MarkJames Posted March 6, 2010 Posted March 6, 2010 I was just about to buy the ISY plugin for homeseer. I noticed there's a coupon code box. Does anyone know any coupon codes for this? Thanks in advance, mark
upstatemike Posted March 6, 2010 Posted March 6, 2010 I don't have any coupon codes but I do want to remind you that you can use the plugin for 30 days before deciding to buy. Maybe a coupon code will come out during the 30 day trial.
MarkJames Posted March 6, 2010 Author Posted March 6, 2010 I didn't see a try-before-you buy with it. All I saw was a 'pay now' button. $60 is a lot to buy something sight-unseen. mark
upstatemike Posted March 6, 2010 Posted March 6, 2010 Use the updater in Homeseer to download and install it and it will be in 30 day trial mode. When you are sure you want it, go back to the store and buy it which will just email you the license key to put into the plugin setup page to convert it to a registered copy.
MarkJames Posted March 6, 2010 Author Posted March 6, 2010 Thanks - I'll try that. I was using the updater and many of the plugins said 'free to try - x$ to buy' but that one didn't have that notation attached. Thanks again, mark
bpwwer Posted March 6, 2010 Posted March 6, 2010 Hi Mark, Beta versions (which also have the same 30 day trial period) are posted to the HomeSeer website. I just finished posting the latest a couple of minutes ago. If you're using any of the recent ISY firmware versions, you'll be better off with the beta. The latest beta version is what's being targeted for the next official version. http://board.homeseer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=919 Most of the support happens via the forum above, but you can also email me directly at isyinsteon at bobsplace dot com.
MarkJames Posted March 6, 2010 Author Posted March 6, 2010 Thanks, Bob, lol - good to see the author right here. Who woulda thunk it? I'm having a bit of a time getting it to be recognized in the setup screen. I keep getting an 'unable to access HSPI_ISY_insteon.hspi (or something similar - I can't cut/paste from my telnet session) in the log. I'll try updating my .net framework - perhaps it's too old. mark
bpwwer Posted March 6, 2010 Posted March 6, 2010 Thanks, Bob, lol - good to see the author right here. Who woulda thunk it? I'm having a bit of a time getting it to be recognized in the setup screen. I keep getting an 'unable to access HSPI_ISY_insteon.hspi (or something similar - I can't cut/paste from my telnet session) in the log. I'll try updating my .net framework - perhaps it's too old. mark It does require .NET 3.0 or later. With the older .NET versions it does fail in a non-obvious way.
MarkJames Posted March 6, 2010 Author Posted March 6, 2010 installing 3.5 as we speak... I was on 2.0. Like I said - it's a clunker - it'll be installing 3.5 for 45 minutes easy. Once upon a time there were no JRE's or dot net frameworks..... now it's the first thing you gotta check. Of course back then you had to check your IRQ and your DMA. I guess it's a wash. mark
MarkJames Posted March 6, 2010 Author Posted March 6, 2010 Well - I seem to be having some trouble with the homeseer plugin. I got it installed and config runs but I can't add my devices. Here's the log 3/5/2010 9:42:05 PM - Info - Initializing Plug-in: Insteon on COM port 3 3/5/2010 9:42:06 PM - Insteon - PLM contacted on COM3 with an Insteon address of xx.xx.xx and firmware version 85 3/5/2010 9:42:06 PM - Info - Finished initializing plug-in Insteon 3/5/2010 9:42:06 PM - Info - Initializing Plug-in: ISY Insteon 3/5/2010 9:42:06 PM - ISY Insteon - Creating isy class instance: [192.168.xxx.xxx] 3/5/2010 9:42:06 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Parse description URL (http://192.168.xxx.xxx/desc) 3/5/2010 9:42:07 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Attempt to authenticate ISY access. 3/5/2010 9:42:07 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Authenticating with ISY 3/5/2010 9:42:07 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Subscription thread started 3/5/2010 9:42:08 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Authenticate returned 200 3/5/2010 9:42:09 PM - Database Item - Saving Device Global Insteon All Devices 3/5/2010 9:42:10 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: service client created 3/5/2010 9:42:10 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Set ClientCredentials. 3/5/2010 9:42:10 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Busy Check - delay only. 3/5/2010 9:42:18 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 1 failed. 3/5/2010 9:42:18 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 2 failed. 3/5/2010 9:42:19 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 3 failed. 3/5/2010 9:42:19 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 4 failed. 3/5/2010 9:42:19 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 5 failed. 3/5/2010 9:42:19 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 6 failed. 3/5/2010 9:42:20 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 7 failed. 3/5/2010 9:42:20 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 8 failed. 3/5/2010 9:42:20 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 9 failed. 3/5/2010 9:42:20 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 10 failed. 3/5/2010 9:42:21 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query failed. 