HouseBot

Hi all,
I am a current MisterHouse user and I am not very fond of it. I am no programmer so this is hard to fix when something breaks. I would like to use HouseBot as it looks fairly easy for Windows. My setup is as follows:
--1-wire lighting and temp sensors
--HAI OmniStat 2 thermostat

Would HouseBot be what I need? Thanks in advance.

Ben

Hi Ben,
As far as I know, no one has written 1-wire support for HB, and I'm fairly certain it's not included natively. That being said, if your 1-wire setup communicate with Mr. House in a simple fashion such as serial/rs232, then it should be simple enough to get it to work with HB using the generic serial interface.

Same thing for the HAI thermostat... I haven't seen much on it with Housebot. But depending on how it currently talks to Mr. House, it may or may not be easy to port over.

Do you know how your current setup works?

Tim

Hi Ben,
I should have thought of this sooner...
But 1-wire your should be OK with the Xap plugin. (http://cebotics.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=856266).

It may very well use the same setup as Mr. House.... ie: Mr. House uses xap protocol to talk to 1-wire.

Tim

Thank you! I will proceed with my migration. Yes, my 1-wire uses a simple serial as does the thermostat. Hopefully this can be setup without a lot of programming language. I cannot reach the guy who help me setup MisterHouse so I am on my own on this one. Thanks for the help.

Ben

Just a couple of things to keep in mind....
Some coding will probably be required.
You must know the serial protocol of your devices.

This thread should point you in the right direction. (http://cebotics.com/forums/viewtopic.ph ... ic#p451706)

Basically, you create a Housebot generic serial device/interface. When this device sees the activity on the serial port, it is captured into property. You need to then do a little bit of scripting to get the piece of information you want out of the serial data.

Tim

PilotBMP wrote:... I cannot reach the guy who help me setup MisterHouse so I am on my own on this one.

No shortage of willing assistance can be found here.

Ok, so I'm calling in the calvarlry. I only have 26 days left to test this HouseBot. Interface is cool which is a plus over MisterHouse. However, I could really use some help setting up my Thermostat and 1-wire. I am willing to host a GoToAssist session with anyone willing to SHOW me how to set these things up and basic functions of HouseBot. I learned my lesson last time, take a man fishing you feed him for the day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Thanks ahead of time to anyone who steps up.

Ben

Hi Ben,
Let's dive right in and setup your serial connections for both your 1-wire and T-stat...

On the Hardware Interface folder, click Add Interface. You will want to add a Generic Serial Module; give it a name such as Thermostat Interface (or whatever you desire);click through to until you are adding a device (don't worry about baud, we'll come back to it);Add Simple Serial Device; give it a similar name as above, maybe something like Thermostat Serial Device; Click, Don't worry about the view;Click though until your finished.

Repeat the same for your other serial device, but with different names.

Next, go to your Devices folder, click Add Device; Select No Hardware Interface; Select Script Device; Give it a name something meaningful to you... Main Thermostat; Don't worry about the view;Don't worry about the name of the script now; Finish.

Repeat the same for your 1-wire device, but with a different name.

Under your newly created Devices, right click and add property. Add in what you want to see in your device... Select a property and name it something meaningful. This should mimic what you are using to seeing in Mr. House. Temperature, setPoint, Fan, Heat, Cool, etc. I don't know what you had in Mr. House, so can't decide for you what to put in HB. Repeat the same for your 1-wire. Add in properties... Probably mostly Temperature... Living room temp, outside temp, basement temp. Whatever you have for 1-wire sensors/in Mr. House.

Not done, but...
That's probably about it for today.... There's a script that needs to be developed to "glue" together your device and serial device. And some additional config on the serial interfaces (baud, commands, ascii, hex, etc.) I'll take a look at the Omnistat protocol and see what it'll take on the script side.

Tim

Tim,
Thank you sooooo much for the start. I followed the directions and seemed simple enough. Adding 1-Wire modules should be a snap if that is how you do it, and I understood everything you did which was the important part. Let me know my next homework assignment. Thanks again for the help! If everything connects I think I will buy HouseBot, much simpler interface.

Ben

Hi Ben,
What properties did you create for your thermostat device?
Tim

Hi,
I'm not a Housebot user yet but I'm just about to give it trial. I am however a long time Misterhouse user, so I know where you are coming from.
I also use 1wire interfaces for Lighting,PIR & temperature.

My understanding is that HB does not natively support 1wire/ibutton interfaces. It does however support xAP.
For a few months now, I have been using the xAP1wire interface referred to earlier in this thread and it works well. But, it did take some configuring.
I would suggest you use the xAP connection for your 1wire. This means you will need to add the xAP connector to HB but this isn't an issue.

Neil.

I should have scrolled up the post and taken my own advice... xAP is probably better and easier than trying to crunch through 1-wire data with a scipt and generic serial device. That being said, I'm not a xAP user so can't help on that piece. Anyone else have recent details/instructions on using 1-wire w/xap and HB?

Tim

I have been taking a look at the serial protocol for the Omnistat's... And it's bit more complicated than I thought.

Still very do-able with vbscript in HB, but as an fyi, I'm not going to have the time in the near future to work out a script with you.

There are some code snippets out there on the internet for people that use VBscript for getting Omnistat data into other apps. I was planning on adapting it for HB, but it's just going to suck too much time I don't have right now.

You should be able to get 1-wire and xap working. Definitely a better way to go versus what I was thinking.

Tim

Thanks Tim for the heads up, I will change over to the xAP. Neil, would you happen to have any leads on how to set this up? My system sounds almost identical to yours so I'm glad I have someone that knows what I'm dealing with. thanks again guys!

Ben

Happy to help
What is your location/timezone
Im in Australia GMT+10
It would easier if we did this with less than 12hrs between posts.
Neil