Brultech ECM plugin for Homeseer

[BDHall]

I have installed the plugin, excellent work by tenholde.

I looked at the chart from the plugin and it looks pretty good.

I was wondering how best to display a chart in HSTouch. I suspect that the capabilities of HSTouch in this area may be somewhat limited at this time. You can display a web page in HSTouch although the ones I have tried did not refresh unless I restarted HSTouch. You can also display an image. I am not sure about refreshing that image if the file is changed, I have not yet tried that. I was hoping to be able to display a chart that could be refreshed at some interval.

Any ideas?

Brian

If a web page has the header set to auto-refresh every x seconds, will it in HsTouch? I am not very familiar with HsTouch, but if you can tell me what you need I can probably supply it. I can format a page with just the chart. The chart is actually generated to a .png file -- can you reference that?

tenholde

tenholde,

As far as setting a web page header to auto-refresh every x seconds, I will have to try to look up how to do that, I have not done it before. Also, I think I asked about refreshing a page in a post some time back and I believe a solution was posted, so perhaps I can look up that solution as well and try it. Or perhaps someone will chime in who already has page refreshing working in HSTouch.

The Image Element in HSTouch has a IsVideo property which it says to set to true if the source is constantly changing, such as a web camera. There is also a IsVideoRefreshRate which you can set the rate at which to update the image, .5=2 times per second, 10=every 10 seconds, etc. I wonder if this could be set up to update a still image file that changes frequently?

I believe it is also designed to display snapshots from a video camera:
http://Camera_IP_Address/SnapshotJPEG?
Resolution=480x360&Quality=Precision&Language=0

(consult your camera manual for precise URL as this will vary by camera)
This must be a link to the latest snapshot from your camera, it cannot contain any HTML or be an image stream.

HSTouch will support the following custom graphics formats according to the documentation. I have included the comments on the various file types from the docs:

BMP - Bitmap graphics are images of very high quality with no file compression. This format is useful when high quality images are required and filesize is not a concern. Transparency is not supported in this format.

GIF - GIF graphics are images of varying quality that include file compression. This format is useful when filesize is a concern. Transparency is supported to a limited degree and works best with simple shapes and colors.

JPG - JPG graphics are images of varying quality that include file compression. This format is useful when filesize is a concern. Transparency is not supported in this format.

PNG-8 - PNG-8 graphics are images of varying quality that include file compression. This format is useful when filesize is a concern. Transparency is supported to a limited degree (as with GIF images) and works best with simple shapes and colors.

PNG-24 - PNG-24 graphics are images of high quality that include limited file compression. Alpha-blending transparency is supported. This format is useful when high quality transparent images are required.

Thanks,
Brian

 

[tenholde]

can it be a jpg/gif? My audrey does not support .png.

Thanks!

--Dan

Yes.

 

[drozwood90]

sweet

 

[BDHall]

I have installed the plugin, excellent work by tenholde.

I looked at the chart from the plugin and it looks pretty good.

I was wondering how best to display a chart in HSTouch. I suspect that the capabilities of HSTouch in this area may be somewhat limited at this time. You can display a web page in HSTouch although the ones I have tried did not refresh unless I restarted HSTouch. You can also display an image. I am not sure about refreshing that image if the file is changed, I have not yet tried that. I was hoping to be able to display a chart that could be refreshed at some interval.

Any ideas?

Brian

If a web page has the header set to auto-refresh every x seconds, will it in HsTouch? I am not very familiar with HsTouch, but if you can tell me what you need I can probably supply it. I can format a page with just the chart. The chart is actually generated to a .png file -- can you reference that?

tenholde

tenholde,

As far as setting a web page header to auto-refresh every x seconds, I will have to try to look up how to do that, I have not done it before. Also, I think I asked about refreshing a page in a post some time back and I believe a solution was posted, so perhaps I can look up that solution as well and try it. Or perhaps someone will chime in who already has page refreshing working in HSTouch.

The Image Element in HSTouch has a IsVideo property which it says to set to true if the source is constantly changing, such as a web camera. There is also a IsVideoRefreshRate which you can set the rate at which to update the image, .5=2 times per second, 10=every 10 seconds, etc. I wonder if this could be set up to update a still image file that changes frequently?

I believe it is also designed to display snapshots from a video camera:
http://Camera_IP_Address/SnapshotJPEG?
Resolution=480x360&Quality=Precision&Language=0

(consult your camera manual for precise URL as this will vary by camera)
This must be a link to the latest snapshot from your camera, it cannot contain any HTML or be an image stream.

HSTouch will support the following custom graphics formats according to the documentation. I have included the comments on the various file types from the docs:

BMP - Bitmap graphics are images of very high quality with no file compression. This format is useful when high quality images are required and filesize is not a concern. Transparency is not supported in this format.

GIF - GIF graphics are images of varying quality that include file compression. This format is useful when filesize is a concern. Transparency is supported to a limited degree and works best with simple shapes and colors.

