HouseBot

Has anyone had any experience with touchatag? http://www.touchatag.com/home
Any ideas on integrating this product with Housebot?

I don't particular understand the point of the touchatag, but if you want to integrate RFID into HouseBot you should look at the following device:

http://www.phidgets.com/products.php?ca ... ct_id=1023

It has a complete API for a variety of languages and the starter kit comes with a bunch of cool looking RFID tags.

Osler

I agree that the point of touchatag as a product is a bit sketchy.
But, the reader and tags are nicely designed. And the the price is nice as well, 30EURO for a starter kit, a reader and ten tags. The Phidget starter kit is 90USD, no casing for the reader and I don´t really need a lot of different tags, just labels to stick on other things.

Phidgets site is in Canadian dollars. Just the reader is $52 US and the kit is $72 US. Compared to $40 US for the Touchatag. Plus the phidget can read the Touchatag tags.

Osler

Where did you find the info that phidget can read the touchatag tags? That is good news.
Is there a Housebot plugin for phidget rfid?

My fault. Phidgets uses EM 4102 while Touchatag uses ISO/IEC 14443....so they won't coexist together.

No plug-in....but the device is easily scriptable and has 2 digital outputs that can be used for other things.

Osler

Ok, so I have done some rfid research and the touchatag reader and tags still seems to have a lot of advantages. And if you read the developer info at http://www.touchatag.com/developer/devguide it seems you can make Touchatag work without the online connection.
You would need the SDK at 149 dollars and you would have to be a programmer to make a plugin for Housebot.

Is this something anyone else would be interested in? ScottBot, is this something that perhaps could be developed for Housebot?

A video of me controlling my Squeezebox through Touchatag and Housebot:

http://hemautomatisering.ning.com/video ... ag-publish

Well, that's clever. Not sure how practical it is, but clever! I DO like your HB user interface/theme though! It gets me to thinking that mine is in need of a redesign. Thanks!

Thanks for the compliment, I can´t take all the credit though. My theme is based on one I found in the older parts of this forum, I have altered it to suit my needs.
The cube control is perhaps not practical but I am very interested in trying more tactile interfaces to my system.

That video put a smile on my face as well. It qualifies as 'beyond hobby';) A bit nerdish and not very pratical but overly fun to create
This could be used for security like unlocking doors etc.

Hi Wetwired,

I'm planning to write an interface to TouchATag as well, although I'm not exactly sure why yet - just seems like a cool thing to get working. Did you buy the SDK Part # ACR122U from ACS to develop the interface? Any gotchas you'd be willing to point out before I get started?

Thanks,
Bryan

Actually I didn´t write an interface. I´m using a very elaborate workaround using IIS and the COM object for Housebot. Touchatag opens a webpage that sends the appropriate values to Housebot. It works, but it is cludgy.
There is an app for touchatag that can execute a commandline but it doesn´t work with spaces so it´s pretty useless. Touchatag has said they will release an advanced commandline app, but it has yet to appear. If it does you can uses the external control for Housebot.