mcsXap Plugin Discussion

[Pete]

Try using the generic xap viewer on a different computer. Wierd but my wireless laptop sees less than the office desktop.

I have more issues with the HS xAP generated messages than the separate autonomous programs running on HS that are xAP. I do though have XAP running on multiple servers (Wintel and Linux). DB xap stuff on Linux / Wintel these days and playing with FlashxAP on two Jogglers (very fast response times to xap messaging - I am very impressed).

You would have to redo your xap configurations but you could run the separate mcsXAP applications (what ever they may be) on another computer and use virtual serial connections which work for me. (it would be a disruption of what you have running- easy though to reconfigure).

Does that make sense?

[Steve Q]

I'm certain there's a simple answer to this. Probably the biggest problem I have is not having a good grasp on xap in the first place.
I've bitten the bullet and started upgrading my HSTouch to the latest version. To do this, I wanted to leave my existing plugin/screens etc. intact until I'm certain I'm ready to migrate back to my Homeseer machine. The two versions of HST seem to be of course, incompatible.
I've installed the xap plugin on a separate Hometroller and want to start with my existing weather and other device data from the Homeseer machine.
The problem I'm encountering as I see it, is receiving the 1Wire data from Homeseer into the Hometroller. Nothing seems to be showing up. Clear as mud so far?
xap plugin version on both machines is 3.0.0.5. What can I do, without disrupting the working setup on the HS machine, to ensure I'm broadcasting the data over the network so it can be received by the xapmcs plugin in the Hometroller?

I setup xap on my netbook. I got everything working but it took a lot of effort. If I remember correctly, I had to restart all my network computers multiple times before they were all receiving all the xap messages. I also had to mess with the firewall/antivirus software.

Steve Q

[Wadenut]

I hadn't thought of the viewer. It indicated the HT was indeed receiving data, and at that point I noticed the HS devices beginning to populate... but only while the viewer was running.
I've installed the xfx-express hub on the HT and now seem to be OK. I was under the impression that all mcsxap applications could act as a xap hub. Evidently this doesn't include the HS plugin.
So now, it's off to the extensive task of getting my pad screens up to date. But that's another thread and another even bigger PITA (usually, I get kissed first ).

[Pete]

I have always run the original mcsXAP hub on the two HS boxes that I am using.

I do and don't run xap hubs on other wintel machines running xap applications though and I don't notice a difference. I don't have hubs running on the Linux machines running xap though.

I have never run the xfx-express hub.

[Steve Q]

I also had mcsxaphub running on all the computers.

Steve Q

[Wadenut]

I wasn't aware of xapmcshub. Must hunt it down. I'd certainly like to use it.

[Pete]

I still run the old xapmcshub V 1.2.1 on one box and V 1.2.2 on another. Its here:

http://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=109125

Think I tried the dot net versions and had some issues with them.

Still waiting on the updated Cumulus with the updated xap weather.report info found here:

http://www.xapautomation.org/index.p...Weather_Schema

and here:

http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/vbull...change-request

It took more than a few months or so to come up with a new consensus for an updated schema as the old weather.report schema was outdated (I tried not to get involved in this but ended up getting a bit involved).

[Wadenut]

1.2.02 is on his site now. Doesn't look like it's starting up on the HT. Doesn't matter. My devices are populated and that's really all I need for now to work with HST.

[Michael McSharry]

xAP transmits on port 3639. Only one application on Windows and Linux computers can bind to a specfic port at any given time. The xAP Hub is reserved the right to listen on this port. It will then forward all the xAP messages to all other xAP applications on the same computer.

There are cases where a single xAP application is dedicated to a computer. In that case there is no need for an xAP hub and that single xAP application can bind to port 3639. This will rarely ever be the case for a Windows computer, but small Linux computers may exhibit this single-application paradymn.

The xAP Message Viewer is a utility and has been designed for maximum flexibilty. If it starts and sees there is no xAP hub on the computer then it will serve that role and forward xAP messages to all other xAP applications on that same computer.

mcsXapHub was developed with VB6 and has flexibilty to route both xAP and xPL traffic. I developed a .NET version so it could be run on a Linux platform. It was a more basic implementation that does not support xPL. In my own Windows environment I continue to use the original VB6 one on PRO100 and new .NET one on Shuttle. In the Shuttle case it is run as a service.

When an xAP application starts on a computer and appears to be deaf, it had been in the past that some other xAP application started before it and started listening on port 3639. That means nobody else can listen. It also did not complete its responsibilty and perform the hub function to share the xAP messages with others. This is less common now that most xAP applications no longer attempt to bind to port 3639.

The xAP hub knows how to route messages to xAP applications on the same computer by listening to the heartbeat. Until a heartbeat is produced by the application the xAP hub will not know it is there. Each application has a different heartbeat rate, but typically between 1 and 10 minutes. Waiting for the 10 minutes rather than restarting computers will be a less painful approach to getting desired functionality. If issues arrise, then use of the xAP Message Viewer on the computer where issues appear to exist will help isolate the cause.