Re: IDRATEK announce xAP support

["Paul Bendall" <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Kevin,

I'd be interested in your alarm integration do you have a blog or
website detailing what you have done?

A few of us have dabled with CallerID in Cortex. The problem is
finding a modem that supports BT CallerID and that Cortex is also
happy with, the closest product has been a Zoom PCI (3025-72-00CF).
However, as David describes on his Blog this doesn't seem to play
nice with the answer phone and voice control of Cortex,
http://www.gumbrell.com/archives/2007/03/decent-uk-caller-id-
modem.html.

I'll have to look at HouseBot. I got a iPod Touch for Christmas and
would love to integrate this with Cortex. It should be relatively
easy as the Cortex uses XML and XSL to generate the HTML pages. But
I've never played with XML (I'd call myself a ropey scripter in
VBScript rather than anything more glamourous). The other issue is
the iPod Touch seems quite slow for browsing even on a local WiFi at
home. Maybe the release of the SDK would allow a native XAP app?

I also have a Slimdevices Squeezebox 3 and Squeezecenter 7 and I
would love to use this more with my HA.

Paul



--- In xap_automation@xxxxxxx, "Kevin Hawkins"
<yahoogroupskh@...> wrote:
>
> One of the big changes that has happened in my HA exploits is that
> it's now possible to do almost anything - it's just a case of the
best
> - or sometimes the most interesting way of doing it.
>
> xAP has helped me so much in this respect in that it's shown
me 'how'
> to do things.  I'm not a
> professional programmer but coding xAP 'conduits' that allow
devices
> to talk to each other is relatively simple, even I've managed that
in
> VB. So xAP has given me the methodology and I can leverage so many
> other peoples hard work in devices or applications - like in this
case
> IDRATEK . Writing an application like Cortex for example is a huge
> undertaking - being able to just plug into it is great - and it
doesn't
> mean dedicating devices to Cortex in that all xAP applications and
> devices are networked so you can have truly distributed control -
many
> many applications should you wish - each doing what they do best.
This
> has obvious tradeoffs though in manageability.
>
> One thing that has surprised me is that the connections between
> objects in Cortex carry 'compound' data and Cortex does very clever
> things ensuring that temp values etc are connected appropriately,
eveb
> intelligently building links for you. I need
> to understand this some more.  I haven't yet investigated for
example
> how Cortex might handle text values etc.
>
> Aside from the fact I have C-Bus lighting I also have my alarm
system
> attached via Ethernet and the PIR's, attached directly to the alarm
> panel present via xAP. So that has worked well allowing me to have
an
>  isolated (and professionally maintained) alarm system integrated
with
> Cortex.
>
> Also I have a lot of the very low cost (and tiny) 1-wire
temperature
> sensors around - maybe 25 or so - on my heating system ,  boiler
> flow/return , hot water tank, as well as for each room.  IDRANet
> modules offer wall switch type single sensor versions  but would
not
> have easily allowed this proliferation in a cost effective or
> physically suitable manner. So that's worked well and the sensors
> import into Cortex in just the same way as the IDRANet ones,
offering
> the same inputs and outputs.
>
> I want to investigate getting CallerID into Cortex (Meteor via
xAP),
> getting broadcast messages from Cortex displayed on xAP devices eg
my
> PC as popups and my TV / media players. Also using HouseBot , a
great
> realtime touchscreen interface for PC and PPC devices , as a
frontend
> to Cortex - so lot's of interesting projects ahead.
>
> Glad there's a user there already - I may have some questions for
you
> as I delve further ;-)  If you do venture into xAP then please
mention
> this to the guys at IDRATEK as I would like them to be aware of the
> uptake. The xAP support is part of the Automation Network Object
and
> Vivian has spent a considerable time on the integration and it
offers
> many more features than the previous xPL only support.
>
>    Kevin
>
>
>
> --- In xap_automation@xxxxxxx, "Paul Bendall" <paul@>
wrote:
> >
> > Kevin,
> >
> > I am very interested in what you are doing on this front. I have
> > Idratk as my HA but haven't really any XAP applications at the
> > moment.
> >
> > Paul
> >
> >
>



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