Haiku HaikuHelper features and demo videos

I'm in the process of a remodel and will have a HAI OmniPro II installed in the process. I'm excited to see to see HaikuHelper is becoming increasingly packed with features. It's pretty key for me to be able to control my automation system via a Mac (I work as a Software Engineer at Apple, so it would be pretty lame if I couldn't use the software I work on to control my home).

I've read a bit HaikuHelper on the Nullriver site, but I'd like to see more about it. I was hoping lupinglade could get some demo videos up on the site to see the product in action. I think it would give a much better impression than what I can read about. (For that matter, I've only seen a few videos of Haiku on youtube.)

I also curious about the differences in what HaikuHelper and PCAccess can do. From my very little understanding of this, it seems PCAccess allows for a lot more control and programming of the HAI system, but HaikuHelper seems to be able to do some of this as well.

Hi Danner - I'll take a stab at clearing some of this up for you...

First, to define PC Access, that is the HAI tool to PROGRAM your system. It is available in both End USer and Dealer versions. You can see the differences at the link. I am guessing since you are a technical person that you want to be more involved with your system (as a DIY) rather than just having a Pro install and support it. If that is the case you will need the Dealer version of the software so you have full access to all the programming. This includes all the security settings, automation logic, etc. So this is required to setup any panel for use, it is not intended for CONTROL per se.

So now you mention 'control your automation system via a mac'. That can mean alot of things. For many the OmniPro II alone is your controller and no mac is ever needed, The OPII via its automation logic can probably do most if not all of what you want. An external software based system is only needed to do more of the 'fluff' and not core automation. Maybe things like weather, full Text To Speech and other types of things. Some people supplement their panels with software systems like CQC, Homeseer, Elve, etc. to get these other functions.

More to the 'control' aspect I think is really more the 'interface' or how you will interact with your OPII. There are several ways to do this. You have your basic HAI consoles, then HAI has their own touchscreen interfaces like the 5.7e and others which is configurable with their automation studio. They also have iDevice based control interfaces like their SnapLink. You can see all of that stuff by navigating around the link above. So, you could have a complete solution with interface directly from HAI.

Where 3rd parties like NullRiver come in is they offer either replacements and/or extensions to the HAI offerings. For example the original Haiku is similar to HAI SnapLink mobile in that it allows you to interact with your system via an iPhone/Pad. Many will argue Haiku is a more complete product but that is a personal decision. So then came along HaikuHelper which sort of complements Haiku and extends functionality of the core HAI offerings, similar to what CQC, Homeseer, etc. do. HaikuHelper is not needed for your core automation or interface/control. It's only needed if you desire to have to of the extra abilities which started with things like time sync, energy cost sync, notifications and climate features. The latest version expands further into including a complete API which will allow you to create your own HTML interfaces, etc.

Personally, I see HaikuHelper at an early stage pro level system for the mac. It is not really at the level of a CQC/HS/Elve in that they don't have their own touchscreen interface GUI designers, but rather give a developer complete control via web development. They also don't have drivers to things outside of the OPII for things like Caller ID, etc. So, if you strictly want control of your OPII Haiku and HaikuHelper are a great way to go and I imagine Helper will continue evolving and growing. If you needed more advanced 3rd party type stuff you would need to explore some of the other software options like Indigo, Misterhouse, etc (mac based). See this list. I would like to see Helper evolve into a complete system with some of these other drivers, etc as well as perhaps wizards or GUI program control, but as a pro developer Helper is right up your alley.

I hope that helps at least a little...

We're working on a more detailed web page. The products have been evolving so fast that the marketing material isn't even up to date yet. The videos of Haiku on YouTube are a bit out of date too.

HaikuHelper and PC Access are not the same thing. PC Access is a controller configuration tool, mostly, and is still required with HaikuHelper/Haiku. Where HaikuHelper is actually an automation and integration layer on top of the controller. PC Access allows for more configuration of the controller settings. But as far as programming, HaikuHelper allows much more flexibility, given you can program with a real scripting language (JavaScript) and we also provide many more event types, etc than the controller's built in Rule-based programming. With things like variables, object oriented programming, all sorts of integration features, HaikuHelper's programming capabilities far outdo those built into the controller. It is essentially a home automation power tool.

HaikuHelper also provides a web interface, custom interfaces, push notifications, Growl notifications, Text-to-Speech, speech recognition (via Speakable Items), web connectivity and web events, integration with many web based systems, a full JSON API, thermostat frost protection, clock synchronization, rain advisory flag, Apple Script integration, status monitoring, a quick buttons status menu, climate statistics collection and graphing for all auxiliary sensors and thermostats (including Humidity and Temperature values), capability of integration between multiple controllers, TED 5000 energy monitor integration (as well as others via scripting) and more. HaikuHelper provides all this for more than one controller simultaneously, too.

