#14405 - 01/02/06 11:28 AM
ADI New Equipment
|
Chris Anderson
addict
Registered: 01/08/04
Posts: 483
Loc: Michigan
|
Sure wish Adicon would announce some new products this year! I am hoping for:
Color touchscreen
More memory for icons and touch objects
2 way RS-232 Bobcat
UPB support
Bobcat to interface with RCS serial thermostats
(or an Adicon serial thermostat)
I purchased an RCS Commstar unit to interface with my RCS thermostat just because there was no other convenient way to do it. As a result, I have been looking at RCS stuff lately. They are introducing some great new stuff. Hope Adicon catches up. My whole system is primarily Adicon based and this support forum can't be beat. Maybe someone from Adicon can let us know what's in the hopper?
Chris
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#14408 - 01/02/06 07:51 PM
Re: ADI New Equipment
|
John Warner
old hand
Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 788
Loc: Port Perry, Ontario, Canada
|
Hi Dan!
I'd REALLY like to see the ADI X10 interface talked about a couple of years ago. While I appreciate that there are several new alternatives to X10, none of them are as ubiquitous or affordable! 
Is this still in the works or did it die in the planning phase? 
Here's the thread:
ADI X10 interface
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#14409 - 01/03/06 06:36 AM
Re: ADI New Equipment
|
KenC
newbie
Registered: 12/12/04
Posts: 8
|
This stuff would be great. I really like the idea of an ADI thermostat and the ethernet module.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#14411 - 01/03/06 07:32 AM
Re: ADI New Equipment
|
Chris Anderson
addict
Registered: 01/08/04
Posts: 483
Loc: Michigan
|
Dan,
Thanks for the update!
Chris
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#14412 - 01/03/06 07:27 PM
Re: ADI New Equipment
|
John Warner
old hand
Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 788
Loc: Port Perry, Ontario, Canada
|
Hi Guy!
I think the operative word in your post is slowly ?
My house has a ton of X10 gear some of which has been in place for 15 years! Like others, I'd love to replace it with something more reliable but would be willing to bet most of it will still be there in another 15 years? So far, I haven't seen an alternative that even comes close to X10 wrt affordability...
As much as we all love to hate X10, they've sold boatloads of the stuff and it would sure be nice to have a way to improve its reliability! 
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#14414 - 01/04/06 06:27 AM
Re: ADI New Equipment
|
thutchins
junior
Registered: 01/10/03
Posts: 28
|
Guy,
I agree that X10 is no longer the lone horse in the race from a device standpoint, however, until we get the interfaces to the new protocols for use with the ADI equipment, that effectively makes X10 the only horse that works with the ADI equipment.
I bought some Z-Wave stuff quite a while back (at least a year or 2) and have not seen any way to interface them to ADI (have to run Homeseer separately just for the Z-Wave). Have recently bought several Insteon devices and the only way to use them with ADI is as X10.
I would really prefer to be using some of the newer protocols because they appear to be greatly improved vs X10 but until ADI supports them why throw any more money away on great devices that are not supported?
BTW, would really love to see a super reliable thermostat interface with ADI. With the price of energy the way it is I'm finding that even my programmable thermostat is limiting my ability to customize for the best energy savings!!!
But a thermostat must be as rock solid as possible.
Tom
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#14416 - 01/04/06 07:12 AM
Re: ADI New Equipment
|
thutchins
junior
Registered: 01/10/03
Posts: 28
|
That being said, support for new protocols - specifically Insteon (since their switches are thinner and so easier to install and they appear to be very reliable) - would be at the very top of my wish list!!!!!
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#14417 - 01/04/06 02:55 PM
Re: ADI New Equipment
|
wlj
junior
Registered: 09/24/03
Posts: 28
Loc: NC
|
Hi Dan,
The single greatest limitation of the Ocelot, IMHO, is the lack of a bi-directional, buffered, configurable RS-232 interface. With such an interface, users would theoretically be able to interface with any sort of external controller that provides an RS-232 interface (thermostats, lighting controllers, alarm systems, amplifiers, etc.).
Since we're throwing our pennies into the wishing well, please don't forget about the C-Max enhacements described here.