JPG - JPG graphics are images of varying quality that include file compression. This format is useful when filesize is a concern. Transparency is not supported in this format.

PNG-8 - PNG-8 graphics are images of varying quality that include file compression. This format is useful when filesize is a concern. Transparency is supported to a limited degree (as with GIF images) and works best with simple shapes and colors.

PNG-24 - PNG-24 graphics are images of high quality that include limited file compression. Alpha-blending transparency is supported. This format is useful when high quality transparent images are required.

Thanks,
Brian

tenholde,

Do you think it would be better to have an image file (updated as needed) on disk and use the Image Element (set to automatically refresh at a selected interval) in HSTouch to display it, or try the web page approach?

Thanks!
Brian

 

[tenholde]

I have installed the plugin, excellent work by tenholde.

I looked at the chart from the plugin and it looks pretty good.

I was wondering how best to display a chart in HSTouch. I suspect that the capabilities of HSTouch in this area may be somewhat limited at this time. You can display a web page in HSTouch although the ones I have tried did not refresh unless I restarted HSTouch. You can also display an image. I am not sure about refreshing that image if the file is changed, I have not yet tried that. I was hoping to be able to display a chart that could be refreshed at some interval.

Any ideas?

Brian

If a web page has the header set to auto-refresh every x seconds, will it in HsTouch? I am not very familiar with HsTouch, but if you can tell me what you need I can probably supply it. I can format a page with just the chart. The chart is actually generated to a .png file -- can you reference that?

tenholde

tenholde,

As far as setting a web page header to auto-refresh every x seconds, I will have to try to look up how to do that, I have not done it before. Also, I think I asked about refreshing a page in a post some time back and I believe a solution was posted, so perhaps I can look up that solution as well and try it. Or perhaps someone will chime in who already has page refreshing working in HSTouch.

The Image Element in HSTouch has a IsVideo property which it says to set to true if the source is constantly changing, such as a web camera. There is also a IsVideoRefreshRate which you can set the rate at which to update the image, .5=2 times per second, 10=every 10 seconds, etc. I wonder if this could be set up to update a still image file that changes frequently?

I believe it is also designed to display snapshots from a video camera:
http://Camera_IP_Address/SnapshotJPEG?
Resolution=480x360&Quality=Precision&Language=0

(consult your camera manual for precise URL as this will vary by camera)
This must be a link to the latest snapshot from your camera, it cannot contain any HTML or be an image stream.

HSTouch will support the following custom graphics formats according to the documentation. I have included the comments on the various file types from the docs:

BMP - Bitmap graphics are images of very high quality with no file compression. This format is useful when high quality images are required and filesize is not a concern. Transparency is not supported in this format.

GIF - GIF graphics are images of varying quality that include file compression. This format is useful when filesize is a concern. Transparency is supported to a limited degree and works best with simple shapes and colors.

JPG - JPG graphics are images of varying quality that include file compression. This format is useful when filesize is a concern. Transparency is not supported in this format.

PNG-8 - PNG-8 graphics are images of varying quality that include file compression. This format is useful when filesize is a concern. Transparency is supported to a limited degree (as with GIF images) and works best with simple shapes and colors.

PNG-24 - PNG-24 graphics are images of high quality that include limited file compression. Alpha-blending transparency is supported. This format is useful when high quality transparent images are required.

Thanks,
Brian

tenholde,

Do you think it would be better to have an image file (updated as needed) on disk and use the Image Element (set to automatically refresh at a selected interval) in HSTouch to display it, or try the web page approach?

Thanks!
Brian

I can do either, but the web page has the advantage of only running when requested by HSTouch. I can set the headers in the web page to refresh every nn seconds if HSTouch supports that. Someone needs to try it. The web page could be as simple as just a bare image of the chart for easy insertion into HSTouch screen. With the image approach, how do you keep updating the image without having a program running all of the time updating the image file when probably no one is retrieving it. Can HSTouch run an HS Event? I could set it up so that you run an HSEvent that updates the image, so you could fire the event from HsTouch whenever you want and then display the image. A lot of this comes down to the capability of HSTouch. Can you do things (display an image, run an event, display a web page) every nn seconds on HSTouch? When it all comes down to it, it may not really make sense for an auto-updating chart on the HSTouch. Perhaps an Update button that refreshes the chart?

Anyone interested in jointly designing and testing this capability for the plugin?

tenholde

 

[BDHall]

I have installed the plugin, excellent work by tenholde.

I looked at the chart from the plugin and it looks pretty good.

I was wondering how best to display a chart in HSTouch. I suspect that the capabilities of HSTouch in this area may be somewhat limited at this time. You can display a web page in HSTouch although the ones I have tried did not refresh unless I restarted HSTouch. You can also display an image. I am not sure about refreshing that image if the file is changed, I have not yet tried that. I was hoping to be able to display a chart that could be refreshed at some interval.

Any ideas?

