X10 Computer Interface

That's exactly what I was looking for. Since there's a serial box out there, I can add some support with minimal programming since it uses the serial port instead of a special (driver required) hw interface.

Thanks for the info on that model. Now I'll go look at them on the web.

The Stamp chips are made by Parallax Inc. and they have a lot of fun toys. I fiddled with a Basic Stamp and used it to control a switch on a remote plane by simply connecting one of the stamp's inputs to the RC receiver directly with no other hardware. Oh, and it controlled a relay and some blinking LEDs.

There's also a lot of stuff on Google related to the Stamps.

Thanks Dave

Here's their X10 interface. Need a Stamp2 or better I guess.

I didn't realize that it wouldn't work in Europe. Now that you mention it, must be the line freq difference, I suppose. Sorry for the tease.

Dave,

- Just personal opinions and observations as a user.....

Those serial units are still around and are still very popular, they are called variously CM11's or CM12's (12's are European spec versions of the

11's). They can be programmed with some simple macros so they can run some logic with the pc offline.

There are many more choices available in the US - and USB is on the newest units - but us poor backwater users in Europe haven't seen them yet.

Who knows about 5 years time - but the cm11 is staple diet out there and has been for a number of years - and it's available in both Europe and US - so if you support that then you have a larger market.

Personally I am interested in the STAMP units for some messing about - have you got any links to some details?

Paul

Would a command line to launch a .CMD or .BAT file be enough to make it useful? That would be real easy for me to add something like a program (or .CMD) file launcher.

Will have to think about how to avoid feedback (blink on / off) in case the light (outdoor lights) are in view of the motion detector camera.

To avoid turning the lights on in the daytime, I can keep track of time and when the program knows that the sun is up, it can launch a different command line or not launch anything. Seems like it's getting a little dirty if I have to keep track of daylight, though. Will need to figure that one out. It turns out that the computer can't tell day or night by looking at the camera image, unfortunately.

I'll be back here when it's done to see if I can find any volunteers to help test it. The program already records video and the motion detector are complete. It has to be able to support as many capture input devices as possible and I'm afraid right now it only supports 3 of the 4 devices I tried to use with it. It won't support the Adaptec capture cards, but I've tried 3 other brands all successfully. Eventually I'd like to support IP cams but it only works with analog or digital (firewire or USB) video capture right now.

Dave

Thanks-looks like a reworked version of a commercial controller - also - they don't appear to have a european option - but thanks for the info, I'll dig some more.

Just make it so it will run one or more user specified command lines when motion is detected. That way when motion is detected, the user can have applications run that operate x10 gizmos, send email, grab pix, or do all sorts of other things. You can add other fancy stuff later after the motion detection part is developed.

If you're talking about the Stamps not being supported in Europe, maybe they are.

It probably looks like I'm pushing this one brand. I promise I don't have any association with them. I bought a Stamp starter kit about 3 or 4 years ago (for my RC hobby) and although the controller wasn't very powerful in terms of memory capacity or speed, it was so easy to get up and running with it. That's why I like this brand, being more of an experimenter now than a serious electronics engineer, although I used to be an eng' tech back in the '70s. I've worked with some of the old Intel controllers - 8748 comes to mind.

I don't know what a PLC controller is. Is that the term for the X10 transmitter?

Anyway, I hope you find what you're looking for.

Regards, Dave

You've given me some good info and I appreciate it. I'm definitely going to make sure I have a command driver like you described. It looks like allowing the user to have a collection of keyword placeholders that are substituted with actual data when a command is generated is important.

Dave

Another 2 cents worth......

Launching command line is absolutly essential, but let the command line be user configurable - so instead of putting in a cmd flie to run - allow the user to specify "cscript trigger."whatever you favourite wscript supported language is" - and pass as much info to the command as you can - something like

trigger "which camera" "day or night" "date/time" "date time I last triggered" "trigger count" "%confidence (did it move a little or a lot)" - you need to pass the state information to the command line 'cos scripts aren't good at being stateful.

I would like to then do some logic inside the cmd/script like...

trigger....

if day and camera triggered triggered twice in 1 minute then a lot of activity outside - no lights but maybe ring an internal chime to go take a look

still more activity take pictures - email then to remote sites. if house empty then send pager message

yet more trigger the panic alarm in the house

if night then all the above plus the lights.......

Dave,

It's not unusual - but does raise a point for your app - you need to build in support for x10 equipment that works in US and europe, so if you decide to go down the commercially available route then I suggest you look into the global support for the product - otherwise you are going to cut your market down.

As far as the PLC controllers - I understand it's more the voltage - Europe is 220-240v - so the components must be rated accordingly, most manufacturers of this kit seem to think that both the houses in europe with electricity won't need automation - so they keep there product US centric - missing out on a fair share of the possibles out there.

Paul

The below link shows how I use the free webcam2000 program to save pix when a bat file is executed. I can also have it take a pix and email it using a command line email program called sendemail. The bottom two links have small command line applications for operating an x10 firecracker which controls the x10 devices. If your application can execute a batch file, then that batch file can call a number of other batch files and run them. You just need to add a place in your application where the user can specify the batch file or the path to the batch file to run when motion is detected.

Dave,

PLC - powerline communications - X10 controllers. There are a few in the US and basically 1 in Europe - the old serial one - point is if you are going to to talk to one in you software if you don't support the 1 thats available in Europe then you have lost some of your potential audience.

STAMPS look like fun - when the home automation project calms down - it;s the next toy on the list.

Paul

I'm looking at the links right now. I think it's very clever to use the existing utils to make something bigger out of them. I like the email from a command line concept. I've been windows programming (and using) too long and almost forgot there was a command line at one time.

You and Paul have given me some good info and ideas. Looks like I found a good forum for suggestions on what people want in their automation software.

I am hoping to have something that others can help me to test in the near future. I realize that people who have a setup already don't need to buy another tool to do the same thing.

I'm planning to have something others software doesn't: One item I'm working on is voice messages spoken when motion is detected. I'm working on the details but I already have text-to speech built in and I also have motion position tracker working. Together I can marry those concepts into something smart enough to say something like "Movement Alert: Tracking human sized object moving towards the camera." And "Object is still present......Object is still present........Object is still present.....Object has now moved out of camera range."

Something like that I hope.

Dave

I will definitely heed that advice. I wrote a freeware audio recorder a decade ago

and it's spread far and wide. A great deal of the downloads come from Europe. I used to get a lot of email and I think about half of it all was from Europe. So I'm sold on the huge market potential that Europe has to offer.

At this time, I'm looking at two types of X10 outputs from the app. Serial and command line...I believe. Serial will be used to support the most common X10 controllers CM12 and CM11. The command line will allow people to use their own script languages to make the decisions on how to respond. Does that sound like enough? I want to be able to talk to the European PLC controller but will probably have to buy the US PLC and hope that all the keywords (or binary codes) are the same between the two models. Am I going to get into trouble with that assumption? I hope it'll be the same. Of course I could work with someone to help me test things that I can't test at home...when the time comes.

Here's a screen shot of the recorder as it looks right now in case you're curious if it's real or not :

Dave

Dave,

If it works with the CM11 it will work with the CM12 - the '12 is european cm11 - so you should be ok there - when it comes time to test then, time and circumstances permitting then I'll help if I can. I am sure you will get some volunteers from this forum.