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[dbemowsk]

I have posted the new version to the website.  The ONLY change in this version was an update to the x10cmd.exe file to allow for bright, dim and extended commands to be executed.  I have also posted a direct link to the x10cmd.exe file for those of you looking to just download that for your use.

I do not have the ability to test all of the features of this that are available, so if people can test it and post any bugs, suggestions, comments and criticisms here, that would be a big help to all who may use this tool.

[shuggins]

dbemowsk -  I will test the CM19a option when I get back in town Sunday.  Also, I have the ability to test the extended x10 commands.

re: the crashing of AHCMD...  the other X10 Text app mentioned in this forum (starbotcontrol) crashes that way too....  It takes a while....like 6-8 hours of continuous running before it happens.  But, it inevitably does crash also.

[shuggins]

dbemowsk -

Fantastic!  It worked very well with my CM19a.  Loved the auto-response text "table xxx" was executed successfully.  I don't have time now, but I will test out the extended X10 commands (dim,etc) stuff soon.  Great work- keep it up.  

Only slight suggestion is the need to send "table" in the text.  A bit redundant, imho.  Example: "@computer table master on".  Why the table part?  I sometimes forget it and of course nothing happens.  Really, the table part is part of the "status" commands in the config file as well as the X10 commands.

Again, very nice work.  As I use it - I will likely have more input.

[dbemowsk]

One other feature that I forgot to mention that I added was a search feature for the commands that you have defined.  Say you forgot what you named a command (e.g. dining room ceiling fan, dining ceiling fan or dining room fan), you can send "@computer search dining" and it should return a text with all commands with the word dining in it.

As it sits, you can send the texts from any phone and it will return texts to whatever phone you sent them from.  Some other features I thought of adding were:

1 - The ability to limit what phone numbers can activate things in the system.  something like a defined list of access phone numbers.  This seemed like a good security feature.
2 - An option to have the system text a defined phone number if someone other than that defined number is is trying to access the system.  Another security type feature.

If I see a big enough demand for these options, I will add them.

[dbemowsk]

Only slight suggestion is the need to send "table" in the text.  A bit redundant, imho.  Example: "@computer table master on".  Why the table part?  I sometimes forget it and of course nothing happens.  Really, the table part is part of the "status" commands in the config file as well as the X10 commands.

I am confused.  Check your AP (Attention Phrase) setting in the config file and make sure it is not set to "@computer table".  I do not have to text the word "table" in any of my commands I send.  I actually have my AP set to "@harlie", harlie being the name of my HA computer.  The AP can be anything you want.  You don't have to use the "@" at all in your AP.  You could set your AP to "fluffy", and then all your commands would be "fluffy master on" or "fluffy e4 off".

Anyways, My guess is that if you have to type things like "@computer table master on" or "@computer table a2 on", that you have the word "table" either in your AP or in some of your commands.

[dbemowsk]

Shuggins, I think I just figured it out.  In the sample commands.cfg file, I refer to a table lamp as one of the module definitions.  It is not just lamp.  In my living room I have 3 standing lamps and one lamp that sits on a small table that I refer to as the table lamp.  I am guessing that you have yours set to table master status:L1 on>unsure,off,on.  You only need master status:L1 on>unsure,off,on.  The word table is not required...

[shuggins]

hahahhaa....  right before I logged on, I figured that out as much - I'm all good now.   

I promised you a set up doc for Remote X10 - but I never could quite get it (RemoteWatch) working.  Now that I got text2x10 all working, would you like me to take  a crack at a very detailed setup/user guide?  I have taken many notes.  I could even include nice iPhone screen shots of what to expect back, etc.  Might be nice to get others up and running.  I mean, communication in this X10 stuff is key.

I can tell you of one *small* bug.  Really, this is not that big a deal, but I can easily reproduce every time.  If I send a text, then IMMEDIATELY send another, text2x10 ignores the second.  It's almost like the "listening" command line output in the dos box means, "from here on out" it looks for texts...  Almost like things that come in before the "listening" line in command prompt means they are lost.  Really, not a big deal at all, as I cannot imagine blasting text messages to Google Voice.  If I wait for 20-30 seconds b/t my texts, it always seems to work.

[dbemowsk]

I promised you a set up doc for Remote X10 - but I never could quite get it (RemoteWatch) working.  Now that I got text2x10 all working, would you like me to take  a crack at a very detailed setup/user guide?  I have taken many notes.  I could even include nice iPhone screen shots of what to expect back, etc.  Might be nice to get others up and running.  I mean, communication in this X10 stuff is key.

That would be very cool.  All in all it was a pretty simple program to write, so the documentation should be fairly easy, but I do agree that communication is key.

I can tell you of one *small* bug.  Really, this is not that big a deal, but I can easily reproduce every time.  If I send a text, then IMMEDIATELY send another, text2x10 ignores the second.  It's almost like the "listening" command line output in the dos box means, "from here on out" it looks for texts...  Almost like things that come in before the "listening" line in command prompt means they are lost.  Really, not a big deal at all, as I cannot imagine blasting text messages to Google Voice.  If I wait for 20-30 seconds b/t my texts, it always seems to work.

