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jbbtex
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Posted: November 01 2009 at 11:15 \| IP Logged

Virtual x10 devices?

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Brady

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." - Gen. George S. Patton

kev21986
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Posted: November 02 2009 at 07:59 \| IP Logged

Insteon would be better since that is what I have experience working with. In theory my app will work with anything that PowerHome can work with though. I just need PowerHome to have a few devices that can be turned on/off/dimmed and when you check its level have it respond with a level that matches what would be expected (ie. If you turn a device on it should show that the light is at 100%).

Does PowerHome have virtual devices? How do I create one?

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jbbtex
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Posted: November 02 2009 at 09:44 \| IP Logged

Virtual x10 will can only be off or on, not dimmed, so I guess it won't work for you.

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strav
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Posted: November 05 2009 at 18:41 \| IP Logged

You could get a LampLinc and an ApplicancLinc module and just not plug anything into them...

raven77
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Posted: November 06 2009 at 15:44 \| IP Logged

Did you change the interface much?
How about some teaser screenshots?
Or maybe a rundown on features?

I guess i was way off on my app approval predictions!

kev21986
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Posted: November 06 2009 at 16:29 \| IP Logged

raven77 wrote:

Did you change the interface much?

I did. The tabs on the bottom are gone and the main view is the one with all of the buttons. It now has 14 buttons instead of 12. There is an edit and refresh button on the top. In edit mode you can get to the setting for each button and from there your can test and dim devices.

raven77 wrote:

How about some teaser screenshots

I can do that over the weekend.

raven77 wrote:

I guess i was way off on my app approval predictions!

That has been my big challenge. PowerHome is so free form in that you can really do anything with it. How can you make a remote control for it that makes any sense to someone that doesnt use PowerHome? Both to get it approved and to be able to give to roommates/family. That is a lot of why I stepped the interface way back.

I will say that I have figured out a way to include a lot more functionality in a way that I am much happier with (I never liked the tabs). The 2.0 version will be ready soon. I just want to get it approved and in the app store as fast as possible. Then I will push the features.

Features in 1.0
-No ads (they used up to much space and wouldn't pay very well)
-Control view (the one with all of the buttons) with 14 configurable buttons
-Button can be on/off, dim, or custom formula
-on/off and dim buttons show current status
-auto status update

Planned Features for 2.0
-Control view can have different formulas for on, off, dim and status
-Device list with devices pulled from PH
-Thermostat control (I finally got one!)
-Timed events (list/edit/create)
-Global Variables (list/edit/create)
-PH Macros (list/run)
-PH Log viewing

Features for someday
-Push service like Prowl with an interface designed to work with PH
-Control view (the one with all of the buttons) other types of controls (sliders/toggle buttons/labels)
-Some way to show the status of things like motion sensors and door sensors. This shouldn't be hard I'm just not sure where to put it.

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raven77
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Posted: November 06 2009 at 16:53 \| IP Logged

kev21986 wrote:

raven77 wrote:

Did you change the interface much?

raven77 wrote:

How about some teaser screenshots

I can do that over the weekend.

raven77 wrote:

I guess i was way off on my app approval predictions!

Sounds pretty good so far!
Thanks for the update!
I, like most others with PowerHome probably, am very much into customizing the crap out of everything!
haha
that's the only bad thing I see about a native app, I assume it would be tough to add a lot of customizing options. I would love to make a native app for myself (dont have a mac

) set up just the way I want. But i would hate to have to make one universal that many different people would be able to setup and use for themselves.
I have a pretty nice webapp that works pretty darn fast, but I am still interested in your app!
I look forward to checking it out.
Good luck!

kev21986
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Posted: November 09 2009 at 12:14 \| IP Logged

raven77 wrote:

I, like most others with PowerHome probably, am very much into customizing the crap out of everything!
haha
that's the only bad thing I see about a native app, I assume it would be tough to add a lot of customizing options. I would love to make a native app for myself (dont have a mac

) set up just the way I want. But i would hate to have to make one universal that many different people would be able to setup and use for themselves.

I know exactly what you mean. I started writing this app because I wasn't happy with the performance of web apps. Customization is very important to this type of app and that makes things hard. I have toyed with creating something like the control center concept in PH. Allowing users to create a GUI and it to formulas and macros. My main concern with this is the creation of the custom GUI. I can't come up with a practical way to do it on the phone. Maybe I would just store the information in the PH database and write web pages to do the configuration? It's something that if the program really takes off I would look into.

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kev21986
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Posted: November 20 2009 at 08:26 \| IP Logged

Sorry for the delay. I'm in the process of adding 2 people to my team and developing a few other iPhone apps and games. Once it all starts moving I should have much faster turn around on this type of thing.

I just resubmitted the app to the app store.

Here are some screen shots of the app as it was submitted.

http://ihome.invisionsta.com/

This will be the url for iHome information and support but for now it is just screen shots though.

Edited by kev21986 - November 20 2009 at 08:31

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MrGibbage
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Posted: December 02 2009 at 20:57 \| IP Logged

Very cool screen shots. Have you thought about trying to
port it over to android? No approval process to monkey
around with.

kev21986
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Posted: December 03 2009 at 00:12 \| IP Logged

MrGibbage wrote:

Very cool screen shots. Have you thought about trying to
port it over to android? No approval process to monkey
around with.

The market for my app on iPhone is small enough Ill be lucky if I recover the cost of the developer program ($99). Just between the 3 of us we have 3 iPhones and 2 iPod touches but I don't know a single person with an android phone. There is just no way its a big enough market on android to cover the cost of an android phone for development.

