DemoPad.com

Hi all

Has anyone got Demopad working with Insteon Hub? If so, could you share how you did it?

Thanks
Karen

Attached is a DC1 file for example commands. Also attached is the Insteon Hub development guide; it's a pdf, so remove the .txt suffix

Thanks so much! Hopefully I'll get a chance to try it out this weekend, swamped with work at the moment!

My hub seems to require the username and password, which I think is blocking the Demopad command. (If I run the command directly in the browser, it will work - so long as I enter the hub login).

Is there any way to get around this?

ETA: Managed to remove the login from the hub, but I still can't get the lights to respond via Demohub. Url works perfectly:

http://[ip:port]/GET /3?02621FE5500F12FF=I=3 HTTP/1.0\x0D\x0A

Set up Generic Device in DemoPad with same ip and port, using command GET /3?02621FE5500F12FF=I=3 HTTP/1.0\x0D\x0A results in popup saying the command has been sent, but nothing happens.

OK, for no apparant reason, it just started working.

Thanks
Karen

Is it possible to get lamp status feedback from the hub? I've trawled through all the info, but it's all around ISY, and the hub doesn't have the REST stuff.

Has anyone been able to set up feedback?

karenlee wrote:Is it possible to get lamp status feedback from the hub? I've trawled through all the info, but it's all around ISY, and the hub doesn't have the REST stuff.

Has anyone been able to set up feedback?

I've tried ... and given up, but it can be done. The major issue with the Hub is that it doesn't broadcast status changes on its own. You can request the Hub's buffer content as mentioned in the documentation. But you also have to manage incomplete buffers (yet), manage to extract info that is pertinent to what you are monitoring, manage retries, keep context, etc. As well, Insteon can be very noisy at times.

My approach was to have HomeSeer with the Insteon plugin on a PC be the control center. So I let the Insteon plugin do all the dirty work. The advantage is that the server is always live, maintaining the status for all devices and logging everything while my iDevice might be off.

From DemoPad, you can interface with HomeSeer/Insteon to control devices and request status. HomeSeer supports JSON and REST interfaces. There's a recent new interface, called ASCII or A2Z-Link, which allows a client (DemoPad) to listen on port 1100 for unsolicited status changes.

In my setup, DemoPad interfaces with HomeSeer for all Insteon related actions.

One word of caution should you decide to go that route. When trying to dim up/down an Insteon light, I found that HomeSeer had too many layers to jump through to get a smooth reaction. So for dimming actions, I needed to deselect "Execute actions whilst sliding".

BTW, not trying to sell HomeSeer, but rather exposing my setup.

Thanks for your reply.

I'm using a Homeseer-like automation system, but can't interface to it. It's a shame it's so difficult, I'd like to have a floor layout with bulbs which show that on/off status of the lights. I can do it in my HA system, which does have an iPad/iPhone controller, but I like DemoPad iPhone app better and was hoping to set up something similar.

I'm finding even sending the commands to the hub is a hit and miss thing - sometimes it will work smoothly for a bunch of times in a row, then it will just not.

karenlee wrote:... I'm finding even sending the commands to the hub is a hit and miss thing - sometimes it will work smoothly for a bunch of times in a row, then it will just not.

Yes, I found that also. The Insteon plugin that I'm using takes care of these situations: it has retry capability. As I said, there's a lot to consider when interfacing directly with the Hub.

What HA system are you using?

I'm using Charmed Quark Systems - it's a really nice system, but it's USA based, and I'm in the UK, so it's a bit frustrating because there is only basic support for the Hub - nearly all the users have the ISY, which is not available in the UK, and the drivers are being developed to support that. So I feel like I'm getting left behind in terms of what I can use reliably.

We are currently looking into changing our HA to Fibaro though, which is UK based and therefore we can get all the supported products.