Re: XPL - XAP

[Chris Hunter <cjhunter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dave -

>you have to implement the control logic in the xPLHAL ...

thanks ... yes, I agree with you ... indeed, that's very surprising -
it would seem to negate the purpose of going for the xPL
extension ... 'wonder what were they thinking of ?

> unless you only listen to talk radio ...

Yep .. I know ... it was only that I had in-mind ... being able to
relay the news & weather over the intercom !

Chris


On 12 Apr 2006, at 12:45, David Gumbrell wrote:

Hi Chris,

One thing to be aware of, the Cortex xPL implementation basically
exposes the Idratek objects (or a subset) out to your xPL controller,
so you have to implement the control logic in the xPLHAL. In other
words, it makes the Idratek objects appear to the xPLHAL as xPL
objects (sensors/actuators with no intelligence).

Personally, I would prefer it to be the other way round, that is, that
Idratek can understand external xPL enabled devices and unify the
control in Cortex. This would make it easier to integrate external
objects into the Idratek system.

Although I experimented a bit with xPL and Idratek, I have not had the
time/inspiration to get into writing control scripts in the xPLHAL, so
cannot comment on it. I have a small xPL network running in parallel
with my Idratek system, but without the integration it doesn't really
do anything useful.

I'd also agree that the xPL documentation is not great for getting
started, which is the other reason that I have not done much with xPL.
Before I get flamed ...I'd contribute to the wiki if I could get far
enough to have anything to contribute ! (Actually, I did contribute a
tiny update to the wiki).

The Idratek audio bus is not really intended for anything other than
voice/speech synth/intercom, so I would not plan on it being a whole
house audio solution, unless you only listen to talk radio. The
interface is essential analogue at the PCIF, I've not experimented
with mixing in audio at the PC, since I have a different solution for
audio.

Cheers,

Dave