New cai WebControl8 plugin, coming soon

[TJF1960]

I am currently working on a PG3 plugin for the cai WebControl8 boards. It occurred to me though that there is also a WC32 board available. 

My question is, will there be much interest in the WC8 vs WC32 support?

Thanks!

-Tim

[EricBarish]

I'm using the Web control 8.  Using Nodelink running on a PI to connect. Would go with a new PG3 plugin if it handles the in/out interfaces I'm using on the Web control board.

[TJF1960]

Thanks!

It will deliver in/out, including output control, vars and temps.

I just have a little more work to do on it before releasing it.

[inovermyhead]

I’m also using the Web control 8 and would love to have a PG3 plugin to directly interact with it from the eisy.   A question however, will a PG3 plugin work in PG3x?

[EricBarish]

Installed the program.  Loaded and populated nodes from WEB8.

 

 

[dbwarner5]

I have two web8 s. 
 

inam assuming with a plug in I would no longer need to run programs within the web8 as all the data will be available to the EISY where I can then do programming etc. ?

[TJF1960]

I have put the beta version in the Beta store. I will be making a few changes tomorrow but I don't believe it will require reconfiguring in IoX. 

I have been testing this beta version on my test bed with a single WC8 but running 4 instances of the plugin at once. Both PG3/IoX and the wc8 seem to handle it well. Tomorrow when I get home I plan on running 4 instances on my 4 wc8 on my main eISY which also has about 19 other plugins, so we will see how it goes.

@inovermyhead, thank you for asking, yes, sorry, this was developed for PG3x. I am just so used to calling it PG3...

@EricBarish, thanks for letting me know, please report any issues you see, or improvements you would like to see.

@dbwarner5, thank you also for your question. Yes, in most cases you should be able to let eISY handle the programs instead of the WC8. The downside of the WC8 is that you need to poll it to get updates. Unlike some other plugins that are in constant communication with the device. I have set my shortPolls to 10 seconds, so every 10 seconds the plugin polls WC8, parses the data and updates only the values that have changed. 10 seconds is the lowest I have taken it. For my purposes that is fine.

You mentioned you have two WC8's, one of the custom things I like is that you can name each board a unique name and the plugin will pull that name and use it in IoX.

One thing to bear in mind, once I move from Beta to Production, you will need to redu programs and such in IoX. So for now I would recommend keeping your existing NodeLinks in place but just add however many instances of the plug in you would need and just play with it to make sure it will work for you.

Thanks all!

-Tim

[dbwarner5]

@TJF1960  Thanks.. I will leave all of my existing programs, both in WEb8 and ISYU in place until you have a production version, but will add  the beta to test.

thanks!  one more simplification of integration!

[dbwarner5]

@TJF1960  what does this mean ? "add JSON single line string for node names"

thanks

[TJF1960]

@dbwarner5 You can rename each node with a friendly name, for instance, Temp1 Outside Temp, OP1 Media Server, etc., in IoX which with 30 something nodes is pretty painstaking. You can create a single line JSON file that you can copy and paste into that slot in PG3 config for the plugin that will rename them all for you. Here is one of mine as an example:

{"aip1": "AIP 1 Eye", "aip2": "AIP 2 WaterSofter", "aip3": "AIP 3 AC Mains", "op1": "OP 1 Media Server", "op2": "OP 2", "op3": "OP 3 BU Server", "op4": "OP 4 Fan", "op5": "OP 5 Eisy Pwr", "op6": "OP 6 Audio Pwr", "op7": "OP 7", "op8": "OP 8 WaterSoft Pwr", "temp1": "Temp 1 Outside", "temp2": "Temp 2 Attic", "temp3": "Temp 3 Equip Rm", "temp4": "Temp 4 Media Srvr", "temp5": "Temp 5 Box", "temp6": "Temp 6 Work Rm", "temp7": "Temp 7 Garage", "temp8": "Temp 8 Water Htr", "var1": "Var 1 Daylight", "var2": "Var 2 Watersoft", "var3": "Var 3 AC Mains", "var4": "Var 4 HB", "var5": "Var 5", "var6": "Var 6", "var7": "Var 7", "var8": "Var 8"}

You can copy my example and just change each to suite your needs. For instance, to change aip1 from AIP 1 Eye, to AIP 1 Whatever, it would look like this:  {"aip1": "AIP 1 Whatever"}

You can copy and paste my example into your plug in just to check it out, then make changes to it to suite your needs

[dbwarner5]

ok.. got it.. thanks. 

I installed two versions. took a bit for the first to connect and work.  Had to redo my username to get it to take. Something in the config file wasn't "taking" the original value. 

 

The second too a bit longer until. I looked at the error log. For some reason it was using the default port of 80 when mine is at 82 and was set to 82 in the config.. so I deleted the original value of 82 and replaced it with 82 and received it.. all is good. 

 

Will play with the JSON line. thanks!

[TJF1960]

Hmm, not sure why but I am glad it finally took.

I should have mentioned that adding the JSON string is optional. If one is not added then the plugin will use the stock node names, temp1, temp2, op1, ip1 etc.

The other thing I should mention is once you are up and running you can change the log level to warning or error, so that the log size is a lot less. I will fix the log level once I move to production but for now its best where it is.

-Tim

Edited October 19 by TJF1960
additional comments

[TJF1960]

@dbwarner5, and all. My sincere apologies. I made a change in the last update, 1.0.8 that broke the node renaming... It is fixed now in 1.0.10 which is available in the beta store.

-Tim

[dbwarner5]

No problem. I only use the web8 for temp probes and only have been able to use 5 on one and 1 (really long run) on another. So naming isn’t a big issue. 
 

Will keep watching it until things settle down as you improve it. 
 

Haven’t look at thebprogramming side yet but device tree is accurate and doing what it’s supposed to do 

 

thanks!