As you can see there is a lot it can do, and much more in fact, through what you can come up with when combining these features. It does come with full documentation, including a Getting Started Guide and the Scripting API documentation (also available on this forum).

I just wanted to add to some of what Steve posted here:

More to the 'control' aspect I think is really more the 'interface' or how you will interact with your OPII. There are several ways to do this. You have your basic HAI consoles, then HAI has their own touchscreen interfaces like the 5.7e and others which is configurable with their automation studio. They also have iDevice based control interfaces like their SnapLink. You can see all of that stuff by navigating around the link above. So, you could have a complete solution with interface directly from HAI.

Click to expand...

Since version 2.0, HaikuHelper does allow full control of the system via a web interface (which also is adaptable to touch panels, etc), you can basically design any interface using common web application technologies and the APIs HaikuHelper provides. It is a very powerful tool and probably the most flexible home automation interface technology available. Once you get to play with it, you will see why. HAI's interfaces are quite limited so for a power user (which you likely are, given you are an Engineer at Apple), they would not be sufficient for the things you want to implement. By adding HaikuHelper to the mix you are adding a wealth of functionality and flexibility to the system, removing many previous boundaries in what is possible in terms of automating a home (or business or factory for that matter).

Where 3rd parties like NullRiver come in is they offer either replacements and/or extensions to the HAI offerings. For example the original Haiku is similar to HAI SnapLink mobile in that it allows you to interact with your system via an iPhone/Pad. Many will argue Haiku is a more complete product but that is a personal decision. So then came along HaikuHelper which sort of complements Haiku and extends functionality of the core HAI offerings, similar to what CQC, Homeseer, etc. do. HaikuHelper is not needed for your core automation or interface/control. It's only needed if you desire to have to of the extra abilities which started with things like time sync, energy cost sync, notifications and climate features. The latest version expands further into including a complete API which will allow you to create your own HTML interfaces, etc.

Click to expand...

I'd definitely argue Haiku has far more features than SnapLink ;-) And Steve is of course correct, HaikuHelper is not needed for core (I'd say basic) automation features, but for a power user as I mentioned -- there will certainly be situations where you will want to do something that the controller on its own just can't achieve. HaikuHelper basically takes a ton of modern functionality and standards and links it with the controller, letting you get a lot more done with the entire system.

Personally, I see HaikuHelper at an early stage pro level system for the mac. It is not really at the level of a CQC/HS/Elve in that they don't have their own touchscreen interface GUI designers, but rather give a developer complete control via web development. They also don't have drivers to things outside of the OPII for things like Caller ID, etc. So, if you strictly want control of your OPII Haiku and HaikuHelper are a great way to go and I imagine Helper will continue evolving and growing. If you needed more advanced 3rd party type stuff you would need to explore some of the other software options like Indigo, Misterhouse, etc (mac based). See this list. I would like to see Helper evolve into a complete system with some of these other drivers, etc as well as perhaps wizards or GUI program control, but as a pro developer Helper is right up your alley.

Click to expand...

I think on many levels we are ahead of these other systems. Since HaikuHelper is a new product, I think all the possibilities are not yet realized by the users -- but by looking over the tech and capability specs of HaikuHelper an engineer will certainly be able to see and imagine what is possible and the power the system provides. Indigo, Misterhouse, etc do not generally provide more features than HaikuHelper, in fact I would argue less -- at least less flexibility for sure. However they do work with other systems (not HAI), so if your system is not HAI of course HaikuHelper is not for you. As far as programming and scripting, interfaces, etc, HaikuHelper is lightyears ahead of those products ;-). We don't refer to integration as "drivers", in most cases there is no driver needed, just standard technologies to integrate with devices. HaikuHelper does serial communications, any sort of web communications, AppleScript, etc. With these technologies you can already integrate with just about any other system quite easily. Our approach is to give the user complete control over integration and what is possible with the automation system. That's the key, we feel, because what good is an automation system that can't do exactly what you want? It definitely is for a more technical crowd, that's why we don't have the basic rules based programming (its built into the controller anyway...), but an Engineer will only appreciate this -- as will anyone looking for complete control and customizability.

The possibilities with HaikuHelper are endless and we are working on adding more and more and of course are awaiting your feedback for new feature ideas. If you find something you can't integrate with, tell us and we'll see if we can make it happen.

Thanks for the detailed responses. They cleared up a few questions.

As I mentioned, I don't have a HAI system yet. So, it's hard for me to imagine what a HAI controller, or any of its auxiliary apps like Haiku, can do without having a HAI controller in my hands. The nullriver website it pretty slick, but, yeah, it needs a bit more content for me to "get it" fully.

Feel free to ask any other questions, I'm sure we can answer them or provide links to relevant documentation.

A good start on learning what core functionality the controller has is to read the user manual, which is available on HAI's web site. Look at the manual for the OmniPro II (likely the only model you would be interested in).

