, but I used to be a Data Centre engineer. The OCD in me still twitches when cables aren’t nice and neatly tied/labelled/arranged…
Noticed that you got a waterline (or what it’s called) right above all your setup, crossing fingers there wont be any leaks 
otherwise neat lineup 
I’m lucky enough to have power in my garage so all my kit is in there. All out of sight from the wife, although it still needs to be tidy as she uses the garage most days. I also terminate my CAT5/6 structured cables there so have a central point for all things IT.
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Could be gas. Black iron is rarely used for water around here anymore. Black iron is demanded for lots of propane/natural gas applications.
It’s hard to tell from the picture but it appears to go up and then out the sill maybe?
The rest of the water piping in the house is PVC, so you’re probably right.
As for my main TV, we have it in a cabinet with a lift, so all of the components are hidden inside. I hacked a two-relay USB controller (http://numato.com/2-channel-usb-powered-relay-module/) to the lift controller (it had a wired controller and a crappy RF controller) and use the state of my Harmony Hub remote to control it. Basically, when the state changes from “PowerOff,” openHAB pulses the relay for the “up button” a few times and pulses the relay for the “down button” a few times when the state change to “PowerOff.” I can post pictures if anyone is interested.
Actually, I would like to see that!
First and second pictures are the TV in the down and up positions, respectively.
The little hole on the upper right-hand side of the stand is for an IR repeater. I don’t use the IR repeater that came with the TV stand because I have a Harmony Hub mounted inside the TV stand. The company provided me with a painted plug, but my 18-month old son likes to yank it out of the hole and put it in his mouth! At some point I need to sand the plug down to a better fit and use some strong glue.
This last picture is the inside of the TV stand.
The Harmony Hub is mounted on the outer-facing wall, pointed down at all of my other electronics. Set top box is on the left, Blu-Ray player is on the right. The power strip in the center powers everything. The white project box mounted to the rear-facing wall contains the Numato relay, which I cut into the remote-control wire of the lift controller. That is connected to a Monoprice USB-to-Cat5 converter, which goes back to my openHAB box. Also against the rear-facing wall is an Intel NUC that runs openelec. It’s not the neatest, but the wires all lay flat so that they do not interfere with any of the moving parts.
There’s also an old Windows MCE IR receiver mounted against the front wall, which was meant for use with the Intel NUC running openelec. However, after installation, I was seeing double key presses, until it dawned on me that the Intel NUC also has a built-in IR receiver. So now the Windows MCE IR receiver is sitting there unplugged and unused until I get around to taking it out.
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Thanks, that’s fantastic!
That’s just plain cool. Where did you get the cabinet?
I would love to see the look on my cat’s face when the tv comes up and displaces him.
Thank you. The cabinet is from Touchstone Home Products (http://www.touchstonehomeproducts.com). They were great to work with - the two-tone paint job was custom.
Whoa, those things range in price from like $1200 - $3000+. I guess that’s as far as I go with that one.
I guess my previous posting made me look like a slob.
So for my exoneration, here’s my TV ‘micro site’.
It’s a classic electrical wiring case/hub with a Pi and a couple of zwave actuators to control rollershutters, spotlights and the TV cover plate (it’s powered by another rollershutter).
The shelf below the TV can be removed to access the Ethernet switch, HDMI and audio cable works.
That’s the AVR to the left.
Your setup looks very nice.
Do you have any cooling for that AVR? They aren’t typically designed to be on their side (heat fins are vertical allowing natural airflow up and out).
My AV rack hit 110F once after only a few minutes when its 500cfm fan didn’t turn on. I only have the AVR and an xbox one in mine that were producing any heat.
Err, no, it’s got passive cooling only. Maybe I’ll find out the hard way some day, but so far, it’s been working well.
(it ain’t visible, but at least there’s quite some headroom, behind the speaker).
That is a thing of great beauty…
Thanks for sharing
That’s really slick. Thanks!