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jeffw_00
Super User
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| Posted: October 29 2017 at 18:48 | IP Logged
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Hi - So I'm noticing that I've been the primary poster for over a month, with no replies. Maybe you guys are trying to tell me something? ;-) - or maybe people are moving away from PH? I mean, the activity on this board isn't what it used to be, and I'm guessing that Dave's life is rightfully getting filled with other things (no judgment here, he's certainly entitled). I'm just observing that the support messages and discussions of new future releases have dropped off.
I'm not complaining in any way, shape or form, wondering what's up? Are people moving to different controllers? (I mean is there now something else out there that gives you the fine control and extensive programmability of PH? Really?)
So what's up? What's with all the crickets?
/j
Edited by jeffw_00 - October 29 2017 at 18:50
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TonyNo
Moderator Group
Joined: December 05 2001
Location: United States
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Posts: 2889
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| Posted: October 30 2017 at 05:13 | IP Logged
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Yep. The HA forums that I watch have been slowing for years. I blame SmartThings and it being good enough for most people.
I have not really tweaked my system in years. Guess I was finally done!
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smarty
Super User
Joined: May 21 2006
Location: United States
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Posts: 728
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| Posted: October 30 2017 at 06:22 | IP Logged
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I have been checking in every now and then, but like Tony, I have most
of it decently set up (for me).
Would love to have more time to devote more to this, although I am not
going anywhere.
Hope everyone is doing well.
__________________
Elk - Insteon - BlueIris - DMC1 - PowerHome - XLobby - HA_Bridge w/Dots - Brultech
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jeffw_00
Super User
Joined: June 30 2007
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Posts: 929
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| Posted: October 30 2017 at 16:58 | IP Logged
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Mine is mostly stable, but i come up with new ideas from time to time, and SH is constantly bringing out new devices, or updating old ones, which means PH has to keep up to some degree. My fear is that after 15 years, Dave might move on, because I still don't know anything out there, for any price, that allows me the level of control I have with PH. Some of my code is truly insidious, but creates the impression of a -really- "smart" home.
hope it's not just the 3 of us :-)
/j
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gg102
Senior Member
Joined: January 29 2013
Location: United States
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Posts: 245
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| Posted: October 31 2017 at 08:41 | IP Logged
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I have been using Home Automation for decades now. I have gone through many different
development systems. NONE have the functionality and reliability and flexibility as
PH. Both are critical for me as sometimes I can be away from home for a long duration.
I also use HA to "operate" my house even while I'm home.
I would consider my system as extensive or maybe even extreme. I am constantly adding
more and unrelated devices. I have added my weather monitoring system, my surveillance
system, my security system, my robotic toys, and now I'm playing with external voice
recognizing systems which will send commands into PH and retrieve status's. I have
multiple computers communicating with PH, and I have Raspberry Pi systems also
communicating with PH as well.
For me, it's a continuous system to play with while it's also a live and stable and
fully functional system.
This forum has highly valued information from Dave, and other users. It has
discussions of problems, new ideas, multiple methods of performing functions, and new
ideas for new interfaces and new products as well as updates.
As Jeffw said, "Mine is mostly stable..." which is probably true for most ppl. I
suppose that any HA system gets to a point where "it works" and doesn't' need and more
tinkering. But for some of us, especially me, we're the tinkering type and we keep
adding functionality and more devices and new toys and shiny things. For us, this
forum is important and a focal point for users to share and communicate.
This all helps Dave see what the system is being used for, what needs help and what's
important as a product.
In some ways, the lowering post rate shows how strong and stable PH is running. Few
bugs are reported, and a lot of posts now seem to be about new products and
functionality.
Make NO mistake, this forum holds a lot of useful information. Some about methods to
do something, or how PH works internally, or multiply ways to perform some function or
show results.
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jeffw_00
Super User
Joined: June 30 2007
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| Posted: October 31 2017 at 08:52 | IP Logged
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gg102 I agree with all you say, except that I fear that
the decline in posts indicates declining interest in PH,
that people have moved on, that even Dave may have down-
shifted. The mass market likes simple, mobile-based
solutions these days, which may make PH (and us :-( ) a
bit of an anachronism.
I'm very concerned, because best I can tell, there is
nothing, NOTHING, out there that I could migrate to
without giving up much of the system intelligence my wife
and I have come to take for granted. thanks to PH.
That's why I started this post, to see if I could get
some assurance that at least a minimal level of support
will exist going forward. I'd even be willing to pay for
it (like if Dave's next upgrade was a paid thing - no
problem!, but I wonder if enough users would agree with
me for it to matter). Just my $.02
/j
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renard
Groupie
Joined: November 01 2009
Location: United States
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Posts: 74
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| Posted: October 31 2017 at 18:27 | IP Logged
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I agree with all the observations above. I have had a question on the programming forum for several weeks without any response. I am most concerned about Dave who used to respond to almost any question or comment within a day or two but is also absent. Does anyone know if he is OK?
