X10 and xAP

by **erspearson** on Sat Oct 02, 2004 6:06 pm

Kevin's explanation is correct. And a little scary! X10 can get pretty fiddly to deal with at the lowest levels. But there's no need to get scared; the X10 connector for xAP hides all of this from you so you don't have to worry about it!

by **Aaron** on Sat Oct 09, 2004 5:36 am

Anyone have Homeseer and XL interfaced via xAP?

by **Hiller** on Sat Oct 09, 2004 1:59 pm

I'm waiting on a reply from Steven about something. On my machine I have HS and xAP talking through BSC and I have an XLobby plugin that sends and receives xAP commands. Now I just need to interface all that with XLobby but I'm waiting on something from Steven.

I also ordered some X10 stuff so I will be able to test some of this out on my own.

Steve

by **CouchPotatoe** on Sat Oct 09, 2004 8:38 pm

That sounds really great - quite how it all hooks in with the graphic interface within XLobby will be fun.. but opens up XLobby to many new applications. Having got the xAP send/receive capability - particularly using BSC you can use many new data sources eg X10 , and also a fairly easy 'roll your own xAP connector' opportunity for any specific devices plus of course all of HomeSeers devices are immediately accesible ....

Great progress -well done... K

by **Aaron** on Sat Oct 09, 2004 9:37 pm

I'm up for testing it all when you are ready to send out a Beta (or Alpha). I've got Homseer 1.7 (with >20 X10 devices) and XL ready to roll.

by **rubbah** on Fri Oct 15, 2004 9:29 am

how is this coming along? any progress?

by **Hiller** on Fri Oct 15, 2004 12:30 pm

I received my X10 stuff yesterday and am able to turn lights on and off so I know things are going well there. What I am really waiting on is an answer from Steven about the variable field in the Event Manager for plugins. First, I don't think it's working at all. When I tested with anything in the variable field I don't think the command even executed. I also don't know how to get the information in that field even if it is working. So that's where I am stuck at the moment.

I need that field so you guys can use it to access your different devices. You will setup the devices in the configuration with device numbers. In the Event Manager you will select say "Send On Message" and in the variable field put in the device you want to control. That's how I plan on it working anyway.

I also am able to receive information from X10 devices so I can report their state if it's a two way device but that needs more testing.

Hopefilly Steven will get back to me and I'll have a Beta for you guys to try out.

Steve

by **rubbah** on Fri Oct 15, 2004 1:22 pm

sound great! hope steven can answer you're question, soon!

by **Berra** on Sat Oct 16, 2004 9:10 am

Maybe this can be helpfull, I just found this at a Swedish site that sells X10 products (the pdf is in English tough)

http://www.ehem.com/pdf/cm11protocol.pdf

by **stevenhanna6** on Tue Oct 19, 2004 7:05 am

Hiller you have mail.

I still havent ordered any x10 stuff myself, their new USB unit came out and I think its replacing their old serial one cm11a. Anyone using the usb one?

by **CouchPotatoe** on Tue Oct 19, 2004 11:31 am

The advantage of using xAP as the connection protocol to XLobby is that all xAP devices become available to XLobby - not just X10 via the CM11A. All HomeSeer additions are also available and there are a whole heap of supported devices via plugins there . Also new devices become available without any specific code support from XLobby - an ever increasing free library of supported devices

Within xAP there are already things like CallerID, News, Weather, X10, C-Bus Lighting, mp3 players (eg SliMP3, Squeezebox, Exstreamer), I/O including relays, input ports, A/D + D/A, temp sensors, OSD, TV listings, Traffic info, Database lookup applications, Alarm systems etc etc... and it is relatively easy to 'roll your own' connector for a device using the code samples in many languages along with a free .Net development framework and also an Active X control. If you have Homerseer then ALL those devices become available and there are a lot of plugins written for HomeSeer.

Once a device is xAP enabled it becomes a decoupled network device. It can be controlled and provides status info over the network - so can be shared between applications. Directly attaching a device via a serial port to say XLobby would tie up that device as well as require specific coding support.

xAP offers a schema called BSC (Basic Status and Control) that makes 90% of the typical simple devices speak EXACTLY the same language. This covers BINARY (On/Off) LEVEL and TEXT based devices. Most devices can be categorised this way and is the model both Crestron and AMX use. More complex devices can have additional features above this eg an mp3 player would offer an enhanced schema. Thus with support in XLobby for BSC 90% of xAP devices would just 'drop in' - X10 for example offers BSC and all HomeSeer devices speak BSC.

Just to mention that the new USB X10 adaptor is a US only product AFAIK and is not available in a CE approved 230V 50Hz variant so we do not have a xAP conduit written for this. However if this USB device was attached via HomeSeer then of course all the X10 devices become available as xAP BSC devices so would work 'out the box' with a xAP enabled XLobby

.

xAP would turn XLobby into the graphic dashboard for all your HomeAutomation control - alongside the inbuilt strengths of the music management that it already has. Indeed support could be added to drive xAP enabled mp3 players giving XLobby support for Ethernet network players like the Squeezebox, Rio/DDAR or Exstreamer to use in your multi room setups. Some of these include true hardware synched playback and local amplification as well.

Kevin

by **Hiller** on Thu Oct 21, 2004 3:38 pm

Hey everyone,

I'm on travel for work so I haven't been on the forum as much as I usually am but wanted to give a quick update. Steven gave me the information I needed so I am moving ahead. I think for the first version I'm just going to integrate XLobby into HomeSeer using xAP because I think that is the easiest way to go. You will just have the ability to turn lights on and off, get feedback telling you the device state.

I think that might be ready by this weekend but I want to test it with my X10 stuff when I get home.

I'll keep you updated.

Steve

by **Aaron** on Fri Oct 22, 2004 6:14 pm

SWEET... I cannot wait. My HS has xAP installed and ready to go.

This will be a huge step forward with integrating HA & HTPC!

now if I can just get someone to write xAP plug-in for XBOX Media Center (XBMC) I'd be all set!

by **Mr_T** on Fri Oct 22, 2004 8:15 pm

Way to go!
I'm really looking forward for the realese of your plugin.

//Otto

by **Aaron** on Tue Oct 26, 2004 12:33 am

any news?