Phone Control

yaccri · Post by **yaccri** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 6:52 am

It would be great to be able to run tasks by dialing to the system. If the phone line status device can be enhanced to become a smart answering machine that can also run tasks, this would be wonderful!

I am willing to help with the development.

And once again - HouseBot is a GREAT application!

Thanks,

yaccri

Automate · Post by **Automate** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 11:36 am

I'll second that request. As a reference, HomeSeer Phone has some nice features. http://www.homeseer.com/products/homeseer_phone/

But, as a first step you may want to skip the voice mail / voice command features and just allow sending commands with DTMF ( touch tones).

yaccri · Post by **yaccri** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 12:01 pm

I am not for voice commands. I believe that it is very unreliable, especially over the phone.

Tone commands are fine. Integrating this with an answering machine would not only remove the need for an answering machine unit, but also prevent problems that might occur if you already have one. (Because after several rings you would want either the answering machine to answer, or to send tone commands).

Yaccri

Post by **ScottBot** » Wed Oct 08, 2003 9:27 pm

This is another item I've had on the todo list for a while. It has come up before, but I've not had a chance to look into it.

I agree that it would be a nice feature to have. I would even use it myself.

It's just a matter of time....

Scott

Automate · Post by **Automate** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 8:19 pm

Well, I can't help you with the programming so I thought I would do a little research that might help everyone out.

It seems as though both HomeSeer and HAL sell the same PCI modem and support it with the most features. The modem is actually made by Apache Micro Peripherals.

http://www.apache-micro.com/english_fla ... sp-hcf.htm

The reason they have both chosen this modem is because it may be the only PCI modem that will allow you to wire all you house phones through it and have it listen for commands from your internal house phones. This allows every phone you have to become a home automation control panel.

HomeSeer sells it for $73

http://homeseer.american-data.net/Merch ... ry_Code=HW

and HAL sells if for $65

http://www.automatedliving.com/shop/halpci.shtml

but you can buy it direct from Apache for $45

http://www.apache4u.com/ezStore123/DTPr ... ductID=302

or go here

http://www.apache-micro.com/english_fla ... rtners.htm

to find a local dealer that carries Apache

You may be able to save $10 more by going with this modem

http://www.apache4u.com/ezStore123/DTPr ... ductID=296

but it is a Win modem so the $10 extra to get a hardware data pump is probably worth it.

Post by **ScottBot** » Sun Oct 12, 2003 9:55 pm

Automate,

Thanks for looking into this. I really do want to have a DTMF interface for HouseBot... It's just a matter of time. Your links provide a good starting place. When I'm finished with Version 1.60 and another planned Plugin module, I'll have a chance to dig into it. If anyone else (...hint Yoram..) has a chance to get a head start on this that would be great.

Scott[/list]

Automate · Post by **Automate** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 9:28 am

Well, I have decided to take a little different approach. I have installed the http://www.asterisk.org PBX software. Asterisk is very powerful but it only runs on Linux. However, someone has written software to send CallerID information from Asterisk using the xAP protocol. This allows any xAP aware device on the network to receive the CallerID information. The same thing could be done with DTMF commands. Using this method HB would not have to deal with the telephone interface hardware or handle voice streams. All that would be needed is HB software to handle simple xAP messages. This approach would not require Asterisk but rather any xAP compatible software using a modem.

Post by **ScottBot** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 11:02 am

Sounds like an interesting product. I'm starting to think that in the end we won't buy any consumer electronics devices. We'll just have one really big computer in our home running a variety of software.

I know you've mentioned the xAP protocol before, and it does sound like it would be nice for HouseBot to interoperate with it. I've not looked into the protocol at all to determine how it would be implemented or how complex it is.

I've begin the version 2.0 work and will be preoccupied with that for the immediate future. I can put xAP on the list for post-2.0. Or if anyone else wants to take a shot at it, that would be great!

Automate · Post by **Automate** » Thu Jan 15, 2004 11:11 am

Scott,

Thanks for adding http://www.xapautomation.org to the list. I would like to work on a xAP plugin for HB but I have a few too many other projects going on right now.