CQC Version 1.3.10 Released

[Dean Roddey]

Question on the Elk M1 driver front. Do you really want or need to know a zone TYPE via the automation interface, or is the zone status really the only thing of interest? I can look at the type and if the type indicates that the zone configured, I can provide status for that zone. But do you need to see the type particularly? Isn't that really more of a configuration type thing that, once set up, is not something you'd need to know about on a daily basis?

 

[electron]

I guess when it comes to software such as yours (more focused on the interface), that information would not be needed

 

[Dean Roddey]

We do sometimes provide a 'client side driver' interface for some devices, i.e. a client side interface for the driver that loads into the admin tool and lets you do things directly via the driver (as apposed to via the 'field' type interface that everything else uses.) These are usually to support admin and configuration type stuff, such as the learning and configuration interface for the Z-Wave driver, that isn't available via the standard field interface. But, Elk already provides a very extensive configuration program.

If we were limited to just the serial port, which can't be shared, then it would be more of an issue. But with the ethernet interface, you can have us talking to the device and still run their programming interface at the same time (it accepts up to 3 connections I think), so there's just a lot less need for us to provide anything on the setup side of things. Particularly since we would never want to try to replicate all of the stuff their programming software does, so it would inevitably be less capable than theirs.

Anyway, what I'll do for the first cut is just provide zone status for those zones that are non set up as disabled. If experience proves that more is needed, then we'll burn that bridge while we're on it.

 

[Dean Roddey]

In addition to the Z-Wave giveaway(up four or five posts from here), we having another giveaway on the CQC support forum. This one is a complete setup for someone who is looking to do an 802.11b wireless Ethernet network. If you want to enter, sign up on the support forum and post a message to the giveaway thread. All giveway threads are in the General Automation section. A link to the support forum is on the bottom of the main web page at www.charmedquark.com.


* Winners of previous giveaways within the last 2 months are not eligible, so that we can increase other's chances of winning

* This equipment is 'open box' but all in perfect shape and very lightly used. It is in original packaging and with documentation

This giveaway includes:

1. LinkSys WAP11 wireless access point. This is a box that sits on the wired network and provides the wireless access to the network.

2. LinkSys WUSB11 wireless adaptor. This is a wireless network adaptor that is for those places where a plug in card isn't quite enough. This one is an external USB box with a little antenna. So it could be used for a remote machine in a fixed position, or outdoors with the laptop where you need more power/coverage.

3. LinkSys WCF12 wireless compact flash adaptor. This one is a CF card that provides wireless access for a PocketPC or other device that takes a CF card and that has networking capabilities.

4. LinkSys WPC11 wireless PCMCIA card. This one is a PCMCIA card that provides wireless access for a laptop or other device that accepts PCMCIA cards.


So, there it is. A pretty good starter kit. Keep in mind that this is all 802.11*B* hardware, not the *G* varietal. So it's in the 10Mb/s range.

 

[Dean Roddey]

Only one more day to get in on the Z-Wave giveway (mentioned above.) I'll probably do the drawing about 7PM'ish tomorrow (Pac time.)

 

[Dean Roddey]

Paging Scott... You won the Z-Wave giveaway but we've lost you. Please PM me on the CQC support forum to confirm you are you, and send me an e-mail and I'll pass that on to Brian at Tech-Home so you can arrange to get your toys.

 

[Dean Roddey]

The Elk M1 driver is coming along. I know a few people here were interested in it. It's been an after hours job pretty much since it can't go out till the 1.4 release anyway (because it uses new product features) so I didn't want to do it, and then let it sit while I forgot all about it. So I've been working on it a bit along.

Here is the current (offline) documentation page for it, if you are interested in where it's at and what it does.

http://www.charmedquark.com/Web/Documentat...s/ElkM1Gold.htm

There's still plenty to do, but I did provide a 'back door' field called Passthrough that will let you send any command you want, so that even if I don't support every little thing explicitly you can still make it happen via CQC.

 

[Dean Roddey]

Just an FYI, we are changing ISPs, and just began the DNS transfer process. So the web site is being transferred and there will be a new and different support forum set up on the new site. So starting later today until tomorrow probably the change will start to propogate outwards to various DNS servers.

The current web site, and support forum will still be accessible via these URLs once the DNS change is seen by your ISP's DNS servers, so you'll still be able to get to them.

http://205.214.171.228/
http://205.214.171.228/www2/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?Cat=

On the support forum you'll have to log back in since it'll not look like the URL you were logged in last time so the cookie won't work I would imagine.

The web site is already over there on the new server and should be ready to go, so you shouldn't notice the transition at all there in theory, you'll just either just get the old one or new one as the change propogates.

It might be late tonight before the new forum software is set up on the new site, since I can't really start working on it appropriately until I can access it via the charmedquark.com domain name (as apposed to direct IP address.) So if the old support forum stops working for you via the normal link, just use the one above until the new forum is ready. I'll post something when that happens.

Sorry for the disruption, but it's a necessary move to crank the hosting support up a notch on our end for business reasons.

 

[Dean Roddey]

Ok, we are back in business. That was a heap o' work, but worth it in the end. You should by now have seen the DNS change, and should be betting to the new web site. And the new support forum is up and running now with all the previous content.

 

[Dean Roddey]

I'm still getting some indications from folks who can't access the new site or are getting bounced e-mails. If you haven't seen the new address by now, you should open a command window and type:

ipconfig /flushdns

to flush out the cached DNS addresses in your computer. As an efficiency, Windows will cache DNS translations for some period of time, probably longer than it really should. If you flush the cache, it'll have to get them again from the network and you should see the new address, which by now should definitely have propogated out to all the major DNS servers.

 

[Dean Roddey]

I'm going to do the drawing for the LinkSys giveaway (see a few posts up for the details) on July the 4th, so get your hat in the ring if you want a chance to win.

 

[Dean Roddey]

Well, the 1.4 release is getting close now. We are on our second internal beta, and the next one will be a public beta to catch any final issues. I'm upgrading our 'sales demo', which is a demo that runs against our little device simulator so that it can shown on a laptop. Now that we have media management, it incorporates that stuff as well.

Here are some screen caps from the new demo interfaces. These are half sized onces for quick viewing here. There is a link under each one for the full sized image (though still kind of rough looking because of the JPEG compression):

Full Sized Version

Full Sized Version

Full Sized Version

Full Sized Version


I built these on the same background that I'm going to use for my own system when I upgrade it. So I'm killing two birds with one stone since I can steal a lot of this stuff for my own system in a couple weeks when I upgrade it. And it's roughly based, in terms of flow of interfaces and such, on a design I did for a customer recently.

In this case, it is using Zoom Player as the media renderer, and the J.River rip format as the media repository.

The new version is really powerful. In addition to all of the cool new system features, it will also include new drivers for the Elk M1, Escient Fireball, Lutron GrafikEye driver, the J.River repository driver, and Zoom Player driver. And it will upgrade the Omni driver for ethernet support, and add thermostat support in the Z-Wave driver.