RE: configuration, GUIs etc

[Kevin Hawkins]

Sounds really good Patrick. I look forward to seeing that.

As P has put out an update I thought I'd let you know where I'm at..

Firstly Clipsal C-Bus. Following the earlier delays Clipsal eventually
issued the NDA about 2 months ago. It was signed and returned that day but
they have still not sent the information through :-( . Lot's of possible
issues here and I have also heard that they are potentially discontinuing
the C-Bus SIM which is the tiny serial interface module they make for
integration into third party devices. I am still waiting on an official
response on this. So it may be that the embedded xAP to C-Bus gateway is a
non starter. Regardless of that I have the original xAP to C-Bus gateway
running utilising the C-Gate software - and I have been offered a very low
cost licence for this should I want. However this mandates the use of a PC
and also requires the purchase of an RS232 or Ethernet module for C-Bus
which are many times the cost of the SIM module. C-Gate also provides
'managed' control of C-Bus rather than the full and complete control
available via the SIM.

Whilst waiting for the C-Bus stuff I have totally xAP'd my alarm system -
all the alarm activities appear as xAP events now. Again this was an NDA
for
the serial protocol but it arrived within days.

I am currently looking at my rather old SliMP3 Caller ID / Outlook
integration. (xAP 1.1) Basically an incoming or outgoing call displays CID
and name from Outlook contacts on the SliMP3 display - also last call
history. Unknown calls show STD area - even to sub area as you dial the
digits - quite interesting to watch. However I am considering either
xAP'ing
this now with the new xAP SliMP3 support and also possible a small Perl
helper plugin for others - I feel offering a plugin would interest loads of
people on the SliMP3 lists - and they could use xAP alongside this without
even realising it - this way more developers might become interested.

I have also just been finishing off the Tagtronic bus interface for my Tag
Mclaren AV system - almost dne now and looking at incorporating a little
xAP
now - but as always it's finding the time.

Lastly have been looking at the HV integration of C-Bus - there is a neat
way to do this that requires a small change from CSI - unfortunately it is
way down their list at the moment due to the imminent release of HV Pro.


The demise of Tony's framework for Xap left me with a bit of a void from my
own perspective (Visual Basic)- and I am just about to turn to creating a
new framework and the incorporation of Patricks OCX . I do feel that a lot
of the hobbyist programmers are only VB capable - leaving C etc to the high
ground or more competent / professional individuals. This possibly
resulting
in a preference to xPL over xAP.

I don't know if there has been any progress on HomeVision support and xAP
or
HomeSeer /xAP - for me these, particularly the latter, as 'top of the
wishlist' at the moment.

Kevin

PS Maybe I should post some of this to the main xAP list as well - I
haven't
looked how many members there are on each just recently but I am sure it is
well down on the 100+ that we had on the original xAP list :-(

PPS - Have you formed a gameplan for the UKHA presentations yet P ? - is
there anything you want me (us) to do ?? Or is it more a workshop type
approach. There is a little discussion going on with regard to Clipsal
C-Bus
presentations but as yet nothing fixed.




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Patrick Lidstone [mailto:<a
href="/group/xAP_developer/post?postID=Xw396U0omMX1eflErrilk2Cp0F_V4A7VAW0Z1zflyi_ycU7FZL58vMbYMBeM6GGxRDSDQiziDMKKX7ki">patrick@l...</a>]
> Sent: 07 April 2003 09:14
> To: <a
href="/group/xAP_developer/post?postID=0h9YXNDpn7JnAWoXdxSFEFx3w3GOrlBojFcTXbETY0erqKAeJQeWOXiilGTVUOeBibtJy89ImINDFcoedYTobyPdId5j">xAP_developer@xxxxxxx</a>
> Subject: [xAP_developer] configuration, GUIs etc
>
> Just a quick note to tell you chaps what I've been working on
> recently...
>
> I have put together a Win/32 GUI for xAP devices - a kind of dash
> board (xAP-Dash). The dash discovers all instances of xAP devices
> automatically, monitors heartbeats and provides a hierarchical
> explorer-type view of them/their status, so you can see at a glance
> if something is wrong.
>
> The dash supports dynamic plug-ins, so each device can have its own
> custom configuration dialogue embedded into the app. This can extend
> to a control panel, allowing simple testing/manual interaction with
> the remote device.
>
> I've been playing with configuration protocols, and think I have
> something workable - I can detect conflicting updates from two
> different points on the network and can also potentially restore
> configuration to a device that has soft-reset. One or two more
> wrinkles to iron out.
>
> Bringing all xAP components together in one place from anywhere the
> network works really well.
>
> I'll post some screen shots when I get a bit of time. I plan to
> document the plugin API once it's all stable if anyone wants to add
> support for their own devices.
>
> Patrick
>
>
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