xAP embedded controllers... 1-wire announced

[CouchPotatoe]

I thought I would mention that opnode are releasing an embedded 1-wire controller using the xAP protocol, in fact they are in beta currently. It is called opnone and uses xAPBSC - it also contains an inbuilt web server and a BSC event manager allowing xAP BSC interaction to be set up between the 1-wire devices and other xAP BSC nodes. The event manager feature makes it a very interesting product allowing totally autonomous xAP operation (no PC) for the first time. HomeSeer of course can layer on top of this to add the extra 'smarts' so they dovetail really nicely.

http://www.opnode.org

Later they will be releasing a opn232 which offers an RS232 serial port with device abstraction to xAP. This means that certain serial devices may be directly attached to the unit and speak a suitable xAP schema. Things like CallerID, X10 or the Ocelot perhaps.

These two devices along with the already available workhorse favourite 'xAP Netiom' provide a nice complete range of xAP I/O which is 'drop in' for HomeSeer and xAP networks now.

http://www.phaedrusltd.com/pages/html/netiom-xap.html

The xAP Netiom provides digital I/O (16 in 16 out) Analog (4 in) and bidirectional serial along with counters, latches and a web interface.

For completeness I'll mention my own embedded project. I have designed a C-Bus lighting xAP controller and have recently been adding HomeVision support - now all the HomeVision I/O is xAP accessible and can just drop into HomeSeer via either of the two xAP plugins available for HS. This is useful as it extends the HS support for HomeVison beyond the original free plugin capabilities and most importantly all works standalone and embedded should you want too. So you can have a base layer of functionality device to device and all your extra niceties including timed and logical interactions , scripts and other device / internet access implemented in HomeSeer.

K

PS No commercial interest with either company and I supply my own device at cost. Most xAP software inc the two xAP HomeSeer plugins are free too.

[Michael McSharry]

Another thing about the opnode that Kevin did not mention is that the software is open source and all that one "buys" is the hardware that hosts it. This makes for a very hobbiest-friendly automation component.

The other thing that Kevin discussed, but I want to further highlight is the event processing that exists within the module. This is a very powerfull capability that brings the intelligence level of a computing element up a notch from what otherwise would simply be an interface. For those that view xAP simply another interface mechanism into Homeseer then it does not mean much. For those that view Homeseer as just one member of a computing network then this event logic is extremely valuable. Each computing node can now have the event logic applicable to its role in the environment. This makes for a true distributed architecture where dependencies are minized and can be used to more easily support management of redundancy.

For those needing a 1-wire interface into Homeseer then this will be a high-cost solution since it contains the LAN interface and programmable processor vs. a dumb interface such as the DS9097U which uses the PC resources to communicate to the 1-wire devices. This opnode is best suited for an environment where one is moving from reliance of a 24/7 PC for the core automation function.

I also have no commercial interest in the item. I was offerred one at no cost, but declined because I knew I did have the free time available right now to run with it. It is exactly the direction I have been heading with first working out the interactions of a distributed network on a PC with the intent of moving the function from a PC to a dedicated node with a LAN interface.

[HomeTech]

Available to Buy ?

Is opnode available to buy?

[CouchPotatoe]

Indeed it is .. from their website - - or just drop Daniel an email. I've been using mine with HomeSeer and other xAP software for a long time now - works great.

http://www.opnode.orghttp://www.opnode.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=opn-max

OPNMax implements a xAP controller with logic triggers and event/action handling. It also has a scheduler and supports Perl scripting for more complicated needs. Also included is a database engine (SQLite) that supports scriptable logging of xAP events and a Java applet that will build 'zoomable' graphs on demand served via the web interface . The web server supports PHP. It's a great way of getting standalone xAP activities all running 24/7 with no PC required. Currently it only supports xAP BSC schema devices.

OPNMax (and IIRC OPNone now) also integrate as xAP Intranet applications - if you use that feature. xAP Intranet places a top line of icons, one for each running app, in all your xAP applications that have web interfaces so you can move between them in an easy consistent way and it also provides a tray icon for the same, and to quit/config apps. J's HS plugin implements this although the mcs one doesn't so your HomeSeer app might not appear in this. It's all done via a special 'announce' xAP schema so they update each other in realtime.

cheers Kevin

[HomeTech]

This is Great I am loving this xAP stuff. I did not notice a buy page so I will send a email to him.

I am now wanting to get my power bill down by shutting down some of my extra server computer at home and off loading my home automation to Xap hardware using less power.

I have been slowly moving away from Homeseer doing the heavy lifting and just using it for displaying and screen scraping data gathering.

I have my Asterisk PBX sending xap and working with switchboard xap and searching outlook contact as well as speaking the callers name all with xAP tts messages.

[HomeTech]

Opnode got one but agg TAI8540D does not work

I bought one of these and started moving my sensors over to it. I started with the temperature sensors all went well but got stuck on changing Cel to F degrees it was required to enter in a offset of 32 and a factor of 1.8 that got all the temps displaying in F and is working with help.

But I have two AAG TAI8540D's these are both Temp & Humidity sensors. I had this working with MRB1Wire pluggin before switching to opnode.

I have the temp sensors working using the above settings. but the humidity I can't get the math correct at least it does not agree with what I think I know the humidity is inside and outside currently is.

one thing I noticed is when the sensor is discovered it adds two devices with matching 1-wire serial numbers. one type is noted as temperature sensor and the second notes the type as analog input. it does not say any thing about Humidity the serial number does not differ from the temperature one.

when I take what I think the humidity is outside forcast of 71% divide by 4.69 which is the voltage that opnode is reading with a factor of 1.00 I get 15.13
put that in opnode for factor and it reads 71% humidity don't know what to put in the offset. so that looks good but when I put the same numbers in for my inside sensor I get the same reading of 71% we have air condishioning so I look at a lcd humidity sensor in the house it is telling me its 52% humidity so something is not correct.

Is there any one with experence using this sensor and Opnode that can tell me what I am doing incorrectly?

[estratos]

[HomeTech]

Opnode Humidity sensors

Here are some screen shots of my settings. I used your settings but the readings are 125 % so that is not correct.

[HomeTech]

Also when I press the Lock icon at the top right of the web interface I get the following line at the top of page

[HomeTech]

Errors in Log. I found these don't know if they will help?


08/09/08 08:19 : main->procsxAPmessage: impossible to process xAP message (errno = 25)08/09/08 08:24 : main->procsxAPmessage: impossible to process xAP message (errno = 25)08/09/08 08:30 : main->procsxAPmessage: impossible to process xAP message (errno = 25)08/09/08 08:35 : main->procsxAPmessage: impossible to process xAP message (errno = 25)08/09/08 08:41 : main->procsxAPmessage: impossible to process xAP message (errno = 25)08/09/08 08:46 : main->procsxAPmessage: impossible to process xAP message (errno = 25)08/09/08 08:52 : main->procsxAPmessage: impossible to process xAP message (errno = 25)08/09/08 08:57 : main->procsxAPmessage: impossible to process xAP message (errno = 25)08/09/08 09:02 : main->procsxAPmessage: impossible to process xAP message (errno = 25)</PRE>