What do I do now

[dominicv]

Good morning guys,

Let me first introduce myself as the new guy on the block, my name is Dominicv.

I am an old fart, sufferinbg from OldTimers decease.

I just wanted to let you know, that after several e-mail exchange with Scott, I decided to purchase Housebot, I am a very slow learner, I hope I can count on a lot of you guys for assistance, since I consider myself as dumn as a bag of hammers.

So please be patient and tolerant witjh me.

My present hardware consists of :

1 ) Acer Aspire Revo computer,very small foot print,running under Windows 7
2 ) 15" Touchscreen
3 ) ADI Controller
3 ) X-10 products

I intend to install the touchscreen on the kitchen, the ADI components are in the basement.

Regards

Dominicv

[Richard Naninck]

Welcome. Just ask your questions and share your thoughts and you should be fine on this forum!
Congrats with your purchase of HouseBot. A superb piece of software!

Richard

[dominicv]

Good evening Richard,

Thanks for your welcome, let me first say that the introduction of the Housebot Software, is something I have always wanted, but had never found.

I have been playing with the X-10 products wayback when the first Apple Mac was introduced, I have had several automation systems since then, but one more complicated than the other.

Richard, as I mentionned in my previous e-mail, programming is far from being myh forté.

So for the next little while I will rely on the help menu and you guys for help.

Dom

[dominicv]

Good evening Guys,

In my previous message, see above, I mentioned that I had just purchased Housebot TODAY, because I felt it would be easier than the other programs out there.

I start working with the program and the first thing I find, I can't get my CM15A interface to work because it has USB connections, after reading some of the posts in the forum, I come across something else, USB to SERIAL port could be a problem, wholly mackerel, I'm in trouble.

DID I JUMP THE GUN

Maybe I have time to cancel my CD program, which is being shipped shortly.

Dom

[Richard Naninck]

You would need a serial to USB cable and those are hard to find if any..
I guess not much more money is spent on a cm15, cm11 or whatever is out there with a serial connector.
I gave away my cm11 two years ago and that was serial based so I can't really help you here because I don't know what HouseBot supports in this area except of course the standard cm11 I had and some others.

You may also take a look at http://www.rfxcom.com/. It is supported by HouseBot and handles many more protocols than just your basic X10. I got it working here reading pulse counters for elec, gas usage and water usage. It also handles X10 etc

[dominicv]

Good evening Richard,

I have some good news for once.

I have been at this X-10 stuff for so long, I have components I didn't even know I had, would you believe I found a CM11a hanging around, I also had a USB to Serial cable.

I installed everything, updated the driver for the cable, and BINGO, it works, the software assign Com Port 3 to the CM11a, I must admit I feel a lot better right now.

The next big step will be to run a serial wire between the Ocelot and an other USB to serial cable, to see how this works.

Keep you posted.

Dom

[raptor_demon]

Welcome Dom,

This is indeed a great piece of software, for the money it cannot be beat.

I would just like to add that the RFXCOM that Richard suggested is great.Do not be afraid to ask questions and i am sure we will be able to help!

Have fun with it!

Raptor

[dominicv]

Thanks Guys,

Richard, I was able to locate a USB to serial cable, but I don't think HouseBot liked it.

When I installed the cable and driver, a serial port was recognize and port assigned, but HouseBot did not see it as the same com port.

After all this, I came up with a great solution, dig up the old P4 from the moth balls.

It has all the ports I need, serial, parallel and USB, that being said, I've opened another can of worms, here it goes.

Most of you I am sure have several computers around house.

One computer being the main one, the one to which all your your HouseBot peripherals are connected to, like the X-10 CM11 or CM15 or the ADI Ocelot, that being said, your HouseBot software is also on that computer since it is performing all the analysing and programing.

THE QUESTION : How do you access your main computer from another computer in the house in order to show all the HouseBot screens and program screen and information.

Dom

[Richard Naninck]

First of: If you hook up a USB to Serial I suppose that the USB part is connected to the PC and the Serial part to the device. If so, a com port is created with a certain com port number. You can renumber this port to a free number in your hardware setup. HouseBot needs to be restarted before the new com port will show!

I have multiple (touch)screens in my house all connected to an 8x8 matrix switch. The HouseBot server PC is an input to that matrix. So I can see the same screen and therefore my SWRemote on all screens in my house.

You can also start a SWRemote on each PC in your network. That's actually the beauty of HouseBot. Not many systems have a Software Remote like HB does and you can network it even over the internet. So just install a new SWRemote on your networked pc's and you can control HB from all of these networked PC's.

I like my matrix setup because I don't have to run multiple PC's throughout the house thus having less powerdrain and maintenance to different systems.

If you install a virtual desktop (like Remotely Anywhere - LogMeIn for the iPone) you can mirror your desktop over the internet on any internet PC with a browser or even (if you own one) an iPhone.

[edgar]

My Housebot PC stands alone in the basement/wiring closet where all the other hardware devices connect. I use Remote Desktop from my laptop or any other PC on the network to remote into the Housebot PC for Housebot development. VNC is also available for this. This solution works well for me.

v/r

Kevin

[dominicv]

Richard, Edgar,

I think I am almost there, now let se if I understand the set-up.

1 ) First I install SW Remote on whichever computer I want to give access to the HouseBot software, mwhich is located on
my main computer, I got that.

--- > QUESTIONS

2 ) How do my other computers have access to the main computer ?

3 )Through the network ?

Dom

[edgar]

Yes, you must have a TCP/IP (network) connection to enable communication between any SWRemote and the HBServer.

So hard wired LAN, or WIFI for in your house. Connecting over the Internet is doable but requires a little more tweaking. Your SWRemote needs the name of the remote (you create) and the IP address of the HBServer computer.

After you create a software remote (witha theme) on the HBServer you can have as many SWRemotes running on many PCs or Windows based devices (smartphones running Windows Mobile and CE included). Just remember they all have to have network connectivity to the HB Server

v/r

Edgar

[dominicv]

Thanks Edgar,

That's great, right now I have a 2WIRE gateway model 2701, DSL modem/wireless an ethernet.

So I connect the HB server to the 2WIRE gateway, via ethernet and the remaining computers can have access to the network via Wireless,

At this point Edgar does this make sense.

With this kind of setup, with the SW remote on each computer be able to view or check input anbd output status on the HB Sever.

Dom

[edgar]

Hi Dom,

Your setup should work fine. Don't forget to setup your HBServer correctly. Scott includes a sample theme to get you started.

1) Create a theme that includes controls for example a button to change the property state of an X10 device (light) for example.

2) Create a Software Remote that calls that theme

3) Run SWRemote from any computer on your network (wireless or hardwired) with the name of the Software Remote (caps matters btw!) and the IP address of the HBServer.

you should be good to go!

Here is a link to my website...still under development but it might give you some ideas:

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzex6fww/

good luck!

[dominicv]

Good Afternoon Kevin,

Let me apologize for calling you Edgar, for some reason, I always assued that was your name.

I visited your site, thanks for sharing, the site looks great.

In reading your bio. I realized that you are a pretty smart cookie, I'm also impressed by the fact that you are part of the Coast Guard.

What is your position with the Coast Guard.

Dom