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[bevhoward]

I'm starting this thread in the hope that it will be an ongoing discussion about the WM100 Wifi Hub.

There are many threads containing WM100 questions and problems and a couple of old threads about the design and future, but, as far as I could find, none that contained general information that would help newcomers to the WM100

As those who have WM100's know, this is a very unusual device, not only in the X10 arena, but it is also unlike any other IOT (Internet Of Things) or even any other (wifi) connected device.  It is poorly documented, has a number of hidden "confusers" and the highest praise that I can give it is that it "has a lot of potential"

So, I'll start with one of my own discoveries that explained why it is not possible to connect a smartphone to an WM100 when both devices were on the same wifi lan network, but the network was not connected to the internet.

Turns out that the WM100 and the WM100 each only communicate with the internet.  Somewhere out there is a server that connects the app user to their specific hub using an internet ip address.  You can see this if you turn your phone's Wifi OFF, and have the ability to connect to the internet using your phone's Cellular Data connection.  With no Wifi connection, your phone will connect to the WM100 immediately.

Good news is that you don't need to do any special backflips such as tunneling or port manipulation to communicate with the hub when you are away from home ...from anywhere in the world.  Unanswered question, are there any threats by the WM100's direct internet link or by the possible existence of a routing server on the interenet somewhere in the middle?

Has anyone done a traceroute on either the app's or the WM100's communications?  (It's on my bucket list, but will be a while)

Another question is if there is a routing server, who's responsible and if the server is attacked or taken off line, Will WM100's then be inoperative?

fwiw, I'm currently working on the possibility of accessing 2 WM100's with one phone ...not there yet, but, I'm hopeful.

Finally, for this first post, a "don't do" WM100 tip that bit me this morning. 

I was experimenting with the WM100's ALL ON/OFF options earlier when things simply stopped working.  Unlike the X10's bit transmission schema where ALL ON/OFF applies only to a single house code, the WM100's ALL ON/OFF applies to all of the device codes that are stored in the HUB.  Since I have three housecodes here and one of the housecodes is for devices that I never want turned off by an ALL OFF so it took me a while to figure out why there was no internet.

My internet modem and wifi are on an X10 module so I can cycle it remotely when necessary  ...not something you want to turn off if you are halfway across the country.

Beverly Howard

updated 12/04/19 by BH

[bevhoward]

What is the box at the upper left of the WM100's devices tabs for?

Next question, how does one attach a screenshot?

(nothing happens when I click "Attachments and other options")

Thanks in advance,
Beverly Howard

[bevhoward]

A few discoveries about the "box" in the previous post (on Android)

The partial circle to the right of the box is a partially obscured "magnifying glass" (search) icon.  There is no apparent way to tap the icon since the "ALL OFF" button to the right of the icon triggers instead.

The good news is that it showed that while I had successfully deleted my "wifi on/off" device using the app, doing so did not delete that device from the "ALL OFF" list. 

When I tried to tap the half hidden "search" icon, the app issued an ALL OFF instead ...which, of course, disconnected the WM100 from the internet.

The WM100's ALL OFF schema is to transmit a "standard" X10 ALL OFF command for every housecode entered in the Devices TAB

Hope this info saves someone else the same grief.

Beverly Howard

[petera]

Might be worth posting in the X10 wifi section. That's where all the discussion on the WM100 unit takes place. Not being an owner of this unit it started out with a big fanfare with big waiting lists for one but sadly there's not a lot of enthusiasm for it now.

[bevhoward]

>> Might be worth posting in the X10 wifi section. <<

Saw that, but the newest posts there are over half a year old and there are not that many, plus they warn users who want to reply of their advanced age.

I've buried myself into the WM100 over the past couple of weeks and finding things that are neither documented nor spoken about on the forum. 

Maybe my hopes are too high, but I think that the WM100 can be a valuable tool for X10ers, especially those of us who don't have the time or expertise to start from the Pi up.

Thanks for the response,
Beverly Howard

[petera]

The interest in the unit waned when problems began to arise with it’s functionality. Many were returned for a refund and I imagine the interest on the forum evaporated. You can see the timeline  of it’s decline here http://forums.x10.com/index.php?board=148.0 I’m sure if you start posting on the subject again others may well join in with you.

[Tuicemen]

Next question, how does one attach a screenshot?

