HouseBot

Posted: **Thu Mar 12, 2009 3:56 am**

I have just discovered HouseBot and I like it! It seems to be the only software I can get to operate with my given hardware configuration at the moment, thank heavans for RFXCOM support!

Anyway, my question is, Is there a Vista Media Centre Plugin? I would like to be able to control my House from within the Vista Media Cnetre Interface? I cannot find a download for it so far but that might just be me,

Many thanks,

Martin.

Posted: **Thu Mar 12, 2009 5:10 am**

Try this, remember to register the HBControlMod.dll on your media center pc.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=855646&hilit=Media+Center

Posted: **Fri Mar 13, 2009 4:15 am**

I cannot find that Control on my PC anywaher, certainly not in the Program Files/Housebot/plugins/devices where I would expect it. What option have I forgotten and where can I download it from now I have installed?

many thanks again from a newbie,

Martin

Posted: **Fri Mar 13, 2009 4:34 am**

re-installed with the right option this time..... told you i was being stoopid.... seems to work but I have no devices or tasks listed in the plugin at the moment, any ideas?

Martin

Posted: **Fri Mar 13, 2009 9:54 am**

Hi, If I remember correctly it should display all your devices and tasks that you have in HouseBot.

At work at the moment so am not able to look properly, but one thing I can think of is make sure you have the External Control device installed in Housebot and the password and port matches the settings in the HouseBot MCE Add-in Config app.

Posted: **Fri Mar 13, 2009 1:11 pm**

Right.

I have got it working on a local machine and it works well and picks up all the tasks etc. Great stuff.

I have another machine that does not have HouseBot on it. I have just installed the MCE Add-in for the Housebot and configured it to point to the IP of the machine running Housebot. It is not picking up the task etc. I have opened the TCP port on both machines through the windows firewalls.

Any ideas?

Loving this House bot thing it is great!

Cheers,

Martin.

Posted: **Fri Mar 13, 2009 2:47 pm**

Can you confirm that you have registed the HBControlMod.dll on the media center pc?

For this you will need to copy the following file from your HouseBot PC:

Code: Select all

c:\program files\housebot\plugins\devices\externalcomcontrol\HBControlMod.dll

And save it on the media center PC. I have saved mine here:

Code: Select all

c:\windows\system32

Then open a comand prompt and type. (make sure you 'Run as Administrator' on Vista):

Code: Select all

regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\HBControlMod.dll

Posted: **Sat Mar 14, 2009 5:50 am**

I can confirm that i have done that i get the following error;
From the Event log:

Code: Select all

Log Name:      Application
Source:        SideBySide
Date:          14/03/2009 09:47:05
Event ID:      33
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      lounge-pc
Description:
Activation context generation failed for "c:\windows\system32\HBControlMod.dll". Dependent Assembly Microsoft.VC90.MFC,processorArchitecture="x86",publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b",type="win32",version="9.0.21022.8" could not be found. Please use sxstrace.exe for detailed diagnosis.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="SideBySide" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="49409">33</EventID>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2009-03-14T09:47:05.000Z" />
    <EventRecordID>5219</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>Application</Channel>
    <Computer>lounge-pc</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>Microsoft.VC90.MFC,processorArchitecture="x86",publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b",type="win32",version="9.0.21022.8"</Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>c:\windows\system32\HBControlMod.dll</Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

As well as a regsvr32 dialogue box error saying the application failed to load due to an application side-by-side error.

Any thoughts?

Posted: **Sun Mar 15, 2009 5:19 am**

Never heard of a side by side error, but I expect that is the problem. As the MCE plugin will not work without the HBControlMod.dll functioning correctly.

Have done a search on google and came across this post, seems like it may help:

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/9 ... error.html

Posted: **Mon Mar 16, 2009 10:27 am**

If you can't get that working for you, I have another alternative if you don't mind working with some 'non-production' work.

