xAP for Xlobby

[CouchPotatoe]

Edwards new xAP X10 connector implements the original xAP X10 schema but more importantly now supports BSC as well. So from XLobby instead of targeting a device in Homeseer you target the device in the X10 connector and it will just work, including status/event feedback. I'm thinking it probably works already.

Bear in mind you are still restricted by X10's limitations, for example most European devices do not support absolute dim levels (only relative) , can miss commands and provide no two way feedback. so you can't ask a hardware device its state or know if it has been turned off locally at the switch. The xAP conduit tracks as best it can the X10 traffic it sees on the power line to be able to mirror the state , just the same way that HomeSeer does, and presents this back as BSC status. A different technology (eg Z-Wave or C-Bus) would provide true status and hardware synchronisation , again delivered just the same via xAP. What you may notice here is one of the key benefits of xAP ... you could swap your X10 hardware for say C-Bus (ensuring your hall light is still called hall light) and it would just carry on working the same ! That is also why in the new X10 BSC imlementation devices are called 'hall light' and not 'C13'

Kevin

Edwards X10 conduit is here

http://www.edjo.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/edward/xAP/index.htm

[Aaron]

I have yet to impliment this but I'm thinking I'm going to start looking at it this week.

Is there a tutorial to get things started and maybe an example skin?

Man, I cannot wait to get this working!

[Heiko]

Hey ptrinchi,
you have made a really good job! Congratulations and thanks from my side!
I've tested the plugin a few days and I'm very happy about the new XLobby dimension. My wishes for further releases are:
- There are some problems with the plugin configuration. The edit line 'Destination Adress for X10 Command' doesn't work in the edit mode. You can copy some text but can't use the backspace.
- The 'ok' and 'Cancel' buttons doesn't work in the configuration window
- It would be very nice to use only one image for all dim values in the image parameters.
- The Trigger list comming soon ?

[ptrinchi]

Thanks Heiko,

There are some problems with the plugin configuration. The edit line 'Destination Adress for X10 Command' doesn't work in the edit mode. You can copy some text but can't use the backspace.

I will fix the bug as soon as possible

The 'ok' and 'Cancel' buttons doesn't work in the configuration window

Yes, I know, this is a beta and not a release at all. I have push it for siliconmelt to try to fix his problems. A real release will arrive soon.

It would be very nice to use only one image for all dim values in the image parameters

Yes, I work on it, in the futur the plug will try to show a specific dim image for each device (like livingroom.light.80.png) and if the file does'nt exist, it will show a standard dim image (like 80.png)

The Trigger list comming soon ?

The french forum asks me for the same thing but I have to assume debug to all others plug I made (like xevent plug) and unfortunately I haven't got enough time

[a0192677]

I am too having the toggle issue where I send a toggle and the
light turns on and then immediately off.
If the state is on initially, the toggle function seems to work properly. CMD ON and CMD OFF work fine.

Also, I was having problems seeing the status of a device. I disabled all of my variables on my ocelot (128 of them) for XAP homeseer conduit and then it worked fine. Therefore I'm not sure if there is some type of #messages/s limitation for messages to be seen by the xlobby xap plugin.

Finally, I would like to have the ability to show both DeviceValue and DeviceSring with homeseer devices in xlobby. This way non lighting devices could display status (temp, security, sprinklers, etc...)

Appreciate your efforts here!

Marty

[Heiko]

Hi ptrinchi,
there is a little problem with detecting some xAP messages.
Here is an example header wich works:

xap-header
{
v=12
hop=1
uid=FF41660B
class=xAPBSC.event


source=mi4.homeseer.wshaserver.119:Weather.SensorInnentemperatur
}
output.state
{
state=ON
text=19.5 Grad C
}

And there are probs with this one:

xap-header
{
v=12
hop=1
uid=FF416901
class=xAPBSC.event
source=mi4.homeseer.wshaserver.122:Netzwerk.Mail
}
output.state
{
state=ON
text=Im Posteingang befinden sich 8 ungelesene Mails
}


The only difference is the format of the header. The plugin only detect these messages wich have an empty line after the 'class' definition.
I don't know why homeseer produce the messages in different formats.
Any idea?
thanks!

[ptrinchi]

Ok,

Heiko, thanks for testing.

I have no time left for this week but I will return to my code as soon as possible.

[CouchPotatoe]

Hi ptrinchi,
there is a little problem with detecting some xAP messages.
The plugin only detect these messages wich have an empty line after the 'class' definition.
I don't know why homeseer produce the messages in different formats.
Any idea?
thanks!