3/5/2010 9:42:21 PM - Info - Finished initializing plug-in ISY Insteon 3/5/2010 9:42:21 PM - Info - Finished initializing X10 interface 3/5/2010 9:42:21 PM - Info - Finished initializing infrared interface 3/5/2010 9:42:26 PM - Info - Local IP address (subnet) is: 192.168.xxx.xxx(255.255.255.0) 3/5/2010 9:42:26 PM - Info - UPNP Discovery started 3/5/2010 9:42:26 PM - Info - Web Server started on port 80 3/5/2010 9:42:27 PM - Info - Web Server authorized local login successful from: 127.0.0.1 User: default 3/5/2010 9:42:27 PM - Info - Creating ASP.NET application host... 3/5/2010 9:42:37 PM - Info - ASP.NET application host created then when I just hit the save button I get 3/5/2010 9:54:04 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: Entered GenPage for Status 3/5/2010 9:54:04 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: GetNodes: No matching nodes of type TYPE_CLIMATE found. 3/5/2010 9:54:04 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: GetNodes: No matching nodes of type TYPE_WEATHER_MOD found. 3/5/2010 9:54:04 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: GetNodes: No matching nodes of type TYPE_ENERGY_MOD found. 3/5/2010 9:54:04 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: Leaving GenPage for Status 3/5/2010 9:54:08 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: Enter Status PagePut 3/5/2010 9:54:09 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Subscription thread started 3/5/2010 9:54:09 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Calling GetNodesConfig ... 3/5/2010 9:54:09 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Subscribe: Caught abort: Thread was being aborted. 3/5/2010 9:54:09 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Busy Check - delay only. I've updated to dot net 3.5 and the newest version of the Java runtimes. I've confirmed that I can get to admin console from that machine and connect properly. I do have a number of services disabled on that machine. As I mentioned it's not a very powerful box so I've disabled a lot of services that I normally wouldn't use - network DDE, net tcp port sharing, routing and remote access, and a few others. I'm wondering if that might be the problem. The other potential issue I should point out is that I'm testing Brad77's mediacenter plugin. I'm not sure if the connection from the mce plugin could in some way interfere with the operation of the homeseer connection. I know my Elk rules won't run with my ISY till I disconnect from the Elk. I've tried shutting down MCE while testing the homeseer plugin but, as Scotty would say 'It dinna do a bi agood' mark Edit: [40 minutes later] I thought about it a bit and decided that perhaps I shouldn't have insteon enabled in homeseer if I have the isyinsteon plugin there as well. I thought having 2 PLMs in the system (yeah... I'm strange, I actually have 3) may confuse things. I disabled it and restarted homeseer but it didn't make any difference. I did notice a message that didn't appear in the log - it said 'comm manager found a non-ISY UPnP device' when I hit save on the insteonISY config page. here's the log from an attempt to use the port as 192.168.xxx.xxx:443 (I thought it may need to be https) and with my regular IP again. 3/5/2010 10:31:05 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: Entered GenPage for Configuration 3/5/2010 10:31:05 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: Leaving GenPage for Configuration 3/5/2010 10:31:12 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: Enter PagePut 3/5/2010 10:31:12 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: old_loc = 0, location = 0 3/5/2010 10:31:12 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: old_loc2 = 0, location2 = 0 3/5/2010 10:31:12 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: Leaving PagePut 3/5/2010 10:31:12 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: Entered GenPage for Configuration 3/5/2010 10:31:12 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: Leaving GenPage for Configuration 3/5/2010 10:31:19 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: Enter PagePut 3/5/2010 10:31:19 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: PagePut: Calling start_isy() 3/5/2010 10:31:20 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Subscribe: Caught abort: Thread was being aborted. 3/5/2010 10:31:20 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Subscription thread started 3/5/2010 10:31:20 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: isy instance reset to initial values. 3/5/2010 10:31:20 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Calling GetDescURL(192.168.xxx.xxx:443) 3/5/2010 10:31:20 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Parse description URL (http://192.168.xxx.xxx:443/desc) 3/5/2010 10:31:20 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Attempting to auto-discover ISY 3/5/2010 10:31:20 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Starting auto-discovery 3/5/2010 10:31:25 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Found a NON-ISY UPNP device. 3/5/2010 10:31:29 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Found a NON-ISY UPNP device. 3/5/2010 10:31:29 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Found an ISY: http://192.168.xxx.xxx/desc 3/5/2010 10:31:29 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Found URL http://192.168.xxx.xxx/desc 3/5/2010 10:31:29 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Parse description URL 3/5/2010 10:31:30 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Attempt to authenticate ISY access. 3/5/2010 10:31:30 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Authenticating with ISY 3/5/2010 10:31:30 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Authenticate returned 200 3/5/2010 10:31:30 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: service client created 3/5/2010 10:31:30 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Set ClientCredentials. 3/5/2010 10:31:30 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Busy Check - delay only. 3/5/2010 10:31:31 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 1 failed. 3/5/2010 10:31:32 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 2 failed. 