I know this post is specific to HAI, but I felt compelled to address some of the comments directed towards Indigo.

lupinglade said:

I think on many levels we are ahead of these other systems.

Click to expand...

As you might expect, we have a very different take. Let me explain point by point.

lupinglade said:

Indigo, Misterhouse, etc do not generally provide more features than HaikuHelper, in fact I would argue less -- at least less flexibility for sure. However they do work with other systems (not HAI), so if your system is not HAI of course HaikuHelper is not for you. As far as programming and scripting, interfaces, etc, HaikuHelper is lightyears ahead of those products ;-).

Click to expand...

Care to explain a bit more why it's "lightyears ahead" in programming and scripting? Indigo has a full plugin API, implemented in Python, which allows developers and users alike to add devices, triggers, and actions to the server and client UIs. Scripters also have full access to all Indigo objects via our Python integration in addition to AppleScript (which is still very useful for integrating other application data). We ship with a bunch of plugins for a lot of different things (Weather, io devices, iCal integration, iTunes, etc.) and a bunch more are available from 3rd parties.

We think that the number of years Indigo has been available combined with it's superior extensibility makes us pretty much untouchable, particularly when compared to competing Mac-based products.

lupinglade said:

We don't refer to integration as "drivers", in most cases there is no driver needed, just standard technologies to integrate with devices. HaikuHelper does serial communications, any sort of web communications, AppleScript, etc. With these technologies you can already integrate with just about any other system quite easily.

Click to expand...

We don't refer to them as drivers either - an outdated word which carries way too much baggage and is, in fact, not fully accurate. To Indigo and our users, they're just plugins not unlike any applications that support plugins to extend functionality (i.e. Photoshop, etc). And given our tight integration with Python, technical users have the vast array of Python libraries out on the net to include in home automation systems. We also have a thriving 3rd party plugin ecosystem with more than 30 plugins already available and the API has only been widely available for 6 months.

lupinglade said:

Our approach is to give the user complete control over integration and what is possible with the automation system. That's the key, we feel, because what good is an automation system that can't do exactly what you want? It definitely is for a more technical crowd, that's why we don't have the basic rules based programming (its built into the controller anyway...), but an Engineer will only appreciate this -- as will anyone looking for complete control and customizability.

Click to expand...

We view Indigo as the automation hub - by allowing just about any kind of object to be connected to Indigo regardless of the technology and used in a consistent manner with any other object. Complete control over your HA environment - check. We target a technical audience as well, but we've had many years to put a Mac-like UI on top so that we're more accessible.

I hope this clarifies what Indigo is - it's much more than just X10/INSTEON software.

Jay Martin said:

I know this post is specific to HAI, but I felt compelled to address some of the comments directed towards Indigo.



As you might expect, we have a very different take. Let me explain point by point.



Care to explain a bit more why it's "lightyears ahead" in programming and scripting? Indigo has a full plugin API, implemented in Python, which allows developers and users alike to add devices, triggers, and actions to the server and client UIs. Scripters also have full access to all Indigo objects via our Python integration in addition to AppleScript (which is still very useful for integrating other application data). We ship with a bunch of plugins for a lot of different things (Weather, io devices, iCal integration, iTunes, etc.) and a bunch more are available from 3rd parties.

We think that the number of years Indigo has been available combined with it's superior extensibility makes us pretty much untouchable, particularly when compared to competing Mac-based products.

Click to expand...

Jay, thanks for your input. I've used Indigo personally before and was not aware of the scripting capabilities, perhaps its a newer feature that was not around then. As read in context, my reply was "in general" and not directed at Indigo. So if Indigo does feature scripting, I'm sorry if I was not aware of this -- however I don't think this changes the fact that we are using modern web-based technologies to make it easier for users to automate their system. The other big thing we do with HaikuHelper is the ability to create fully customizable user interfaces using the exact same APIs. You'll also notice by looking at the documentation for HaikuHelper (available on this forum) that the API is very thorough, I don't know how Indigo's scripting API compares, but in general its very, very capable in achieving success in almost any home automation scenario.

We don't refer to them as drivers either - an outdated word which carries way too much baggage and is, in fact, not fully accurate. To Indigo and our users, they're just plugins not unlike any applications that support plugins to extend functionality (i.e. Photoshop, etc). And given our tight integration with Python, technical users have the vast array of Python libraries out on the net to include in home automation systems. We also have a thriving 3rd party plugin ecosystem with more than 30 plugins already available and the API has only been widely available for 6 months.

Click to expand...

The same is possible with HaikuHelper's scripting functionality. However since HaikuHelper is a much newer product, as I've stated in the earlier post, all of the possibilities of HaikuHelper have yet to be realized by users. We do have some big names in home automation though now starting to do full installations and developing custom UIs using HaikuHelper.

