ISY and the Irule Ipad App

[windrockwater]

So I have had an ISY99 for awhile and am trying to interface it with the Irule Ipad app. I have been searching these forums about the REST interface and I wonder if the ISY99i/IR I have is capable of receiving the REST style commands from the Irule or do I need the ISY 'web server' upgrade or something? I am running 2.7.15

 

Is anyone using Irule by chance with their ISY? I would love it if someone could help me get it working.

TIA.

Sean

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi windrockwater,

 

You do not need any other modules to use REST.

 

For more information on the REST interface, please take a look at this forum:

http://forum.universal-devices.com/viewtopic.php?t=2252

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[jtara92101]

There's some info on this in AVSForum. I just did this as an experiment to give iRule a test spin, since I didn't have anything else I could actually control with iRule! (Much-touted ability to control AV devices over IP is limited to just a few models - mostly Denon, and I don't have an IR gateway yet.)

 

You'll definitely need the forum posts to get it going. You need to make sure to include the user name and password in the gateway setup (admin:admin@1.2.3.4) even though this doesn't seem to be required when you just access the REST interface from your brower's URL bar.

 

Definitely do-able though, but a painful, slow process and, IMO, really, really ugly hard-to-read button artwork. You can create your own artwork, but that will just draw-out the process further.

 

Edit: well, I HAD this working last night. Now I just get "Failed to connect to gateways!" Didn't change anything.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello jtara92101,

 

Where do you get " Failed to connect to gateways! " ?

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[Zellarman]

I just got the iRule app working with my ISY99, and am loving it! I bought it, and a GC IP2IR (still waiting for the GC to be delivered) instead of a think flood RedEye. I thought it would give me more options, and it already has, now that I'm controlling the ISY w/ just the app portion alone. IMO it really is worth whatever extra effort there might be, being able to create your own GUI is a wonderful thing! REST commands are simple and straight forward, and setting up the 'gateway' is simple once you know what to do.

[ssingh1234]

I just got the iRule app working with my ISY99, and am loving it! I bought it, and a GC IP2IR (still waiting for the GC to be delivered) instead of a think flood RedEye. I thought it would give me more options, and it already has, now that I'm controlling the ISY w/ just the app portion alone. IMO it really is worth whatever extra effort there might be, being able to create your own GUI is a wonderful thing! REST commands are simple and straight forward, and setting up the 'gateway' is simple once you know what to do.

 

Would you have a tutorial on how you got the ISY-99I synced with iRule? Trying to do the same thing. Is it a network or http gateway that I need to create?

 

Thank you!

[AustinKirby]

I just got the iRule app working with my ISY99, and am loving it! I bought it, and a GC IP2IR (still waiting for the GC to be delivered) instead of a think flood RedEye. I thought it would give me more options, and it already has, now that I'm controlling the ISY w/ just the app portion alone. IMO it really is worth whatever extra effort there might be, being able to create your own GUI is a wonderful thing! REST commands are simple and straight forward, and setting up the 'gateway' is simple once you know what to do.

 

It may be that the iRule is what I'm looking for, too. I want to create my own iPad and iPhone app to control my Insteon Devices thru the ISY99i. The "builder" portion seems to be missing in every other app I've seen like the MobiLinc and it's expensive iPad cousin. How far have you taken this? Can you, for instance, program icons to control a thermostat, enable or disable a program?

 

What I'm guessing will be missing is the status of devices. So you can turn on or off a light but can't see what it's status is. Please keep us informed of your progress.

 

Thanks!

[kevkmartin]

I just got the iRule app working with my ISY99, and am loving it! I bought it, and a GC IP2IR (still waiting for the GC to be delivered) instead of a think flood RedEye. I thought it would give me more options, and it already has, now that I'm controlling the ISY w/ just the app portion alone. IMO it really is worth whatever extra effort there might be, being able to create your own GUI is a wonderful thing! REST commands are simple and straight forward, and setting up the 'gateway' is simple once you know what to do.

 

Would you have a tutorial on how you got the ISY-99I synced with iRule? Trying to do the same thing. Is it a network or http gateway that I need to create?

 

Thank you!

 

Did anyone ever get a tutorial put together on this?

 

I've been trying to get iRule to work with my ISY-99 to no avail.

 

I assume I need to set up an Http gateway in the rule software, but I can't figure out the embedded authentication. I tried setting up the gateway as:

 

Name: ISY-99

Address: https://user:password@192.168.1.200

Port: 443

 

 

For the commands, I was making a simple 2 button panel with one "on" button and one "off" button. Command data was:

 

On: rest/nodes/[insteon id]/cmd/DON/255

Off: rest/nodes/[insteon Id]/cmd/DOF

 

THe rule software says is connects to the gateway, but the buttons have no response...

 

I assume an authentication issue of some sort. Any help appreciated!

[kevkmartin]

OK.... I FOUGHT MY WAY THROUGH THIS!!!

 

So here's how it's done...

 

Assume:

 

ISY-99 fixed IP: 192.168.1.200

Port: 443

User name: User

Password: password

 

 

 

In the iRule Builder, you will need to define a new device. I called mine Insteon.

 

 

You will also need information from your ISY-99 REST interface to do this.

 

In a browser, navigate to https://192.168.1.200:443/rest/nodes

 

If prompted, log in using User and password.

 

The XML returned will contain data - a node - for each device and scene set up in your ISY-99.

