Re: So what will be the standard?

[Kevin Hawkins <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Peter,

Peter Hulst wrote:
> I've been looking for a while to find the right home automation
> protocol for my own system. But there are just too many different
> implementations and too few standards. I like the sound of xap a lot,
> and I understand that there are many developers very excited about
> this, but am worried that its lifetime may be limited if no hardware
> vendors will pick up this protocol.
>
> What do people here think about the chances of xap as a standard in
> commercial products? Microsoft's Upnp and SCP seem well thought
> through, but also don't seem to be supported by anything other than
> microsoft products.
>
First I must say that I speak only for myself here but I do not feel
that xAP has the backing to become a widely adopted commercial standard.
However that wasn't why it was created. It has a different purpose and
it achieves it far better than anything else I'm aware of. . Home
Automation is a hugely diverse area and devices range from simple ONOFF
switches to surprisingly complex devices to model like telecom or
multi-room audio/video/data streaming controllers. xAP was created as a
simple control protocol that was capable of being implemented by
enthusiasts yet was scaleable to encompass such very rich devices.
However we are not in a position ourselves to create these schema for
each and every type of these devices and any intent to become a
'standard' would require this. xAP does however allow 'ordinary' people
to implement realtime control systems amazingly easily and to do it now,
plus to be able to add almost any device they already own that has some
means of control/feedback.   It's unlikely we'll ever see xAP inbuilt in
a washing machine although there are some independent commercial
hardware vendors with xAP support (eg Phaedrus with the xAP Netiom) and
a couple of commercial software vendors.

Perhaps you can view UPnP as a full feature xAP as the goal there is
to rigidly analyse and categorise many different types of specific
devices, abstract them based on functionality and then formalise the
properties and methods for each of them. To this end many large working
committees are in place each focussing on narrow device areas and this
obviously requires large investment of both time and money. The result
is that UPnP is orders of magnitude more complex and bulky than xAP and
has been moved out of the enthusiasts area of comprehension and
accessibility. It also means if a device is not UPnP enabled it's out of
the picture in your system, you need manufacturers to embed UPnP. For me
as someone who wants to automate the devices I already have in my own
home then UPnP is not the solution but xAP is. Until all my devices are
replaced with UPnP versions I will always need an alternative and xAP
gives me exactly that. It's flexible, scaleable, expandable, fast and
above all simple and accessible even to me as a novice programmer.  I
can integrate many disparate devices , draw data from internet sources
eg News, weather, TV listings and make them work with my own devices.
> I realize I am asking a group of biased people, but still want to ask
> this: is there ever going to be a standard home automation protocol,
> and if so, what will it be?
>
I suspect UPnP has the best shot... eventually....  At the moment even
when available it can result in almost the opposite effect. Take for
example my Sonos multi room digital audio system . UPnP ? Yes - however
architected in such a way as to exclude other manufacturers UPnP players
(renderers) from playing the library of music and other manufacturers
controllers from controlling it. It is a UPnP island in my home and
inacessible.  I have a couple of other UPnP devices that wont
interoperate at all with Sonos. The level of complexity of the interface
and the semi proprietary implementation compounded by the unwillingness
to release any API information has moved this universal protocol
backwards not forwards in this case. I accept this is a commercial
decision made by Sonos but these issue are all relevant in the real
world to ally (tie) your customers with your product range.  If the
device had a simple serial port or IP Telnet access away we could go but
the complex multi layered nature of UPnP coupled with non standard
nuances has closed it as an integrated product .
> Can somebody shed any light on the differences between xap and upnp or
> scp? If you were building a commercial home automation device, what
> protocol would you bet on?
>
I don't know enough about SCP to comment - so my perhaps uninformed
opinion would be UPnP....  but for my purposes xAP is exactly what I
want/need.  UPnP is beyond my understanding and coding expertise and
hence I move from being able to achieve what I want to being dependent
on what others can offer and what manufacturers release.  I want my home
to work now, not in say 10 or 15 years time and after having upgraded
every automated product to a new standard.   Maybe once UPnP products
appear in quantity (and I am really looking forward to that) we should
be looking at some form of simple interaction between UPnP and xAP to
allow enthusiasts the access they need to create the interaction between
these products, the scripts and macros etc. After all being able to buy
a 'home automation' standard enabled video recorder or heating system
from your local electrical retailer is pretty exciting. Linking your
newly acquired video recorder to 'suggestions' that your favourite
website has so that it records things magically for you requires
personal 'automation'.

For the first time the limiting thing for me in achieving my Home
Automation desires is simply time.  I have so many things I can do now
with xAP that I couldn't before. I have my heating, lighting, security,
audio, video, email, news, weather, telephones, irrigation etc all
providing availability of state/data to each other and all controllable
by each other . Additionally I have a choice of commercial grade HA
software applications including touchscreen design applications  that I
can customise to achieve exactly the look I desire. True there are some
devices I cant access like the washing machine etc (lack of interface)
but they're pretty far down the 'want to' list anyway. Ironically my
leading edge 'standards based' Sonos product is out of the frame
currently too. But there are so many things I can do now - just need the
time :-)

xAP makes it achievable for me.


Kevin
> thanks
> Peter
>
>
>