Thanks,
-Bill
[subliminal]Bi-directional RS-232  [/subliminal]
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#14421 - 01/04/06 05:42 PM
Re: ADI New Equipment
|
Chris Anderson
addict
Registered: 01/08/04
Posts: 483
Loc: Michigan
|
Dan,
Yes I would pay more for more features. How about offering a 1 way serial Bobcat and an upgraded 2 way (more expensive) Bobcat? We often hear that a color touchscreen is more expensive, well how about a monochrome screen and a color screen in the line up? Maybe that's more product than you care to support but having some up level components in the product fortfolio may drive some additioanl sales $$.
I fear the competition may catch us as well. I'm a long time Adicon user but some of the competition's recent offerings look pretty tasty. I'm hoping you can continue to make Adicon's offerings fresh, relevant and interesting to the user community. Let's face it, we're really just a bunch of boys looking for the newest toy to play with (OK, I said it) I think you could sell the buh-geebers out of some of stuff the guys are asking for on this forum.
Plus I'll make a bold prediction here: "UPB, with it's superior reliability, will QUICKLY be accepted by the home automation community as the standard for non-hard wired lighting resulting in a rapid fall in component prices, a rapid rise in the types of componens offered and a resulting rapid demise of X-10." I think X-10 will fall to the wayside as quickly as tape cassettes did when CD's came out.
What are some other opinions? Chris
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#14423 - 01/11/06 06:24 AM
Re: ADI New Equipment
|
Brian Raynor
addict
Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 454
Loc: Columbia, SC
|
Here's my 2 cents on the matters (been a while since I've posted):
Regarding the 2 way serial Bobcat... I'd take a cue from what others have done. The approach Dan mentioned about defining strings and having it match them is probably a good one.
This is exactly how things like the HAI OmniPro II does it with ProLink. You define the strings you want it to match, and in your program in a WHEN clause you look to see if it matched. Works VERY well and I'm using this with a Leopard II to integrate the two together directly over a serial port.
However, the ISSUE with the way the OPII does it is the strings are static. ie: if I want to have an external device send variable data to it, I can't do so, at least without defining a string for EVERYTHING to match. (other issues too, unlike the Leo/Ocelot, OPII can't SEND variable data out the serial port).
So Dan's other idea about having a string match that allowed variable data would be ideal. This would allow things like having an external device send temperature (ie: something like "T: %d" where %d would match an integer) and have the integer stored in a variable.
This would also allow you to save on strings where the external system might be sending a similar string, but with a status variable (ie: security system sending its current mode for instance).
If this is done, it also might be nice to allow the variable to not only be an integer (probably allow both signed and unsigned BTW so things like temp could get reported back to the Leo/Ocelot), but also allow a single character to be matched as its ASCII code. Some serial devices are so simple and only send a single character to denote status. So basically, perhaps allow coding "%d" (signed integer), "%u" (unsigned integer), and "%c" for matching in a string.
This would be the single biggest improvement I could see for these devices as it would allow for easy integration into third party products, something that sometimes is difficult with the Ocelot/Leopard unless its one way only...
Also along these lines, would be nice if the +V command actually allowed setting variables to more then 999 (its documented to work up to 9999, but doesn't that I can tell - get garbage as a result with anything about 0999 sent in a +V). Would be nice if +V and other ASCII commands were documented also as these are great for integration. And also might be nice if the ASCII bobcat could be able to support the ASCII command as well and send to the Master Ocelot/Leo. Perhaps with a parameter to turn this on or off. Thus you could use an ASCII Bobcat instead of the Leo/Ocelot built in port for some things. Not sure if that is possible.
Will put my other ideas in a separate post.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#14424 - 01/11/06 06:46 AM
Re: ADI New Equipment
|
Brian Raynor
addict
Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 454
Loc: Columbia, SC
|
Here's some ideas I think would be VERY useful, most of these are Leopard based and most would only be firmware changes (assuming enough memory is left):
* Ability through the serial port to place a bitmap anywhere on the current screen (X, Y coords). While it could simply be used to allow an already downloaded bitmap to be displayed (and this in itself would be wonderful), would be nice if over the serial port you could also dynamically send the bitmap to be displayed. But I'd be happy just seeing it able to do this with a current bitmap. Also - ability to do this over the ASCII inteface as well (say +Bxxxyyybbb where xxx is the x-coord and yyy is y-coord of upper left position to display at and bbb is the bitmap number that was defined in CMAX).
