Hello,

My HA system is a combination of things, Insteon lights, outlets, and some sensors, Opto22 PAC controllers for HVAC, irrigation, and some other sensors, Hue for some lights with ON/OFF provided by Insteon switch, Numi door lock, Blue Iris camera server. I would like to possibly develop a plug-in to communicate between the Opto22 PAC controller and the eISY. I currently use REST API between them, but it could be done much more efficiently if were able to create nodes in eISY for example. Since I don't expect many people will have Opto22 gear for home automation (I do know of a few but they work for Opto22 of course), I'm not looking to publish (i.e. make money) from creating a node server. Just for my own personal use. The UD Dev Program looks to be oriented only toward those who want to make money developing these tools...do they accept developers doing this for fun too? :-)

Thanks,
Dave

Hi Dave,

None of the publishers of Nodes are making money equal to the time they invest here. Some make a few bucks to defer the many hours. I have four plugins and don’t charge for them as three of four are for my own use & happen to be useful to a few others. One is “me and the other guy” who use it. Two I took over from the original writer so they kept going. You never know who will find something useful. My most recent, like you, I thought no one would care, but lo and behold, others use it. @Jimbo.Automates plugins gave me best practices to use even though I didn’t at the time use his plugins. Join the developer program because it defers some cost for UD (the UD team have spend significant time just with me), grows the community, and will come back to you in a positive way. But no, the developer program is not for people looking to make money.

I don't think anyone will get rich "selling" plugins. But it can be a rewarding experience to expand the controller's capabilities, and share that with other users. A bit of financial reward can't hurt either, if it can help in justifying the time and effort put into it. I've signed up for plugin develoment, and got a few simple plugins to work. It really gives an insight to some of the inner workings of the controller. Documentation is sparse, so you'll likely learn by examining other plugins. If I can get around to polishing my own plugins to the point of offering them to others, they will be free. It's a great way to pay back @sjenkins and others who are doing the same thing.