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[petera]

For anyone interested or have any technical queries the HomeGenie author has resurfaced on HomeGenie GitHub answering queries. Looks promising.

[Tuicemen]

I had noticed that too. It does look promising however time will tell if this results in an update.

[petera]

I had noticed that too. It does look promising however time will tell if this results in an update.

I'll keep a cursory eye on the GitHub but I've moved on with Home Assistant so I doubt I'll be doing much development on the HomeGenie platform anytime soon.

[Tuicemen]

Just went through the pull requests for HomeGenie and Gene has posted a new release is coming though it will be small.
https://github.com/genielabs/HomeGenie/pull/326#issuecomment-419930496.
It may be worth posting any bugs users have uncovered so these get looked into.
As well suggestions for additional options though those may not get added this time around they will get put on Gene's radar.
https://github.com/genielabs/HomeGenie/issues

[petera]

Just went through the pull requests for HomeGenie and Gene has posted a new release is coming though it will be small.
https://github.com/genielabs/HomeGenie/pull/326#issuecomment-419930496.
It may be worth posting any bugs users have uncovered so these get looked into.
As well suggestions for additional options though those may not get added this time around they will get put on Gene's radar.
https://github.com/genielabs/HomeGenie/issues

Yes he stated a whike back that Homegenie was a finished product and he planned on developing something new. From what he says there it looks like that's well underway.

He was very restricted in the environment he was using to further develop Homegenie so it looks like he started from scratch. Not an easy decision for anyone but it makes a lot of sense.

Mono dependency comes at a price and you're at the mercy of a 3rd party. I had to manually build Mono on a number of occasions just to get certain Homegenie features working. Mono development is not always in parallel with the .Net Framework.

I never used Homegenie on the Windows platform, purely on a Raspberry Pi and Bounz who is a Windows man has gotten caught up with packaging methods rather than concentrating on new features. Maybe Gene was right and it is a completed product.

Purely as a platform for X10 it's fine in its current format and with a bit of work you can build a fairly credible home automation setup around it. Combining macros, timers, cameras and notifications with all the other features AHP would never have offered it really would be a credible contender for X10 users.

Maybe you could spin a working downloadable image with a basic X10 layout already in place which would give potential users a fighting chance to get their heads around the Homegenie concept

[Tuicemen]

Creating a working X10 HG image isn't a problem. I've done two. X10 users (at least those on this forum) are looking for plug and play solutions. Many aren't interested in playing with disk images and can't wrap there minds around a PI & the use of the terminal Window
I'll wait to see what come out from Gene and may create a new image with that which boots directly to the HG web interface.

Bounz is also creating new HG installers for the PI using docker or Mono which I've had a chance to test early versions of.
 These still need some work but Docker installs seem to be popular with other PI software developers.
At least there is now some new developement on the HG front.

[petera]

Docker installs can be quite restrictive and you are confined to what the docker creator provides for you. Remember Docker was designed around command line operations and forget about GUI usage which seems very important to forum members here.

I know HG is Web interface based but again there's a trade off with speed as you're working with an environment within an environment. How is logging going to be handled storage wise. A lot of questions need answering before I'd be convinced. Thats why I suggested a simple image of Raspbian with HG installed and already configured with some form of X10

There's so many packaging options out there and there's no single one better than the other. I've seen what you've attempted so far and to be honest it doesn't get much easier to install from your instructions. I think the issues run deeper than just packaging formats.

Maybe if you pretend that it's some form of secret Windows software that you've stumbled upon who knows what the take up might be 

[bkenobi]

Perhaps poeple could suggest that Gene create a RPi image if the product is complete.  He used to maintain an image early on, so it's not like he's incapable of doing so.  If I remember correctly, the image he used to provide had X10 already set up and a couple example modules installed.  Getting HG up and running was as simple as using Win32 Disk Imager (no install required) to flash an SD card, insert it into the RPi, turn it on, use HG.

