Fair enough, I suppose, but I'm not really convinced. Most of what a user would do wouldn't do anything to the rest the control software, and if your software is so fragile that even little mess-ups would cause the whole system to stop functioning correctly, then it really sounds like you need better software. :\

I think SenileBobs way of thinking is probably correct. We might not like the idea of turning the N800 into a non-customizable device, but this is definitely the thinking of much of the industry. They believe that customization leads to unpredictable behaviour (which honestly, is true enough, when seen from their point of view), and believe that while they could just blame the customer by voiding the warranty, this would just bring lots of bad PR (which is definitely true). This is definitely the approach of Sonos, PVRs, DVD players and most cellphones.

I think, maybe, an intermediate solution is to leave it customizable and believe enough in the platform, that people will not be able to break the flasher. In that way you can just supply a flasher image that people can use when they break the software you put into the system.

For those of us that know not to touch anything we can't fix if it breaks, a fully customizable device is great. For the average consumer, you can either limit their ability to meddle or suffer the bad PR when they break it and claim it's your fault for not making stable software. This is much more of a problem in the US where you might even be sued for it.

One more thing to worry about is that when you sell a device with software on it, you had better control all of it in some way. When using an N800 as a platform, you have the additional complication of open source software, that gets upgraded outside of your control(not necessary a bad thing, but definitely something to be taken into account). You have to support the thing, even if it is someone else's repository that crashes or supplies a bad library. For this, the N800's track record is not great. The lack of a stable, controlled distribution network is also one of the reasons that the N800 is not quite mainstream yet. Hopefully this will be much better now, that we're closer to the Debian codebase.

Kny hit it right on the head.

Its not our software that is the issue, its other software which might cause the unit to become non-functional, or the end-user doing something (due to them being able to) that kills the unit. A locked down unit is the holy grail when it comes down to home automation. Afterall, noone wants to pay thousands and thousands of dollars for a system and then have to use the light switches or TV remotes when the touch devices stops working.

So if anyone can lend a hand in my direction, for a locked down unit, please send me a PM. I know there are some really smart guys out there that could help, just having trouble finding any.

First result in a Google search for N800 customizing.
http://www.tweako.com/customizing_th..._your_purposes
As for trying to do everything with VB.NET, you're likely on your own. I think few people on these forums even use VB.NET at all, and those who do probably wouldn't do this project in it.

(I would think a more sane approach would be to manually build a universal customized setup. Then only the particular adaptations for a given setup are done by, e.g., using VB.NET to write a shell script, which replaces a dummy script in the universal setup.)

The original idea of using VB.NET to do this was mainly just to change the startup application and upload a few splash screen images. This seemed quite reasonable with a bit of VB.NET wizardry. Creating a fully customized package has since come up as a better option, so I will be reading through that link in great detail, thanks for that! I didn't bother googling it because I knew it was based on Linux and from conversations I'd had with Maemo developers it was going to be a tough ask to block other functionality on the device. Now I know better.

Here's my prediction, bob:

Assuming you get the dedicated functionality you want (I have no doubts), and lock out regular N800 functionality, you're going to end up with some users who will eventually realize they have an N800 on their hands and start demanding the missing functionality. The advanced ones will go so far as to figure out how to get it back AND support your home automation use ().

You may want to minimize that by customizing the faceplates. Many here have done that, with faceplates I used to be able to provide (all out though, sorry). Just remove the N800 faceplate, primer it, and paint over it with some neutral color. Heck, you may want to even look into inking some sort of logo of your own there.

Anyway, something to keep in mind.

Then only those who know enough to make things work will identify it as an N800...
Works nicely.

BTW, be aware, of course, that that link refers to an old OS, so things may have changed; I expect it'll help, though.

Of note, this is not the first time somebody has put together a dedicated home-automation remote using an N800. There's another company, in Australia if I recall correctly, that is selling them for around $3500. . . .

GA: Thats some interesting news. I've had a google search for the company you mention, but am unable to find them. Perhaps I should try a search on these forums?

Somebody from the company was trolling #maemo a while back (maybe 6 months ago) looking for information. Might try searching those logs. Don't recall any specifics, though.