ISY-994i Feature Requests

[autopro]

1.) Better management of the Device Link Tables.

Option A: Edit links directly. Add/remove/edit. (For us more experienced programmers.)

Option B (better): Recreate Link Table / Reinitialize Device. Create a link table for a device, based on what is showing in the ISY GUI, which can then be downloaded to the device. (This allows corrupted link tables to be cleaned up without losing associated scenes and programs. Especially important for those of us with many existing links migrated in from a Houselinc setup.)

 

2.) Provide a separate 'User Login' for the ISY (good for mobile browsers of course).

The Admin can set the username and password and then select which devices and scenes are shown in a simpler interface.

Make the display compact (like 8 or 9 devices on the screen at once, showing status, continuous scroll) click on/off/setting (setting - keyboard to enter number 0-100). A great feature to make the system usable for the technophobes in the house who only care about turning off a light, setting the temperature or closing the garage door.

 

3.) Provide better programming of the EZIO devices. E.g., EZIO2x4: If I can set the Config Register, Thresholds and All-Link Group commands, I wouldn't need this stupid SimpleUtilitySuite which hasn't been updated since 2010 and doesn't even work on a network with any dual-band devices (it chokes on the duplicate messages).

 

4.) Provide a better all-in-one Programmers Reference. Including detail like:

- the way to nest conditionals is to click on the 'and and (…)' button, then move other existing conditions up/down into the parentheses. (took me a while to guess that one)

- conditionals are 'edge-triggered' not level-triggered. (engineers know what this means) I figure this is the case, otherwise every program would always be running either the THEN or the ELSE. Also, a bit about how the transitions are stored until executed might help too.

- explain better the run-at-startup, activity, status for programs. Does run-at-startup mean all timers that expired prior to startup will trigger? Would that include since midnight? last 24 hours? starting now? What exactly does status = true/false mean?

- then/else statements will run to completion or until a wait or repeat loop, at which time the conditions are re-checked, and upon true will restart the then/else program. Which can be avoided by having the then/else program call a second stand-alone program, which always runs to completion regardless of waits/repeats.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi autopro,

 

Thanks so very much for the feedback. Comments below.

 

Option A: Edit links directly. Add/remove/edit. (For us more experienced programmers.)

I must humbly reject this request. From human perspective, it would be impossible to let one know that one is NOT an "experienced programmer". From tech support perspective, it's a nightmare. And, finally, ISY was designed to hide all this. It makes no sense to open it up.

 

Option B (better): Recreate Link Table / Reinitialize Device. Create a link table for a device, based on what is showing in the ISY GUI, which can then be downloaded to the device. (This allows corrupted link tables to be cleaned up without losing associated scenes and programs. Especially important for those of us with many existing links migrated in from a Houselinc setup.)

Sounds reasonable. This said, the reason we left it as is was because of a few "experienced programmers" who wanted to maintain "existing" links!

 

2.) Provide a separate 'User Login' for the ISY (good for mobile browsers of course).

The Admin can set the username and password and then select which devices and scenes are shown in a simpler interface.

Make the display compact (like 8 or 9 devices on the screen at once, showing status, continuous scroll) click on/off/setting (setting - keyboard to enter number 0-100). A great feature to make the system usable for the technophobes in the house who only care about turning off a light, setting the temperature or closing the garage door.

Have you already looked at our default HTML interface? http://wiki.universal-devices.com/index ... ser_Screen

 

3.) Provide better programming of the EZIO devices. E.g., EZIO2x4: If I can set the Config Register, Thresholds and All-Link Group commands, I wouldn't need this stupid SimpleUtilitySuite which hasn't been updated since 2010 and doesn't even work on a network with any dual-band devices (it chokes on the duplicate messages).

Historically, it was very difficult doing any type of business with SimpleHomeNet. At one point, we completely dropped support for them and it was only due to LeeG's expertise and expert advice that we were able to support them again.

 

4.) Provide a better all-in-one Programmers Reference. Including detail like:

- the way to nest conditionals is to click on the 'and and (…)' button, then move other existing conditions up/down into the parentheses. (took me a while to guess that one)

- conditionals are 'edge-triggered' not level-triggered. (engineers know what this means) I figure this is the case, otherwise every program would always be running either the THEN or the ELSE. Also, a bit about how the transitions are stored until executed might help too.