3/5/2010 10:31:32 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 3 failed. 3/5/2010 10:31:32 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 4 failed. 3/5/2010 10:31:32 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 5 failed. 3/5/2010 10:31:33 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 6 failed. 3/5/2010 10:31:33 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 7 failed. 3/5/2010 10:31:33 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 8 failed. 3/5/2010 10:31:33 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 9 failed. 3/5/2010 10:31:34 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 10 failed. 3/5/2010 10:31:34 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query failed. 3/5/2010 10:31:34 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: old_loc = 0, location = 0 3/5/2010 10:31:34 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: old_loc2 = 0, location2 = 0 3/5/2010 10:31:34 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: Leaving PagePut 3/5/2010 10:31:34 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: Entered GenPage for Configuration 3/5/2010 10:31:34 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: Leaving GenPage for Configuration 3/5/2010 10:35:05 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: Enter PagePut 3/5/2010 10:35:05 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: PagePut: Calling start_isy() 3/5/2010 10:35:06 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Subscribe: Caught abort: Thread was being aborted. 3/5/2010 10:35:06 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Subscription thread started 3/5/2010 10:35:06 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: isy instance reset to initial values. 3/5/2010 10:35:06 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Calling GetDescURL(192.168.xxx.xxx) 3/5/2010 10:35:06 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Parse description URL (http://192.168.xxx.xxx/desc) 3/5/2010 10:35:06 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Attempt to authenticate ISY access. 3/5/2010 10:35:06 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Authenticating with ISY 3/5/2010 10:35:06 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Authenticate returned 200 3/5/2010 10:35:06 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: service client created 3/5/2010 10:35:06 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Set ClientCredentials. 3/5/2010 10:35:06 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: Busy Check - delay only. 3/5/2010 10:35:07 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 1 failed. 3/5/2010 10:35:08 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 2 failed. 3/5/2010 10:35:08 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 3 failed. 3/5/2010 10:35:08 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 4 failed. 3/5/2010 10:35:09 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 5 failed. 3/5/2010 10:35:09 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 6 failed. 3/5/2010 10:35:09 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 7 failed. 3/5/2010 10:35:09 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 8 failed. 3/5/2010 10:35:10 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 9 failed. 3/5/2010 10:35:10 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query attemp 10 failed. 3/5/2010 10:35:10 PM - ISY Insteon - COMM: ISY configuration query failed. 3/5/2010 10:35:10 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: old_loc = 0, location = 0 3/5/2010 10:35:10 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: old_loc2 = 0, location2 = 0 3/5/2010 10:35:10 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: Leaving PagePut 3/5/2010 10:35:10 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: Entered GenPage for Configuration 3/5/2010 10:35:10 PM - ISY Insteon - MAIN: Leaving GenPage for Configuration mark
bpwwer Posted March 6, 2010 Posted March 6, 2010 Hi Mark, Thanks for the detailed report! Well - I seem to be having some trouble with the homeseer plugin. I got it installed and config runs but I can't add my devices. Here's the log Based on that error I'm going to guess that you have an ISY firmware version newer than 2.7.6. And that you have the official plug-in release from the HomeSeer updater. If those are both true then that's the problem. The 1.0.1.0 official version of the plug-in only support ISY firmware up to 2.7.6. Please go to the HomeSeer forum and download the beta version 1.0.1.12. That version should work with all ISY firmware version 2.7.0 and later, including 2.7.12. I've updated to dot net 3.5 and the newest version of the Java runtimes. I've confirmed that I can get to admin console from that machine and connect properly. I do have a number of services disabled on that machine. As I mentioned it's not a very powerful box so I've disabled a lot of services that I normally wouldn't use - network DDE, net tcp port sharing, routing and remote access, and a few others. I'm wondering if that might be the problem. I don't believe you'll have any problem because o the missing services. If you can connect to the ISY via a web browser or the admin console from that machine, it should be fine. The other potential issue I should point out is that I'm testing Brad77's mediacenter plugin. I'm not sure if the connection from the mce plugin could in some way interfere with the operation of the homeseer connection. I know my Elk rules won't run with my ISY till I disconnect from the Elk. I've tried shutting down MCE while testing the homeseer plugin but, as Scotty would say 'It dinna do a bi agood' There's no problem running both at the same time. I have run Brad77's MediaCenter plug, my HomeSeer plug-in, my Mainlobby ISY plug-in, and the admin console all that the same time.
