Re: PCIR device - A few questions

["Paul Gordon" <paul_gordon@xxxxxxx>]

>>So now I am looking at the RedRat device. Does anyone know if this
works
>with HomeSeer?
>

I asked this question directly to Rich Helmke quite a while ago...

Basically, the RedRat device is not >directly< supported by HS, -
i.e. it
does not appear in the list of IR interfaces. However, if you are up to it,
it should not be >too< difficult to support it via the scripting
interface,
as the redrat is a serial device.

This is something I am seriously considering as well, as it seems unlikely
(for now) that direct support for the redrat will be appearing in HS
anytime
soon. - When I asked Rich about it, he replied he would support it in
homeseer if there was enough user demand for it, but after asking on the HS
message board there was very little user demand evident for it, so that's
pretty much that!

Mail Rich (rjh@xxxxxxx) and tell him you want support for this device as
well! - the only reason I haven't yet bought a redrat is because of the
direct support, and I don't currently have the time to code the suport
myself via scripts...

I *REALLY* want a serial-port device as I am totally commited to W2K as the
platform for my Homeseer PC, and I am not prepared to compromise on that!

What may be of interest is the availability of shareware drivers which DO
allow application access to the parallel port under Windows 2000. As you no
doubt know, normally this would be forbidden by the HAL, but someone has
written a Kernel-mode device driver which bypasses this restriction, and
makes the parallel port hardware accessable to user-mode applications, so
in
theory you could use the Concept device under W2K...

Obviously there are the usual reliability & stability worries with such
a
"bodge" so I'd suggest testing it out on a development machine
first! - I've
downloaded it, but not tried it out yet...

HTH

Paul G.


PS, - If you are interested in developing scripts to add Redrat support in
HS, I'm happy to work with you on that...



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