STV Import: HAL Home Automation

[Bohica]

Originally Posted by Brent94Z

Very nice work, Bohica! I have both SageTV and HAL Deluxe. However, both are still "sitting in the box" waiting for me to get some time to get everything up and running. I must say though that this has me very excited because I have both these products and am hoping to get Sage up and running this month (fingers crossed).

Awsome. Let me know how it works out for you! There will be a new version with thermostat control and some bug fixes in a day or two. I dont need to do anything for you in this plugin... HAL can handle your thermostat however you need. There are people I know that turn their thermostat off whenever they get up in the morning for 30 minutes so cold air doesn't blow on them when they get out of the shower. They make a rule in HAL that says ** If the motion sensor goes off in the bathroom between this time and that time... adjust the thermostat.** You can make whatever schedule you feel appropriate within HAL. My contol in this plugin will just allow you to control your thermostat... like everything else in the plugin - it really just exposes the logic and whatever you have configured in HAL -- in Sage. For instance -- you could make three SHIFT "house modes" in HAL -- one for each shift. In your HAL rules, you can then make the appropriate logic that says if I am on shift 1 - here are the hours I want the house warm - and hours I want to save electricity... if shift 2 -- etc. The plugin exposes all housemodes under the MSMG menu. With your sage remote -- just select shift 1,2, or 3... endless possibilties...

[Brent94Z]

Originally Posted by Bohica

In your HAL rules, you can then make the appropriate logic that says if I am on shift 1 - here are the hours I want the house warm - and hours I want to save electricity... if shift 2 -- etc. The plugin exposes all housemodes under the MSMG menu. With your sage remote -- just select shift 1,2, or 3... endless possibilties...

Sounds like I'll still have to manually change this each time I change shifts but that's better than what I've seen in other programs! Thanks!

[Bohica]

Originally Posted by Brent94Z

Sounds like I'll still have to manually change this each time I change shifts but that's better than what I've seen in other programs! Thanks!

Not really... this is all an HA issue - not the plugin. HAL can be configured to handle it however you want - depending on your setup. Here is what I do. When I am home, motion sensors throughout the house trigger timers and set flags letting HAL know someone is still home. If after an hour, HAL has not detected movement -- it widens the heating and cooling setpoints on my thermostats -- letting the house get a bit cooler or warmer than usual. As soon as it detects movement again - it narrows that window to reheat or recool the house. When I leave for the day, or am gone for the weekend, or even go to bed - the house sort of goes into an energy saving mode.

[Bohica]

Well -- it looks like Thermostat control may not be forthcoming after all. It seems there are several bugs that in the HAL plugin HALi - which HALiTS uses to control things. Specifically - it seems like several control functions need to be updated in order for it to work with the newer thermostats. There is a new version of HAL coming out soon... so let's hope they update those libs. As a work around - we could define macros that simply raise or lower the thermostats - and select them from the MSMG menu. This would work until we get something pretty. At least I have the screens done and halits updated already. Once things get fixed - I am almost done....

[Lucas]

Great work Bohica! A big thank you for sharing your hard work.

With this I don't have any excuses any more for not going ahead and integrating SageTV with the rest of the house...... Looks like I have my plate full for the next couple of months....

[DFA]

Well, I guess I'm on my way. Just picked up a copy of HAL 2000 for a nice price on ebay (sealed, never opened, KeyCode intact). Guy was not sure what version and it did not say on packaging so possible upgrade cost involved but still come out way ahead. Glad Sage does not hit us with upgrade dings.

Now on to collecting more stuff!

DFA

[Bohica]

Welcome to the party I remember taking about 2 weeks to replace light switches in the house. I have done more than 20, and still have 20 or so to go It's a never ending hobby...

[Brent94Z]

That's an interesting way to control the thermostat with motion sensors! I'll keep an eye out on things and hopefully the next version will fix these bugs Thanks much!!!

[Narflex]

Wow, I just saw this. Pretty cool. I'm impressed.

[dblaine2]

I don't know much about HA but I was google searching and found this fledgling project:

http://www.myx10.com/faq.asp

Sounds pretty cool once they expose the API.

