Re: Re: XPL CM12 Service

[John]

> this is a bit embarassing! I have looked high & low for the
code and
> I can't find it anywhere. I did a bit of a tidy up of the PC the
> other day and I have a horrible feeling it went in the bin by
> accident. It was just a prototype and it was taking me a long time
> to get the CM12 protocol working.

Yes, the protocol doesn't strike me as very well engineered - it
certainly doesn't make life easy for the developer.

> Using the .NET classes I mentioned
> in my post was straight forward enough. What did take me some time
> to work out though is that there does not appear to be any
> handshaking on the interface. I had to slow my code down with sleeps
> before reading back from the CM12. This took me the best part of a
> day to work out!

Thanks for the tip - should hopefully save me some time!

> After that I had the basic X10 commands working and was trying to
> move on to the macros.

I don't indend to support macros - there isn't really any need for them
in an XPL environment as the interface is really just a gateway between
XPL and X10.

> Since then I have got more involved with AutoM8it and have stopped
> developing the interface in favour of creating plugins for AutoM8it
> that are more tailored to my needs.
>
> I have only just discovered xPL and haven't decided at this stage
> where it fits in my grand scheme of things.

What I like about the XPL approach is that you're not relying on a single
piece of software.
E.g. if you write everything as a plug-in for AutoM8it, or Homeseer etc.
and you then decide to stop using that particular piece of software for
whatever reason, you'll have to modify all your plug-ins to fit in with
whatever new environment you're moving to.

If all your components are written to support XPL, you can swap and
change between components, even ones by different developers/vendors, and
your whole XPL setup will continue to function.

For example, at the moment I use Tony's XPLHal package as my main
scripting engine.
If in the future, a better scripting engine is released by someone else,
I can switch to using the new XPL scripting engine, but all other
components of my HA system will continue to function without change.

Remember that XPL is an open, non-commercial standard, with guaranteed
backward compatibility in any future version - the same is not true of
commercial packages.

Also, unlike typical plug-ins, XPL components can be running on different
computers, even on different operating systems.

This is all IMO of course, and is in no way intended to detract from the
great job done by packages like AutoM8it and Homeseer, which are helping
bring HA into the wider market - these are just my own personal views on
why I chose XPL.

Regards,

John