- explain better the run-at-startup, activity, status for programs. Does run-at-startup mean all timers that expired prior to startup will trigger? Would that include since midnight? last 24 hours? starting now? What exactly does status = true/false mean?

- then/else statements will run to completion or until a wait or repeat loop, at which time the conditions are re-checked, and upon true will restart the then/else program. Which can be avoided by having the then/else program call a second stand-alone program, which always runs to completion regardless of waits/repeats.

100% agreed. This is very important and we must do it and we already have plans.

 

Thanks again and with kind regards,

Michel

[autopro]

Michel, thanks for considering my suggestion.

 

1.)

The whole link management thing comes from my experience migrating over from Houselinc. I have several dozen devices. So, lots and lots of KPL buttons. I was trying to avoid the several hours to map them all out again. Still am.

 

I'm also afraid of losing my EZIO links. Not very easy to get those working right.

 

2.)

Maybe a separate login link that would take the user to a page with just a few devices. No programs, no variables, no admin panel, no options. Maybe even no scenes. Just a quick and easy thing for my wife and kids to use to open the garage door and turn on a light or two from their iPhone.

 

Optimum would be some way that they don't have to type in a username or password either. So maybe a dedicated app? Maybe login once a get a browser cookie?

 

BTW, I didn't catch that thing about the tilda (~). That explains where some of my items went. I use things like that to force some groupings in alphabetized lists. I'll have to rethink that one I guess.

 

3.)

Enough said.

 

4.)

Look forward to it.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi autopro,

 

With respect to (2), would you be kind enough to let me know what's lacking/missing in our default HTML page?

 

As always, thanks so very much for the feedback.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[autopro]

I am just suggestion an optional method that offers a bit more ease/speed of use.

 

The GUI on the iPhone is very complete. Just too slow to use. (1) Hit the safari mobile bookmark on my home screen. (2) Enter Username and Password. (3) Select 'Devices and Scenes' (btw, these buttons should be bigger). (4) Scroll down to the device/scene I want (out of about fifty) and (5) turn it on. (Takes about 30-45 seconds depending on how snappy the wifi is.)

 

For my wife, it's too much. She needs. (1) Hit the safari bookmark on her home screen. (2) Scroll down to the device she wants (out of about eight) and (3) turn it on. (This can be done in 10-15 seconds using the app for the Hub.)

 

So, what would be better for the technophobes in my house is: (1) no login, (2) no 'type' selection, and (3) fewer devices and scenes (but I still want admin access to all of them). Turn on a light in 10 seconds, cool. Turn on a light in 45 seconds, not the most useful.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello autopro,

 

Got it. Thanks so very much for the feedback which we'll definitely use in our next iteration.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[bmercier]

I am just suggestion an optional method that offers a bit more ease/speed of use.

 

The GUI on the iPhone is very complete. Just too slow to use. (1) Hit the safari mobile bookmark on my home screen. (2) Enter Username and Password. (3) Select 'Devices and Scenes' (btw, these buttons should be bigger). (4) Scroll down to the device/scene I want (out of about fifty) and (5) turn it on. (Takes about 30-45 seconds depending on how snappy the wifi is.)

 

For my wife, it's too much. She needs. (1) Hit the safari bookmark on her home screen. (2) Scroll down to the device she wants (out of about eight) and (3) turn it on. (This can be done in 10-15 seconds using the app for the Hub.)

 

So, what would be better for the technophobes in my house is: (1) no login, (2) no 'type' selection, and (3) fewer devices and scenes (but I still want admin access to all of them). Turn on a light in 10 seconds, cool. Turn on a light in 45 seconds, not the most useful.

 

Hello Autopro,

 

I think that the Home Automation Dashboard would be a perfect fit for you.

 

See the following thread: viewtopic.php?f=39&t=12793

 

This would allow you to only expose those devices that you want your family to have access to. You could install it on your ISY, or a separate web server. If you opt for a separate server, you will need a proxy to redirect rest calls to the ISY. But that would allow you to skip the login process as well. (See last post in the above thread)

 

On the dashboard, you could have a link to the admin interface, or the default UI, or both. Or, you may want to expose all of your devices and programs in the dashboard, on separate tabs.

 

Benoit.

