Re: Insteon open source WAS: Something else

[Neil Cherry <njc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 21 Sep 2006 13:41:10 GMT, Dave Houston wrote:
> It will likely disappear as soon as SmartHome sees this but there is some
> (somewhat amateurish) ZBasic code to send/receive with the 2414S that was
> posted by someone to the ZBasic files forum. As best I recall, it doesn't
> include any linking/unlinking functions.
>
>      http://www.zbasic.net/forum/about271.html
>
> I haven't looked at their license lately. While they did change some of the
> terms, it still prevents sharing of code, etc. so I think you'll be butting
> your head against the wall. Maybe the fact that you're a published author
> will influence them.

I think the code will be OK, I had spoken with them about that very
subject. I made it very clear that my comments would contain various
information that is contained in the docs. The Insteon rep had no
problem with that. I'm still puzzled by their lack of Open Source.
They seem to think that they have and open product. The one thing I
don't want to see right now is their SDK document posted to the
internet, at least not until I can get them to OK it first (that
wasn't aimed at you Dave).

This may be the first useful thing to come out of the book. :-) I'm
still not used to that title. But since I've got I'd better flaunt it
while it's worth something.

> Yesterday, I received two upgraded 2414S units to replace the two I had. I
> don't yet know what the upgrade entails but you probably should get the
> upgrade (it's free) before doing much coding.
>
> Given the paucity of info, I surrendered a few months back and bought the
> SDK. At least I got it before the price increase. Reverse engineering the
> PLC protocol is trivial but linking/unlinking, writing to EEPROM,
> setting/reading the RTC, etc. pretty much requires documentation.
>
> From all of the complaints they are fielding about the lack of quality
> Insteon software, I think they should have listened to us about the license
> terms. I think acceptance would have gone faster had there been lots of busy
> fingers playing with and sharing code. ;)

I know this is one thing that really bothers me. I'm beginning to
wonder about their quality control and the control of the protocol (3
big changes to the way you talk to the PLC, not nice). I'll talk to
Bruce to see if he's had any experience with this kind of thing. Maybe
he know's an Open Source expert that can help. otherwise it may be off
to UPB me.

> Neil Cherry <njc@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>>On a side note, the cost of the Insteon dev kit has gone up to $199
>>(US). I'm going to have to bug Insteon to release Open Source
>>compatible documentation. I'm not sure how I'm going to accomplish
>>this. They've doubled the cost of their kit and are not providing
>>anything extra to the Open Source community. The software they provide
>>is all Windows based. I can see this putting a damper on things.
>


--
Linux Home Automation         Neil Cherry       ncherry@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.linuxha.com/                         Main site
http://linuxha.blogspot.com/                    My HA Blog
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/               Backup site