Author Topic: Strange device states for Climate and Lighting devices  (Read 4841 times)

bulek

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Strange device states for Climate and Lighting devices
« on: July 02, 2008, 11:00:14 pm »
Hi,

I'm adding devices to floorplan on 710 RC2 fresh install and spot, that some problems keep appearing also in RC2:



1. Climate devices (I mean Temperature Sensor and Standard Thermostat) show weird, complex states - for example: "OFF/AUTO/AUTO/25 (0.0)" for thermostat...
 To recreate for my case:
   - add Temperature sensor device to your system and add it to Climate Floorplan
   - Check ID and send proper event :  /usr/pluto/bin/MessageSend dcerouter ID -1000 2 25 30 16.2 (replace ID with actual ID of sensor)
   - you'll get AUTO/AUTO and (16.2) below and this string in device state "ON/AUTO/AUTO/25 (16.2)"

Same happens for Thermostat - State is too complex.... This worked before, something happened between Betas and RCs....



2. Thermostat device to specific ?
- Currently thermostat device includes also fan control and mode control. This is pretty specific, and since controls that are displayed on right of floorplan are hardcoded and therefore always appear, they can confuse many users (maybe jsut wanting to heat water), cause probably they don't need so many controls. I guess it would be at least at the start be better to have simple devices and then add more complex ones. It seems that Standard Jacuzzi or Pool templates have more appropriate floorplan commands for thermostat (Auto/On/Off/+/-). It would be tremendous improvment it floorplan controls could be selectable - just like we can add commands to templates and devices...



3. Lighting devices :
  - I've added Brightness sensor (Template #1745) and it has state of either ON or OFF and can be switched with floorplan controls of ONLY On and Off (this is pretty much desirec for lighting switch device, that shows also dimming controls despite the fact that it is only on/off device). So therefore, this behavour would be welcomed for lighting switch ,and brightness sensor should probably show something between 0% and 100%...



4. Is it possible to add new device template, determine(select) controls that will be shown on floorplan and make this going without make heavy modifications of plugins ?

5. Yesterday I chatted with Tschak, and I mentioned my wish that such parts of the system that are not time critical (showing devices on floorplan certainly isn't - we even have IP cameras on GSD) - it would be really nice to have possibility to write such support for various devices via embedded Ruby engine. All changes in this field happen really slowly cause it takes experienced developer to do anything... In case of this possibility I will surely contribute support for several devices and I'm sure also other will...

What I've learned is that GSD is probably the best thing that happened to our project (beside when Pluto decided to open their closed system). I see that many users contribute Ruby snippets, quite some docs is present... So I wish that this would be extended also to other parts of the system - in my case I miss proper floorplan support for various devices badly... I'm also thinking about rewrite Motion-Wrapper with much more features in Ruby and also Slimserver plugin (currently integration is pretty limited) and then why not tackle Climate plugin, cause it will be much easier to maintain and develope - not to mention fancy features like Auto Lighting, Ambiental Intelligence...

Ease of contribution is major advantage of successful projects like Misterhouse (you can code anything in virtualy minutes) Freevo, etc... - those project gave full priority to offer good, easy extendable framework for a wider community members to be efficient contributors..

I'd be happy to hear your opinions and of course opinions of those that make our lives easier - main developers - they're doing really great job...

I'd also be glad to hear if currently any option exists that I could influence device appearance on floorplan through Ruby embedded engine ?



I'd also ask if one developer can make small correction of Brightness and Temperature sensor templates - They need to be controlled by category of Interface-Specialized (that's where I put my home automation controller - is this right choice ?)

Currently I use dirty workaround, where almost any device is either dimlight or switchlight - so I end up with cluttered Lighting floorplans and pretty empty other floorplans (except temps, thermostats and sprinklers on Climate floorplan)...

Any opinion ?

Thanks in advance,

regards,

Bulek.




