Posted: March 10 2003 at 21:38 | IP Logged

Greetings.

3 weeks of Powerhome running without a glitch!

Now that I have some stable code, its time for a few enhancements....

I have 3 Switchlink 2 way switches that I want to further integrate into Powerhome....

1) I would like to enhance the X10 Status screen to add controls for [on] [off] [Adim]

2) I would like to use the preset dims in incoming triggers, but it appears that entering the preset value in the boolean feild  is not causing a trigger to activate.

Anyone else have one of these installed?

Posted: March 11 2003 at 16:45 | IP Logged

Only three weeks!!!  Why Ive had my system running for 6 months without a reboot .

Concerning the enhancements...Im not sure I understand item 1.  The X-10 status screen already has on, off, and adim.  Elaborate a little more for me, Im getting slow lately .

Item 2.  The boolean field is whether or not to fire the trigger.  If the formula evaluation of the boolean field is 0 or false, then the trigger will not fire.  Any other value and the trigger should go.  Now the actual preset dim value will be contained within the [TEMP3] system variable (this value is from 1 to 32 representing the 32 preset dim levels).  You can check this value in the boolean statement if you wish to have the trigger only fire when certain preset dim values are received.

Let me know if this clears things up or not or if you still have any questions.

Dave.

Posted: March 13 2003 at 12:14 | IP Logged

Chris,

Up until recently I was running 98 SE .  Ive since reloaded and am now running XP Pro.  The 6 month uptime was on the 98 system too!!  Im up approximately 2 months so far on the XP without a reboot. 

Freezing once or twice a week is terrible!!  The machine that PowerHome is running on is the machine that sits alongside my Home Theater equipment and is only used for PowerHome, Webcams, MP3's, and web browsing if that makes a difference.

Does it seem that your freezes are associated with PowerHome or were they there previously?  Im really concerned because one of the advantages I thought I had over other Home Automation programs was the stability inherent within PowerHome.  Ive read of people using other Home Automation programs and having to do periodic and timed reboots in order to keep their system stable and always thought that would be such a pain.

Windows 2000 or XP would definately be more stable than 98.  If you're not running SE, then upgrading to SE would also be a big help.  But 98 SE should be able to run continously as long as memory leaking programs were not run.

My current PowerHome machine: P-III 600 mhz with 512 meg of RAM.  ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon.  SB Live.  Windows XP Pro.

BTW, how long has it been since you've reloaded your OS??  When I was running 98 on my notebook (the machine where I do all my development and gets beat on a lot more than the PowerHome machine), I typically liked to format and reload from scratch about once a year.

Dave.

Posted: March 13 2003 at 13:56 | IP Logged

Chris,

The second edition is definately a lot more stable than the first.

You also reminded me of another problem.  I too use the MAPI client with Outlook Express and that seems to cause problems.  While Windows never locks up, sometimes PowerHome will if I do a lot of EMail sending with the MAPI.  The receiving seems to be fine, just sending gives me a headache.  This is one of the reasons that the next version has a new SMTP send email function .

Like you've guessed, sometimes the hardware just doesn't play well with the OS.  I had a machine with a Cyrix 233 mhz processor and I was having to reboot about once a week.  I was really glad when I gave that machine the boot.

Depending on what your CPU and RAM look like, you might want to invest in XP Home.  You would probably beef up the reliability by an order of magnitude.

Dave.

Posted: June 12 2004 at 22:24 | IP Logged

Bump

Has anyone installed any of the Switchlink 2 way switches?

KC

Posted: June 13 2004 at 14:24 | IP Logged

Keith,

I don't have any of the SwitchLinc switches but do have some 2-way switches and modules running.

Dave.