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[SteveRF]

We already know how the 1132 works... they <BR>have all reported... works like a charm... <BR>those of us that stay obviously like the <BR>CM15A and I bet the next hardware release <BR>will be really sharp and smart. Wonder if a <BR>bunch of CM15 folks will ease over to the <BR>1132 forum (of they have one) and talk about <BR>the CM15A on their web site ?  We will keep <BR>watching... <BR>In the meantime most of us are having fun.

We're starting work on our next plug-in, <BR>which will put control of ActiveHome Pro <BR>(including cameras and video, if you have <BR>iWitness) on the Internet. We have a number <BR>of features in mind, but are looking for more <BR>ideas from our users. <BR> <BR>What kinds of features would you expect or <BR>like to see in an Internet plug-in for <BR>ActiveHome Pro?

Internet Plug-in: what do you want to see?

Re: Internet Plug-in: what do you want to see? [2 of 5]

Re: Internet Plug-in: what do you want to see? [4 of 5]

Re: Internet Plug-in: what do you want to see? [5 of 5]


[TTA Edit: Experiment to determine whether or not SPLITTING 'Highly-Viewed' / 'Highly-Replied' but currently INACTIVE threads from LONG, LONG AGO (I'm starting with ~2 years) into parts will allow current ACTIVE threads to appear in the Top 10 Topics (by Replies) section of the Statistics Center (aka More Stats) Page.

NOTE: I *WILL* address the <BR> problem...]

[carmine pacifico]

 
SteveRF

Yes Steve, there is a public forum
http://forums.accessx10.com/, it has Active
HomePro and Smathhome forums, the AHP
section is very busy,mostly complains; the
Smarthome not very active, and some of the
question are about the CM15a(lost souls),
else smarthome has a tech support forum ,
again is filled with simple questions,
nothing strange or upset customers.
This not X10 bashing, but an effort to push
X10 to improve their product.All my
switches and sensor are made by X10 and
working fine, the CM15a is a lemon and
unless is redesigned it is useless. You may
have a clean power supply, actually I
believe you have mostly older appliances,
things like power factor correcting
ballast, and in general any energy
efficient appliances will create noise on
the power line making the clock go faster,
the CM15a clock is identical to the CM11a,
this circuit has worked fine 20 years ago,
but is not longer functional.
My suggestion was simple: instead of adding
additional filter to the clock circuit, is
to add a battery back up external clock, a
tiny button battery would power the clock
for at least 10 years with the power off,
eliminating the need to replace the
battery. The RF transceiver TM751 has a
problem when DIM command is send repeatedly
it lock up and requires unplugging to
reset, by using the Microchip built in
watchdog (adding a simple instruction in
their code) would fix this problem, If I
had the source code it would take me less
than 10 minutes to fix it.
Part 1 of 2

[carmine pacifico]

Part 2 of 2

Now if you really want reliable, fast
response full 2 way communication you may
want to look at this site
http://www.simply-automated.com/
( UPB Technology),  of course this comes
with a hefty price tag.
Some of the nuisance problems are easy to
fix, programmers (and hardware designers)
without industrial experience may not
realize that sometime a simple change can
make the product 100 times better usually
without increasing cost.

[SteveRF]

Carmine...
Good explanations, maybe you should be
talking directly to X10.
Concerning the forums, what I asked was if
the Smarthome folks also offer a direct
website to discusss and disseminate updates
of their products similar to way the X10
folks offer here.  I was interested but could
not find a direct site.
regards,
SteveRF

[Observer]

Carmine:  Be aware NIH is at work! These
people don't want help they want to re-
invent the wheel.

[tony]

X10 Pro:  All the requests appear based on
an assumed platform capability and capacity
which has not really been defined.  How
about solidifying and expanding the
platform  in capacity, communications,
connectivity,  reliability, and fault
tolerance/recovery.  The fastest and most
economical way is to  use existing
facilities that are supported  by most host
systems including Internet and  the ISP’s.
i.e.  1.External antenna with
greater range  like the V572AB.  2.A
Ethernet Port (RJ45) supporting  TCP/IP and
DHCP  3.Ethernet and /or RF
communication  between AHP and CM15Ax
instead of USB.  Remember CM15A is
advertised as not  requiring connection to a
PC and iWitness  changes that currently.  4.
AHP support for Network cameras
(TCP/IP) and terminals. Sure there is some
non-X10 out there and its growing does X10
wish to forgo that tsunami opportuity?  5.
Add Diagnostic Mode with signal
strength field and a detected X10 PLC error
diagnostic field in the Activity monitor.  6.
Make selectable the size of the log
buffer for the Activity Monitor and whether
it stops or wraps as selectable.  Doing that
not only opens some currently  unavailable
markets and compatibility  markets that will
expand your module sales  and create a much
broader professional  market.  Take a lesson
from IBM’s PC  Open  flexible architecture
took it to the  hundreds of millions and
closed proprietary  bus (microbus) blew them
out of the market  they created.

