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    HAI plug-in

    Any preview summary of the features the plug-in will have regarding the HAI products. Can it be used on all three of the new products, OmniII, OmniProII and OmniLT

    #2
    Sure - here is a summary:

    Control and Status for arming/disarming, all zones, all thermostats. Buttons can be pushed, timers can be set/incremented/decremented. Other units can be turned On/Off, but no dimming support. Alarm conditions are tracked including special alarms such as battery low and even the on/off-hook detection of the phone line connected to the panel.

    There are web pages integrated into HomeSeer thanks to the version 2 Plug-in API to view and control all of these easily from a web browser as well.

    Script commands are available for all of the above functions.

    The ability to name items (zones, buttons, user codes, units, thermostats, etc.) is expanded beyond the 12 to 15 characters that HAI provides, but these longer names are only used within HomeSeer with this plug-in - they are not downloaded to the panel.

    At this point a version of this plug-in can be released for beta testing, but there are some issues to be resolved with the communications and a couple of features. For one thing, the communications link is "broken" periodically - the plug-in recovers, but it is still not a great thing to have happening. The other is that I am trying to determine what the right timing is for resetting the status of certain items - for instance, when I get the special status "battery low" message, how long should the special status device carry that message before it resets it? I am looking at some configuration options where the user may be able to set how they want these things reset.

    Hopefully you won't have to wait much longer.


    GC

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      #3
      GC,

      Will HAI's native support of Lightolier Compose components be supported through the plugin as well, or is it only X10 lights at this time?

      Thanks,
      Zac

      Comment


        #4
        Hi,

        At this time, the On/Off functionality included with the units support does work with Compose units as well. (Dim support is not there though.) I spoke with Mr. Helmke the other day and he mentioned that he wants to add support for the Compose protocol directly, which means that you will be able to control the Compose stuff using your normal X-10 interface for HomeSeer (thus not limiting the number of devices you can control like HAI does in some panels). The difference comes into play when you talk about OnQ ALC or any Compose commands that do not have corresponding X-10 commands - that needs the lighting system specific hardware to do.

        I guess for support of all of the functionality that you could ever want with the HAI system you should talk with Mr. Helmke and let him know your wishes. That may help him determine if he wants to fund the development of the plug-in further, or if he wants to let my boss make an enhanced plug-in and charge a nominal fee for it.

        One of the ideas I had for an enhancement to the plug-in is to support displaying custom messages on the keypads. Not the fixed string messages that HAI supports, but custom messages that are downloaded to the panel and then displayed on the keypads so you can do things like display the number of voicemail messages on the keypad when you come home and disarm the system.

        I hope this addresses your question.

        GC

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          #5
          You answered it perfectly, thanks for the update.

          Zac

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