IF you wait 30 seconds or so after sending the two immediately next to one another, do both of them then get executed?  Any text messages that you send are stored in the GV mail box until they are read by some other program or phone.  Also, text2x10 wouldn't delete the text until it processed it first just because of the way the code is set up.  I have seen some delays in the messages getting through, but I think that some of that is on Google's end of things, and I could see that possibly happening if two messages were sent back to back.  Remember too that by default, I have a 5 second delay coded into the config file which is the SCANINTERVAL.  Part of the reason I did this was because if I had the software continuously hitting the GV server for updated messages with no delay, it was occasionally telling me that it couldn't log me in.  5 seconds may still be a bit on the short side as far as time.  If I remember right, jimpster had something like a 10 second delay between checks in his StarBotControl software.  Setting the SCANINTERVAL to 10 might help that issue some, though I haven't tried it.  I guess it's all in how fast you want it to respond.  Maybe I could write in the ability to send multiple commands in one text message?  That may be going a little overboard though.

[shuggins]

>That would be very cool.
Already started.... it'll be in .pdf format.  Think you'll like it.

PS: I think I can readily reproduce the AHCMD crashed bug (which pops up a dialog asking if you want to Continue or Quit - and until you answer the dialog, text2x10 is locked up - once you click one of the two options in dialog, it will continue on).  If you do the status thing (check the status of a device, say "C3") - it always crashes.  Every time. 

Here's command I put in commands.cfg file:
master status:C3 on>unsure,off,on

I texted this:

@computer master status

text2x10 acknowledges it received the text and then tries to execute it.  That's when the "AHCMD crashed" pop up happens.  Here's why I think it's happening.  CM19a is RF (not PLC), so I presume the fact that CM19a cannot receive stuff (only send out commands), that that is why AHCMD cannot do what it's trying to do.  I have no doubt it works for CM15a (and maybe CM11a?).  But, gathering status of a X10 device probably just won't work with CM19a.  Again, in my case, I don't care too much.  That feature isn't really a hot item to me.  To others, maybe so.

[shuggins]

Sorry- forgot to ans your original Q:

>IF you wait 30 seconds or so after sending the two immediately next to one another, do both of them then get executed?
Yes....every single time, if I wait that long.    It just seems to take a little bit for the "Listening" status to come back on the DOS console - and until that "Listening" pops back up, it seems to ignore any texts.  Again, this is nothing really. I doubt I'm gonna try and spam my GV SMS Inbox with several X10 text commands at once.   Seems ludicrous in real scenarios.

[dbemowsk]

One other feature that I forgot to mention that I added was a search feature for the commands that you have defined.  Say you forgot what you named a command (e.g. dining room ceiling fan, dining ceiling fan or dining room fan), you can send "@computer search dining" and it should return a text with all commands with the word dining in it.

As it sits, you can send the texts from any phone and it will return texts to whatever phone you sent them from.  Some other features I thought of adding were:

1 - The ability to limit what phone numbers can activate things in the system.  something like a defined list of access phone numbers.  This seemed like a good security feature.
2 - An option to have the system text a defined phone number if someone other than that defined number is is trying to access the system.  Another security type feature.

If I see a big enough demand for these options, I will add them.

Did you happen to see the other additions I proposed?  DO they seem like something that I should add?

[shuggins]

>1 - The ability to limit what phone numbers can activate things in the system.  something like a defined list of access phone numbers.  This seemed like a good security feature.
>2 - An option to have the system text a defined phone number if someone other than that defined number is is trying to access the system.  Another security type feature.

>If I see a big enough demand for these options, I will add them.

Option #1 (#2 as well) - nice to have, but the "Attention Phrase" is good enough for me as far as security is concerned.  Might not be secure enough for others, however.  If you do put the effort to add these features, I strongly suggest to make them optional in the .cfg file.  IE: if others like me just want to use the Attention Phrase as security, then they could ignore these additional features (leave blank in .cfg file, for example).

[dbemowsk]

Yes, I would definitely make them optional if I did them.

[shuggins]

Last post for a while (as I seem to be hogging this thing):

If you use CM19a:

• open the Text2x10.cfg file and change CMD | x10cmd to CMD | ahcmd  This seems (thus far) to have eliminated the "AHCMD crashed" problems I have been having
• The command to check status on an X10 device (whether on/off) will NOT work with CM19a.  It always returns "off" because CM19a isn't two way.  It will only "send" X10 commands - not receive.  You'll need CM15a or CM11a.

[shuggins]

hehehe...well, I made it nearly 24 hours w/o a post to this thread! 

Feature Request: Could we nest commands in one single macro.  I know we could have a command trip off a macro in AHP or iHouse, but it would be awesome to do something like this:

; Turn on three lights with one text
upstairs lights on:C4 on,C5 On,C9 on