Charmed Quark Systems announces CQC 1.5

[electron]

Mountain View, CA - December 20, 2005 -- Charmed Quark Systems, Ltd today announced availablility of version 1.5 of its Charmed Quark Controller automation system (CQC), at www.charmedquark.com . Version 1.5 introduces very important new automation features to the CQC product, filling out its offerings in two major areas and adding to the list of supported devices.

CQC is a software-based automation system that incorporates very powerful backend and front end features, all in a tightly integrated package. It includes a powerful, network distributed, multi-user backend architecture, with a highly graphical front end, in a secure and extremely robust, professional level automation product. It brings both traditional home automation and media management together into a single system, so that you don't have to integrate multiple systems to achieve your goals, with all of the complexity and stability issues that entails.

New features in CQC 1.5 include:

Web Server -

CQC now incorporates a zero configuration web server, so that you can access CQC from devices that only have a web server as a client interface, or remotely via any web browser. It implements digest style authentication and page access can be controlled based on CQC security as desired. Dynamic content pages can be served up via our CML macro language, and images can be accessed from the CQC image repository, as well as from on-disk image and HTML content.

Event System -

CQC now supports network wide event handling, which allows CQC to respond to changes in the system automatically, throughout the network. These new 'triggered events' which complement the existing scheduled events, allow you to create very powerful automation logic. There is a simple but powerful filtering language to tell CQC what events should trigger a given action.

Read the rest of this press release

 

[electron]

Web Browser Widget -

The user interface system now supports a web browser widget, so you can embed web pages into your user interfaces. The widget supports standard web navigation commands and URL setting commands, so you can allow for easy access to specific web sites.

Graphical Text -

The user interface system now supports special 'graphical text' effects. So you can now create gradient text, reflected text, blurs, and blurred drop shadows. These effects contribute greatly to the ability to create serious 'eye candy' interfaces.

Web Access Classes -

The CML language runtime has been expanded to provide HTTP and URL classes. These allow CML based drivers and macros to easily access web-based content.

Standalone Viewer Mode -

You can now install CQC on a client in 'standalone viewer mode', which just installes the support libraries and the interface viewer, without any background services. This is intended for clients such as tablet PCs or laptops, where you just want to view interfaces, without the extra overhead of background services.

New/Improved Drivers -

New drivers are available for the Aprilaire 8870 RS-485 thermostat system, the Proliphix NT10e and NT20e IP based thermostats, the Sherwood 965 A/V processor, caller ID modems, Neothings Avalong A/V switcher, and the Elk M1 driver has been expanded significantly.

Give it a Try

CQC is available for 30 days in trial mode, so feel free to give it a try and see if it suits your needs. It is quite safe to try, as it does not update or install any files outside of it's own directory.

Just go to www.charmedquark.com, click the Try It button in the upper right, and from there you can download the installer. Then under the Learn tab, select the Quick Tutorial section. This will take you through a hands-on process of installing CQC and doing a basic system configuration. CQC ships with a device simulator which simulates a set of actual devices, and the tutorial works in terms of that simulator. So you can go through the whole tutorial without having to have any actual devices connected.

Also under the Learn tab is the Using CQC section, which will take you through a high level view of the product and how you might use it. The order in which you go through the Quick Tutorial and Using CQC sections depends on whether you prefer the big picture then the hands on, or vice versa. And feel free to sign up on our support forums, link is in the upper right hand corner of every web page, and ask any questions you might have.

About Charmed Quark Systems, Ltd

Charmed Quark Systems, Ltd is a privately held company, formed in 2003, incorporated in 2005, to serve the home automation market with open, robust, secure, and networked automation products.

 

[Dean Roddey]

And, right on time, our ISP goes haywire. Every time we do a new release, our ISP celebrates by freaking out and keeping anyone from actually getting to the $&#! web site. Is it coincidence, or are they out to get us? You make the call.

 

[Squintz]

So basically CQC is now just as powerful and flexible as HomeSeer except it has a huge learning curve and does not contain show stoping bugs. I sure hope you resolve the Z-wave issues soon so that I can get back to using CQC. All these new features are just waiting for me to implement them in a production system but z-wave is basically what my system is made of.

Nice Work!

 

[electron]

going to close this thread since there is a new thread with more and better info now:

http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?showtopic=3130