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[David Mark]

sendrf D CamGoPosition1 shows up as received RF (?) in the activity monitor.  Then nothing happens.

Worthless as my WGL transceiver has always relayed this data to Misterhouse.  I was going to update my camera remote package for mh to actually control these bases, but it would appear that this feature is broken in the SDK.  And why would the "sent" signals show up as received, despite the fact that they weren't sent at all?  Weirder still, the "sent" signals only show up in the log sporadically.  Just sent the same preset three times from the command line and it shows up as received twice.  Send it four times and it will likely show up two or three.  As mentioned, the camera hears none of this, but always hears the macros. (?!)  I can send these commands a hundred times programmatically and nothing happens, walk into the garage and the camera starts turning my way (reacting to the macro.)

AHP macros with these "Video Functions" work every time.  I have heard of people having problems with sendrf, but it works perfectly here (at least for standard X10 commands.)

I imagine it is the same story for the security keyfobs, remotes, etc.  Seems like I saw a post that said X10 filters these from the data the SDK receives.  The WGL with Misterhouse can receive these.  How about this thing?  You have to buy the plugin right?  Be advised that any new X10 software is going to take years to get right (if ever.)  Considering the little bits and pieces they make available with each new plugin, they are way overpriced.

Maybe the pricing is the whole key to this camera mystery: they don't want us to be able to send camera commands, better to sell us a plugin (one which doesn't help developers at all) for $60.  The only other explanation for this hole in the SDK is incompetence (not a bad possibility considering the AHP software as a whole!)  My bet is they short-circuited these commands in the SDK on purpose.  Would have been nice to raise an exception so the calling program knows what is going on!

[Charles Sullivan]

David Mark:
Which WGL device do you have that receives Ninja codes?  I get nothing from my ~2-year-old  W800RF32A with a CR14A remote other than from the camera selection buttons C1, C2, C3, C4.

[David Mark]

Hi Charles.

The software is the thing.  What are you using?

The only software that I know of that receives all of the Ninja commands is Misterhouse.  Let me qualify that: my version of Misterhouse (I don't think they have released a version with my newer X10 packages, other than scenes.)

You are certainly getting the codes, but something needs to decode them.  I had to watch the debug log as I pushed each button and I spotted a pattern.  Revisiting the code tonight, I realize I left out the "program preset" buttons, but all others are mapped.  The house code of the remote is sent in lieu of the unique security code used by the security remotes.  Also does not follow WGL's checksum scheme, so likely most apps will never decode the commands.

As for Misterhouse getting this feature in a release version, I would say any time from this Spring to never.  There's just no telling what they will do from one month to the next (usually nothing.)  My version (MH Pro is the working title) will likely be out sooner and will send Ninja commands as well (see my followup.)  Now that this problem is solved, Misterhouse is the perfect companion to AHP.  You add and arrange your modules, download your timers and macros and close AHP forever (Misterhouse picks up all of the slack on the software macros and tracks the controller activity.)  And if you know PERL, you can write whatever extensions you want to your AHP macros (now MH scripts.)  Beats the hell out of AHP and its assorted (and often expensive) plugins.

[Charles Sullivan]

Hi Charles.

The software is the thing.  What are you using?

I'm running Linux and am just reading the raw byte stream from the W800RF32A's serial port at 4800 8/N/1:
   cat  /dev/ttyS0  |  xxd ...
(xxd displays the binary output as hex bytes.)

Standard, Security, and "Entertainment Anywhere" X10 RF codes are received without any difficulty, but I get no output for the Ninja pan/tilt buttons.  Are you doing anything other than just plain reading the serial port?  I.e., do you have to set up or interrogate the W800RF32A or anything like that for the Ninja codes?

The only software that I know of that receives all of the Ninja commands is Misterhouse.  Let me qualify that: my version of Misterhouse (I don't think they have released a version with my newer X10 packages, other than scenes.)

Could WGL have added more features to the W800RF32A since I bought mine?  How long have you had your unit?

[David Mark]

I am just reading from the serial port.  Or use the test app:

House code D:

3A 8F 91 26 = Preset 1
3A 8F D1 66 = Preset 2
3A 8F B1 16 = Preset 3
3A 8F F1 56 = Preset 4

You can cycle through the others and see similar results.  Remember that the standard WGL checksum rules do not apply, so if your app throws out bad packets, it is throwing these out with them (and will have to allow these to get through if they match a camera in your system.)

Here's a hint: the column that reads "9DBF" is the command indicator and the "AAAA" column is the house code in disguise (hex A translates to house code D in this case.)  You can derive the rest of it empirically.

[David Mark]

And I have had the receiver for a little over a year if that helps.

[Charles Sullivan]

Thanks David.
I'm not filtering anything with the simple setup I described - nothing to filter.

Hmm...  I just looked back at some email correspondence with WGL from May 2005 and notice that I suggested adding Ninja support to the W800RF32A.  I got a "thanks for the suggestion" reply.   So It looks like WGL either followed my suggestion or didn't want to admit that  the unit sold to me was obsolete.

[David Mark]

No idea, but if you don't see those bytes (or similar) in the test app, your unit would seem to be lacking.  Maybe they upgraded it, but they never announced anything and failed to document how to decode the data.  Seems like an odd thing to do.  Maybe they upgraded the firmware at some point and didn't realize that they opened up the door for this device. Their test app treats all of the camera commands as noise, so they are probably not wise to it.