RE: Help, Serial input to Misterhouse, HA etc, most popular?

["Kevin Hawkins" <lists@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Gary

Both xAP and xPL are competent and very flexible protocols to do
what you want ( I know you've explored xPL a little - and I'm from the xAP
side see www.xapautomation.org) however... let's step back a little and see
whether you need to involve an intermediate protocol at all. Maybe you can
do this directly.

Can you just explain something ... when the RF message goes out -
and is picked up by the receiver what form does it come out of the receiver
in ?? Is it serial ? Does it have the ability to receive from many
transmitters - indeed is it a transceiver ? ( I am familiar with most of
the
RadioMetrix line if that's what you have).

I note that currently it has some ability to turn a light for
example ON and OFF - how is it doing this - is it an output line that goes
ON and OFF that you then use to switch mains - or are you driving some form
of serially attached X10 or relay module perhaps ?  Perhaps the receiver is
addressed in some form of way ?

Your needs can be met in a number of ways but I wouldn't look at
using the X10 protocol on an RF based system - you should use some other
protocol with more features. X10 was designed originally to switch
appliances ON and OFF and control lights (dimming) - as such it was not
designed from the ground up as a bi-directional system or to carry more
complex data eg text or audio control. Some of these features have been
added later though using extended codes and some status responses eg for
the
thermostats. You could roll your own but both xAP and xPL would help
substantially here. You would have to implement your own transport layer as
radio , by it's very nature is error prone - you need to create a layer to
handle corruptions, collisions and acknowledgements/retrys although maybe
your RF modules already do this.

I designed way back a bridge scoring system (the card game) - this
uses RF linked keypads and displays - some old info is still on
http://www.ukusa.demon.co.uk/butler/butler.html
. xAP would have been great
here and indeed this product may appear in a new version using xAP. However
I sold the rights to this product to another company so currently the
decision is not mine.

One route to consider is that Z-Wave have a range of RF modules
available shortly that will handle basic appliance and dimmer functions,
and
an RF remote. They also have an RF transceiver that is USB connected to a
PC
and supported by HomeSeer currently and Autom8it shortly. Although their
radio protocol is proprietary this might provide enough of the
functionality
you need. One very nice feature is that the modules will automatically act
as relays for each other when nodes go out of range.

Hope some of that helps. I don't use MisterHouse myself although I
believe some old support for xAP and xPL was written in at one stage. Using
xPL there is a VBscript engine called xPL Hal that will help you (actually
you can use this for xAP too - the name perhaps doesn't reflect that but
they kindly included xAP bridging support). For xAP we will have full
support within HomeSeer very shortly, although HS is not free. Both the 'x'
environments have many dev tools and frameworks and both have OCX's
available to allow you to code in almost any environment of your choosing.

Kevin



> -----Original Message-----
> From: vectra999uk2002 [mailto:questuk1@xxxxxxx]
> Sent: 03 November 2003 13:32
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: [ukha_d] Help, Serial input to Misterhouse, HA etc, most
> popular?
>
> Hi all,
>
> My question is what is the best free software to "bridge"
the
> interface with the PC serial port, then to Misterhouse or any other
> HA software?
>
> I have all the skills required, but do not know what protocol to
> present to the serial port?
>
>
> CONTROLLED AT MOMENT
> --------------------
> I have a ceiling PIR that turns on a RF module connected to a PIC
> micro, this sends data to a RF receiver. At the moment this receiver
> then decodes the signal and if correct and it is dark in the room,
> turns on a lamp for 30 seconds then switches it Off.
>
> FUTURE
> ------
> I would like to expand this using a PC to receive info from RF + PIC
> modules via the RS232 port, then depending on light sensors, control
> the house lighting.
>
> I would prefer not to use X10 modules, as i will design my own using
> 433Mhz RF modules
>
> I had thought of using X10 protocol though via my RF?
>
> I have worked in electronics for 20 years so that side is not a
> problem and PIC programming software skills, are ok.
>
> Any suggtestions ideas welcome!
>
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Gary
>
>
>
>
>
>
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