Brultech Software Sneak Peak
- Thread starter 3tones
- Start date
beelzerob
Senior Member
I think I was aware of that option, but one of my constraints for graphing was that it be free, since the CQC driver is free to all CQC users.
beelzerob
Senior Member
True, that's easy enough, but some of the other functionality of the device (reset, etc) won't be available.
But then, I guess it's a question of who would really want that as a home automation function.
If this ends up being the app of choice, I may have to go back to the forums and ask what they really want in a driver then. I think almost all of the usefulness of the brultech data is in graphical viewing.
The remaining usefulness is in calculating your past and current bills....something which I guess a CQC driver would still be useful for. Unless that's on the horizon for the brultech software as well.....
Ok...but, the software development (if not done by someone as a hobby) and it's support, isn't trivial nor free. So, even if it "came" with the unit, you still would be paying for it, just baked into the price of the hardware.
The single largest expense in an automobile now a days is software. It used to be paint. That software isn't "free" either.
The good thing if they charge a seperate software fee is that you then have the choice to use it (pay for it) or not. The difference if they bundle it is that everyone is paying for the software, even those that don't use it.
You could spend several months writing the software on your own, or you could work a day at the dairy queen and make enough to pay for the software and spend the next several months napping instead of software development.
lots o choices.
Nice architecture.
Ok...how much time have you got invested into the research / development / debugging/ testing of that?
EDIT: looking at your pics.....congrats on the baby!
felixrosbergen
Senior Member
following up on what Beelzerob said it seems using the Brultech dashboard together with the CQC web widget will be a very nice and simple solution.
But it would prevent CQC from connecting to the Brultech unit itself which means that we couldnt do things like have events based on certain power usage (e.g. speak a warning, bitch at the wife for leaving lights on, etc).
How can we make so it it does both? Would the ethernet interface be the same as the serial and be completely 'seized' by the Brultech engine?
But it would prevent CQC from connecting to the Brultech unit itself which means that we couldnt do things like have events based on certain power usage (e.g. speak a warning, bitch at the wife for leaving lights on, etc).
How can we make so it it does both? Would the ethernet interface be the same as the serial and be completely 'seized' by the Brultech engine?
beelzerob
Senior Member
Well, the CQC driver could read from the database...but I don't know how much of a time lag there will be. I'm guessing it won't be "realtime". I also don't know if there are concerns about how much disc activity there would be reading and writing to a database every second (I know that was mentioned somewhere else).
I think the tenecm stuff puts the data on a tcp port and allows anyone to have access to it.
It will be interesting to see how this falls out for cqc users. Cost is probably a factor, too. I'm commited to having a completely free graphing solution for CQC users and the brultech, though I can't give a timetable since I'm loath to pursue much when Dean has already said he has a working graph widget...that sounds tantalizingly close to releaseable.
I think the tenecm stuff puts the data on a tcp port and allows anyone to have access to it.
It will be interesting to see how this falls out for cqc users. Cost is probably a factor, too. I'm commited to having a completely free graphing solution for CQC users and the brultech, though I can't give a timetable since I'm loath to pursue much when Dean has already said he has a working graph widget...that sounds tantalizingly close to releaseable.
Another option is a software serial port splitter like this Serial Port Splitter. A little pricey at $129 but extremely useful. I'm considering purchasing to ease driver development for CQC and doing things like this thread is talking about, 2 software packages, one serial port.
- Ben
- Ben
Looks like they have posted a beta copy of their new Dashboard software, and have an online demo as well:
http://www.cocoontech.com/portal/articles/...d-software-beta
http://www.cocoontech.com/portal/articles/...d-software-beta
Check out this:
http://com0com.sourceforge.net/
Look for hub4com. It allows you to do what you want.