(nothing happens when I click "Attachments and other options")

Thanks in advance,
Beverly Howard

If you mean attach a screen shot to a post you might try another browser.

[bevhoward]

>> you might try another browser <<

Tried FireFox and Chrome, but, no joy.  Also turned off popup blocking for this site.

Not that important.  Thanks for the response.

Beverly

(fwiw, "Attachments" link contents)
http://forums.x10.com/index.php?action=post;topic=31124.0;last_msg=183345#

[bevhoward]

fwiw, success with controlling two WM100 hubs with the same phone.

The clue came from the following statement in the (rather sparse) WM100 user manual.

Reset to Factory Settings
▪ This option will reset all the data on your APP ONLY. This does not affect the
WM100. This will simply clear out the data on your phone. If the WM100 does
not receive a hardware reset, once you reconnect with the WM100 it will resync
the App and download the information and settings from your WM100.

Step one was to take images of each of the QR codes and print them on a card.

After you set up (see below) the second WM100, you can select
settings/reset/confirm/connect to an existing hub

When asked for the qr code, scan the QR code for the desired hub, wait, then wait, then answer "control devices" when asked what you want to do.

Even though the other option is "add devices" once you get to "control devices" you can can then control, add, edit, etc.

There appears to be a bug when setting up the second device where the ssid would not display and I was unable to connect.  However, after I used another phone to set up the second device, I could then switch between the two hubs on the both phones and have done so a number of times this evening.

Hope this is of value to others,
Beverly Howard
 

[dhouston]

Next question, how does one attach a screenshot?

I believe you have to progress beyond Newbie (based on number of your posts) before you can attach images.

[Tuicemen]

Next question, how does one attach a screenshot?

I believe you have to progress beyond Newbie (based on number of your posts) before you can attach images.

Good catch Dave, your wright. 

[bevhoward]

My "ALL OFF" observation was in error.

WM100 uses the standard X10 "ALL OFF" command rather than sending individual "OFF" commands.

What I didn't know was that the WM100 issues a separate "ALL OFF" command for each of the housecodes it finds in the device listings.

With respect to the fact that I have my Modem and Wifi power controlled by an appliance module, I'm adding several daily ON commands for that code in the event that I ever accidentally hit ALL OFF from a remote location again.  (there are a couple of reasons why I am not putting it on an extra housecode not used in the WM100, but, I may do so in the future)

Beverly Howard

[bevhoward]

Got a private email that was in response to this thread.  Interesting questions, would appreciate additional info, especially with respect to my wm100 observations and conclusions.

Once a WM100 is set up and programmed, if I unplug the Internet cable from my WiFi router, and set my phone to WiFi only, and do a turn on/off to a preconfigured module in the app, does the X10 module turn on/off?

Nope... the _only_ communication that happens between the wm100 and the phone is when the hard reset is used to reset the wm100.

During the process, the only information sent to the wm100 from the phone is to tell the wm100 how to connect to the wifi network and the QR code info used by the wm100 to confirm that the person setting up the unit is working with a specific wm100

After that, the phone never communicates directly with the wm100, but, rather goes to an internet server which then communicates with the wm100.

You can verify this after you set up the wm100 by turning off the phone's wifi and seeing that the phone has no problems sending x10 commands to the wm100.

if I turn off the phone and just let the WM100 run without the internet, does it still control the X10 modules (via timers for example), or does the device stop working (eventually) because it or the app doesn't "phone home" after a while.

Not sure about the long term as the wm100 does continue to run timers etc.  What _will_ probably happen is that the wm100's date/time will get increasingly inaccurate based on my observations to date. 

A related "big question" is if these servers will continue to be maintained since the wm100 appears to be at EOL and there have been no replacements.

I might experiment analyzing its network traffic and setting up a port forwarded local API server that responds like their server

Please report back on that... and include baby steps on the configuration that you find.  I would be very surprised if you were able to control a wm100 from a computer.  I would guess that the communication schema was specifically designed to stymie any attempts for malicious actors to gain control of a wm100.

Beverly Howard

[bevhoward]

The person who sent the private email responded "they (the X10 forum) haven't approved my registration so I cannot login or post there"

[Brian H]

The person who sent the private email responded "they (the X10 forum) haven't approved my registration so I cannot login or post there"

What forum is that? As you are registered here and posting.