[carmine pacifico]

SteveRF

The only direct page is tech support
http://smarthome.custhelp.com/cgi-
bin/smarthome.cfg/php/enduser/entry.php


I find this site http://www.simply-
automated.com/upb_technology.htm
Fascinating, maybe some day X10 will offer
UPD, at an affordable price.

[tony]

Carmine:  The UPB at first glance looks like
quite an improvement until you start adding
up the overhead.  The community transformer
based coupling requires security with
encryption and opens up some possible
eavesdropping concerns.  The claimed 0.1
second latency vs. 0.75 of X10 is impressive
until you start adding up the overhead of
encryption and addressing multi homes under
a community transformer and then house codes
and unit ID’s per each household.  Compound
this by two (2) for 2-way (bidirectional)
communication.  Not sure how much the “real
net improvement” would be.

The current systems appear unable to handle
a burst of motion sensor ON’s and OFF’s only
2 to 3 deep!

Lets face it the slow, high latency, power
line protocol looks good for slow predefined
stuff that you can optimize commands for
i.e. switch on/off, scene control, TOD
environmental control adjustment, etc.  It
just can’t keep up with real-time stuff
like  “people movement”, video/picture
capture on external event, etc., which takes
low latency quick response systems with
plenty of bandwidth; Defiantly not PLC
applications.  With some use of a hybrid of
available communications  and smart
distributed processing modular, reliable,
responsive, and cost effective systems can
be accomplished.  Most today are
a “patchwork” of rehabbed past generations
of technology.
Any thoughts on that?

[mike galos]

1. Security
2. XML Web Service interface for ALL
functions
3. Security
4. Multiple account levels tied to NTLM
users
5. Security
6. 2-way support
7. Security

Just off the top of my head.

[paulrfl]

I need basic AHP to be able to monitor room
temperature with Templinc from Smarthome or
similar, so that this would be accesible via
internet, for example, to monotor
temperature in a vacation home or a
business.
I would also like the accesibility of real
time video, which would be of great benefit
for checking up on my business when I am not
there.

[X10 Pro]

More general questions: How many people can
you see giving access to your
Internet-connected AHP/AHP+iWitness setup?
What kinds of things would you *not* want
remotely accessible?

Mike Galos: I'm sensing that Internet
security is important to you. How would you
use an XML Web service for AHP?

[mike galos]

I'd use the XML web service to integrate
the AHP server into custom client apps that
could access AHP over the net. That way the
functionality isn't tied to a web form and
can vary depending on the device's
capabilities.

More but simpler pages on a Smartphone and
less but more complex pages on a full PC
for example. It also allows for
intellegence on the client that doesn't
have to be present on the server and sent
over the wire.

[mike galos]

As for how many and what...

I don't see limiting the number of people
that could talk to AHP. In some cases I
could see it limited to just 2 or 3 but in
other cases I could see it being used by
literally dozens of users. That's why it is
critical to NOT do your own authentication
and authorization system and just properly
hand it over to the built in systems.

[roger1818]

Mike:  Built in authorization systems?  I
didn’t think Win98 had much if any built-in
authorization system.  Are you suggesting
that it only work on 2000, XP and 2003
server?  My preference would be to let the
user choose whether to use the "built-in"
system or use one provided by X10.  Letting
the OS control authorization by default
could leave home automation control wide
open on the internet for people who
haven’t/don’t want to set up the built-in
authorization system (if any).

[anonymous]

Roger H.
"Mike:  Built in authorization systems?  I
didn’t think Win98 had much if any built-in
authorization system.  Are you suggesting
that it only work on 2000, XP and 2003
server? "

Got to agree...  X10 MUST support all
platforms they claim to support!

But then again, I also think it's a really
foolish move to add plugins for a base
platform with users in there current state of
"unhappyness", who are seeing little progress
in sw updates, and recognize that some won't
be fixed until there's a HW/FW fix to the
cm15a...

"If you put caviar on dog poop, it still
smells like dog poop" (author unknown)