I would second jeffw_00's comment that perhaps it is time for Dave to charge for the next upgrade. He has been exceptionally generous with his support of a software package that he constantly refined and improved with a limited base of users that probably paid their license fee ten years ago (like me). PH is the only non-canned solution that I know is not spying on me and talking about me to the 'mother ship'. It is too valuable to let die because a plug and play solution is more attractive to the non-technically oriented market (99+%). If PH does not move forward and show the newer users the amazing things it can do, it will surely die. I believe it is the responsibility of the old-timers (like me) to talk about the interesting things they are doing and reinvigorate the PH community. There, I said my piece.
__________________
Terry
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dhoward
Admin Group
Joined: June 29 2001
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| Posted: October 31 2017 at 19:13 | IP Logged
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Im still alive and well  . Development still continues on PowerHome albeit at a slowed pace. Ive also been having alot of issues with the
zwave development that is consuming an enormous amount of time.
Ive also been dabbling in some new hardware for Home Automation including IoT, Arduino's, Raspberry Pi's, ESP8266 and would like to
interface these devices with PowerHome as well. Also continue to play with Alexa support and an Android interface. Lots of little projects
taking me in many directions but hoping to bring them all together into PowerHome.
I'll work to be more active on the board. I usually hold off hoping an experienced user might be able to contribute (everyone who has
contributed to this thread is AWESOME btw  ) but some of these questions can probably only be answered by me. I also would love to hear
of your setups and how you've automated and interfaced various systems. Just reading through some of the comments in this thread has really
piqued my interest.
I'll go back through the forum and see what I can do about answering some of the current questions out there.
Dave.
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jeffw_00
Super User
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| Posted: November 01 2017 at 06:50 | IP Logged
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Hi Dave - Happy to hear you're still invested and cooking up new cool things. Looking forward to learning more about them. Later this week I'll start (or contribute to if someone else beats me to it) a post on things I do with PH that couldn't not be done elsewhere.
And yeah, I know support is a headache (which is why we're all offering to pay a bit more), but it's a piece of the puzzle, and sophisticated users have only sophisticated problems. :-) The good news is that they usually happen when we're trying something new, so hopefully you help the first one of us and the rest of us learn from it.
Fortunately, my recent one got solved courtesy of Smarthome escalated support, but if I had a dime for every time they said ", although, we don't support Powerhome", to which I replaced, "well, you -sell- it"... :-)
Anyway - glad to know you're still listening. Let us know what we can do to help promote the product.
/j
PS - I hope, on your to-do list, is still the thing where if you try to unlink a non-longer-accessible device, PH tries to contact it forever (necessitating exiting the program and restoring an old db file). Not an immediate issue, but hopefully for the next release. Thanks!
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gg102
Senior Member
Joined: January 29 2013
Location: United States
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Posts: 245
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| Posted: November 02 2017 at 08:21 | IP Logged
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Dave,
Again and as always, thank you for all your efforts and work.  Good to hear your response here; it retains our confidence.
I would also be comfortable with paid updates.
I have a though that might help you going forward. You said that you're working on Alexa, IOT, RPi and other interfaces. Each of these
devices/interfaces costs you a lot of effort and precious time. Each new interface burdens your development and support. Also, you can't offload
chunks of code work to others.
How about an idea something like this: 
Rather than make a specific interface for each new "thing", you make a general purpose interface. This general purpose interface (GPI) would
allow an external program/device to issue functions, retrieve responses, and be able to receive updates from things like the database, execution
stack, macros, Vars, CC/RCC or house devices like x10, insteon, etc... Basically internally, you would make a PH array that can handle two way
updates. Internal to PH, Macros could be triggered, Global Vars could be updated, the database could handle SQL requests, PH and macros could
then "post' a response back to the GPI array thing for the external device to query. This interface would be a common abstraction interface to
all PH devices, internals and capabilities.
This GPI interface might be accessed by URL routing, SSL sockets, maybe even a flat file. If you somehow receive a GPI packet, you update the
internal GPI array and PH internals responds to it through the execution stack. Make sure that the GPI array has several "custom user data"
fields.
By doing this one new interface, other ppl could write open source "connectors" from their devices like a RPi, Alexa, Weather systems, Washing
Machine, or other HUBs or other new devices not yet developed. A new section could be added to this forum for open source General Purpose
Interfaces (GPIs).
Other programmers could write an external (to PH) device handler. That .EXE might wait for a status/command from the GPI, and if it occurs, it
would operate the device and maybe post a response back to the GPI. The GPI could be setup such that based on some event/trigger, it could
"call/execute/trigger" an external program. Maybe even over time, the internal device handlers could be moved outside PH using the GPI. That
might make supporting device drivers easier to offload.