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kev21986
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Posted: December 03 2009 at 00:41 \| IP Logged

Its been a long wait and taken much longer than I ever planned but iHome is now in the app store.

Click here

Edited by kev21986 - December 03 2009 at 00:49

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judetf
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Posted: December 04 2009 at 13:34 \| IP Logged

Oh, wow, this is cool.

I don't pay for iPhone apps (a few $0.99 things here and there) but my devotion to PowerHome, and anyone interested and willing to put in time and effort to further it and its capabilities, gets my respect _and_ cash.

I did not participate in this thread or the beta testing, but I just downloaded the app from the store and I am already giggling in delight (and yes, a co-worker just called me out for giggling).

This rocks. _Much_ better than the webpages I put together for myself and the control it gave me using Safari. This ROCKS!

jtf

kev21986
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Posted: December 04 2009 at 13:49 \| IP Logged

judetf wrote:

Glad to hear you like it. I will admit there has been a lot of giggling along the way building this app and learning more about PowerHome. PowerHome is really a very good piece of software and I am continually amazed by the things it can do.

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traviskleckner
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Posted: December 06 2009 at 22:05 \| IP Logged

I decided to give it a try and bought the app...here's my
question...I can't get it to actually do anything.

I've setup the server info...clicked the test in safari
and I get the PH server page as expected.

But when I enter a test device I get nothing. I set it
up as dimmable and entered "insteon+mbr-sitlight" and
when I use the test function or save it and try I get
nothing. For what's it's worth I tried it all caps,
changed the device name to not have a dash, tried 3 other
devices and tried it as on/off.

Any thoughts on what I might be doing wrong?

-Travis

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kev21986
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Posted: December 07 2009 at 09:26 \| IP Logged

The first thing to do is check the PH logs. You are looking for web calls to the /ph-cgi/eval page. If they show up are there any errors?

I will play around with dashes and see if there is any problem there. I can't imagine there would be but in the beta testing we found problems with spaces. If that is the case there is a simple fix. Unfortunately pushing a fix through Apple may take 3+ weeks.

traviskleckner wrote:

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traviskleckner
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Posted: December 07 2009 at 10:36 \| IP Logged

It seems like powerhome is getting the info. I'm more
confused than ever. I've setup my spare device as my
tester, so it's got no dashes now.

For what it's worth, testing the formulas it's sending
(like ph_devicecontrol("INSTEON+TEST+ON") or
ph_devicecontrol("INSTEON+TEST+ADIM+50", %22 and %2B hex
chars converted to the correct chars of course) work just
fine. Also, I did discover that unless insteon is all
upper case it doesn't work.

Should I be seeing the %22 and %2B rather than " and + in
the logs? It makes sense to me that I should, but that's
the only thing I can see that makes sense.

The log is showing a lot like this (needless to say the XXXXXXXXX replaces the actual address):

From: 68.188.51.79 GET /ph-cgi/eval?
formula=%22getModelLevels%22%2B%22,0:%22%2Bph_getinsteonl
evel(%22test%22) HTTP/1.1 Host: www.XXXXXXXXX.com:8800
User-Agent: iHome/1.0 CFNetwork/459 Darwin/10.0.0d3
Accept: */* Accept-Language: en-us Accept-Encoding: gzip,
deflate Connection: keep-alive

From: 68.188.51.79 GET /ph-cgi/eval?
formula=ph_devicecontrol(%22INSTEON%2BTEST%2BON%22)
HTTP/1.1 Host: www.XXXXXXXXX.com:8800 User-Agent:
iHome/1.0 CFNetwork/459 Darwin/10.0.0d3 Accept: */*
Accept-Language: en-us Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
Connection: keep-alive

And just as a test I tried a forula:

From: 68.188.51.79 GET /ph-cgi/eval?
formula=INSTEON%2BTEST%2BADIM%2B50 HTTP/1.1 Host: www.
XXXXXXXXX.com:8800 User-Agent: iHome/1.0 CFNetwork/459
Darwin/10.0.0d3 Accept: */* Accept-Language: en-us
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate Connection: keep-alive

kev21986
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Posted: December 07 2009 at 12:51 \| IP Logged

I am URL encoding every formula that I send. It works for me without encoding the formula, but I found in the beta testing that it didn't work for everyone.

I will add a line of code to fix lower case "insteon".

Is it working now?

traviskleckner wrote:

Edited by kev21986 - December 07 2009 at 14:34

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jpcurcio
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Posted: December 07 2009 at 14:11 \| IP Logged

Kevin:

I downloaded the app and have been using it. Works well
for me, and now I'm able to have my GF use it to control
the lights; she never really wanted to use a computer to
control the lighting, but has no problems using her iPhone.
She's a PhD in EE for heaven's sake, she shouldn't be
afraid of technology!!! But I digress...

Do you have a web site that shows your future plans? I'd
like to see what is coming.

traviskleckner
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Posted: December 07 2009 at 14:21 \| IP Logged

kev21986 wrote:

I am converting plus to %2B and spaces
to %22 for every formula that I send. I may need to do
the same type of thing for dashes. It works for me
without encoding the formula, but I found in the beta
testing that it didn't work for everyone.

I will add a line of code to fix lower case "insteon".

Is it working now?

It's not working yet, but I think the problem is my PH installation. Shouldn't entering the following into a
browser work? (inserting the IP for server, and yes, my
PH web server is at 8800):
http://server:8800/ph-cgi/eval?
formula=ph_getinsteonlevel("TESTSL")

Since that appears to be what your sending and it's not
working on mine I think that's the problem. I'm going to
start a new thread to see is anyone can help with that.

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