| Posted: Monday Sep 15th, 2008 04:49 pm |
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1st Post |
DelusnOfGrandeur
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I think it would be a great additional feature if Comfort was able to send emails for multiple purposes... in response to events or alarms etc.
This ability would be especially useful if Comfort was able to send voicemails in .wav format to email addresses which had been defined to a user or users. I have this feature with my work voicemail and its great because I get my emails on my iPhone so can listen to messages wherever I am. It also adds the ability to save / forward the messages as they are in email format.
I wonder if anyone else thinks this would be a feature they would like to see?
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| Posted: Friday Sep 19th, 2008 06:59 am |
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2nd Post |
slychiu
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Thanks for the feedback. We have no idea how to do this at the moment, but will keep this in mind
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| Posted: Saturday Sep 20th, 2008 07:12 pm |
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Majik
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I would like to see this too, but not necessarily built entirely into Comfort.
Two implementations spring to mind:
1. Comfort provides a special output code on the serial interface when a new voicemail has been left. This code identifies which mailbox and a "message ID". A separate serial command allows a a specified message to be downloaded across the serial interface (similar to voice file upload I guess). I would also anticipate requiring commands to mark the message as "heard", and deleting id, all based on the message ID.
An external program can then listen for the serial event, download the voicemail, convert it to wav (or similar), and email it.
2. Integrate with external voicemail system. I would forsee this as an API which would allow a 3rd-party app to integrate with Comfort and replace the built-in voicemail.
This could be triggered by a setting which, effectively, said whether to use the internal voicemail or to disable it and allow and external system to provide this functionality.
The external functionality could then be provided by something like Asterisk running on a server, which would then use the API for communication with Comfort.
In this case Asterisk would perform all the normal voicemail functionality, but would communicate with comfort for message waiting indication, and perhaps for voicemail navigation. Playing the messages through the comfort keypads could be more tricky, but if the UCM has audio then the server soundcard output could be attached to the UCM audio input for this.
In either implementation, it would be possible to build an adjunct embedded server, similar to the CWM, which provided the additional functionality.
Cheers,
KeithLast edited on Saturday Sep 20th, 2008 07:12 pm by Majik
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| Posted: Saturday Sep 20th, 2008 08:30 pm |
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4th Post |
garym999
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Agree with the above think Comfort is long overdue a comprehensive Ethernet/Web interface card.
- Emails alerts should be a given
- NTP time server updates
- Email event logs as part of alarm events
- Recieve emails to trigger events/actions
- Web based keypad access, allows easy integration with third party touchscreens, PDAs, Nokia N800 etc.
- Action codes added to support email sending logic.
- Complete UI via Web including log downloads etc.
Just a few suggestions but apprciate there is a lot of work involved in such ideas
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| Posted: Saturday Sep 27th, 2008 01:50 pm |
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5th Post |
andrew
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The UCM interface provides necessary access for all that by an attached computer connected over the UCM interface. I have done much of it in a bespoke interface program for my own use which I've worked on over the years. The virtual (or real) Comfort outputs can be used to trigger events such as emails by monitoring the regular status reports sent to the UCM port. I log all the status reports locally, and they're all duplicated in real-time to off-site system logs, and available via a protected web interface, e.g. on my cell phone. Actually, I have a log of every single status report (sensors, alarm activations, mode changes, lights switched on/off, etc) since I put this in place in 2003! I also use the attached computer to do things Comfort can't do (or couldn't at the time I implemented it), such as provide network access (which Comfort can do nowadays), and provide digital temperature sensing, NTP, etc. Digital temperature sensing is part of my heating control: Comfort tells the attached computer if I want the heating on via virtual outputs (or real outputs, but they only drive a visual indicator LED, not the heating directly) - this is picked up from the UCM status reports. The attached computer then decides if the rooms are currently below their set points by continuous monitoring of temperature, and if so, it tells Comfort to switch the output (or X10) to the heater ("demand for heat"). Temperatures are also logged with all the Comfort activity logs, together with the rules based decisions on switching demand for heat output. Different temperature setpoints are used with Comfort in different modes (Security Off, Night, Away, Holiday) and at different times of day. Something else I have done here is linking two Comfort systems by linking their attached computers, so I can have actions on one which are passed to another Comfort system and cause actions on that one.
I'm doing this with attached PC's (actually, very old Pentium 133MHz PC's), but the Comfort interfacing doesn't really require anything like the power of even these PC's. A miniature board low power computer with an RS485 interface, Dallas 1-wire interface (temperature sensing), Ethernet, and if possible a serial port and USB for expansion would be plenty, and could probably run from Comfort's battery backed supply with a suitable sized battery.
If you're looking at web-based access, I wouldn't try and emulate the keypad. A keypad is quite a limited/restricted input device, and web based access can be a much richer and better interface than a keypad. My web access is currently output only (status, logs, etc.) and no input control. I also implement ssh access for both input and output control which suits me better, but probably wouldn't be suitable for most people.
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| Posted: Saturday Sep 27th, 2008 01:57 pm |
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Majik
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There is one thing which is missing from the UCM interface, which is specifically relevant to this thread: you cannot access the voicemail across it.
Yes, you could use virtual outputs to trigger an email being sent, but you cannot pull down the voicemail message itself and include it as an attached WAV, for instance.
I guess it may be possible to configure something using an UCM/Audio interface into a PC sound card, but it would be a nasty, Heath Robinson setup and would be highly complex to get working and to maintain.
What we are after is capabilities beyond those currently possible with Comfort at the moment, with or without the UCM and an attached PC.
Cheers,
KeithLast edited on Saturday Sep 27th, 2008 01:58 pm by Majik
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| Posted: Saturday Sep 27th, 2008 03:44 pm |
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7th Post |
andrew
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Ah, yes you're right about the voicemail (I don't use it).
I guess my preference if I wanted it would be to retrieve the digital form of the stored data, and then transform that as necessary.
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| Posted: Saturday Sep 27th, 2008 05:23 pm |
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8th Post |
slychiu
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The Everhome server see http://www.everhome.com is able to transport Voice across the internet using the UCM/Ethernet/Audio. There is a virtual keypad which works like a real one, so you can access your messages by signing in
Attachment: everhome1 small.jpg (Downloaded 64 times)
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| Posted: Friday Jan 16th, 2009 05:03 pm |
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9th Post |
wexfordman
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One suggestion perhaps also would be simply to add a sip application to comfort. For example, I use voip at thome and not fixed line telephony. So I have to use an ATA to take my voip line to an analog connection, into comfort, and back out again to a fixed line handset. Works quite well, if not a bit messy, but get probs the odd time with dtmf tones not recognised. Once you have a sip application, then you can start doing all sorts of clever things, including voicemail to email etc.
I wonder could a lot of this be done with the comfort webserver, it is a linux pc afterall is it not ? open source sip application on top of it perhaps
Regards,
Eamon
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