VB.NET automation controller

[iostream212]

For my weather maps I am downloading the icons from the weather service. I had used predownloaded icons as a local resource and found the load time was much fast downloading them into my app. Good luck on your next project mdonovan. I can lend assistance if needed since we seem to be in the same boat.

 

[mdonovan]

For my weather maps I am downloading the icons from the weather service. I had used predownloaded icons as a local resource and found the load time was much fast downloading them into my app. Good luck on your next project mdonovan. I can lend assistance if needed since we seem to be in the same boat.

I did post a .Net port of Dan's MyElk script here

http://www.cocoontech.com/forums/index.php...18&hl=myelk

It might be of use to you. It's totally untested though.

Matt

 

[scriptx]

...

I might throw it out there, especially to roussell and Xpendable, what were your motivations for developing your own software? Was there features lacking or real world problems too complex for commercially available software controllers?

You didn't ask me, but my frustration for the current crop of products is forcing me to answer (forgive the rant please). I tried Homeseer and after writing tons of code to get it going I started thinking it is really just an overpriced event broker with one really bad case of terrible UI.

A week into the trial I uninstalled it. I have mainlobby installed now and the UI is better, but not even close to where it could be. I design UI for a living and this market is devoid of software design with goals of improving the user experience. Trust me, it is possible. Our current product in a vertical niche market interfaces with almost 60 different systems across more communication platforms and technologies than any HA product I have researched. We do that and still boast a 30 minute end user training time and a 3 hour system administrator training time. We started out on folding tables 9 years ago and due to a focus on simplification, we are the market leader by a landslide with a 300:10 install ratio and our nearest competition started 3years before us (their administrative training is a two week course!)

I am considering writing my own because of this huge void in the market. Programming started off in binary, simplified to ASM, then came Fortran, C, C++, Pascal and now we are up to languages like .NET, Java, etc. with much higher abstraction layers. Programming is much more accessible than it was 30 years ago and it was terribly complex, well, it still can be, e.g. B trees, traveling salesman and the unsolved P vs. NP.

To compare HA to programming languages I think the current crop of solutions are still in the 2nd generation language stage.

 

[Rupp]

...

I might throw it out there, especially to roussell and Xpendable, what were your motivations for developing your own software? Was there features lacking or real world problems too complex for commercially available software controllers?

You didn't ask me, but my frustration for the current crop of products is forcing me to answer (forgive the rant please). I tried Homeseer and after writing tons of code to get it going I started thinking it is really just an overpriced event broker with one really bad case of terrible UI.

A week into the trial I uninstalled it. I have mainlobby installed now and the UI is better, but not even close to where it could be. I design UI for a living and this market is devoid of software design with goals of improving the user experience. Trust me, it is possible. Our current product in a vertical niche market interfaces with almost 60 different systems across more communication platforms and technologies than any HA product I have researched. We do that and still boast a 30 minute end user training time and a 3 hour system administrator training time. We started out on folding tables 9 years ago and due to a focus on simplification, we are the market leader by a landslide with a 300:10 install ratio and our nearest competition started 3years before us (their administrative training is a two week course!)

I am considering writing my own because of this huge void in the market. Programming started off in binary, simplified to ASM, then came Fortran, C, C++, Pascal and now we are up to languages like .NET, Java, etc. with much higher abstraction layers. Programming is much more accessible than it was 30 years ago and it was terribly complex, well, it still can be, e.g. B trees, traveling salesman and the unsolved P vs. NP.

To compare HA to programming languages I think the current crop of solutions are still in the 2nd generation language stage.

Did you try HSTouch? The main HomeSeer app is more of a backend work horse. The new HSTouch is the front end.

 

[scriptx]

....
Did you try HSTouch? The main HomeSeer app is more of a backend work horse. The new HSTouch is the front end.

I am playing with it now, but it is Homeseer's backend that is the problem. Nothing makes sense. I spent days and still only have a small portion of it actually working. As a comparison, I tried Johnny9's Home Automation Engine today and had the Elk, USBUirt, Weather, JRMC, etc. working in less than 20 minutes (including the system's installation time). It took me 3 hours of messing with HS, reading multiple forum posts to even get JRMC working. Not to mention I still get random log errors with JRMC. When it is all said and done, HS felt like getting a Linux mail server up and running and I still had the ELK, Weather and USBUirt to go. Homeseer seems to have an old X10 base of devices and then tried to fit all the new stuff into that base and the result is an illogical mess.

I'll likely wait for for a few quarters and use Johnny9's stuff as a back end since it is the best thing I have tried to date (and it is currently free but that will likely change soon considering what he has going).

 

[iostream212]

The J9AE is beautiful based purely (imho) on the way you can add device drivers to support new products/technologies and you don't need to purchase plugins. Who knows if that will change, but right now its great to see a software package that contains drivers for most of the devices I use... and it works! I have not tried any of the ir stuff yet on that program. Does anyone know if there is any lag when issuing back to back ir commands?

 

[johnnynine]

I tried Johnny9's Home Automation Engine today and had the Elk, USBUirt, Weather, JRMC, etc. working in less than 20 minutes (including the system's installation time).

I'm glad you were able to pick up the system and just go. I've had similar comments from other users and if you can believe it there have been developers who were new to the system but were able to pound out a new device driver developed the same afternoon.

PS: I love the traveling salesman problem reference. That's a blast from the past.

Thank you for the kind remarks.

Johnny