[autopro]

Benoit, Thanks for the suggestion. But, you kind of lost me a little. I'm not really sure what to do with this. I'll brush up on my css/java script programming and see if I can make more sense out of it. Unless there is an 'automation dashboard basics for java dummies guide' somewhere?

[bmercier]

Benoit, Thanks for the suggestion. But, you kind of lost me a little. I'm not really sure what to do with this. I'll brush up on my css/java script programming and see if I can make more sense out of it. Unless there is an 'automation dashboard basics for java dummies guide' somewhere?

 

Hello Autopro,

 

ISY allows you to set up a custom web page to interact with it. This dashboard can be used as a replacement, or in addition to the default ISY web page.

 

In order to use it, you need to have some HTML and javascript skills. But this allows you to build an interface to you devices, scenes, and programs to suit your needs. The devices or programs you want to control are defined in a javascript table. So, i't fairly easy to set up a basic dashboard.

 

I'm currently working on it to make it easier to use.

 

Stay tuned!

 

Benoit.

[autopro]

re: #2:

 

I found a faster way into the user page from my iPhone. I made a bookmark in safari as:

 

"http://myusername:mypassword@myurl:myport/web/index.htm#nodes/devices/"

 

then, open the bookmark, then Add to Home Screen.

 

Now I have an app on my home screen that brings me right to my ISY device list in 1-2 seconds. Nice.

[larryllix]

re: #2:

 

I found a faster way into the user page from my iPhone. I made a bookmark in safari as:

 

"http://myusername:mypassword@myurl:myport/web/index.htm#nodes/devices/"

 

then, open the bookmark, then Add to Home Screen.

 

Now I have an app on my home screen that brings me right to my ISY device list in 1-2 seconds. Nice.

A further explanation of that "my" syntax would be nice! I didn't know you could use an "@" in a URL.

[autopro]

yes. sorry. substitute the following:

myusername = the user name you use to login to the ISY admin page

mypassword = the password you use to login to the ISY admin page

myurl = the url you use to access your ISY (either locally or remotely -- I setup one for each)

myport = the port number you use to access your ISY

[larryllix]

yes. sorry. substitute the following:

myusername = the user name you use to login to the ISY admin page

mypassword = the password you use to login to the ISY admin page

myurl = the url you use to access your ISY (either locally or remotely -- I setup one for each)

myport = the port number you use to access your ISY

Thanks!

 

Not happening. It would seem my browser doesn't like it, judging by the time it takes to reject the URL.

[Xathros]

yes. sorry. substitute the following:

myusername = the user name you use to login to the ISY admin page

mypassword = the password you use to login to the ISY admin page

myurl = the url you use to access your ISY (either locally or remotely -- I setup one for each)

myport = the port number you use to access your ISY

Thanks!

 

Not happening. It would seem my browser doesn't like it, judging by the time it takes to reject the URL.

 

Are you using http from inside your LAN or https from Outside? I don't think this will work from outside.

 

-Xathros

[autopro]

This is what I have as a bookmark in my safari: (Obviously my username and password are different, but this is for demonstration.)

 

"http://dan:password@192.168.5.100:6080/web/index.htm#nodes/devices"

 

The URL for the ISY in my LAN is 192.168.5.100.

And, I changed the http port in my ISY config from 80 to 6080.

Because for remote access, I added the 6080 port to my port forwarding rules in my router.

 

Then, for remote access, the bookmark is:

"http://dan:password@myurl.ddns.com:6080/web/index.htm#nodes/devices"

 

'myurl.ddns.com' is the url I have registered at dnsdynamic.org which is a free dynamic domain name service. If you are unfamiliar, these allow pseudo static access for non-static IP addresses on the internet. A client runs on your computer all day updating the DDNS with your actual IP address like once an hour. So, if your ISP changes your IP address, within an hour, the name server is updated and remote access is restored. A static IP would be better, but DDNS services provide a cool work-around.

 

Both the local and remote bookmarks work great. With these bookmarks copied to my iPhone home screen, it takes about 3-4 seconds to get right to the device list and turn on a light.

[larryllix]

Are you using http from inside your LAN or https from Outside? I don't think this will work from outside.

 

-Xathros

I am attempting from inside my LAN access.

 

I get a textbox labelled "Address Bar" and a message "Windows cannot find 'http://......' Check your spelling and try again.

 

It appears IE doesn't like the format of something in the URL. The error is immediate.