Plus free upgrade for life. At a very reasonable price point to start.

[Bohica]

There are actually a couple of open source projects that I am keeping an eye on. They seem - like most OS projects - to grow in spurts. Since all HA is built on open protocols... it would seem a good fit for open source. However, none seem to have or are focusing on the voice control and operation that both HAL and HomeSeer have in their products. That feature was very important to me for my selection.

And oh yeah - thanks Narflex...

[dblaine2]

After reading this thread, I really got geeked about HA and did a lot more reading.

Unfortunately, the price point is the stumbler

Sure I spent a couple thousand $$ on my Sage rig but at least it was slow over time. It looks like HAL is really cool but the software is too expensive to start.

[Bohica]

Originally Posted by dblaine2

After reading this thread, I really got geeked about HA and did a lot more reading.

Unfortunately, the price point is the stumbler

Sure I spent a couple thousand $$ on my Sage rig but at least it was slow over time. It looks like HAL is really cool but the software is too expensive to start.

I dont disagree -- and I am not sure I would go the same path today as I did a year or two ago. There are more options out there that seem like they are gaining momentum and have a lot of user support. For instance - the homeseer boards seem very active, and as I said - even I am watching some of the open source efforts....

However - realize the cost of the software is not the big investment for even medium sized homes. The real investment is in the X10 products, and your TIME - which never seems to be properly accounted for...

Having said all that - HAL is expensive - but I am very happy with the investment - and think I have made a lot of the investment up on energy savings over the last couple of years.

I would obviously be willing to share any work I did with others who want to build in support for their HA environment. Perhaps we could expand this plugin for homeseer and others. The backend is somewhat specific to HAL - but could be adapted to be more generic...

[dblaine2]

Originally Posted by Bohica

However - realize the cost of the software is not the big investment for even medium sized homes. The real investment is in the X10 products, and your TIME - which never seems to be properly accounted for...

Although I have a new baby, time on projects like Sage is the fun part. It's what I do to unwind, to figure out problems (I know I am sick ) and keep my techno-skills (and lust) going!

[Bohica]

Originally Posted by dblaine2

Although I have a new baby, time on projects like Sage is the fun part. It's what I do to unwind, to figure out problems (I know I am sick ) and keep my techno-skills (and lust) going!

Thats funny. I will warn you tho - unlike Sage - HA projects have a tendancy to shock the H3ll out of you when you make a mistake -- not just crash the server

[dblaine2]

Yeah, nothing like 110 going through body, eh?

[DFA]

Bohica:

Thanks for the AX explanation in the PM.

I installed .NET v2.0.50727 but the install for HALiTS expects v1.1.4322. A bit of reading indicates that most apps, even though developed for previous revision environment runtimes, should be upward compatable (in other words, 2.0 being downward compatable).

Please don't say I need to install 1.1.4322 as well. The link in the installer actually takes you to .NET 2.0 download page when not finding .NET Framework installed.

Regards,
DFA

[gplasky]

You need to install 1.1 as well. They can both coexist on the same box but you will need to install both. Something written for 1.1 usually will NOT run if ony .NET 2.0 is installed.

Gerry

[DFA]

Well jeez-louise, that sucketh.

Can someone tell me if the newer ATI drivers (6.x) which now require .NET for ATI Control Panel run on 1.1 or does ATI require .NET 2.0? Juat trying to keep on one rev. level for now.

EDIT: Searched ATI FAQ and found that newer "Control Center" uses .NET 1.1. So it appears for my purposes I only needed to install .NET 1.1 for now. Should not have been so hasty to install 2.0.

However, for the record, the "HALiTS" MSI installer takes you to the 2.0 download site when it does not find .NET on the machine. And 2.0 is a no-go causing you to go back for 1.1. If I were a suspicious guy, I might think MS was up to some of those old tricks again!

DFA

[Bohica]

The installer is certainly just the plain old MS installer... I have no idea I must have had everything installed already on all of the systems I tested on - because it needed nothing for me.... Hope everything works out...