DaveGee

I've still got room... Visit http://forum.isyremote.com/ Go to the main discussion forum (only one is visible) and read the post about registering to be a beta tester... Once I get your UID its usually only a day (often less) and you'll have access to the application... One thing thats really important is you need to update your ISY firmware to the latest release for my application to function properly. Link: http://forum.universal-devices.com/viewtopic.php?t=1445 Dave

Beta invites have all (I hope) been sent out in the form of PMs (private messages) in this forum.. Look at the very top right of the page and it will indicate if you have any unread messages.... (dunno how many people use PMs on a regular basis).. Anyway if you didn't get one you still have time to chime in... The code I hope will be set for beta distribution maybe as early as Monday evening... Dave

Due to ongoing medical issues that I'd rather not talk about I will be mostly out of touch this week... I just don't have the energy at the moment... It only lasts about a week or so and then I'm good for a while... till my next visit. But enough about that... I really don't want to dwell on it since that doesn't do anyone any good, especially me. Oh and once I'm ready getting an app onto the iPhone/iPod is pretty easy... the first thing I will need is the unique identifier for the device/devices (you can get that from the iTunes device screen... I think you click on the serial number and it changes to 'identifier' and you'll need to send that to me... stupid Apple doesn't let you copy and past the identifier so you've gotta pay extra attention when copying it and sending it to me.... Once I get the IDs I simply create a 'distribution document' that has all the IDs included in it... and then I would distribute the beta app PLUS the 'distribution document' to everyone via email or web site... Then all you need to do is drop the app PLUS that distribution document on to iTunes and it will do the app install... Or it will give you an error if the unique id wasn't correct... Pretty painless really.. the only limit I'll have is I can have no more that 100 devices in any one beta distribution.... and I don't think I'll have a problem with that... I'll be back as soon as possible and don't worry I won't forget anyone... Dave

Great to know "If iPhone goes to sleep, ISY does not get an ack to its heartbeat and thus expires the subscription anyway." but I'd still like to be a good upstanding citizen (umm program) and unsubscribe if I know for sure that the device is going into power saver mode... not to mention I have a thread that I'm sure I'd need to terminate as well so why not do the right/polite thing.... Upon wake-up I'll need to perform a 'fresh/full subscribe' since I won't have any idea what changes may have taken place to the devices since the device went to sleep... I gotta tell you I'm having so much fun with this... my wife is about to throw ME the ISY and my iPod out of the house any day now... Must learn to control myself must learn to control... LOL Dave

Excellent responses! I just have to do some last minute touch ups... Like to un-hardwire the ip address of the ISY and the username & password settings... so you can enter in the correct setting for your setup and then I think I'll be in a position to send out the initial app... **It will clearly have bugs in it... and one that I can tell you right now is as follows** On app launch it gets a list of devices from the ISY and then does a subscribe soap call... in short that subscribe is an open connection between the ISY and the iPod/iPhone that the ISY uses to send any/all device status change messages... You know, like when someone turns the hall light switch off the ISY will tell the iPod that the light went off and then my app will change the status icon for the 'Hall Light' device from 'yellow bulb' icon (on) to 'dark bulb' icon (off)... Here comes the bug... When you leave my app running and the iPod/Phone goes into 'dark screen' mode (power saver? whatever) and you have to tap it and then slide the switch to get back to the program ... the subscription is no longer active and the only way to reactivate it is to quit out of the program and then go back in fresh... I realize I just have to issue a new subscribe soap call but since I'm using a threaded process for this subscription-monitoring I wanna make sure I don't start creating a million threads and eventually crash the device... (this wouldn't harm it but its still not what I'm looking to do...) The right thing to do is: Right before the iPod/Phone goes to powersaver mode I want to... - Send an unsubscribe soap call to the ISY (the right thing to do) - Close the subscription connection I had open (if it wasn't automatically closed from the unsubscribe) - Terminate the thread Then the iPod can go to sleep... and on reawakening I'd do the following - Send a subscribe soap call to the ISY in a new thread.... I just gotta find out exactly where I put the code to do this suff... Dave

Posted this over in the mobile forum... but thought people here might not get a chance to see it... so hop on over to the link below if you have an iPod touch or iPhone... http://forum.universal-devices.com/viewtopic.php?t=1482 Cheers! Dave

Here are some screenshots to give you some idea of what the current status is... Removed since lots of changes occurred since these were taken... Dave

