2014-07-05, 04:57
The Problem
So after a few days of trying to get the home automation working I was getting a bit frustrated.
Before getting into CE I had been looking to figure out what software I wanted to use for my Z-Wave.
I bought the Aeon Labs Z-Stick without thinking about how I was going to interface with it.
I had looked at a couple open source options like OpenHAB and OSA, and zVirtualScenes because of CE.
zVirtualScenes was the only one I actually got working and it worked pretty well but I never got around to getting EG to control it.
I didn't like the idea of using EG as a middle man to receive one command just to send a different command to zVS.
Plus EG had crashed on me several times and I had to redo some settings that weren't saved.
On top of that the open source options just lacked a level of polish and ease of use that a pay for app would have.
So I went looking for another solution.
My solution(I hope.)
I remembered one of the Amazon reviews for the Z-Stick mentioned a free version of a retail program called InControl.
Link is here.
It is limited to 10 devices but I only have two dimmers so that's fine by me.
Plus it has a great looking Android app.
With a little Google searching I found this page where there was a request of the company to integrate XBMC.
While that has not panned out yet some one did post some code for how to integrate it DIY style.
The best part is InControl can be remotely controlled via URL requests.
So as a down and dirty test I grabbed one line out of the code, modified it to my setup, and dropped it in place of the UDP broadcast line.
The result? ... It worked! First Attempt!
Here's an example:
With just that I was able to control my lights and with out any middle man.
I think the urllib2 import for the SabNZBd code is what makes this such a copy\paste drop-in fix.
I'm still working out the dim level and timing but it's looking real good so far.
So after a few days of trying to get the home automation working I was getting a bit frustrated.
Before getting into CE I had been looking to figure out what software I wanted to use for my Z-Wave.
I bought the Aeon Labs Z-Stick without thinking about how I was going to interface with it.
I had looked at a couple open source options like OpenHAB and OSA, and zVirtualScenes because of CE.
zVirtualScenes was the only one I actually got working and it worked pretty well but I never got around to getting EG to control it.
I didn't like the idea of using EG as a middle man to receive one command just to send a different command to zVS.
Plus EG had crashed on me several times and I had to redo some settings that weren't saved.
On top of that the open source options just lacked a level of polish and ease of use that a pay for app would have.
So I went looking for another solution.
My solution(I hope.)
I remembered one of the Amazon reviews for the Z-Stick mentioned a free version of a retail program called InControl.
Link is here.
It is limited to 10 devices but I only have two dimmers so that's fine by me.
Plus it has a great looking Android app.
With a little Google searching I found this page where there was a request of the company to integrate XBMC.
While that has not panned out yet some one did post some code for how to integrate it DIY style.
The best part is InControl can be remotely controlled via URL requests.
So as a down and dirty test I grabbed one line out of the code, modified it to my setup, and dropped it in place of the UDP broadcast line.
The result? ... It worked! First Attempt!
Here's an example:
Code:
# Script Start
if trigger == "Script Start" and ha_settings[ "ha_script_start" ]:
# place code below this line
urllib2.urlopen('http://192.168.0.100:1178/zwave/activateSceneGet?sceneName=Dim%20Lights')
pass
With just that I was able to control my lights and with out any middle man.
I think the urllib2 import for the SabNZBd code is what makes this such a copy\paste drop-in fix.
I'm still working out the dim level and timing but it's looking real good so far.