Here is an MCE plugin (http://www.codeplex.com/VmcController) that allows you to control MCE/VCE via TCP. It's really cool because not only can you control the main MCE app running on the MCE server, but you can also control extenders. I even use it to display a popup messagebox when a call is received. I've been using it for about 9 months and it seems to work great.

The problem is that HouseBot doesn't come with any kind of TCP Device that would allow you to control the VMCController plugin. I thought about writing a HouseBot plugin specifically for VMCController, but instead I wrote a generic TCP device that I could use (with several Tasks) to send the commands to MCE. It works well for that application, but since it's not really all that flexible and I've only used it for this one application, I have never made it public. If you are interested in pursuing this, let me know and I can provide the TCP plugin to you.

Posted: **Mon Mar 16, 2009 5:42 pm**

Scott,
I don't know about the OP, but I would love the Generic TCP device if you don't mind sharing. It sounds like what I asked for in an January '07 feature request.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=855794

Terry

Posted: **Tue Mar 17, 2009 7:11 am**

Scott, would love a TCP device too.

At the moment I have been using some software that creates a virtual com port that connects to my media center pc via TCP. I can then use the serial device in Housebot. Not Ideal as it stops responding now and again. TCP device would be perfect.

Also VmcController looks very interesting. I have been using MCEController, but VmcController looks like it does much much more.

@mrichmond007 - did you get the MCE plugin working?

Posted: **Tue Mar 17, 2009 9:17 am**

roussell wrote: I don't know about the OP, but I would love the Generic TCP device if you don't mind sharing. It sounds like what I asked for in an January '07 feature request.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=855794

I know this functionality has been asked for before. The reason I'm a bit reluctant to share this particular Device is that it is NOT anything fancy at all and was just something I threw together for this very specific need. Ultimately the Device should be very configurable; that's not this Device at all. This is a bare-bones Device that will simply send data over a socket, and it was pretty much written to work for VmcController. I've not tested it with any other host, but it should work for other socket related tasks withing the limited scope of its functionality.

If you are interested in using this, you can download it here. Just unzip it and copy it into your \HouseBot\Plugins\Devices directory and restart HouseBot. If it works for you great!

There's no online help, so here's a quick overview of the properties.

Command Terminator - Hex terminator that will be appended to every command sent. E.g. 0d 0a
Connected - Set to Yes to connect. Set to No to disconnect.
Media Center IP Address - IP address of server to connect to. Probably could have a more generic name.
Media Center IP Port - Port number of the server to connect to.
Send Data - ASCII data to send. Does not accept hex. e.g. goto RecordedTV (VmcController command)
Trace Errors - If set to No, general connectivity errors will not be traced.

After it establishes a connection, it will keep the connection open. If a send fails, it will attempt to reestablish the connection.

Posted: **Tue Mar 17, 2009 9:20 am**

allanstevens wrote: @mrichmond007 - did you get the MCE plugin working?

Nope not yet, but I have not had that much time to play yet. I have some time coming up and will try and get things going. I will also have a go at the TCP plugin that Scott has kindly released. I am looking for more of a software remote type function from MCE i.e. switching lights on and off via the MCE interface rather than the other way around but this is also a nice to have !

Will try out stuff and report back!

Cheers,

Martin.

Posted: **Sat Mar 21, 2009 5:07 am**

mrichmond007 wrote:
allanstevens wrote: @mrichmond007 - did you get the MCE plugin working?
Nope not yet, but I have not had that much time to play yet. I have some time coming up and will try and get things going. I will also have a go at the TCP plugin that Scott has kindly released. I am looking for more of a software remote type function from MCE i.e. switching lights on and off via the MCE interface rather than the other way around but this is also a nice to have !

Will try out stuff and report back!

Cheers,

Martin.

Hmmm I have had a further play with things and that is not really doing what I want. The MCE interface works on a machine that I have previously installed housebot onto but not one that I haven't.

Any thoughts?

HouseBot

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