 

A device node will look something like:

 

0A BB CC 1

Hallway Cans (M) - Living Room

.

.

.

 

 

A scene node will look something like:

 

12345

Hallway Lights

.

.

A BB CC 1

A BB DD 1

 

Note that in the scenes, any LEADING zeros are dropped from each device hex pair, so device 0A 0B CC will show up as A B CC

 

Whether setting up a command for an individual device, or a scene, you will need to note the

value of the node. For my example, I will be creating on and off commands for the Hallway Lights scene - address is 12345.

 

 

 

So, under the Insteon device created in the builder, you will create commands for your Insteon devices / scenes.

 

I initialy created "Hall Cans On" and "Hall Cans Off"

 

The data field for the commands should be:

 

name: Hall Cans On

data: rest/nodes/12345/cmd/DON/255

 

 

name: Hall Cans Off

data: rest/nodes/12345/cmd/DOF

 

 

Note that if you are using a device vs. a scene, the command would be:

 

name: Hallway Cans (M) - LR On

data: rest/nodes/A%20B%20CC%201/cmd/DON/255

 

name: Hallway Cans (M) - LR Off

data: rest/nodes/A%20B%20CC%201/cmd/DOF

 

These would turn on and off the SINGLE SWITCH with Insteon ID 0A 0B CC

 

Remember that leading zeros are dropped from EACH hex pair in th Insteon ID, and the spaces MUST be replaced with %20 in the data field.

 

 

Once you have created the On and Off commands in the iRule builder, assign them to buttons on your panel(s).

 

Don't forget to SAVE your iRule setup after adding the Insteon device and commands.

 

 

 

 

On your device (iPad), start iRule

 

Select Sync, and tap your device (iPad) to download th changes you just made in the builder to your iPad.

 

Next, you will need to set up the ISY as a gateway in iRule.

 

Select gateways, and then edit.

 

Under HTTP gateway, select add gateway with properties:

 

Name: ISY-99

Address: https://User:password@192.168.1.200:443

 

Save you new gateway.

 

Select back to sync, and tap Backup gateways to save your new gateway.

 

You should now be able to navigate through panels to th panel(s) with you Insteon device buttons.

 

Hopefully, you will find success!!!

[aaronburnlab]

Kev, great Post, excellent..

 

Thanks for sharing with the community !

 

I guess it's difficult to create a generic device definition in irule for our ISY's, given the unique ID's for the internal ISY ID and the Insteon ID's for each implementation.

 

So I got thinking, perhaps we can use the ISY REST interface and run some script/code to generate a ISY/Config specific device configuration to import into iRule. Basically hydrate up all the devices, their available commands and map the rest command to it.

 

Now I have to remember how to write code to develop this ..

 

Aaron

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Kev,

 

Thanks so very much!

 

Do you mind if we post a link to your post in our Wiki?

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[kevkmartin]

@Aaron, it would certainly be AWESOME if there was a utility that could be run on a user's network to auto-generate all the commands and make an importable "device" for iRule.

 

@Michael, please do. This (and other) forums have been a huge help; I'm more than willing give back!

[aaronburnlab]

Hey Kevin, did this work externally over SSL ?

 

It's failing for me, i wonder if iRule's going to have issues with the non-trusted certificate...

 

thanks

[kevkmartin]

It is my understanding that iRule does not work at all outside of the local network.

[aaronburnlab]

It is my understanding that iRule does not work at all outside of the local network.

 

Hum, ok.. it should in theory, it's just a HTTP address (or HTTPS), my concern that could prevent this from working is the SSL Cert by default on the ISY is not from a known CA.. I was wondering if their client fails.. perhaps it does not work over SSL, and just HTTP..

 

Ok.. im travelling a little, good thing I have a VPN into the home ,

 

cheers !

[AustinKirby]

I just tried the setup suggested by kevkmartin. Everything worked fine except the secure connection method. By changing https://User:password@192.168.1.200:443 to http://User:password@192.168.1.200:80 it started working.

 

Is there an important reason to be using https? In either case, you still have to provide a user name and password.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello AustinKerby,

 

If you do not use httpS, your userid/password are transmitted in clear over the wire. Anyone sniffing your traffic can gain access to your userid/password and then access your system. With httpS, everything is encrypted.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[boatfevor]

Hello, Can I trouble one of you for an example as I am not following the "20%" part. My switch address is "17.F7.C0" So if I understand this right it should be...rest/nodes/17F720%C/cmd/DOF for off. Am I close? Thank you for your time...

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello boatfevor,

 

%20 is the URL encoded version for white space. So, let's say the node address is:

17 F7 C0 1 (you get this address in the

tag in /rest/nodes)

 

So, the encoded URL would be:

http://your.isy.ip.address/rest/nodes/1 ... 01/cmd/DON

 

As you note, each white space has been replaced with %20.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[gemarsh]

Success!

 

I did have to create the gateway using just HTTP, I didn't see how in irule you could configure it as https.

[nexus]

I'm a beta tester for iRule and ISY support is right around the corner. This will make setup/control significantly easier.

[AustinKirby]

That would be great. It's a logical next step for iRule to include home automation via ISY. Please keep us informed!

[arw01]

That will be pretty nice. May spring for it then. On the consumer level do we get the ability to swap "interfaces" amoungst ourselves?

 

Anyone know off the top of their head if iRule supports Lirc via plug in or something?

 

Alan

[homejones]

iRule 3.0 announced today with the ISY module.