xAP X10 BSC Connector v2.5.0 released

["Edward Pearson" <edward.mailgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

A major new version of the xAP Framework X10 Connector is now available and
a new xAP location on the web has come into being too www.erspearson.com.

The new version of the connector (v2.5) is a significant upgrade to the
previous version since in now supports the Basic Status and Control (BSC)
schema as its primary interface. The original X10 schema continues to be
supported but, since BSC is much more powerful and hides the details of X10
from the xAP network it is the preferred way of interacting with the
connector. Thus, the BSC schema gives you a common way of controlling
devices no matter whether they are on X10, C-Bus, 1-Wire etc.

The previous connector was a stateless, two-way interface between X10 and
xAP; the BSC version incorporates full state tracking to allow optimisation
of powerline usage as well as the ability to provide a single control
method
for X10 modules with different capabilities.

Another significant addition is address mapping. The connector holds an
address map table that you set up with one entry per X10 device on the X10
network. The address map translates between addresses such as
downstairs.study.desklamp (xAP) and C7 (X10).  Each map entry also holds
the
kind of module: binary, dimmer, pro-dimmer etc.

In combination, these two feature allow the conenctor to take care of
issuing the correct set of X10 commands to get the controlled device into
the required state. So, for instance, you can have two lamps, one on a plug
in module, the other on a DIN dimmer, issue a single BSC command targetted
at both to dim to 60% and the connector will issue the appropriate sequence
of X10 powerline commands to get the two lamps to the correct state.

A bi-product of supporting both the BSC and X10 schema's is that the
connector will translate between them so, for instance, with both schemas
enabled in the preferences dialog, you can send the connector a BSC command
that affects modules on the X10 network and the X10 commands that it used
to
accomplish this are echoed back on the xAP network as X10 schema messages.

As with the previous version, the connector is developed as a plugin module
for Start Booth's excellent xAPFramework.net runtimes that allow operation
as a GUI application, command line application and a Windows service all
from the same binaries. For convenience, I have packaged the connector
plugin together with each of the runtimes as a set of Microsoft Installer
(MSI) applications. The plugin files themselves are also available a a
separate doenload for those that want to run the plugin in the same runtime
as, say, the RedRat and/or Slim connectors.

The connector is configured using a number of XML files. These don't need
to
be edited directly, their contents can all be setup using the preferences
dialog on the GUI version. Therefore I suggest all new users start with the
GUI version to get a setup they are happy with before deploying the setup
to
the commandline or service versions.

As part of this release I have finally pulled my finger out and built
myself
a little website as a place to publish my stuff. It's ironic that in over
ten years architecting eCommerce sites I've never managed to do anything on
the web for myself. Howerver, I shall not be putting a link to this one in
my professional portfolio - you'll soon see why I leave the html and page
design to others! Anyhow, it does the job and there's a few other xAP
related bits on there too that I shall be adding to in the future.

The site is redirected from www.erspearson.com - click on "Automation
and
xAP projects" from the main page to find the X10 connector.

The BSC v1.3 spec is available at
http://downloads.xapautomation.org/documents/BSCv13.pdf

Thanks to all the beta testers that have tried this out over the last few
months.

Edward