MarkJames Posted March 6, 2010 Author Posted March 6, 2010 That will be it, then. I'm on 2.7.12 I'll go get the beta. Thanks for your help! Mark
MarkJames Posted March 6, 2010 Author Posted March 6, 2010 You know your code! It's chugging away doing it's thing. Thanks for the help. mark
bpwwer Posted March 6, 2010 Posted March 6, 2010 You're welcome! Any questions or other problems, just let me know.
brad77 Posted March 6, 2010 Posted March 6, 2010 The other potential issue I should point out is that I'm testing Brad77's mediacenter plugin. I'm not sure if the connection from the mce plugin could in some way interfere with the operation of the homeseer connection. No worries there. According to Michel, the ISY supports up to 10 subscription channels, which is how most of these applications get their information from the ISY.
MarkJames Posted March 7, 2010 Author Posted March 7, 2010 Well it's quickly becoming apparent that my old celeron based clunker with a whopping 256mb of ram is just not gonna do it for homeseer. It works - but just. As I just dropped the better part of 4grand on a new DVR, cameras, wireless sensors, some more smarthome goodies and a bunch of other stuff the wife doesn't know about I'd say that a new PC of any consequence is out of the question. Bob... you would probably know the answer to this. I'm looking at the Acer Revo - a sort of netbook with a crappy atom processor in it - but it's like $200 and it has a gb of RAM. Would this be enough of a computer for homeseer with your plugin? mark
bpwwer Posted March 7, 2010 Posted March 7, 2010 Well it's quickly becoming apparent that my old celeron based clunker with a whopping 256mb of ram is just not gonna do it for homeseer. It works - but just. I suspect that memory is probably the bottle neck. But unless you have some laying around, it may not be worth the effort to try and upgrade it. Bob... you would probably know the answer to this. I'm looking at the Acer Revo - a sort of netbook with a crappy atom processor in it - but it's like $200 and it has a gb of RAM. Would this be enough of a computer for homeseer with your plugin? mark I'm probably a bit biased since I work for Intel and currently work on software for Atom based platforms so I figure I should disclose that up front. I have something that's similar to the Revo, a 1.6GH Atom based system, but with 2GB of ram. I use this system to run MainLobby and it works fine. I don't have any performance issues with it. I suspect HomeSeer would run fine on it too. I replaced a Pentium 4 based machine and don't notice any real difference performance wise (given the limited interactive use it gets). The primary reason for the Atom based system was to reduce the power being used since the system is always on. I have HomeSeer running on a virtual machine (hosted on a Mac mini). I give the virtual machine 1GB of ram and it's fine. I also use the virtual machine for a lot of other things. Both machines are running Windows XP.
MarkJames Posted March 7, 2010 Author Posted March 7, 2010 I hadn't considered that. I've set my home up as a domain and all the workstations log in for file and resource sharing. This is primarily to keep control of my kids and so I can sleep at night knowing noone is gonna fdisk my drives while I'm away. It also prevents the issue of malware installing itself as noone has admin privileges but me - so if something is gonna get installed I gotta be the one to install it. As a concession, though, I run vmware on one of my workstations so my kid can play all he likes. There are no shared folders with the real world on this setup so he has full admin privileges and I don't much care what he does. Mostly he plays with Greenfoot - a Java kind of interpreter language for kids game development (I think) It would be a non-issue, though, to run a second VM on that machine for homeseer as it has 7gb of RAM in it.... Then again, for $200 I could stick it in a closet, RDP to it for programming, and otherwise forget about it. I'll have to give this some thought. The only issue I can see is hooking the VM machine isn't near the PA system so I couldn't run the audio through the house. It's also a long way from the Stargate so I couldn't control that either. Anyways... sorry for thinking 'out loud', and thanks for the input. Mark PS.. sorry for the 'crappy Atom' comment... didn't realize you worked for Intel If it's any consolation all my computers are Asus mobos with Intel processors.
bpwwer Posted March 7, 2010 Posted March 7, 2010 Mark, I wasn't really recommending a virtual machine for HomeSeer. Mostly I just wanted to give another example of what works well from the processing/memory requirement standpoint. PS.. sorry for the 'crappy Atom' comment... didn't realize you worked for Intel If it's any consolation all my computers are Asus mobos with Intel processors. No worries. When we first got boards with Atom processors, we used them a bit for large compilations and they were really slow compared to our regular development machines. However, it was pretty amazing that there was no fan and no heat sink on the processor. You could touch the processor without getting burned! Don't try that with you Celeron system
MarkJames Posted March 15, 2010 Author Posted March 15, 2010 Well, Bob, I bought a new atom based PC to run homeseer and the ISY plugin. The one I bought has 4gb of RAM and a 500gb hard drive - all for under $400. Pretty good value for the money, really. Has an HDMI output that I'll never use and came with a cordless keyboard/mouse besides. Slick little box! Amazing that it has no fan in it. I can't even hear the drive running - I could actually put this in my bedroom to watch movies across the network and not mind it at all. Even has built in wifi and gb lan! Now to get it up and integrated! Mark
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