Okay, I have to warn you that this app is FAR from what I would consider beta quality since I still have quite a number of features that I would like to add **but** that being said, I finally got my developers approval (so I can compile and test apps on actual iPhones/iPod touches instead of just the software simulator... Still I'm dying to get this out to others to see how it works in the wild... The App doesn't write anything other than a basic preference file to the device and it only talks to the ISY in a none harmful way... It doesn't change any settings on the ISY or anything like that.. It simply reads the list of devices (presents them to you on the screen) and then tells the ISY to turn On/Off a device based on what you select. It'll be at least a week before I'm ready to deploy the app to beta testers but I would like to get an idea of who might be interested... The basic requirements are as follows: - An ISY-26 or ISY-99 WITH THE LATEST FIRMWARE! - iPhone / iPod Touch WITH THE LATEST 2.x FIRMWARE - INSTEON devices (preference to those who have 'lots' of devices) - Unique INSTEON devices (preference to those who have 'lots' of devices) * I myself only have run of the mill Lamplincs / Outletlincs / Switchlincs / On-Off Switches / etc... so if you are expecting this **initial testing release** to support stuff like keypadlincs / sprinklers / thermostats / cameras / alarm systems / etc you're gonna be disappointed but I'm gonna try my best to expand device support... Hardware developers of INSTEON harware that donate hardware so I can develop support for it will get more attention than those who don't.... Programming support of a device you don't have ....isn't impossible... but it's pretty darn close! On that note... how do developers go about getting devices so they can support them in the application they are writing? I can't very well go out and spend thousands of dollars in all kinds of INSTEON hardware device so I can support them in a program that I might not ever see any real money from. Yea... price is another things I'm really stuck on... I mean how many people would be interested in paying for such a piece of software... remember they have to own an ISY device to begin with so that limits my audience right off the bat and then they also have to own an iPhone or iPod touch.. another market limiter... and then they would have to desire to do their HA controlling from their iPhone/iPod... The list of potential customers is getting smaller and smaller.... Then again I could just throw it out there as a 'freebee app' or some really low ball price but then it would be impossible to justify improving the device with support for new products (unless I myself am interested in buying the device for my own use)... Makes my head spin thinking about all the business side of things.... but I got a ways to go before I have to deal with that part of it... Anyway if you are interested Please respond in this thread with: - The type of ISY you have 26/99) - The apx # of INSTEON devices you have - If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch - Any unique or interesting devices you might have You can either respond to me directly in this thread or PM me... I will be looking forward to your responses. Dave

Dave, (quite a classy name!) Very interesting information indeed... and it will come in quite helpful but its just that much more of a kick in the head to those of us who put our faith behind INSTEON isn't it? After all... oh to get it to do the RIGHT THING you have use the fall back X10 support for that... is that classic or what. But again the info you provided will certainly come in handy for quick and dirty workarounds to this problem. Dave

I think you may have missed this part of his message.... You see I have found a flaw (long time flaw but new to me) that make it totally unacceptable for use in my automated home... In short: If you connect a lamplinc to a lamp and then use the lamps on switch a few times the lamplinc will turn on the lamp **but** here is the kicker... It will not notify the rest of the insteon network that the lamp (aka the lamplinc) state has changed from off to on. This same behavior happens with ApplianceLincs.... I can't believe they continue to sell them as viable INSTEON devices when they exhibit such behavior. Any device that changes its state and then doesn't bother to notify the network is less than useless to me I can buy much cheaper X10 junk that does that. Heck, I might as well not have the device INSTEON enabled to begin with - okay that might be going a bit far but not by much... Dave

I'm not sure I understand... Are you modifying the 2402WH by adding a built-in outlet that the table lamp would plug into? If so I'd love to see some photos since this sounds like the type of thing I'm looking for as well... Local control for the table lamp when a spouse is involved can be a HUGE P.I.T.A. ... Dave

slooplinc's neighbors talking at a neighborhood block party... So!! The lights dim up and down at dusk at your house too? Boy that weird!! Sorry, just looking at all the devices in that dusk scene made my eyes water... thats all... Dave

Why would you need to make the inlinelinc a controller since it really isn't? Well it isn't a controller any more than an appliance module is (since it has that button on the side)... I can use the status of any insteon device as part of a program... it doesn't need to be a controller. If 'somedevice' is 'ON' ('off' whatever) and the time is after sunset do .... Dave

I have a related question... If you start at 100% and (prior to sundown) and then 'dim over time' how are you doing this? In 'chunks' where: @ sunset the lights in the scene dim to 80% (in a quick jump) @ 9pm they dim to 70% (in a quick jump) @ 10pm they dim to 50% (in a quick jump) This would be the only way I could see it working... What I'd love to see is a 'super slow dim' or 'super slow bright' where I could have all the lights gradually dim/bright over the entire time span of sundown --> 10PM (so lets say thats 3 hours or so) and lets say you want to go from 100% to 50% (or a total of a 50% drop) then the scene would dim 1% every X minutes (I'm not doing the math) so the dim/bright would be more 'fluid'... Is that possible? Kinda like a 'really really long' ramp rate.. (instead of it being max 9 minutes - or whatever). I guess the really sticky part would be what would/should happen if someone turned on/off (or both) or even just dimmed/brightened one or more lights in the scene? Thinking about it myself, no easy or correct answer exists as far as I can see. Dave

For the dim level I understand exactly what az1324 is asking for.... Its related to something that I'm already working on... With the web accesses we have On / Off Fast On / Fast Off Bright / Dim (query) (refresh) (and the hidden field that contains the hardware-id for the device you are controlling) the form seems to POST just two bits of information: 1 - The command (On/Off) etc. 2 - The node ID This works fine for On/Off/FOn/FOff For dim it kinda breaks down... I see the point for Dim/Bright doing their thing of increasing or decreasing the lights level by 3 or 4 (something like that) especially for devices that don't provide for easy inputting of values. But for devices that have perfectly good input methods it would be much nicer to have a optional box where you could type in a numeric value and then hit dim/bright (it wouldn't matter which) and then when your server saw the value filled in (instead of being blank) it would simply SET the brightness level to whatever number was submitted. Now with fancy html/css pages you could even make a pretty neat slider that would mimic someone manually entering in the numeric value... It would also be really nice for standalone applications that might want to make use of the POST functions of the web server (instead of SOAP) since doing a POST is much easier for some then doing a SOAP call. In short being able to send along a numeric value to the dim and or post functions (instead of just the node id) would be a great thing. Dave