Leaving aside for the moment the CWM module and it\'s (non) availability right now.
Given an UCM/Ethernet card (principally used for Comfigurator access), what is the best way to get Internet Access to comfort so that I can operate Comfort and Home Automation?
I\'m assuming here that I need to host a web server application on my PC that is running 24x7 and that base connectivity can already be made to this PC from the internet (ie static IP addressing, port forwarding on firewalls etc already setup).
I\'ve seen the likes of Wizcomfort, Ace-Server, Homeseer, Yanza, MCE as possibilities but which one or others do you think is best?
Will anything allow me to build a pictorial floorplan of my house with indications of the state of sensors and Home Automation compoments and allow me to control?
I appreciate some advice from those \"who\'ve been there and done it\"!
I am about to embark on a similar project but I plan on writing the application myself. I have written a \'quick and dirty\' application which talks to comfort through UCM/Ethernet and it works fine. Just need to find the time and write the application properly now. My plan is to run the application inside Vista Media Center since I like the idea of being able to access everything in one place, i.e. digital media etc. I also plan on writing an interface on my Smartphone/PDA.
In terms of the house plan, I would like to create a 3D plan similar to here: http://www.porterdavis.com.au/ click on \'Homes\' then click on a house style, e.g. \'Windsor 47\', it shows a 3D view of the house plan. Looks quite cool.
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.
Well done, that sounds very impressive and its the kind of thing I had in mind. Actually in my c# app I also went down the async path which was the only way I could get sending and receiving commands from the UCM/Ethernet. It works quite nicely but I found that it was crashing after a while, it has been on my list of things to investigate for a while now and you have inspired me to revisit this issue! I will make time this weekend to look into it.
For those who develop software and applications with or for Comfort, we would like to offer our support by providing some equipment for free to help in the development,eg UCMs and other modules, upgrades of frimware, or even a Comfort depending on what is being developed
Perhaps we should have an OpenSource project in Comfort Forums where people can contribute code or solutions so these sorts of thing can get an airing and the recognition these deserve.
I think half the problem, and least from my perspective, is getting started and the creating momentum on these sorts of projects but once you are in and hooked these things inevitably gather pace.
Yes, I agree Homeseer is powerful, it\'s just a shame I\'ve so far failed to get to work on Vista (despite many hours of trying). I tried on XP and it at least installed but then I couldn\'t get the Comfort plug-in to work (the config tab didn\'t work in trial mode).
I don\'t want to spend $199 for HS2 plus incidental (ie plugin) costs when the software won\'t even allow me to try-before-buy. Perhaps it\'s just v2.2 and a later version will be better but so far I \"aint impressed\"!.
I contacted homeseer support and the Analysts\' comment:[size=2]
Quote:Vista has so many security checks that it's not a trivial task to get HomeSeer running on this OS.
[/size]
Didn\'t inspire me with confidence. I tried the things he suggested ie turning of UAC, firewall, virus checking (basically expose myself to the world!!!) but didn\'t help and having spent many hours on this I can spend this sort of money better elsewhere.
Regards
We have started a new restricted forum for 3rd party developers or manufacuturers who which to develop software and interfaces for Comfort. Contact me to put you in the user group which can access this forum