Using this GPI, a debugger could be externally written, real time database updates or backups could happen, internal devices could be operated,
external devices could be operated and all would use PH as the central repository of database items, house devices, and timed or triggered
events.
Doing this, I would ask you to add some additional database user tables and fields for the user devices.
The idea is that your time could be focused on the main PH system, and others could add and support interfaces to external devices and not use
your time for that. In the long run, it keeps PH 'current', allows interfaces to new shiny things, and allows others to add functionality and
offloads support for those new GPI drivers.
This would require some upfront design work, and you might want to receive input from others...(ppl smarter than me).
Just a thought....
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renard
Groupie
Joined: November 01 2009
Location: United States
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Posts: 74
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| Posted: November 02 2017 at 09:52 | IP Logged
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I like gg102's idea for a standard interface and using non-Dave programmers for the non-PH-core work.
Actually there is good start for the interface with the Add-In facility that has been part of PH for many years. It compiles to a DLL that PH loads at startup and can interface with external programming.
It is probably little used as the source code on the PH website is in VB6. I used the VB2008 VB6->.NET translation facility and it generated a couple of errors that I need to figure out. The Add-In would allow a user to add non-Insteon 'devices' and have them function like any other device in PH.
I have been working on a solar-powered remote sensor package using Adafruit Feather 32U4 Arduino boards that communicate using the 915MHz license-free ISM band with a range out to 100 meters with a 3 inch vertical antenna.
The sensor modeules report to a 32U4 base station when polled and report Battery Voltage, Circuit Board Temperature,1-wire Probe Temperature, Humidity, UV Level, and LUX (visible light level) all using Adafruit chips. The Arduino part of the system is fully functional but I am temporarily stuck with the base Arduino board communicating with the PH add-in using the USB serial port. The problem has to do with the .NET serial port programming as when using a terminal program, the response from the Arduino board is perfect when it is polled.
If we brought the Add-in code up to date with better documentation and defined a standard interface protocol that any program could interface with, working with any external device that that communicates would be easier and possible to do the decentralized resources.
I would be happy to help with this. I am newly retired and have lots to time for coding, testing, and documentation. I am current in Arduino-coding, VB, and could refresh myself in VC++. I have played with
Python but I am not sure it can interface well with the .NET languages.
__________________
Terry
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nick7920
Senior Member
Joined: March 04 2008
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 193
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| Posted: November 03 2017 at 12:49 | IP Logged
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Dave, Glad to see you,
any chance on getting plugin fixed like you mention
almost 2 years ago. that would help me make my Z-wave
working even smother.
Thank you Dave.
Nick
---------------------------------
http://www.power-home.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?
TID=5576&KW=%22patch%22++2%2E1%2E5e+version+in+a+coupl
e&PN=0&TPN=3
dhoward wrote:
Nick,
I need to finish up the Z-Wave support and a few other
bug fixes and improvements. This will be a full
release so will require a new help file, new database
upgrade utility, new install, etc. Its going to be
probably a couple of months before I can pull all that
together.
I might be able to pull the changes into a "patch"
2.1.5e version in a couple of weeks.
Dave.
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Edited by nick7920 - November 03 2017 at 12:51
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dhoward
Admin Group
Joined: June 29 2001
Location: United States
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| Posted: November 09 2017 at 14:18 | IP Logged
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Lot of great ideas posted . I think my planned interface is pretty close to what has been suggested. What Im looking to do is create a plugin
interface for the Controllers section. Similar to how the current plugins interface works, the Controller plugin would allow the user to select a
Controller plugin and the controller would then load a user written plugin DLL that communicates as a controller. This user DLL could be written to
interface with sockets, serial ports, etc. and would communicate to the internal controller routines to fire triggers and perform device updates. I think
this will go a long way to allowing the more technical savvy users better support their custom hardware and the like.
Terry, check in your c:\powerhome directory and see if you have a plugin_source directory. Under that should be a phplugin_net directory with a sample
plugin in C# as well as instructions on how to register it. This should help get you going to writing your own plugin (I would LOVE to see a user
developed plugin ). If you do tackle this, just let me know and I'll work with you to get you going.
Nick, I re-read the thread you posted to catch up on where we are. I basically just need to get the next version out in order for the plugin framework
fix to be available. I'll do some checking though to see if there is anything I can turn around quickly.
Dave.
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BeachBum
Super User
Joined: April 11 2007
Location: United States
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Posts: 1880
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| Posted: December 09 2017 at 04:37 | IP Logged
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I'm still waiting for Alexa with baited breath...
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Topic: So what’s up with this message board
