While I for sure cannot tell you which architecture is "right", I am currently _trying_ to implement something similar using an external process, connecting to DCE router with two connections.

The main reason is that I find it easier to manage code in an external file, specially with vi over an SSH connection or running the device on a separate machine. It could also make multi-threading easier (though as Bulek said above, there have been examples of multi-threaded code in GSD).

What I am lacking at the moment is a clear view on how to access device data via the DCE. I have set it up so far via SQL queries, which is breaking away from the client/server model.

In another thread http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=6899.msg42888#msg42888, Hari suggested to have a look at the general plugin, which I didn't have time to do yet.

My goal is remote control of lmce via IM btw.

Bulek,

I'm pretty sure it was not recorded because of technical issues. Next time, I suggest to use Webex. I'm just a bit biased

Ddamron, Tschak, would you have something to get us started ?

I would like to build a DCE device with a scripting language, and because there is already a lot of ruby code for this that will be my choice. However I don't want to have it embedded like a GSD device and have the code stored in the database, I would like to have instead a standalone script in /usr/pluto/bin as I find it easier to work on than using the web GUI.

Which files can I include to benefit from the same method definitions as when running a GSD? Is there such a library of ruby methods that allow connection to the router, DB, send/receive messages and events ?

any pointers welcome...
(I so would like that the ruby/LMCE tutorial webcast had been recorded

On a related topic, when writing a DCE device, is it really bad to have it access the database directly? Or should I really stick to using DCE messages to get the info I need (list of lamps, rooms, etc)?

thanks !

I may be wrong here, this is what I understood.

- If you have 8.10, you can run your zwave dongle in SIS mode, and then LMCE can include the zwave devices without a remote. If you have an inclusion remote like the tricklestar, it will allow you to include devices that are too far from your core.

- If you use an earlier version of the zwave driver, you need a zwave controller to include the devices (Hari, correct me here...). I used a ZTH200 and then downloaded the network info to LMCE using the "download configuration option"

- If you don't want to buy a remote, some windows software will indeed allow you to include devices using your dongle. This depends on the type of dongle too. It is the case for the seluxit software, that runs only with the seluxit dongle. But there are other packages around that can do it

Caiman

Hi Hari,

In my next install I want to try SIS mode with a tricklestar inclusion remote and Danfoss thermostat (Xmas is coming fast .
Would you mind sharing the steps required to install such a setup ? I guess I will reset my network completely and the use the MessageSend CLI to re-include all nodes and create the necessary associations, but I'm not sure which DCE commands are available, and in which order it's best to use them?

Are there commands to test the quality of a link, or to view the routing table ?

I quickly checked the wiki, but didn't find much about the DCE commands to use for this. Any pointers welcome

thanks,
Sam

So the dependency on "slimserver" should become a dependency on "squeezecenter", do I understand that correctly?

as far as I understand, yes, that should be it.

Thanks Luke.

Let me paste here the commands I have put in to install the streamer for the benefit of others

Code:

dpkg -i --ignore-depends=slimserver /usr/pluto/deb-cache/pluto-slim-serverstreamer_2.0.0.44.0804112200_i386.deb

Now I have all three packages installed:

Code:

dcerouter_73xxx:~# dpkg -l | grep slim
ii  pluto-slim-server-streamer                 2.0.0.44.0804112200                  <insert up to 60 chars description>
ii  pluto-slimserver-plugin                    2.0.0.44.0804112200                  <insert up to 60 chars description>
rc  slimserver                                 6.5.4                                Streaming Audio Server
dcerouter_73943:~# dpkg -l | grep squeeze
ii  squeezecenter                              7.2.1                                Streaming Audio Server

so last night I just added the following line to /etc/apt/sources.list :

Code:

deb http://debian.slimdevices.com stable main

and installed squeezecenter via apt

Code:

apt-get update
apt-get install squeezecenter

then I changed the CLI port and music directories in the squeezecenter web GUI as explained on the wiki. Rebooted, and both my the squeezebox and my boom seem to work fine.

Anything wrong with that ?

Oh yes, I did not re-install yet the pluto-slimserver-streamer package as I didn't have the .deb at hand. Do I need it ?

Caiman

Hi Hari,

I've just compiled from svn, here are my first impressions, with a somehow larger z-wave network (a bit below 20 nodes, some at the edge of reachability).
- The polling works (thank you !), I see the devices being polled, and I could see in the logs that the first run has updated the internal status of some devices
- 30 seconds seems a bit short because with that number of devices, we are almost continuously seeing activity on the zwave device. IMHO every few minutes would be enough
- I saw only a few devices respond (7-8). I didn't get time to look carefully at which ones responded and which ones didn't
- I haven't tested changing a device manually because I'm at work, will test tonight. Back to work now

Sam

Hi Thom,

this looks promising, and opens a door to many possibilities. Will test it ASAP.
Thanks for sharing !

Sam

Hari,

the download configuration functionality seems to be working great. It took some time (about 30 sec) between the moment the primary controller said "sent successfully" and the moment when the ZWave driver showed any logs, but they were all there.
Btw the logs are nice, you can get a good idea of what's going on behind the scenes.

I had one of the switches that stopped responding for a while (it would work once or twice after router reload, then stop responding) but now it started working again so I'm not sure what happened. All seems ok now.

Great work!
Sam

Had the same problem after changing the motherboard and NIC, and thanks to the comments above, I found that there was already a udev file that was forcing the names to the NIC, and it had incorrect entries:

Code:

/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

could you trigger that bug from the old driver where your devices got out of order and disappeared? It never happened for me with the original pluto driver..

I have reloaded the router a couple of times, and rebooted the core, and the last two devices did not get a new plutoID assigned, they kept the same. So it seems to be fixed 
Now as soon as the "download configuration" feature is available, I will test it and see if this still stands.

Sam

Hi Jean,

try this:

Code:

/usr/pluto/bin/MessageSend localhost 0 -1000 7 1

Hi Hari,

I just wanted to confirm that after about one week of using your new ZWave code (rev 21253), I confirm it is working great!

What works great:
- PIR sensor
- normal control of switches and dimmers (I use ACT homepro)
- update on the floorplan when using "all on" or "all off" on the zwave remote

Having the possibility to poll the status of the devices on request or on a regular basis would be extremely useful, so we could get floorplan updates also when individual devices are switched on/off locally. As you suggested, the driver could generate an event to notify DCE about the status of the device polled. Even if there's a delay it's not a big deal. It would allow the floorplan to show accurate status most of the time.

For those who want to test it, you need to have a small wrapper for the ZWave binary to force it to use the freshly compiled libraries, or it will segfault

Code:

~$ cat /usr/pluto/bin/ZWave
#!/bin/bash
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/me/src/lmce-source/charon-merge/src/lib
/usr/pluto/bin/ZWave.hari $@

Once again Hari, THANK YOU for this great piece of work !
Sam