07-10-2007, 07:56 AM
Hi Guys,
I have written my own interface to Comfort through an UCM/Ethernet.
I wrote it in Visual Basic Express - Easy and Free! My application has a floor plan where the rooms change colour based on there status (Green is No Movement, Red is Movement, Yellow is Trouble and Orange is Tamper). The whole back ground also changes colour based on the system status (Green is Idle, Red is Alarm, Yellow is Treouble, Organe is Tamper). The floor plan also has all the lights and appliances on it that the system controls, and by touching (I have a touch screen mounted on a wall) (or clicking) a light it will come on if it is off and off if it is on. The Light also changes to show whether it is on or off. I also have temperatue sensors and the temperatures show on the floor plan where they are physically located what the temperature is. My front gates also show on the floor plan. When I touch the gates they open and the gates change on the floor plan to show that they are open. My app talks TCP/IP and I have ADSL with a router that supports DynDNS so I can acccess the system from the application from anywhere across the internet. I have also written a network interface that allows multiple clients to connect to the same UCM/Ethernet at the same time. It is not perfect yet, but it works rather well. This allows me to connect multiple instances of my application from around the house using only one UCM. This even allows me to connect with my app and other apps like WizComfort at the same time.
My app also keeps a comprehensive log of what happens on Comfort and this has been useful.
I must say that the exercise was easier to do than I expected. I am not a programmer and I hadn\'t programmed or written VB in about 5 years and I managed to get back into it quite nicely.
The only difficult part was writing the network interface portion. A typical TCP interface was too slow and couldn\'t handle sending commands to Comfort and receiving status from Comfort at the same time. I got around this building a fast interface using assyncronous connections and multi-threading the handling of packets comming in.
I still hope to add more functionality to my app over time.
I am keen to share what I have done and my learning with others as I would like to benefit to from what others do and learn.
Cheers,
Clinton.
I have written my own interface to Comfort through an UCM/Ethernet.
I wrote it in Visual Basic Express - Easy and Free! My application has a floor plan where the rooms change colour based on there status (Green is No Movement, Red is Movement, Yellow is Trouble and Orange is Tamper). The whole back ground also changes colour based on the system status (Green is Idle, Red is Alarm, Yellow is Treouble, Organe is Tamper). The floor plan also has all the lights and appliances on it that the system controls, and by touching (I have a touch screen mounted on a wall) (or clicking) a light it will come on if it is off and off if it is on. The Light also changes to show whether it is on or off. I also have temperatue sensors and the temperatures show on the floor plan where they are physically located what the temperature is. My front gates also show on the floor plan. When I touch the gates they open and the gates change on the floor plan to show that they are open. My app talks TCP/IP and I have ADSL with a router that supports DynDNS so I can acccess the system from the application from anywhere across the internet. I have also written a network interface that allows multiple clients to connect to the same UCM/Ethernet at the same time. It is not perfect yet, but it works rather well. This allows me to connect multiple instances of my application from around the house using only one UCM. This even allows me to connect with my app and other apps like WizComfort at the same time.
My app also keeps a comprehensive log of what happens on Comfort and this has been useful.
I must say that the exercise was easier to do than I expected. I am not a programmer and I hadn\'t programmed or written VB in about 5 years and I managed to get back into it quite nicely.
The only difficult part was writing the network interface portion. A typical TCP interface was too slow and couldn\'t handle sending commands to Comfort and receiving status from Comfort at the same time. I got around this building a fast interface using assyncronous connections and multi-threading the handling of packets comming in.
I still hope to add more functionality to my app over time.
I am keen to share what I have done and my learning with others as I would like to benefit to from what others do and learn.
Cheers,
Clinton.