Macro with differing house codes impossible?

[LarryG]

Well, setting the "Monitored House Code" in Tools |  Hardware Configuration to either, say, C or D limits the Macro to contain only one house code. So I can't write a macro that says:  "If  C2 ON  AND D3 ON THEN RUN macro C4" because it contains two house codes. This seems like an incredible limitation of the software. What is wrong with my approach?

[Puck]

So I can't write a macro that says:  "If  C2 ON  AND D3 ON THEN RUN macro C4" because it contains two house codes.

Unfortunately you are correct. But there are Flag Status conditions you can use for the Non-Monitored house codes.

Example: If your monitored house code is D; then when you turn C2 ON, in a macro for C2 Set Flag Status 2, and when you turn C2 OFF in another macro CLEAR Flag Status 2.

Then in another macro you can check D3 ON via the Module Status and check C2 ON via Flag Status 2.

[LarryG]

Thanks Puck. Ingenious solution. But I guess, for "reliability" reasons I'll just observe the constraint that all the modules used in a particular task will have to be on the same House Code. This constraint seems to be a property of the ActiveHome smart macro software (therefore unnecessary) and not the hardware (as hardware can communicate across House Codes), which seems regrettable. But of course it could be for a good reason--a point that I am missing. --Larry

[Puck]

This constraint seems to be a property of the ActiveHome smart macro software (therefore unnecessary) and not the hardware (as hardware can communicate across House Codes), which seems regrettable.

That's a good question, but it could be the limitation of the CM15A's firmware.  :-
If it is a software thing, would be nice if X10 would allow any address to be added in a condition.

[-Bill- (of wgjohns.com)]

This constraint seems to be a property of the ActiveHome smart macro software (therefore unnecessary) and not the hardware (as hardware can communicate across House Codes), which seems regrettable.

That's a good question, but it could be the limitation of the CM15A's firmware.  :-
If it is a software thing, would be nice if X10 would allow any address to be added in a condition.

Puck,

From my experience trying to write a piece of software that not only controls X10 modules, but also polls the CM15A interface for module status at startup (and on manual request), it would appear that the CM15A's firmware only allocates enough memory to track the status of 16 modules (i.e. one house code).  So it would make sense that MACROs running in the CM15A interface should only try to poll modules that are in the "monitored house code" because the interface has no where to keep track of the status of the other modules (unless you set a flag with a MACRO as you stated).

It also appears that AHP's CM15A driver attempts to keep track of the status of all modules while the CM15A is connected to the (running) computer.

I haven't tried this, but if you set a MACRO to run in the computer only, will AHP then allow you to check the status of "non-monitored" modules?

At any rate, this is at least partially a CM15A firmware limitation.

[Dan Lawrence]

I have a single keypress macro that turns off all lights on housecodes A, C, F & K with a press of A5 on a MC460. The only transcieved housecodes are A & F.  Press A5, the macro runs (it's downloaded to the CM15A) and turns off all the lights beginning with A1.

[Puck]

Thanks for a programmer's point-of-view Bill. 

It also appears that AHP's CM15A driver attempts to keep track of the status of all modules while the CM15A is connected to the (running) computer.

It does, but I think it's more of a Set & Forget for the GUI only, because outside the monitored house code, you can't use it as a condition.

I haven't tried this, but if you set a MACRO to run in the computer only, will AHP then allow you to check the status of "non-monitored" modules?

No, same condition selections for all macros for both storage/execution modes.

At any rate, this is at least partially a CM15A firmware limitation.

That's my gut feeling too.