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[Melloware]

Forgive me.. please... no apology required (I would be the last to complain about shamless product promotion). Your program(s) made me wish I had an iphone!

HA! OK.  Well they work on the iPod Touch too...but even then they are still a little pricey even at the lowest model...but they are coming down in price everyday!

[parag0n]

X10 Commander for the iPhone and iPod touch..... Control up to 60 devices using your CM11, CM12, CM15, CM17 or CM19 X10 Controller.

http://melloware.com/products/x10commander/

I'd be interested in knowing more about the communications protocol for your backend.  Mine is pretty basic and basically accepts parameters to the sendplc then disconencts the socket.  I've not had a lot of time to brainstorm how it can be improved.

I've been considering buying one of those touches for a similar purpose.  My app serves up a website.  Anything that displays HTML can control it. 
Anyone else with a similar system might be interested to know that you can get an older iPaq and compact flash wireless card pretty cheap on eBay.. which is probably the route I'll end up going. 

[parag0n]

This will be kind've off topic, but really not considering it's an SDK related program I wrote.. Let's call it a demonstration of this technology..

My daughter has a set time to be off the computer at night.  You can tell them to log off, but teenagers live in a completely different world.  If she doesn't say "bye ttyl" to each of seemingly endless IM conversations she has going, she will have a little tantrum to put it nicely.  So the solution to this was to write a quick batch file that locks the computer and set it to run daily with the task scheduler.

This worked wonderfully.  Now for the new problem.

Now that summer is gone and school is in full swing, we've been trying to eat dinner together at regular times.  Except, on days she's got no homework, she's glued to the computer as soon as she's home from school.  As you can imagine, telling everyone "brb/gotta eat" can take just as long as saying goodbye if you're a teenager.   

Anyhow, my solution is brilliant!   

I wrote a quick VB6 app, independent of my other server app shown in previous posts.  Just something quick and dirty on a whim really..

It waits on input from the receiver and looks for a house/unit code combination that I'm not really using on any devices to be turned off.  That shells out and runs psexec to remote to her computer, log in, and execute the batch file that the task scheduler uses to lock the computer every night.  In short, I can now lock her computer with a button.

It's made dinner time prompt and made for interesting conversation about other things that could be applied to the remote.  I joked that if I had gotten them iPhones I could probably write something similar to turn off their cell phones with a button.   

BTW: Sorry if I overused the smileys here... I don't post often enough and I wanted to try them out.

[Melloware]

I'd be interested in knowing more about the communications protocol for your backend.  Mine is pretty basic and basically accepts parameters to the sendplc then disconencts the socket.  I've not had a lot of time to brainstorm how it can be improved.

I do the same thing.  It's a TCP Socket connection between the iPhone/iPod Touch and the PC Server EXE. 

[Tuicemen]

The input so far here has been great!
Thought I'd add another one 
X10 Control Layout (XCL)
It was originally intended just to show locations and status of your modules but it is able to turn the devices on/off as well by clicking on the device!
This should work well with a touch screen
If someone has one I'd love to hear how it works with it!

Update:
Now included in PC Companion

[jsnone1]

OK , I download SDK from x10 website, then downloaded the Windows media player, try to launch it, and I get an error saying I need to download SDK, which I already did.......

[Tuicemen]

OK , I download SDK from x10 website, then downloaded the Windows media player, try to launch it, and I get an error saying I need to download SDK, which I already did.......

I'm Not sure what your trying to do here
A little more info.
When you try to launch what?
From where?
Which SDK is it asking for?

[mvago]

Hi,

Just want to give some update on my previous post about the Windows Media Player remote.
I added the VOLUME control and I did some improvements to solve some issues with the X10 remote that some times send more than one command.

If you have a PalmPad Remote Control you can download a template that I did to use on that remote. The template have the controls for the Media Player.

The web site still the same:  www.letsdevelopit.com

[devedsmith]

How do you open the help file? CHM's don't open on my computer.

[Videonut]

I made a small program that checks if your DS10A sensors are "Checking IN"
Here's the link
http://forums.x10.com/index.php?topic=18609.0

[parag0n]

Hi everyone!

I've developed some new stuff.  Not quite ready to show it yet, but it's pretty sweet.

What I have is an X10 to MySQL database engine.

It waits on commands from the X10 interface, and then submits them to the database.  This makes reporting awesome.  I've made some quick and dirty PHP pages that read the DB and report back the status of every device on a webpage.  It also keeps a transaction log of what is going on with the X10 system.  This is the beginning of the feature similar to that from the provided X10 software that will allow me to have other code examine what I turn on and off daily and have it make decisions on what to automatically schedule on and off.  That's fine and well, but it is also logging for me when doors are opened and closed, which believe it or not is invaluable data.

And speaking of scheduling, it has an event processing thread.  In addition to reading from the X10 interface and updating a database, it also does the reverse.  I can use other applications (a whole slew I've been writing actually) to put a simple message into a database events table.  The software will look at the events table on a timed basis and then send X10 commands out the interface if it's time for the scheduled item to be executed then remove the item from the events table when it is.