Hi Heiko ..
The Homeseer plugin shouldn't be sending any xAP messages with blank lines in them (either in the header or the bodies) . The xAP spec doesn't permit this so maybe this is a HS plugin issue. What is even stranger is that you're saying the ones with the blank lines work and the ones without don't - which is the wrong way around for how we would need it to be. Can you deduce anything consistent as to why some headers have blank lines and some don't ? Does the same HS device always have a blank line ? I have never seen these blank lines but I'm keeping an eye open for them now...
Could you send me a copy/paste of such a message with the blank line (from Viewer) as a text file perhaps.. or ascertain if there are just two adjacent CHR(10)'s in the header causing this. I wonder if perhaps your device name in HS could have a CHR(10) or CHR(12)/(13) in or at the end of it ? CHR(10)'s are illegal in parameter values. If the problem does appear to be related to a particular device does renaming it make the problem go away ? Hub implementations within xAP can sometimes re-order parameters within a block (and maybe the header) as the order of parameters in a block is not significant.

Kevin

[Heiko]

ptrinchi, kevin,
my mistake I'm sorry guys! It was a problem with a viewer-window (it breaks the line because the window was to small). No blank lines in the body of the message.
Renaming the devices couldn't solve the Problem.
Must be another problem why some messages are detected by the XLobby plugin and some not.
I'm going on to find a difference between the detected messages and the non detected ones.
Thanks for your assistance!

[SteveK]

ptrinchi,
If you could interface with the xAP X10-Connector that would be great! I don't own HS and since xAP can do it all for free I'm going that route.

I'm also waiting with baited breath for the xAP X10-Connector so I can talk to an Ocelot and Squeezebox.

[ptrinchi]

I think you can already do it. You can make a try.
In the plugin configuration, indicate the XAP address of your X10 connector instead of the HomeSeer address. Then, if you uses only the BSC commands in XL like ON or OFF or TOGGLE it will work, I hoop

[CouchPotatoe]

Hi Pierre,

I know you are very busy, I just wondered if there is anything from the xAP side we can do to help at all ? The features here are so nearly all there and it has such great potential.

I have found one problem with driving the X10 connector (rather than HomeSeer). Although you can configure the destination address such that the correct xAP conduit is targeted , in this case X10, I think you still have a hardcoded receipt (source) address of mi4.homeseer somewhere still. which means you can't display the status of any xAP device (except HomeSeer ones). This means that although you can control X10 OK you can't display the status.

Indeed people will probably want to control and see the status of many different xAP devices so several individual xAP addresses will need to be maintained for devices. Maybe that is part of your trigger strategy ?

Really keen to get this working tidly and setup some XLobby screens for my Home Automation. I am also looking at adding some code to xAP BSC Mapper to allow better integration with XLobby , even with the features you have already, and writing a nice 'how to' document

Cheers Kevin

[ptrinchi]

Sorry for the delay.

In the SCHEMA directory under XAP-XLOBBY, you can find 2 xml files.
ACTIONS to describe XL output messages format and EVENTS to describe XL incoming messages format.

Open it and you will see how simple they are.

Be careful, if this two files doesn't exist you need to install the last version (same place, see the first post)

[CouchPotatoe]

Ah - I hadn't appreciated this and yes it works - I had assumed the value configured in the 'ini' file held throughout the application. This is actually a lot more powerful than I had realised Pierre

I also need to better understand the use of wildcards as they apply to your message filtering as I don't think you support '>' as a wildcard character , just '*' which matches one position which must be present in the address.

I should now be able to display the state of all my alarm zones within XLobby then ... and also control my lighting. Plus it does work now with X10 I will get this working and try and post a quick 'how to' so more people can try this.

BTW - Very shortly there is going to be launched a low cost Ethernet connected I/O controller that uses xAP and BSC. The first independent commercial xAP hardware product. This will make an ideal interface for XLobby - it has 16 inputs, 16 outputs, 4 analog inputs, counters, latches and a serial port and costs under 100 Euro. All this I/O could be controlled and displayed in XLobby in realtime.

One question .. where you have in your events file

output.state
{
state=[state]
text=[text]
}

you are assigning the value for the xAP BSC "state" parameter to an internal XLobby value called 'state' I assume ? Can I setup other XLobby variable names for example

mystate=[state]

and then use plugin>xap-xlobby>mystate>output.1 for example in a text display ?? Or are 'text' 'level' and 'state' predefined in some way as I couldn't get this to work.

I am thinking about applying this to other schema where I might want to recover and display 4 or 5 parameters from one xAP message block and therefore need more names to hold and display the values.

Kevin

[ptrinchi]

I should now be able to display the state of all my alarm zones within XLobby

Nice, how do you do this? with a W800? let us know

One question .. where you have in your events file
output.state
{
state=[state]
text=[text]
}
you are assigning the value for the xAP BSC "state" parameter to an internal XLobby value called 'state' I assume ?

Yes exactly, you can add a display text zone in XL and if you set it to plugin>xAP-Xlobby>state>XXXX.YYY ou can display the state of our YYY device in your XXX location. You can also display the text or an image.

am thinking about applying this to other schema where I might want to recover and display 4 or 5 parameters from one xAP message block and therefore need more names to hold and display the values.

Ha sorry, only 3 values can be displayed : text, state and image. But perhaps in a new version