X10 Community Forum
🖥️ActiveHome Pro => ActiveHome Pro General => Topic started by: RedNecker on September 07, 2007, 09:05:25 PM
-
Can the cm15a be programmed in binary, hex, & octal?
Can the cm15a control motion sensors & cameras ?
Is the Iwatch or XRAY needed or just use the SDK software to put the video and/or snaphot pictures one the internet?
Can it be made to function as a phone dialer?
New to this & trying to understand.
Very confusing with all the rants & positive posts about the cm15a.
-
Can the cm15a be programmed in binary, hex, & octal?
Yes, depending on what you mean. AHP allows you to create timers, macros, etc. and have them run from the CM15A stand-alone. There is a Software Developers Kit which allows basic access to the CM15A's send and receive commands (and not much else) from languages that can access ActiveX or COM objects. There is presently no support for downloading timers and macros within the SDK however.
Can the cm15a control motion sensors & cameras ?
Yes.
Can it be made to function as a phone dialer?
Only with add-on software and a computer running at all times. The CM15A itself doesn't have dial-out capability.
New to this & trying to understand.
Very confusing with all the rants & positive posts about the cm15a.
Yes. The CM15A has some "issues" out-of-the-box, but most of them have been addressed (by us dedicated users) in one post or another on this forum.
-
Can the cm15a be programmed in binary, hex, & octal?
By this I mean is the command sent to the CM15A in binary, hex, or octal digits?
Thanks for the repy.
-
Can the cm15a be programmed in binary, hex, & octal?
By this I mean is the command sent to the CM15A in binary, hex, or octal digits?
At the lowest level, all communication between the computer and the CM15A is via strings of binary bytes.
-
Yes, I understand that. But some devices will only accept hex, or octal, or binary. It depends on their input circuit & then they translate the incoming stream into binary if needed.
One poster from South America was trying to send binary stream & it would not accept it. Someone else posted a reply & I think the sample code stream was in octal.
How much memory does the CM15A have available for programming?
-
Yes, I understand that. But some devices will only accept hex, or octal, or binary. It depends on their input circuit & then they translate the incoming stream into binary if needed.
One poster from South America was trying to send binary stream & it would not accept it. Someone else posted a reply & I think the sample code stream was in octal.
What layer was he writing to - the SDK command line, the DLL, or direct to the USB port? And did he know what he was doing? X-10 has not published any hardware-level CM15A interface info.
(I can't imaging any modern PC software using octal other than for backward compatibility.)
Neil Cherry has some low-level CM15A programming information here: http://www.linuxha.com/USB/cm15a.html
A lot of the basic control is similar to that published in X-10's CM11A Protocol document.
How much memory does the CM15A have available for programming?
8 KB for macros and timers.
-
I found the post. http://www.x10community.com/forums/index.php?topic=13125.0
It was not octal, it was hex. I misunderstood the notation of "0x05' as the octal number 5 instead of the hex number 5
I just ordered the ActiveHome ultimate starter kit that is supposed to include a bunch of software $99. Also ordered the 1-cam xCam2 wireless cam system $89, and the 27 piece big Protector + system $149
I know I will need help later.
Thanks again,
-
Which free software would be useful for me to download.
I will start with the software provide in the kit, then VB and maybe forth later.
I plan on learning the ins & outs of the X10 system.
-
I just ordered the ActiveHome ultimate starter kit that is supposed to include a bunch of software $99.
You should get an email with links to download software... maybe 4 or 5 links. Download ALL of them, and RUN FROM THE SITE. They install from the sever! Those should be all you need ... and will keep you busy for awhile.
P.S. Save your purchase info, and the email confirmation, if you ever need the software again, you can call X10, and they will re-send you the links.
-
Which free software would be useful for me to download.
I will start with the software provide in the kit, then VB and maybe forth later.
I plan on learning the ins & outs of the X10 system.
You can create some very complex home automation setups with just the software included with the CM15A... no "real" programming required. I would suggest just playing with what comes with it for a while. ;)
Should you then decide you need to write some custom software, may I would suggest downloading the free ActiveHome Pro Software Development Kit (http://www.x10.com/activehomepro/sdk/index.html).
It provides information about how to use the built-in "ActiveX" and "COM object" hooks within AHP to perform basic functions like sending and receiving X10 signals within your custom software.
You can use whatever "flavor" of programming language you are comfortable with to communicate with the SDK as long as it has support for "ActiveX" and / or "COM" objects. Heck, I wrote the first version of BVC (http://www.x10community.com/forums/index.php?topic=12834.0) (then named BXVC) in JScript! :o
If you need to communicate with the CM15A on an even lower level, the very helpful link provided by Charles Sullivan above has about the best information I have seen about such low level communication with the CM15A.