Hello Everyone,
I'm a newbie in the arena of home automation and was hoping to learn
from someone with expertise. My goal is to automate my house and be
able to control everything remotely over the web.

I am a programmer by profression and would like to write most of the
app myself using the x10 JAVA API available (or perhaps use the ALICE
implementation). However, before spending cash, I wanted to ask peoples
experience with which is the better format to use?

Anyone have an opinionon which is better?

also...

could I use the powerlinc USB controller instead of serial?
http://www.smarthome.com/1132CU.html

Thanks for your help guys.
-matt

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 11:54:35 -0800, matthewmacchia wrote:

> Hello Everyone,
> I'm a newbie in the arena of home automation and was hoping to learn
> from someone with expertise. My goal is to automate my house and be
> able to control everything remotely over the web.
> 
> I am a programmer by profression and would like to write most of the
> app myself using the x10 JAVA API available (or perhaps use the ALICE
> implementation). However, before spending cash, I wanted to ask peoples
> experience with which is the better format to use?
> 
> Anyone have an opinionon which is better?
> 
> also...
> 
> could I use the powerlinc USB controller instead of serial?
> http://www.smarthome.com/1132CU.html
> 
> Thanks for your help guys.
> -matt

AFAIK, Smarthome has never published the interface specs
for their PowerLinc, so DIY programmers are out of luck.

Take a look at the MisterHouse project.  It's Open Source
and written in Perl and probably already has most of what you
need. (http://w3.misterhouse.com:81).  

Ahhhh,
I saw that while browsing around, and it looks pretty full featured.
However, if I want to modify it to fit my evil needs it will be a pain.
So, I'm hoping to find a full fledged java solution.
I really need to know what is the best setup for this?

What x10 package is best to use with Alice?
Can ALICE use the newest ActiveHome interface CM19A?
http://www.activehomepro.com/activehome-pro.html
I want to cover all my bases before I buy anything.
thanks!
-matt

On 28 Dec 2004 11:54:35 -0800, matthewmacchia@hotmail.com wrote:

>Hello Everyone,
>I'm a newbie in the arena of home automation and was hoping to learn
>from someone with expertise. My goal is to automate my house and be
>able to control everything remotely over the web.
>
>I am a programmer by profression and would like to write most of the
>app myself using the x10 JAVA API available (or perhaps use the ALICE
>implementation). However, before spending cash, I wanted to ask peoples
>experience with which is the better format to use?
>
>Anyone have an opinionon which is better?

Controlling a firecracker over the net is pretty simple and just
needs a web server like apache to do the cgi work. A little over
half way down the below page is some info on using batch files to
do command line control of the firecracker.

http://www.geocities.com/zoomkat/

matthewmacchia@hotmail.com wrote in news:1104276644.254609.67390
@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

> Ahhhh,
> I saw that while browsing around, and it looks pretty full featured.
> However, if I want to modify it to fit my evil needs it will be a pain.
> So, I'm hoping to find a full fledged java solution.
> I really need to know what is the best setup for this?
> 
> What x10 package is best to use with Alice?
> Can ALICE use the newest ActiveHome interface CM19A?
> http://www.activehomepro.com/activehome-pro.html
> I want to cover all my bases before I buy anything.
> thanks!
> -matt

Matt, I've just spent the last few weeks going through what you're 
facing. Alice is a nice app, but has poor separation of model, view, 
controller, so you either use it as is, or you have a lot of dead-weight 
code you don't need...in which case you strip Alice to its X10 core which 
is the X10 code written by Jesse Peterson, so you might as well use that 
by itself.

There are several other java x10 packages out there, but none are in good 
shape compare to Peterson. So Peterson it is...

I wrote a web service based on X10, using the Peterson code. Works ok, 
but X10 is a very unreliable system. (Ok, we used the cheap X10 sh*t to 
get going, rather than exploring the better hardware; still a newbie ;-) 
Basically, a light is either "off" or "maybe on". I have a 2-way switch 
that promises to let you know if the bulb burns out, but it doesn't; it 
only tells you if you turned a light on that was off; it does not tell 
you if it turned a light off that was on. So its PITA, POS or newbie, 
don't know which :-)

FWIW, my company has some internet technology that lets us write apps 
that run on desktops and/or pocketPCs and we're using the X10 technology 
as a demo to prove we're not a locked in framework. So now I have a java 
app that runs on desktop or pocketPC and models a "house" with a list of 
devices which can be controlled and/or respond to events from the X10 
system. So we go java app to web-service-client (our app's external 
interface) to web-service-server (the X10 web-servive) to X10. And its 
two-way since we send commands and receive events.

