HouseBot

Is it possible to control Housebot via COM?



Thanks,



Jesse

Jesse,



Just today I released HouseBot version 1.61 and a new "External Control" Plugin (separate download in the Additional Plugins section). The new External Control Plugin (it only works with version 1.61) includes an ActiveX/COM control that you can use to:

• Get a Property Value
• Set a Property Value
• Execute a Task
• Get a Mode State
• Set a Mode State
• Control Software Remotes

I don't know if it is exactly what you are looking for, but I'm interested in any feedback you have on it.



The online help of the External Control Plugin goes into more detail. There are also sample ASP pages that are optionally installed with the plugin.



Scott

Scott,



I believe this is EXACTLY what I was looking for. I want to be able to use Girder to control Housebot as well as get feedback on the status of devices so I can update displays on Netremote.



Girder can interact with other programs via LUA scripts and COM. Now I just need to figure out how to program all of this ....



I will keep you posted of what I come up with.



Jesse

I created a LUA plugin in Girder that allowed me to control Housebot externally via Girder using the COM interface. It was working great. Then I uninstalled everything to try out my plugin on a clean install, and it stopped working. I get the following error when I try to connect to Housebot:



Error = Either the application has not called WSAStartup or WSAStartup failed.||



Any ideas what I'm forgetting?



Jesse



Edit: Nevermind. I found out that I needed to have the LUA Sockets plugin loaded. I will be ready to release my plugin as soon as I can figure out why it doesn't work with the girder.exe in the latest install but with a girder.exe date 06/27/2003.

I've written a Girder plugin that allows for the seamless control and querying of HouseBot via Girder.



The plugin uses a COM interface to interact with HouseBot. You can read more about my new plugin at



http://www.laiserver.com/HTPC/HB2Girder.html



After installation of the LUA script and necessary supporting files (info on my website), the following functions are exposed:



Result = HBGetPropertyValue("Device Name", "Property Description")



HBSetPropertyValue("Device Name", "Property Description", "New Value")



Result = HBGetModeState("Mode Name")



HBSetModeState("Mode Name", "New State")



HBExecuteTask("Task Name")



This should allow for control and querying of virtually any device in HouseBot.



Jesse



p.s. I found out what the difference was in the executable. The pre-release version of Girder 3.3 (exe available on my website) supports the COM controls.