Fw: Comfort plugin

[Gareth Cook <g@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Well, to get any touchscreen action at the moment requires xlobby,

And the only way to link it all in is with xAP. So if I can have a
hardware xap to comfort device, there's a lot less "glue" of
other apps to
link in. Also, if I use HomeSeer with the xap plugin, that can still act
as my "log" system (currently logging with direct UCM connection)

Basically, if there was a xap hw unit, you dont have the problem of a
single app needed exclusive use of the UCM.

G.

Gareth Cook
Tools and Process Architect
IBM SWG Sales - Lotus Park, Staines, TW18 3AG
Office: +44 (0)1784 445166 - Mobile: +44 (0)7980 445166
AIM Chat : TheBoyG - MSN Chat : chat@xxxxxxx
email: g@xxxxxxx


----- Forwarded by Gareth Cook/UK/IBM on 17/01/2006 16:09 -----

Discussion
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ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Today 15:18

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Subject:
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Re: Fw: [ukha_d] Comfort plugin
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Category:



patrick_o_matic wrote:
> --- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, Gareth Cook <g@u...> wrote:
>
>> Who'll put their hand up to sling together a hardware xAP to
Comfort
>> plugin ? If youve already got the Comfort to CBUS, then it
instantly
>>
> opens
>
>> up both of them at the same time ! I'll buy one at a shot,
>>
>>
>
> I've done this actually! Using hardware that is virtually identical to
> Kevin's CBUS controller...
> Not really in a position to commercialise it though, because I just
> don't have the time to support it. Maybe Kevin's arm could be twisted
:-)
>
> Patrick
>
>

Although I had a Comfort system at my old house I have a Galaxy system
here so I sort of lost the interest in supporting it (I do still have
it).  My initial experience with Comfort was frustrating, before the
days of Comfigurator which has made it far better now but the
integration of Comfort and C-Bus is very convoluted (shoehorned in)
using counters etc.    The purpose of xAP is to abstract the device to
the function that it performs using a 'Schema' so you would have a
'Security' schema or an 'Alarm Panel' schema and also a 'Lighting'
schema.    This way (theoretically) you can swap your Galaxy alarm for a
Comfort or C-Bus for Lutron, or Sonos for Escient and make no changes to
your xAP HA control system at all - you get manufacturer independence.
That's the idea anyway.   Hence we shouldn't have a 'Comfort' schema or
a 'C-Bus' one.    Defining a 'Security' schema is probably  quite
complex, the 'lighting' one was much easier -   Patrick - did you create
such a 'Security' schema or did you use a Comfort specific one ? If it's
the former maybe there's somewhere to start from.   Another worry - I'm
not sure how much of the lighting schema could actually be done using
the strange way C-Bus is integrated within Comfort, certainly groups
above 128 are not accessible for status change reporting .  The xAP
C-Bus gateway sitting right on C-Bus has much tighter integration with
C-Bus.  Also so many 'actions' would have to be pre-programmed in
Comfort to make it work, I suppose there's a lot of control available
for Comfort via a UCM but that's quite an involved task, I certainly
wouldn't want to have to transfer any programming to Comfort.

Gareth - What functions were you wanting to achieve on the Comfort side
with xAP ? I know you want C-Bus lighting control from XLobby - and you
use HomeSeer right ??   I have so many things on my 'todo' list at the
moment I don't think this is likely to happen anytime soon. Plus of
course I pass the gateways on almost at cost (considerably under given
the software dev time) so no commercial interest either. Patrick - if
you already have the code I can make my gateway hardware available at
lower cost to people -even lowere still if I take some bits off -
perhaps that's  a route ? Currently there's 4 serial ports, and an LCD /
Keypad interface that can come off. Alternatively  getting the Comfort
conduit updated as a PC application (and the other variant HS2
compatible) has got to be a better/easier solution methinks - and if
counters report correctly then you could create a 'shim' between those
and 'Lighting' using a HS script.


K