« Last Edit: July 03, 2008, 12:12:25 pm by bulek »
Thanks in advance,

regards,

Bulek.

jondecker76

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Re: Strange device states for Climate and Lighting devices
« Reply #1 on: July 03, 2008, 12:33:34 pm »
Quote
1. Climate devices (I mean Temperature Sensor and Standard Thermostat) show weird, complex states - for example: "OFF/AUTO/AUTO/25 (0.0)" for thermostat...
 To recreate for my case:
   - add Temperature sensor device to your system and add it to Climate Floorplan
   - Check ID and send proper event :  /usr/pluto/bin/MessageSend dcerouter ID -1000 2 25 30 16.2 (replace ID with actual ID of sensor)
   - you'll get AUTO/AUTO and (16.2) below and this string in device state "ON/AUTO/AUTO/25 (16.2)"

Same happens for Thermostat - State is too complex.... This worked before, something happened between Betas and RCs....

Here is the svn log for recent Climate_Plugin.cpp changes(this is where OSD for floorplan icons is set)... Doesn't look like much has changed really
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r19791 | danielk | 2008-02-25 17:14:06 -0500 (Mon, 25 Feb 2008) | 3 lines

This commit creates a branch to merge the fixes and improvements from the charonmedia repo over to the linuxmce repo.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
r18787 | eugenc | 2007-11-19 10:43:24 -0500 (Mon, 19 Nov 2007) | 1 line

Z-Wave clean up.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r17943 | eugenc | 2007-09-11 12:08:47 -0400 (Tue, 11 Sep 2007) | 1 line

Climate support using the device ZTT000 HomePro (or Cam-Stat equivalent).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r15098 | aaron | 2007-03-08 14:39:47 -0500 (Thu, 08 Mar 2007) | 1 line

migrate g_pPlutoLogger to LoggerWrapper Singleton



Quote
2. Thermostat device to specific ?
- Currently thermostat device includes also fan control and mode control. This is pretty specific, and since controls that are displayed on right of floorplan are hardcoded and therefore always appear, they can confuse many users (maybe jsut wanting to heat water), cause probably they don't need so many controls. I guess it would be at least at the start be better to have simple devices and then add more complex ones. It seems that Standard Jacuzzi or Pool templates have more appropriate floorplan commands for thermostat (Auto/On/Off/+/-). It would be tremendous improvment it floorplan controls could be selectable - just like we can add commands to templates and devices...
This is one of my goals, to have this behavior fixed

Quote
3. Lighting devices :
  - I've added Brightness sensor (Template #1745) and it has state of either ON or OFF and can be switched with floorplan controls of ONLY On and Off (this is pretty much desirec for lighting switch device, that shows also dimming controls despite the fact that it is only on/off device). So therefore, this behavour would be welcomed for lighting switch ,and brightness sensor should probably show something between 0% and 100%...
This is also one of my goals.. Neither of these changes is too dificult

Quote
4. Is it possible to add new device template, determine(select) controls that will be shown on floorplan and make this going without make heavy modifications of plugins ?
I've never tried it or tried to see what it does, but there is alreay an area marked as "Use as remote on orbiter"(something similar to that) followed by an entry for design object ID. THough I've seen nothing in Lighting_Plugin that would show that it is supported if thats its intended use... But either way I will get this working more elegantly

Quote
5. Yesterday I chatted with Tschak, and I mentioned my wish that such parts of the system that are not time critical (showing devices on floorplan certainly isn't - we even have IP cameras on GSD) - it would be really nice to have possibility to write such support for various devices via embedded Ruby engine. All changes in this field happen really slowly cause it takes experienced developer to do anything... In case of this possibility I will surely contribute support for several devices and I'm sure also other will...

What I've learned is that GSD is probably the best thing that happened to our project (beside when Pluto decided to open their closed system). I see that many users contribute Ruby snippets, quite some docs is present... So I wish that this would be extended also to other parts of the system - in my case I miss proper floorplan support for various devices badly... I'm also thinking about rewrite Motion-Wrapper with much more features in Ruby and also Slimserver plugin (currently integration is pretty limited) and then why not tackle Climate plugin, cause it will be much easier to maintain and develope - not to mention fancy features like Auto Lighting, Ambiental Intelligence...