* Ability in CMAX AND over the serial port to play a sound of freq X for duration Y. WOuld allow you to do different types of beeps out the Leopard - to be notified of different things.
* Ability to have the X,Y coordinates where someone touched sent back out over the serial port, or sent to a variable(s) for CMAX programs. NOT just the "touch squares", but the 320x200 pixel location - saw where the Leo II has this ability in hardware (whereas the Leo I did not). Would love to see this implemented.
* Ability for a CMAX program (as well as making this avaialble over a serial port) to be able to have some basic drawing primitives to draw lines (pass it X1, Y1, X2, Y2, and 0 or 1 (light or dark), pixels (X, y, and 0 or 1), and perhaps other more advanced objects (ovals, rectangles, though actually lines and pixels would be fine). If you do rectangles then the ability to do an outline or filled rectangle would be nice. Would allow presenting graphical status much easier (ie: the old fuel gauge concept, but without needing all the icons and a lot more accuracy).
* Ability from a Leo CMAX program to put text from a string to ANY location on the screen (X,Y coords) specifying the size for it to be displayed (would also be nice if there is an option to wrap text to the following lines if it were too long or to concat it). This is sorely needed.
* Ability from the ASCII serial commands to put text anywhere on the screen. Can do this from the binary protocol, but would be very nice to do this from ASCII. Binary protocol doesn't work when integrating with a lot of serial devices.
* Touch screen that supports either HTML or some form of XML. Would require an Ethernet port. Idea is that an external web server could serve up the application. Idea is NOT to allow you to surf the web from your Leopard though. If anyone is familiar with the capabilities of the Cisco IP phones (7940, 7960, and above), this is basically what I would like to see. Ability for the Leopard to hit a web server to display its pages, even if its in a proprietary XML format (like CiscoXML for their phones) that would be fine. In fact, Cisco XML would actually be ideal to support on a Leopard - assuming Cisco hasn't patented it. Overall this should not be hard to implement nor should it require any additional hardware other than an Ethernet port (and would be nice if the Ethernet port was in ADDITION to the serial - ie: Ethernet port could be used to get app from web server, serial port could be used for integration to other devices). In fact, I would imagine it MIGHT be possible to get an existing Leopard to do this with a firmware upgrade (and serial->Ethernet converter), assuming there is enough memory left for a firmware upgrade. Take a look at the CiscoXML spec (I can send it if you like) if you want more information on what I'm talking about.
Also - it would REALLY be nice if these XML tags could then access Leopard information, setting/reading variables, controlling X10 and modules, etc. CiscoXML allows the app to access Cisco phone objects as well (control phone buttons, etc).
(Some of this would be possible today if you wrote an app on a server to communicate with the Leopard and then access a web server where it woudl update the Leo accordingly, but issue there too is that you CAN'T do somethings on a Leopard over a serial port (to my knowledge), such as place a bitmap at a certain location on the screen, etc).
I've been searching for a LOW COST, touch screen device that would do this, haven't found any yet. For my purposes Monochrome would be fine, though color is nice.
And let me say that I know there is a commercial market for such a critter. I know of hotels (especially boutique hotels in SanFran) that are using Cisco phones where the guests can control blinds, heating and air, etc all from the phone screen. Very easy to do this integration...
Biggest advantage with something like this is that it would be SIMPLE to write an application that run on the Leopard with this. CMAX isn't too bad, but its still a new skill, requires new tricks to do seemingly simple things, etc. Of course downside is that with XML/HTML you would need an external server, but perhaps that could be optional. Allow CMAX program to run as it does not, but if it changes to a certain screen (say screen 100), then instead it will hit a URL that was specified when you programmed it and serve up that page instead. The web app in an XML tag could then change variable 63 to go back to the CMAX screens if it wanted.
If someone doesn't come up with something like this soon, I might have to put the parts together and see about doing it. Shouldn't be too hard really as all the components are widely available. Definitely see a market for this.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
Moderator: Dan Smith, Monte G, ADI Tech Support, Guy Lavoie
|
1 registered
(Jerry200)
and 3 anonymous users online.
|
|
2466 Members
19 Forums
3458 Topics
20550 Posts
Max Online: 58 @ 12/05/07 03:33 PM
|
|
|
