Basic Home Automation via xAP BSC enabled devices (updated 9-01-2008) (1 Viewer)

[ronsonol]

X10 CM15A Support

I demo'd the software from embedded technologies called mcontrol, a nice interface for controlling x10 and other devices - much like this. The main feature I liked was the ability to see which devices were turned on/off visually on the screen. It does this by monitoring the traffic from the usb interface. Also, it supports the CM15A, but is not free.

I am no programmer what so ever, so I wouldn't know how to include this as a feature/update to existing plugins. But I have tracked down some information. It seems to me that the community has almost but given up on supporting the CM15A for various reasons, top amoungst them was the lack of SDK from x10 for sometime.

It Turns out that its rather easy to interface with the CM15A USB device;

one only needs to download the sdk, or ahscript(sdk Redistributable components located here http://x10dispatcher.com/Downloads/ahscript_setup.exe) which include a commandline utility called ahcmd.exe - this accepts commandline input as follows;

C:\Program Files\Common Files\X10\Common>ahcmd.exe
expecting: {sendplc | sendrawplc | sendrf | queryplc}

eg. ahcmd.exe sendplc A1 on (queryplc A1 on and so on)

Done, thats it.

Seems to me something like this might be an easy addition for anyone with the skills. We'd need to include the option for a new device, and prompt for the location of the commandline program.

Adding in visualizations to represent the on/off state of the device would require some more effort. But mcontrol, does not query the device, it can only tell if a device has been turned on/off while it is running and listening on the line.

I have not tried the BHA plugin yet, but I understand it support images to represent the state of a device already. But I am not sure if this only include devices turned on/off using the plugin. What about devices that are being controlled via the rf signals from remotes/sensors. By listening in on the traffic, monitoring the state of all devices can be accomplished.

Cheers,

 

[patrick]

Hi ronsonol,

Thanks for the links, very interesting stuff!

This plugin does support basic device "state" images representing on/off/level/unknown.
(As well as a separate image representing the device.)

This plugin does not directly interact with x10 etc.
It interacts with xAP Basic Status and Control (BSC) which in turn communicates
with a "conduit" that talks to x10 etc. So if that conduit is monitoring status then
the status will be available even if the device is turned on/off without this plugin running.

If the app you linked to supports cm15a you could probably get "monitoring"
in this plugin via the X10Dispatcher triggers to run a xAP command line tool
sending predefined messages that provide state information.
You could probably also control the device (although it would be VERY klunky)
using the "File Runner" devices you can create in this plugin to run the
commands you mentioned.


Don't think of this as a yes or no to add support, it is just I am short on time right now.
This plugin is somewhat extensible so it could be that it is not too hard to
code for this specific case, although I have nothing CM15a so it is kind of
hard to test.


HTH,
patrick

 

[patrick]

Hi All-

Just updated the first post with v0.2b, mainly fixing the OSD and adding
the ability to set the imageset to none.
If no problems I will update the download in the MP downloads section.

Note: There is an additional xml and png image in the skin folders for
the advanced OSD support.

v0.2b (04/03/2007)
- Add option to set imageset to NONE
- Fixed OSD displays
- Changed Display OSDService to use a list for displaying buttons
- Changed Display OSDService to use reply with button text verses translated text

sample basic osd message for couchounou

xap-header
{
    v=12
    hop=1
    uid=FF234400
    class=xAP-OSD.display
    source=mi4.switchboard.ESERVER
    target=MEPO.BHAConn.MePoBox:OSD.1
}
Display.SLIMP3
{
    line1=Sample Message Line 1
    line2=Sample Message Line 2
    line3=Sample Message Line 3
}

Thanks,
patrick

 

[ronsonol]

Thanks Patrick, I'll look into your suggestions.

 

[couchounou]

Thanks a lot Patrick

 

[couchounou]

Thanks Patrick,
Osd now work for me.
But i can see only 2 first lines (line1 and line2) when a message is displayed on OSD.
Is there any issue on this ?
Second question is there any ability to have an automatic closing of the message . I tried "duration=2" but i still have the "OK" button to close message in MP.
Thanks

 

[patrick]

Thanks Patrick,
Osd now work for me.
But i can see only 2 first lines (line1 and line2) when a message is displayed on OSD.
Is there any issue on this ?
Second question is there any ability to have an automatic closing of the message . I tried "duration=2" but i still have the "OK" button to close message in MP.
Thanks

My fault, decoding the message sticks to the limit of 2 lines for the SliMP3,
but I have changed it now to support 4 (1=Title,2-4=text).
Plus there is the Tivo version which does not have a title line but a single text field.

Display.TiVo
{
   Text=(text to display)
   Duration=(seconds to display)
}

The OSD should timeout after 20 seconds, had this hard coded for some reason that escapes me now
Fixing that now to use the duration field from the message else default to 20 seconds.

I will update the download when I finish the duration fix.

Thanks for the help and feedback!


HTH,
patrick

 

[patrick]

Uploaded v0.2c to the first post:
v0.2c (04/04/2007)
- Fixed OSD Duration
- Added OSD Lines to 4


patrick

 

[Jean-Marc]

Patrick,

May I suggest you to review the following, that is, in my opinion, a bug?

I renamed your plugin using the first tab in your configuration setting. I chose to have this name displayed in "home", (I do not use the option "show in plugin")

I use MP to wake up, each morning.
When the screen also wakes up, I can see, in the home menu: "Basic home controller" and just below the name I have choosen!
If I click on "Basic home controller" nothing happens, the menu only flashes. If I click on the "renamed", it works fine.

I must tell you that this happens ONLY when the computer wakes up with the plug in "alarm"!

If I don't use it and shut down the computer, and then put it on, everything is normal, I only see in the home menu the "renamed".

Well nothing else. I think that your plug in is very very interesting as I plan to "comunicate" a lot with my house: alarm, swimming pool, etc...
My problem is that I am an idiot: 3 days ago, I didn't know that homeseer existed, what was the Xap protocol, the 1-wire, etc...so I try to learn thru internet, to understand, but it is extremely difficult for me...
But I try, and I'll post stupid questions later because of course I will have a lot!

In the meantime, thank you!!

 

[patrick]

Patrick,

May I suggest you to review the following, that is, in my opinion, a bug?

I renamed your plugin using the first tab in your configuration setting. I chose to have this name displayed in "home", (I do not use the option "show in plugin")

I use MP to wake up, each morning.
When the screen also wakes up, I can see, in the home menu: "Basic home controller" and just below the name I have choosen!
If I click on "Basic home controller" nothing happens, the menu only flashes. If I click on the "renamed", it works fine.

I must tell you that this happens ONLY when the computer wakes up with the plug in "alarm"!

If I don't use it and shut down the computer, and then put it on, everything is normal, I only see in the home menu the "renamed".

That is very strange, I will look to see if I can find anything (may take a little while I do not have the alarm plugin and not sure my dev box can go to sleep)

Well nothing else. I think that your plug in is very very interesting as I plan to "comunicate" a lot with my house: alarm, swimming pool, etc...
My problem is that I am an idiot: 3 days ago, I didn't know that homeseer existed, what was the Xap protocol, the 1-wire, etc...so I try to learn thru internet, to understand, but it is extremely difficult for me...
But I try, and I'll post stupid questions later because of course I will have a lot!

In the meantime, thank you!!

Do not get discouraged, there is so much information out there it can be overwhelming and confusing. Also, many(most) are still for the DIY person that wants to tinker and often not the easiest to setup/understand.

Thanks!

patrick