Ease of contribution is major advantage of successful projects like Misterhouse (you can code anything in virtualy minutes) Freevo, etc... - those project gave full priority to offer good, easy extendable framework for a wider community members to be efficient contributors..

I'd be happy to hear your opinions and of course opinions of those that make our lives easier - main developers - they're doing really great job...

I'd also be glad to hear if currently any option exists that I could influence device appearance on floorplan through Ruby embedded engine ?


I agree and good idea

Quote
I'd also ask if one developer can make small correction of Brightness and Temperature sensor templates - They need to be controlled by category of Interface-Specialized (that's where I put my home automation controller - is this right choice ?)
can you  mantis this?

Quote
Currently I use dirty workaround, where almost any device is either dimlight or switchlight - so I end up with cluttered Lighting floorplans and pretty empty other floorplans (except temps, thermostats and sprinklers on Climate floorplan)...
I did a post not long ago on how to fix the X10 Outlet device template in Climate so that it will work with any interface. This has helped my floorplans tremendously








bulek

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Re: Strange device states for Climate and Lighting devices
« Reply #2 on: July 03, 2008, 02:14:31 pm »

Here is the svn log for recent Climate_Plugin.cpp changes(this is where OSD for floorplan icons is set)... Doesn't look like much has changed really
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r19791 | danielk | 2008-02-25 17:14:06 -0500 (Mon, 25 Feb 2008) | 3 lines

This commit creates a branch to merge the fixes and improvements from the charonmedia repo over to the linuxmce repo.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
r18787 | eugenc | 2007-11-19 10:43:24 -0500 (Mon, 19 Nov 2007) | 1 line

Z-Wave clean up.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r17943 | eugenc | 2007-09-11 12:08:47 -0400 (Tue, 11 Sep 2007) | 1 line

Climate support using the device ZTT000 HomePro (or Cam-Stat equivalent).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r15098 | aaron | 2007-03-08 14:39:47 -0500 (Thu, 08 Mar 2007) | 1 line

migrate g_pPlutoLogger to LoggerWrapper Singleton

Hmm, then maybe something else was changed (maybe some drawing logic)... Maybe device state was the same, but I'm pretty sure that for thermostats only something like ON(25.3) - was shown on floorplan and only (23.2) for temperature sensors... Anyway, maybe it doesn't matter when has something changed, more important is how to fix it....  :)




3. Lighting devices :
  - I've added Brightness sensor (Template #1745) and it has state of either ON or OFF and can be switched with floorplan controls of ONLY On and Off (this is pretty much desirec for lighting switch device, that shows also dimming controls despite the fact that it is only on/off device). So therefore, this behavour would be welcomed for lighting switch ,and brightness sensor should probably show something between 0% and 100%...
...

This is also one of my goals.. Neither of these changes is too dificult



Quote
4. Is it possible to add new device template, determine(select) controls that will be shown on floorplan and make this going without make heavy modifications of plugins ?
I've never tried it or tried to see what it does, but there is alreay an area marked as "Use as remote on orbiter"(something similar to that) followed by an entry for design object ID. THough I've seen nothing in Lighting_Plugin that would show that it is supported if thats its intended use... But either way I will get this working more elegantly

Nice to hear that. I'm looking forward to those changes -and maybe it would be good to release them as update, cause they are badly wanted, at least for me...

Quote
5. Yesterday I chatted with Tschak, and I mentioned my wish that such parts of the system that are not time critical (showing devices on floorplan certainly isn't - we even have IP cameras on GSD) - it would be really nice to have possibility to write such support for various devices via embedded Ruby engine. All changes in this field happen really slowly cause it takes experienced developer to do anything... In case of this possibility I will surely contribute support for several devices and I'm sure also other will...

What I've learned is that GSD is probably the best thing that happened to our project (beside when Pluto decided to open their closed system). I see that many users contribute Ruby snippets, quite some docs is present... So I wish that this would be extended also to other parts of the system - in my case I miss proper floorplan support for various devices badly... I'm also thinking about rewrite Motion-Wrapper with much more features in Ruby and also Slimserver plugin (currently integration is pretty limited) and then why not tackle Climate plugin, cause it will be much easier to maintain and develope - not to mention fancy features like Auto Lighting, Ambiental Intelligence...

