Re: New member introduction

["Patrick Lidstone" <patrick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I have just joined the list. Looking forward to some good stuff on
here.

Hi Simon, Welcome!

> I am currently in the process of writing a few applications (c#) to
> control my heating at  home - my end goals would be as follows:
> - Use VIOM to control zones
> - PC GUI Client to configure heating (on/off times etc)
> - SMS Control / status (using www.bulksms.co.uk)
> - Yahoo IM control
> - Using the Quasar RS232 temperature module to input temperature info
> into the system
>
> I have spent the last few evenings writing test code to communicate
> with my RS232 devices, and when I was trying to decide what way my
> modules should communicate I stumbled on XAP.
>
> From what I can see XAP seems to do everything I need (and more). I do
> find it quite a lot to get my head around.

If you haven't stumbled across it already, you might find
http://patrick.lidstone.net/haweb/html/xap1.html
useful. There's C
(sorry, no C# - I know serial handling is radically different) code
for quasar temperature sensors amongst other stuff there (and some
schema which don't appear in the wiki - see more below). Stuart has a
nice .net framework which presumably would be useful from a C#
standpoint? (http://www.xapframework.net)

> I am interested in the "Schema" - are there any nice simple
examples
> of using Schema out there? I think I may need some new schema too
> (such as Instant Messaging)

Some, but not all, schema are here
http://wiki.xapautomation.org/tiki-index.php?page=XapSchema


> Also, I don't understand the nature of the message transmissions - is
> the receiver set anywhere, or is it just broadcast?

xAP messages are broadcast. Everyone hears everything, and then
decides whether they are interested in acting upon it. It makes
configuration very simple!

> I intend to make all my code freely available, so if I can help
> anyone, that's great.

Excellent stuff!

Patrick