We view Indigo as the automation hub - by allowing just about any kind of object to be connected to Indigo regardless of the technology and used in a consistent manner with any other object. Complete control over your HA environment - check. We target a technical audience as well, but we've had many years to put a Mac-like UI on top so that we're more accessible.

Click to expand...

Very much the same approach as HaikuHelper.

I hope this clarifies what Indigo is - it's much more than just X10/INSTEON software.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your post and for clarifying this. I do think Indigo is a great product that has been around for a long time and my apologies for excluding the fact that Indigo does have scripting functionality. It was not intentional. I was trying to explain that HaikuHelper is a lot more than it seems at first glance... and while its easy to setup and use for the basic functionality it provides such as the web interface, push notifications and beginner-type scripting, its aimed at power users and professional installers for the advanced functionality -- which when properly leveraged, I believe will give any HAI-based home automation system unprecedented integration, capabilities and usability benefits.

Hi Danner,

I thought that I would share some of my experiences with HAI, installation, research, Haiku, etc. You might find it useful and you might not. Please take it all FWIW. I am not vested in any technology and I don't work for any technology company. I am just a DIY guy that is fairly technical.

I have spent the last 2 years building a new house. The first year was doing a lot of research and planning. The next year and 3 months we spent building. We put a lot of things into the new house that were somewhat unique. We put in geothermal, insulated concrete forms (ICF), HAI, a home theater with 9.1 Dolby, a 22' diagonal acoustically transparent movie screen, and a 1080p projector. I run the theater with a MAC mini server. I did some very unique home insulating methods that guaranteed me minimal utility costs in the future.

I will talk specifically about my automation choices. I was looking for a system that had the capability for a high level of DIY. Yet would be very reliable. It seems to me that there is definitely a trade-off between reliability and the level of DIY capabilities. It took me a long time to find what was a good match for me. I had had years of experience with X10, Lutron, and a myriad of other technologies in my old house. I was really never happy with any. Some of the products that I looked at were HAI, Control4, Elk, Honeywell, HS, CQC, Cinemar, Crestron, and many more. You name it, I probably reviewed and researched it.

All of the software companies make it fairly easy for the technical DIY to make things work. Software such as HS, CQC, Cinemar, etc. My research on solutions like Crestron, Control4, etc left me believing that their solutions were not very open to a DIY and it would actually be difficult to get a "license" to be able to make modifications to a system as a DIYer.

I narrowed it down to HAI. As I was building a new house I was able to plan all of the wiring around an integrated system. My OP2 connects to the security cameras, all of the security hardware, all of the lighting controls, the whole-house music system, garage doors, sprinkler system, etc. So I had the ability on one box to touch all of the hardware devices in the house. But HAI, like other hardware manufactures only work with installers. I live in Minnesota and there were no installers that carried HAI and would work with a DIYer to the level that I wanted. I was able to find a company in Colorado that had a good DIY program and were a HAI dealer.

I worked with these folks to design the overall system. Once designed they purchased all of the structured wiring and came on-site and pulled it all. I am really glad that they did that. I really had no idea as to the difficulty in just pulling the wiring. I can guarantee that I would have missed something. And once the sheetrock is up it makes any changes extremely difficult. But that was the extent of what they did for me. I personally installed all of the devices and wired all of them to the OP2. I also, working with the local electrician installed all of the HAI switches and I programmed them too.

Once the system was installed I started making changes to the scripts to make the house work the way that I wanted. I did end up purchasing the dealers version of PCAccess. I must say that that is a must if you really want to be able to control the OP2. I also purchased Automation Studio so that I could program the 5.7e touch screens.

I started with Snaplink and the HAI iOS product. I thought that they were marginally ok but I have not come to expect very good software from the hardware manufacturers. Then I ran across Haiku. From an iOS standpoint it is invaluable. I have it on 4 iPhones ad 3 iPads. It is quite funny when we are all home and the security alarm trips. All of the iPads, iPhones, touchscreens,and keypads light up and start alarming.

I currently use HaikuHelper to push events to the iPhones and iPads. It runs on the Mac Mini that runs my home theater. I am just now beginning to put my plans together on how to use HaikuHelper JSON api and web server. I am thinking that I can publish web pages that will work on all of my devices, even the 5.7e touchscreens. Modifying a web page rather than working with each individual set of technologies is seeming like the best way to go. I am also working with 2 iPad remote control companies to see how I might use their GUI design-able products. One is CommandFusion and the other is iRule. I will see where those lead me.

I know that I rambled and talked about a LOT of different things. Bottom line, I believe that the combination of HAI and Haiku will take me as far as I can see into the future. I believe that the key for you, as I believe it was for me, is to get the wiring right the first time.

I don't wish to promote any third party here so if you are interested in the Colorado company please PM me and I will respond.

Joe