Re: HA Object Model or Taxonomy?

[alan.trevennor@xxxxxxxxxx]

Thanks for the replies, gents.

Rob, I had a look at Harmony and it seems to be an excellent suite of
software (love the on-screen design of it), but although I looked at the
documentation, I couldn't really see what I was looking for.

Sure, you seem to have included lots of classes for different families and
genres of devices and fittings, but what I am looking for is really a
document (or more likely a set of documents) that provides an overall
object map that can include all possible home automation entities (or be
capable of growing towards that).

The kind of thing I am looking for would have "Home" at the top,
under that it would have things like "Appliances"
"Fittings" "Services", "Spaces" and so on.
Then (for example) under "Appliances" it would things like
"Heating", "Cooling", "Ventilation",
"Climate Control" and so on.

Then, a related document would have individual object definitions. One
object might be an "AirConditioners". The air conditioner object
would have methods and properties and so on. So, in an implementation of
this generic scheme, an HA control system would register a newly discovered
Aircon system as an instance of an object with a path of
"Home\Appliances\ClimateControl"

Now, I think probably that's the kind of organisation you may have
internally within Harmony Server and its companions? But, I can't see a
published formalisation of it in the documentation. Perhaps I am missing
something or being stupid, but an explicit model doesn't jump out at me?

Why am I seeking this? Because I am creating MicroController based projects
aimed at Home Automation, I am keen not to reinvent any wheels. I want the
things I create to be able to participate in a well defined - open as
possible - HA definition. Obviously, developing a full HA object model is
not a trivial task, but it must have been done many times. Problem is, the
results never seem to have been made available in a form accessible to the
hobbyist. As I said before, there seem to be these schemas out there - but
either they are jealously guarded commercial information (which I can
understand) or they are only available from standards bodies at a price
that's too high for hobbyists.

Tom, thanks for the OSA pointer. It does seem interesting, but again there
is no mention of a formal object specification to go with it and the
documentation seems limited to installing it and dealing with interfacing
issues. It looks like an integration framework, which again is great, but
not quite what I am looking for. I have downloaded it to try tomorrow, so
perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised when I load it up 8-) I'll let you
know.

Thanks again for the responses guys.

Regards
Alan T

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, Tom Lawrence <tom@...> wrote:
>
> Hi
>
> This seems to be something that might be of interest.
>
> http://code.google.com/p/osae/
>
> thanks,
> Tom
> On 7 Mar 2012, at 00:48, Rob Iles wrote:
>
> Hi
>
> Harmony. (www.domialifestyle.com<http://www.domialifestyle.com>)
 has a fully documented API.  You'll need
> to be running on windows, and have at least a basic understanding of
Dot
> Net.
>
> Info on the website.  Feel free to contact me directly if you want to.
>
> Disclosure :- I am the author of Harmony.
>
> Rob
>
> --
> Rob Iles
> Proprietor & Chief Automation Architect
> Domia Lifestyle
> www.domialifestyle.com<http://www.domialifestyle.com>
> On 6 Mar 2012 10:53, <alan.trevennor@...> wrote:
>
> **
>
>
> Good morning all.
>
> I just joined, so be gentle if this is a silly question, or reopening
old
> wounds! I did a search of this forum and found nothing much to answer
my
> question, so here I am asking it!
>
> I've been looking for a freely available (non proprietary) object
model
> for the smart home which is suitable for use by the hobbyist or
home-brew
> HA enthusiast. I've found some Java classes that relate to HA which
would
> be useful if using Java (I guess) but seem very language specific.
I've
> found several useful looking documents issued by standards bodies
(DLNA and
> others) - but which in fact require you to join them at a fee of
thousands
> before you can access them. Not at all suitable for the lone hobbyist
on
> low low budget.
>
> I've also found several commercial companies who say their products
all
> use their standard object model, but who don't actually publish that
object
> model, thus ignoring the lessons of recent history that say that
publishing
> interface standards increases market traction.
>
> I've found several old stale sites which say they are working on an
open
> HA object model, but which seem to long ago have failed to proceed.
>
> And so on...
>
> So my question is: Does such a thing exist? A freely available and
> comprehensive object model for the smart home, suitable for use by the
> great unwashed?
>
> My Googling would seem to suggest to me that there is no such thing.
Am I
> wrong? I hope I am 8-)
>
> Thanks in advance for your help.
> Alan T
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>




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