Comfort Automation/ Security System Forums

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I\'m about to buy the Evohome system. There are an increasing number of products on the market now in the UK. Heatmiser, Tado, Owl, Hive, Insteon and Evohome. Nest is supposedly coming soon as well.
None of them do everything I want, but Evohome seems to come close. They have also recently announced an API. I\'m hoping that this will make integration with Comfort possible.

This is still in testing so we will look at it when available
It also depends how popular it is. As you say there are so many such products and it is difficult to support all

I understand you need to pick the things you interface to carefully. Some products may not take off and it would be a waste of  your time.

Going off topic if I may, home automation has been and probably still is considered a niche market. My understanding is that people who want a system like Comfort own expensive houses and want the modern conveniences it offers or are home automation enthusiasts who enjoy automating things as a hobby.

I believe this will change very quickly. The internet of things is gaining traction and whilst I still struggle to see the merit in IP enabled dustbins that re-order things you throw away, smarter heating controllers are likely to become mainstream very quickly. Google\'s purchase of Nest suggests big players are turning their attention to smart devices in the home.

I believe that if Comfort wishes to stay ahead of the game here and not be a niche product, it needs to separate the hardware from the firmware/software. If Cytech provided Comfort with some base functionality (an operating system), an SDK and an app store, anyone could write an interface for Comfort to their device. It could then be checked by Cytech and if it passes QA, it could be put on the App Store. Developers could choose to charge or offer it free of charge and Cytech would take a percentage. Apps/plugins could be downloaded using the Comfigurator.
You can\'t keep up with the number of number of devices that will come out, so opening it up to the home automation community will ensure that Comfort stays at the cutting edge.

Easier said than done perhaps, but it could mean the difference between market leader and legacy.

Thanks for your suggestions

When we talk about an API, it mostly means a way to access some functions of the device. For example the evohome would (I assume) allow external devices to read the temperature and change set points and control certain functions.

I doubt that you would be able to add onto the functions that it already has built in.

In this sense Comfort already has a published comprehensive  serial protocol which you can download. This allows any software or device to control Comfort  and other devices connected to it, and read any information, security state, alarm condition etc. It is quite comprehensive.
Comfigurator works by using the same protocol and so do other 3rd party software for Comfort like ComfortClient see http://www.comfortforums.com/forum65/ and the Comfort iOS and Android apps as well as various plug ins for homeseer and control4 that others have written.
This is the most practical way to write your own applications for Comfort

Packaging the serial protocol into an API  is also possible, but I am not sure that many people would be able to make use of it

Thanks for the quick response. I wasn\'t aware it was as easy as you say to write plugins. I will have a look into this. Very exciting.

[user=5150]Joff_B[/user] wrote:

Quote:Thanks for the quick response. I wasn\'t aware it was as easy as you say to write plugins. I will have a look into this. Very exciting.

Heh. I did not say it was very easy.But we can advise you if you have any problems