HomeSeer HS2 general information FAQ

[kevingib]

Thanks for the update, I am really excited about the potential.

[anogee]

Thanks for the update. I think your doing the right thing by attempting to eliminate as many bugs before a beta is released.

[bruce l]

And having an updater will make it easier to roll out new beta releases along with beta versions of the plugins.

[ajackson123]

Stargate plugin?

Will the Stargate plugin be supported? Please...

[smoothtlk]

I haven't seen any Stargate plugin posts in the beta 2.0 testing threads. Probably will get reviewed in the public beta.

[Rick Tinker]

The author of the Stargate plug-in has been made aware of all 2.0 issues and is currently making changes - hopefully we will have a new version in time for the public beta.

[jstaab]

I have the same concerns regarding the RCS Serial Thermostat Plug-In with 2.0. The subject matter came up in a thread and I started a separate thread for just that topic. We are waiting to hear something back from someone regarding the plug-in compatibility with 2.0.

[Barry Gordon]

All of this HS.2 stuff sounds really good. Trouble is the operation of my house depends on Homeseer. It makes life much easier and a lot of fun. The big thing I am going to get from 2.0 is I will have to learn .net.

On the slink-e issue (Yes I know it is resolved as RJH said it will be supported), I have used a slink-e for 5 years to control my HT (output of IR only) and rewrote the Slink-e driver to run a USB-UIRT in about one night. Some day my Slink-e will die and then ....

My real issue with HS 2.0 is how do I migrate. I will need to evaluate each script to see if it should work (Some of my scripts schedule events (e.g. my alarm clock scripts schedule wake up calls as events). I will need to do the same with each of my home brewed plug ins (after I learn .Net).

Computing power is not the issue, its the migration problem. I can not turn off hs 1.7.41 until I know HS 2.0 is running with all of the functionality I need. I do not believe I can run them both at the same time.

I am sure I will work it out. What the heck, I am retired, what else do I have to do (I do not mean that sarcastically, I really enjoy coding and debugging, it is probably a super prohylactic for Alzhiemers)

Will HS 2.0 accept HS 1.7.41 Config files. That will help.

[Rick Tinker]

Gordon,

I believe we have said it many times before but perhaps an update is in order - our intention in 2.0 is to make the upgrade seemless. You do not need to know a lick of .NET to migrate to 2.0. You do not need to convert scripts or anything as 2.0 still runs the old VB/Java scripts that you now have.

When you convert to 2.0, it imports your XML file into the new database format and make the conversion of your devices and events - it should work seemlessly.

Now with that said and a seemless transition being our goal, here is where that stands....

There are some changes that we had to make to some scripting and API commands due to the new underlying architecture of HS 2. In every situation we tried to make the old command compatible so that it can continue to function, but there are some new commands that are better to use. We have had all of the registered/known application providers invited to the beta testing thus far and have been communicating the changes necessary to be made, and so many of the plug-ins have been updated and have 2.0 compatible versions waiting for the release.

Here is one example of this: HS 1.7 has the GetDevice and GetEvent commands, which take as an argument an index number. In 1.7 because everything ran under a single thread in the system, this was fine. In 2.0 though, the collection of devices and events could be modified by another script/process, and so the index becomes unreliable. In other words, you get the device at index location 29, then another thread ends up removing a device at index 10 which causes all of the other device indices to shift up - now you get the device at index location 30, but because of the shift, the device that used to be at index 30 is now at 29 and you ended up skipping a device. So GetDevice and GetEvent still work with that potential unreliability, but we have developed new commands to take their place which eliminate this problem. It is things like this that we have been communicating to the plug-in and script authors so they can make adjustments.

So the end result is that at this time our goal of 100% conversion without issue was probably not met, but everything should work fine and will be even better once the authors of plug-ins and scripts that you use make sure they have made the 2.0 compatibility changes.

Right now you are wondering about the scripts and plug-ins that YOU wrote and how you can get ready for 2.0.... Well, we are releasing a build to the closed beta testers today (if Rich did not put it out last night - have not gotten through all my email yet) and if there are no major issues with it, we will release it to the community of users as our first open beta release. The documentation was updated in this release and so all of the commands that are obsoleted or deemed unreliable have been marked, and their replacements noted in the updated documentation. Thus, you can begin changing your scripts and plug-ins today. You can use hs.Version or hs.InterfaceVersion to test for HS 1.7 or 2.0 and start writing code for 2.0 where changes need to be made.

To further put your mind at ease, I have been running HS 2 in my house - e.g. production. While I have been burned by this a few times over the past several months, I have been running reliably with my configuration for quite a while now. I have 15 plug-ins, 435 devices and 673 events, so I am the guy who is stress testing 2.0 so that you can hopefully have a smooth transition over to it.

[smee]

Rick:

Since you are talking about scripts in the above post, will HS 2.0 allow more than 8 serial ports to be opened from scripts at the same time?

[firtha]

Is anybody testing the LynX-10 plugin?

[Rick Tinker]

smee,

Yes, the 8 port limit has been removed.

firtha,

Rich tells me that the Lynx-10 was tested and that it worked OK.

[Bill Brower]

Will it run on my 386 'cause I ain't upgrading!

[smee]

smee,

Yes, the 8 port limit has been removed.

Thanks, Rick.

[Rick Tinker]

Bill,

I sincerely doubt it will run on it, although if you can support the .NET framework on it, then it will run. I would just get a cup of coffee when you tell it to turn on a light and are waiting for it to happen.

Don't you have museum's offering you cash for that dinosaur?