We went CM11A, so we could control and receive events via serial port. It 
was a safe initial choice, since we could not afford protocol problems. 
Cm19A is what? The usb device or the wireless firecracker? The wireless 
firecracker cannot receive events, so that was fatal for us. And java <-> 
usb is still in infancy; it may be trivial, it may be nightmare, I don't 
know. If you google the subject you get very worried.

Sorry, I brain dumped a bit without directly addressing your issues. 
Clarify back and we'll both learn something...

On Tue, 28 Dec 2004 15:30:44 -0800, matthewmacchia wrote:

> Ahhhh,
> I saw that while browsing around, and it looks pretty full featured.
> However, if I want to modify it to fit my evil needs it will be a pain.
> So, I'm hoping to find a full fledged java solution.
> I really need to know what is the best setup for this?
> 
> What x10 package is best to use with Alice?
> Can ALICE use the newest ActiveHome interface CM19A?
> http://www.activehomepro.com/activehome-pro.html
> I want to cover all my bases before I buy anything.
> thanks!
> -matt

Alice currently appears to support only the CM17A (Firecracker)
and CM11A (old ActiveHome), not the new CM15A (ActiveHome Pro).

(The CM19A is a USB transceiver of sorts, but I don't know much
about its capabilities.)

The CM17A Firecracker is a transmit-only device, and supports
only the basic On/Off/Dim/Bright/LightsOn/LightsOff/AllOff X10
commands. (LightsOff is accepted only by 2-way modules).

If you want to use any of the Preset (SwitchLinc/LampLinc modules)
or Extended Code (LM14A/AM14A modules) commands or Status requests
for 2-way modules, or monitor received X10 signals, you'll need
the CM11A.  But I don't know to what extent Alice supports these
commands either.

That is exactly the kind of info I am looking for, Thanks!

Cm19A I believe is the newer protocol used to control the ActiveHome
USB pc interface?
Is that incorrect? Here is where I got that information:
http://www.activehomepro.com/activehome-pro.html

So, what I guess the next questions are...
What products did you use to connect?
You used serial and you didn't have any problems (conflicts etc)?
Did you try it with any multi state resources like thermostat?
What other protocols are there other than x10?
Thanks for your help! I really appreciate it.

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 10:08:02 -0800, matthewmacchia wrote:

> Cm19A I believe is the newer protocol used to control the ActiveHome
> USB pc interface?
> Is that incorrect? Here is where I got that information:
> http://www.activehomepro.com/activehome-pro.html

The CM19A is a piece of hardware.  There undoubtedly
is a protocol for communicating with it, but it hasn't been
publicly released by X10.

This is probably what you're referring to on that web page:

" ... This interface will send and receive ALL 256 house/unit
codes and even take the place of the PC Transceiver (CM19A) for
controlling X10 Cameras."

The ActiveHome Pro (CM15A) can receive and transmit RF, so can
perform the functions of the CM19A transceiver.  But that's the
only relationship between the two devices.  The CM19A connects
only to a USB port and cannot receive or transmit X10 commands
over the power line as can the CM15A.

Note that the protocol for communicating with the CM15A has yet
to be released by X10, however they've stated that it's coming.
(Several hackers who frequent this newsgroup have made some
progress in figuring it out though.)

> Note that the protocol for communicating with the CM15A has yet
> to be released by X10, however they've stated that it's coming.

Where?  All I've ever seen is their use of it via the windows-only SDK.

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 14:15:27 -0500, wkearney99 wrote:

> 
>> Note that the protocol for communicating with the CM15A has yet
>> to be released by X10, however they've stated that it's coming.
> 
> Where?  All I've ever seen is their use of it via the windows-only SDK.

They've made statements to that effect in the AHP Forums.
(I realize this can't be taken as an official committment by 
X10 Inc.)

On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 14:15:27 -0500, wkearney99 wrote:
> 
>> Note that the protocol for communicating with the CM15A has yet
>> to be released by X10, however they've stated that it's coming.
> 
> Where?  All I've ever seen is their use of it via the windows-only SDK.

One of X10's rep's in the X10 SDK forum posted stating that X10 would
give out the technical details at a future date.

As for the details of the CM15A, you'll find them here:

http://homeauto.usandthem.com/
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/common/cm15d/cm15d.html

The first page is Woody Wilson's and the second is mine. I did start
doing some work on the CM19A and you'll find that here:

http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/common/cm15d/cm19a-libusb.tgz

I haven't had time to put together the info on the CM19A but I did
find some very useful info in a CM19A java package but I'll be dang'd
if I can find the link. I'll have to post that to the page also.

-- 
Linux Home Automation         Neil Cherry       ncherry@comcast.net
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/               (Text only)
http://hcs.sourceforge.net/                     (HCS II)
http://linuxha.blogspot.com/                    My HA Blog