In short, I can read from a database to find out what's up with my house, and then write to the database to control something in it.  These reads and writes can come from anywhere.

Another awesome feature -- event routing.

Despite having a passive coupler installed to ensure the X10 signals go to both legs of my home's wiring, I still have problems with one device in the absolute further corner in the house away from the X10 interface.  I am able to control that device with a remote control, because I installed a transceiver in the same room and that is able to get the signals to the outlet.  Still, the commands coming from the X10 interface don't reach up to that room of that floor.  My solution, is to route that command to another computer.

I took the event processing module that looks in the database and sends out commands via the X10 interface and modded it to work with a firecracker interface.  I set it up to use a different table.  Now when my X10 server wants to send a command that I know will lose signal before it gets to the device, it has been coded to instead redirect that command into a different table.  Another computer, closer to the transceiver upstairs and equipped with a firecracker interface, reads the second table and sends its command through the firecracker.

In short, when the server cannot control a device, it is smart enough to tell another computer to control it for it.

Right now I'm rewriting my application that uses TCP to connect to the server and control things to instead do what it would do through the database.  It's a much thinner version of the server console.  I runs in the system tray.  I right click it, choose which floor of the house I want to control, and a floor plan pops up on the screen.  It queries the DB and updates the screen with which lights are on or off and if I click one, a command to do the opposite of its current state is added to the events table.  Again, if the X10 server knows it cannot control that device, it forwards the command to another table, where a device that can control it picks it up and takes care of it.

I'm very excited -- database control is about the best thing I've ever done for my system.

[dbemowsk]

I am working on a PHP application that gives me a web based layout of my house and the status of my x10 devices (mainly lighting).  What I have so far is a MySQL database which holds the information for my house. 

The tables consist of the floorplans, the object types (module types), and the individual objects (addressed modules).

The floorplans are just images that I created a while back using an online demo version of a home remodeling design program.  From there I was able to save them as images and do the final manipulation in gimp graphics editor. 

The object types too are images (icon size).  For example, a relay light module would use 2 object type images.  One of a light bulb on, and another of that light bulb off.  Another example I have is one for my ceiling fans.  I have a plain image of a small fan for the fan being off.  I then have an animated image of the fan rotating for the fan being on. The reason for the object type definitions is so I can define multiple types for a certain kind of module.  For example, I can have a lamp module that controls a table top lamp in one part of the house, and a hanging light in another part of the house, both of which I may want to be represented by different icons. 

The last table is for the objects.  Each object is defined by the floorplan it is to be represented on, two object type ids (an on and an off object type), the center x and y position of the object in relation to the floorplan image, and it's house and unit codes.

The script heavily uses CSS positioning to place the objects on the floorplan layout.  So far I have the script using the queryplc command to check the state of each of the modules and display it's on or off icon.  Here is my current working example http://66.190.8.188:8088/index.php.  Not all the objects in my example are actually installed, but I plan to install them in the near future.  Some are activated in AHP for demonstration purposes.

Plans I have for the future of this:

 - Create other object types for possible non-x10 integration for things such as my RCS TR-40 thermostat to show and control temperature
 - Create a login page to be able to run extended features.  For example, view only when not logged in, and full system control when logged in.
 - Give the ability to turn objects (modules) on or off.
 - Keep a database log of x10 and other object/module actions executed by the system.
 - Create informational graphs of data logged by the system.

This project is in it's infancy, but if anyone is interested in any of the code I currently have, shoot me a PM and I'll get you a copy.  I will provide you with all of my object images, but you will need to provide your own floorplan images.  My floorplan images are 1015px X 442px to give you an idea of the size of my layout. 

Happy coding...

Dan B.

[RamEliC]

All of these programs are great.  I am currently using the X10 Commander for my iphone and i have tried some of the other programs mentioned in this thread.  My only problem is that i cant get any of them to work!  It appears that they are all designed for Windows XP (or a 32bit OS).  I have Windows 7 64bit and cannot get X10Dispatcher or PC Companion to work.  AHP and X10Commander work fine.

X10Dispatcher: I REALLY need this one to work.  It installs fine and loads but cant detect the SDK/Scripts.  I tried contacting the Administrator for X10Dispatcher using the email address on the webpage but it got bounced back.

PC Companion:  Installs fine but crashes as soon as I launch it. 

Windows Compatibility mode didn't make any difference for either.    Are there any plans to have a Windows 7 (32/64bit) compatible version of these programs??

All I am looking for is a program that will launch custom scripts/executables when PLC commands are detected. 

SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!

[Tuicemen]

X10dispatcher most likely will not be updated , but anything is possible

Currently PC Companion does work on Win 7 (32 bit) at least on my machine 
It will get updated to work on 64 bit. Unfortunately it may be a while before the next update as I have a lot of stuff on my plate with the warmer weather.
 

[dave w]

All I am looking for is a program that will launch custom scripts/executables when PLC commands are detected. 
SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!

Well I don't know how desparate you are, but Homeseer is a program which will. It does a lot and is expensive. At least it can use the CM15A as a powerline interface.

http://www.homeseer.com/