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[Tuicemen]

The use of  Phantom/dummy/ghost/virtual modules isn't new . AHP was never designed to use these they were one of the many things ingenious users came up with to over come some problems or do things that AHP couldn't at the time.
These are modules which you don't physically have hence the name.
Don't get me wrong there are still uses for these things eg: so you can clear or set flags remotely
Using them in place of something else shouldn't be done unless all else fails
If you use them in place of flags and you run disconnected from the PC or you have a power failure AHP won't remember the last setting.Unless they are on the monitored housecode.
Perhaps others can post some of the clever ways they use Phantom modules for the Newbies and the rest of us.
You Don't need Smartmacros to use these but having Smartmacros expands their possibilities

[steven r]

...If you use them in place of flags and you run disconnected from the PC or you have a power failure AHP won't remember the last setting.Unless they are on the monitored housecode....

Hmm... In that case, I suppose you could set up as a dummy on a non monitored HC called "Power OK" and have a flag that resets when power fails. Do they still reset if the AHP is running under battery backup?

[Tuicemen]

Phantoms don't reset after a power outage they just won't report the correct state in AHP.
Try this test. Create a phantom module on a none monitored housecode and turn it on in AHP. Turn off AHP and disconnect the USB cable but keep the CM15A pluged into the outlet. Now turn the Dummy off plug the USB cable back in and turn on AHP it will still show it as on even though you turned it off.  If it is on the monitored house code it should show the true state but there is a bug as of now where AHP doesn't show the correct status of some modules it show what state it thinks it should be in blue.

[USdangerboy]

Uhhhh ... where is the "how to use them" or "phantoms explained" part?  This is thread is just a comment on them, nothing more. 

I assume they are "allowed" and do not cause problems inside the AHP box?  They don't work it seems when not on the monitored house code, but I don't think it's polite to mention all the things that do not work with these devices. 

I have an outside floodlight set with Sensor +1 IN and the unit itself is on house code 03.  Therefore, it should fire O4 on a sensor trigger which turns on the floodlight; i.e., the floodlight goes on and then fires RF Code O4.  I have a macro at O4 that plays a WAV file announcing motion in the back, it never fires. 

It seems the higher the house code, the slower the processing of macros and commands as well.

Anyway, there are ALOT of anomalies with these devices, I'll write a definative piece when I get a chance, but creating, reproducing and finding consistency is expeted to take another 100 or so hours.  I expect to finish this in early March.

[Tuicemen]

Uhhhh ... where is the "how to use them" or "phantoms explained" part?  This is thread is just a comment on them, nothing more. 

True but with out user involvement the how to will not get written!
Phantoms can be used for many things I had started this thread in hopes others would expand on it explaining how they are using
Each update users are finding additional ways to use these!

I assume they are "allowed" and do not cause problems inside the AHP box?  They don't work it seems when not on the monitored house code, but I don't think it's polite to mention all the things that do not work with these devices. 

I have an outside floodlight set with Sensor +1 IN and the unit itself is on house code 03.  Therefore, it should fire O4 on a sensor trigger which turns on the floodlight; i.e., the floodlight goes on and then fires RF Code O4.  I have a macro at O4 that plays a WAV file announcing motion in the back, it never fires. 

Phantoms don't have to be on the monitored house code I've never had mine as such!
How are you starting the wav file? Batch file,exe or opening a program with a variable?

It seems the higher the house code, the slower the processing of macros and commands as well.

I haven't noticed this  but I've never timed them

Anyway, there are ALOT of anomalies with these devices, I'll write a definative piece when I get a chance, but creating, reproducing and finding consistency is expeted to take another 100 or so hours.  I expect to finish this in early March.

Only a hundred hours? I'm still finding anomalies and more with each update!
It is a good thing many post work arrounds!
 

[USdangerboy]

True but with out user involvement the how to will not get written!

Good point, the better I get (guaged by my actually getting things WORKING) the more I'll post :-)

Phantoms don't have to be on the monitored house code I've never had mine as such!
How are you starting the wav file? Batch file,exe or opening a program with a variable?

I tried different approaches.   (1) Batch files converted to EXE with a converter app  (2) Standard apps written in C and VB  (3) C & VB apps that accept a parameter.   Parameters seem not to work with the "Execute Window Program" command in macros.  Those commands do not accept arguments? 

I tried, for example, 'PlayWav.exe back1.wav' (where my app, PlayWav.exe accepts a parameter, the WAV to play), and it does not work from AHP.  I put a line of code to test parameters passed and write a text file with the parameter, and when I run the app from the command line, with a WAV file, it writes it to the file, when run from AHP, no parameter passed, so the problem is in AHP not seeing the argument.  Is there some syntax I am missing in AHP to pass the parameter from the "Execute Windows Program" command in a macro?

It seems the higher the house code, the slower the processing of macros and commands as well.

I moved ALL my motion sensors to house code C from P and they seem to run faster now.  Perhaps coincidental with running application instead of batch file, more testing required for final verdict 

Thx in advance!!

[Tuicemen]

I tried different approaches.   (1) Batch files converted to EXE with a converter app  (2) Standard apps written in C and VB  (3) C & VB apps that accept a parameter.   Parameters seem not to work with the "Execute Window Program" command in macros.  Those commands do not accept arguments?

There is/was (prior to 3.236Haven't tested with 3.236) a bug with running exe/bat files!
Puck and I commented on it in the SmartMacros  section  Problem with Batch files executing and I posted a work around!
I've been using this with AHP and have never had a miss fire of a sound file or TTS ,of coarse I'm using PC Companion to play (Big sister to X10WavPlayer) batch files created with the batch file creator in them! Both written in VB
Hope that helps!