Ease of contribution is major advantage of successful projects like Misterhouse (you can code anything in virtualy minutes) Freevo, etc... - those project gave full priority to offer good, easy extendable framework for a wider community members to be efficient contributors..

I'd be happy to hear your opinions and of course opinions of those that make our lives easier - main developers - they're doing really great job...

I'd also be glad to hear if currently any option exists that I could influence device appearance on floorplan through Ruby embedded engine ?



I agree and good idea

Maybe even rewrite of plugins in Ruby wouldn't be bad idea with simpler plugins for each device that is on floorplan.... Some model with Initialize, Processing, Display and Release methods is fine.... A lot of nice features can be added and you get much wider field of contributors. This approach has proven itself in many projects...


Quote
I'd also ask if one developer can make small correction of Brightness and Temperature sensor templates - They need to be controlled by category of Interface-Specialized (that's where I put my home automation controller - is this right choice ?)
can you  mantis this?
Have already done thi. Maybe also those templates need some review, to update them - I guess it's pretty important to have good basic templates, so users won't add too many similar ones...

http://mantis.linuxmce.org/view.php?id=4266

Quote
Currently I use dirty workaround, where almost any device is either dimlight or switchlight - so I end up with cluttered Lighting floorplans and pretty empty other floorplans (except temps, thermostats and sprinklers on Climate floorplan)...
I did a post not long ago on how to fix the X10 Outlet device template in Climate so that it will work with any interface. This has helped my floorplans tremendously

Will they get colour when on/off ? It's a great feature for lights, does this work for Climate ?

Thanks for your great work,

count me in for update,

regards,


Bulek...







« Last Edit: July 03, 2008, 02:19:59 pm by bulek »
Thanks in advance,

regards,

Bulek.

jondecker76

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Re: Strange device states for Climate and Lighting devices
« Reply #3 on: July 03, 2008, 02:22:37 pm »
what interface are you using? The interfaces report the changes to Climate plugin, so there could have been a change with your interface... Either way, I will be getting back into Lighting_Plugin and Climate_Plugin as soon as I am finished with the playlist editor, so it shouldn't be too long. I'lll be sure to update you when changes are finished, and do what I can to help you get them to your machine.

With the Climate wall outlet..  A couple of changes do need made to Climate Plugin before its really usable from the floorplan, but you can create scenarios to control the outlets. For now, it just keeps it out of the grasp of auto-generated lighting scenarios/events. But soon it will be fully integrated.


bulek

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Re: Strange device states for Climate and Lighting devices
« Reply #4 on: July 03, 2008, 03:15:07 pm »
what interface are you using? The interfaces report the changes to Climate plugin, so there could have been a change with your interface... Either way, I will be getting back into Lighting_Plugin and Climate_Plugin as soon as I am finished with the playlist editor, so it shouldn't be too long. I'lll be sure to update you when changes are finished, and do what I can to help you get them to your machine.

With the Climate wall outlet..  A couple of changes do need made to Climate Plugin before its really usable from the floorplan, but you can create scenarios to control the outlets. For now, it just keeps it out of the grasp of auto-generated lighting scenarios/events. But soon it will be fully integrated.


I'm using my own interface - driver written in Perl, but I'm using well known events ,so there shouldn't be much difference....

To recreate you can try this :
   - add Temperature sensor device to your system and add it to Climate Floorplan
   - Check ID and send proper event :  /usr/pluto/bin/MessageSend dcerouter ID -1000 2 25 30 16.2 (replace ID with actual ID of sensor)
   - you'll get on Floorplan : "AUTO/AUTO" and "(16.2)" below and this string in device state "ON/AUTO/AUTO/25 (16.2)"

Too complex for temperature sensor...

Looking forward for you to have time. I cannot program (at least not in C++), but can help in any other way...

Regards,

Bulek.



Thanks in advance,

regards,

Bulek.