How to control x10 firecracker with xlobby

by **jowaldo** on Thu May 20, 2004 10:13 pm

I recently set up xlobby to control my x10 firecracker device which controls the lights in my house. I did have to use girder in conjunction with it though to get it working smoothly. If anyone is interested I can do a tutorial on how to do that (including the complete girder side)

also, I haven't tested it, but have been told that this will work on the older but free version of girder. I just need to find a copy of it somewhere.

I'm pretty stoked now that I have a macro that when I hit play on a movie, it turns on my projector, turns the reciever on and to the right input, and even turns off the lights now

by **AirPost** on Fri May 21, 2004 12:26 am

Can you send me your gml file Jowaldo? Please? :lol:

I still have the free version so I'll try it out and see if it works with that version as well.

by **C-moi** on Fri May 21, 2004 10:21 pm

you can download the last free version of girder here
http://xlobby.free.fr/download/girder329.rar

by **Arthur** on Sat May 22, 2004 7:21 am

Best link of the week!

by **ingalls** on Sat May 22, 2004 6:07 pm

yes!!! I'm very intersted for a tutorial!!

Thanks!

by **jowaldo** on Sun May 23, 2004 6:17 am

Hey guys.. I'm sorry but I'm reallllly sick right now (don't know what it is this year but i've been sick a lot)

I can't make much of a tutorial right now, as soon as i'm better tho I'll write one. For now tho here's a few quick steps.

Download this girder plugin for the firecracker here:

http://www.girder.nl/downloadn.php?Link=376

Then open this gml file in girder:
http://members.cox.net/xlobby/xlobby.GML

In that file you will see girder events for turning on and off devices a1 and a2 through the firecracker. You can copy and modify it for more devices if you want.

Then in xlobby set up an event that calles the girder event string name a1-on or a1-off and etc...

Sorry I can't write more for the moment, but hopefully I will be able to soon.

by **pateruck** on Sun May 23, 2004 6:38 pm

Has anyone been able to use the DIM command with that girder firecracker 2.0.4 plugin? I can only get on and off to work. It would be so much better if the lights could gradually dim just before the movie begins.

by **pateruck** on Sun May 23, 2004 6:49 pm

Has anyone been able to use the DIM command with that girder firecracker 2.0.4 plugin? I can only get on and off to work. It would be so much better if the lights could gradually dim just before the movie begins.

by **jowaldo** on Mon May 24, 2004 1:19 am

I was able to get it to dim my lights... I also tested that the plugin works with the 3.29 free version of girder that c-moi posted.

Thanks for the link C-moi!!

by MR on Mon May 31, 2004 10:05 pm

HI. I've been using this plug in for a while, but I've never been able to figure out how to dim multiple lights at the same time. It seems you can only address a specific X10 device with this plug in when turning it on or off but not when you dim (the device number is grayed out.) When I use the dim command, the only light that dims is the last one that I turned on. Has anyone figured this out (or am I the only one with this problem?)
Thanks,
MR

by **jowaldo** on Tue Jun 01, 2004 5:32 am

MR wrote:HI. I've been using this plug in for a while, but I've never been able to figure out how to dim multiple lights at the same time. It seems you can only address a specific X10 device with this plug in when turning it on or off but not when you dim (the device number is grayed out.) When I use the dim command, the only light that dims is the last one that I turned on. Has anyone figured this out (or am I the only one with this problem?)
Thanks,
MR

Couldn't you just make an event in xlobby that calls multiple girder event strings.. one for each device to dim?

That wouldn't make them all dim at the same exact time, but pretty darn close

by MR on Tue Jun 01, 2004 4:24 pm

Well, I would do that but the plug-in doesn't let me select a specifc device I want to dim. It allows me to select the device I want to turn on and off, but when I select the "5% dim" radio button, the device code is unselectable and only the house code is selectable. Are you able to select a specifc device to dim on your system?

THe interface is designed like dim is supposed to be a global command for the house code, but it only dims the last light that I turned on for some reason. Do I need to "activate" lights one at a time by first sending an On command? If so, it is going to complicate my scripts as I don't have a way of making Girder know which lights are already on (I don't want to turn on a light that's off just to dim it.)

Just currious what other peole's experiences are.

Thanks,
MR

by **jowaldo** on Tue Jun 01, 2004 5:44 pm

I haven't messed around with the dim option much, but the little bit I did, I noticed if I have it set to "on" or "off" first, and then choose the house and device code, then after I choose dim, it seems to let me have it stick on a specific device... Don't know if that will work the way you want, but its worth a shot... I don't know either if that is a bug with the plugin, or by design, but let me know if you are able to try that if it works or not.

by MR on Sun Jun 06, 2004 10:58 pm

OK. I got this working nicely, so I thought I would post my GML file in case anyone is interested. One condition of downloading this is that you don't laugh at the code (and I'll be listening.) My only experience with programing is self taught Excel macros.

What is does: When Girder sees that a DVD is playing, it will activate each light that is already on by sending a redundant On command, and dim each light consecutavely (I only have two lights to dim.) It also brightens the lights when the video is paused or Zoomplayer is closed. For some reason I can't get Girder to see that video has stopped, but I am still working on that.

What you'll need: You'll need Girder 3.2, and the DVDspy and Firecracker pluggin. I am using Zoomplayer, but you can easily change the event code from Zoomplayer.state to something else to detect when video is playing or paused.

How it works: My normal light controls are in X10>Mantle or Stand (Mantle and Stand are my two lights.) In each folder there is a On and Off command using the X10 plugin, and a variable setting that lets Girder know which light is on or off. In the Zoomplayer-Functions folder there is a multigroup called control lights that has the DVDspy event and the script that actually dims and brightens the lights. Lastly in Zoomplyer-Functions there is a ZoomplayerPower folder taht contains the Off multigroup which also contains a script to brighten any still dimmed lights on exit.

Anyway, I hope other people can make use of this. I think it is the best I can do with the Firecracker setup. I guess a Powerlinc controler would allow me to dim all the lights at once and would get states directly from the lights, but I would have to invest in new equipment.

Thanks,
MR

http://michaelrothberg.home.comcast.net/HTPC.GML

by **Jay** on Sun Nov 13, 2005 9:21 pm

jowaldo wrote:Hey guys.. I'm sorry but I'm reallllly sick right now (don't know what it is this year but i've been sick a lot)

I can't make much of a tutorial right now, as soon as i'm better tho I'll write one. For now tho here's a few quick steps.

Download this girder plugin for the firecracker here:

http://www.girder.nl/downloadn.php?Link=376

Then open this gml file in girder:
http://members.cox.net/xlobby/xlobby.GML

In that file you will see girder events for turning on and off devices a1 and a2 through the firecracker. You can copy and modify it for more devices if you want.

Then in xlobby set up an event that calles the girder event string name a1-on or a1-off and etc...

Sorry I can't write more for the moment, but hopefully I will be able to soon.

New Xlobby(ist). http://members.cox.net/xlobby/xlobby.GML Above seems to be gone. Anyone have it?
TIA