Brian

If a web page has the header set to auto-refresh every x seconds, will it in HsTouch? I am not very familiar with HsTouch, but if you can tell me what you need I can probably supply it. I can format a page with just the chart. The chart is actually generated to a .png file -- can you reference that?

tenholde

tenholde,

As far as setting a web page header to auto-refresh every x seconds, I will have to try to look up how to do that, I have not done it before. Also, I think I asked about refreshing a page in a post some time back and I believe a solution was posted, so perhaps I can look up that solution as well and try it. Or perhaps someone will chime in who already has page refreshing working in HSTouch.

The Image Element in HSTouch has a IsVideo property which it says to set to true if the source is constantly changing, such as a web camera. There is also a IsVideoRefreshRate which you can set the rate at which to update the image, .5=2 times per second, 10=every 10 seconds, etc. I wonder if this could be set up to update a still image file that changes frequently?

I believe it is also designed to display snapshots from a video camera:
http://Camera_IP_Address/SnapshotJPEG?
Resolution=480x360&Quality=Precision&Language=0

(consult your camera manual for precise URL as this will vary by camera)
This must be a link to the latest snapshot from your camera, it cannot contain any HTML or be an image stream.

HSTouch will support the following custom graphics formats according to the documentation. I have included the comments on the various file types from the docs:

BMP - Bitmap graphics are images of very high quality with no file compression. This format is useful when high quality images are required and filesize is not a concern. Transparency is not supported in this format.

GIF - GIF graphics are images of varying quality that include file compression. This format is useful when filesize is a concern. Transparency is supported to a limited degree and works best with simple shapes and colors.

JPG - JPG graphics are images of varying quality that include file compression. This format is useful when filesize is a concern. Transparency is not supported in this format.

PNG-8 - PNG-8 graphics are images of varying quality that include file compression. This format is useful when filesize is a concern. Transparency is supported to a limited degree (as with GIF images) and works best with simple shapes and colors.

PNG-24 - PNG-24 graphics are images of high quality that include limited file compression. Alpha-blending transparency is supported. This format is useful when high quality transparent images are required.

Thanks,
Brian

tenholde,

Do you think it would be better to have an image file (updated as needed) on disk and use the Image Element (set to automatically refresh at a selected interval) in HSTouch to display it, or try the web page approach?

Thanks!
Brian

I can do either, but the web page has the advantage of only running when requested by HSTouch. I can set the headers in the web page to refresh every nn seconds if HSTouch supports that. Someone needs to try it. The web page could be as simple as just a bare image of the chart for easy insertion into HSTouch screen. With the image approach, how do you keep updating the image without having a program running all of the time updating the image file when probably no one is retrieving it. Can HSTouch run an HS Event? I could set it up so that you run an HSEvent that updates the image, so you could fire the event from HsTouch whenever you want and then display the image. A lot of this comes down to the capability of HSTouch. Can you do things (display an image, run an event, display a web page) every nn seconds on HSTouch? When it all comes down to it, it may not really make sense for an auto-updating chart on the HSTouch. Perhaps an Update button that refreshes the chart?

Anyone interested in jointly designing and testing this capability for the plugin?

tenholde

tenholde,

I am willing to help any way I can. I will look at a few things in regards to HSTouch and get back to you soon.

Brian

 

[tenholde]

I've updated the tenEcmServer software:

(1) tenEcmServer now connects to ECM-1220 or ECM-1240 via either RS232 or ethernet via EtherBee

(2) tenEcmCharts has been significantly enhanced.

(3) Now calculates and charts NET POWER for those selling power back to electric company


http://www.tenholder.net/tenWare2/tenEcmServer


tenholde

 

[sbwright]

tenholde,

Any chance you will be implementing pricing capabilities for example "Time of Use" into your HS plug-in. Something(actually exactly :lol: ) like this structure http://www.ontario-hydro.com/index.php?page=current_rates.

 

[tenholde]

tenholde,

Any chance you will be implementing pricing capabilities for example "Time of Use" into your HS plug-in. Something(actually exactly :lol: ) like this structure http://www.ontario-hydro.com/index.php?page=current_rates.

Right now the pricing calculations are based upon monthly tiers (up to 3) and variable rate each month (winter/summer).

I will certainly add hourly pricing rates. I'm sure we will see much more of this.

tenholde

 

[sbwright]

Sounds great, yes we will, love technology or hate it the good and then the less than great side.

 

[CouchPotatoe]

It is certainly doable, using multiple serial ports. My point was only that using the Xbee aproach seemed like it would be much more straight forward.

tenholde

I'm also just thinking that a standard plug type adaptor would make a great extra product.... You plug your fridge into the plug... into the socket to monitor a single appliance ... and they would communicate via XBee so should such a product become available then the XBee approach is more future proof...

We have a couple of such devices over here in the UK although the more affordable ones seem to have gone for a proprietory ZigBee implementation. (AlertMe, Plugwise,Plogg). Plogg might work as it's non proprietory.

Would certainly make individual appliance monitoring much easier.

K