[petera]

Perhaps poeple could suggest that Gene create a RPi image if the product is complete.  He used to maintain an image early on, so it's not like he's incapable of doing so.  If I remember correctly, the image he used to provide had X10 already set up and a couple example modules installed.  Getting HG up and running was as simple as using Win32 Disk Imager (no install required) to flash an SD card, insert it into the RPi, turn it on, use HG.

Yes it was as easy as that and all the minor updates were carried out within the Homegenie application. Since his departure there really hasn't been any updates worth mentioning so a  Raspberry Pi image fixed at v526 would make most sense. There's enough information in the old forum to help those who are serious enough to use it.

I honestly don't think there will be any further enhancements to Homegenie so it will be entirely down to the individual user to apply their own individual touches to the application as I imagine any remaining users are doing now. A downloadable Raspberry Pi image would certainly be the best option in my opinion too.

[Tuicemen]

Gene has marked things I posted as enhancements and or bugs given his commitment to this in the past I'm hopeful they get addressed.
From my experience user input of suggestions and or bug reports always got me motivated
As did how to questions as they often led to an additional option in my software.
When user input dries up the software development dies.
I've often though about using the USBlib drivers in my software so that may be something I dig into more and maybe convert one of my projects to work on a PI
However since HG and many of the other Pi HA softwares available have some sort of end user program creating tool available of which the end result can be shared with other that may be the better way to go.

[petera]

Gene has marked things I posted as enhancements and or bugs given his commitment to this in the past I'm hopeful they get addressed.
From my experience user input of suggestions and or bug reports always got me motivated
As did how to questions as they often led to an additional option in my software.
When user input dries up the software development dies.
I've often though about using the USBlib drivers in my software so that may be something I dig into more and maybe convert one of my projects to work on a PI
However since HG and many of the other Pi HA softwares available have some sort of end user program creating tool available of which the end result can be shared with other that may be the better way to go.

I do hear you but much pleading was done at the time with Gene prior to his decision to pull down the old forum, fold up his tent and walk away from the Homegenie project. Yes he may well make a few Push requests on the GitHub as a result of a number user requests but I don't see anything major.

If you are truly committed to HG why don't you do a fork of the project yourself and add what you think may be of use to others and produce your own version for publication. You have all the necessary code available to do this on the GitHub.

You have your own X10 forum which would be an ideal platform to host a Homgenie section along the lines of the old forum with the emphasis on X10. The Homegenie Club just hasn't taken off like the old homegenie forum did.

He has tinkered with a Homegenie client but was advised at the time that would not be a money spinner either. I guess he has given that a rethink and a new Web Api announced by him sounds promising. In fairness to him he's a young guy trying to make a living in a world full of sharks.

[Tuicemen]

Gene just released a new version of HG dropping the beta label and adding stable to 1.1-stable-527.
I've not updated to this yet as it was just released. but this is promising.

[petera]

Gene just released a new version of HG dropping the beta label and adding stable to 1.1-stable-527.
I've not updated to this yet as it was just released. but this is promising.

I noticed that. Reckon he saw nothing really happening with the forked project so decided to give it a kick up the ass. Probably a tidy up of some outstanding issues. I’ll give it a spin next week just to see.

[Tuicemen]

I attempted to do just an update from inside HG but I kept getting connection errors.
Posted an issue on github for this.

It may be best to do with a new SD then just rebuid HG from a backup for testing at least. I'll attempt this this weekend just to see how the install goes on a fresh raspbian stretch SD disk.

[petera]

I attempted to do just an update from inside HG but I kept getting connection errors.
Posted an issue on github for this.

It may be best to do with a new SD then just rebuid HG from a backup for testing at least. I'll attempt this this weekend just to see how the install goes on a fresh raspbian stretch SD disk.

Haven’t updated HG from inside the app in a long time. Easier to do a backup, stop the service from Terminal do a wget and a tar and restore the backup if necessary