| ECS-L Home Automation and Security Archives |
| Subject: From: Date: | Re: [ECS] ACE Screenshots Dan Hoehnen Thu, 3 Sep 1998 14:42:19 -0400 (EDT) |
Well, maybe one of the new 900 mhz wireless lan systems would work. Or, how about one of the Elcom products that allows you to send almost any signal over the ac wires (like X-10)? They have xmitter/receiver pairs for printers, video, phone and more. They might have one for rs-232. Then your laptop would ahve to be plugged in to 110 vac and a serial port connection. But, it wouldn't require running wires through your apartment or other rental unit. Elcom is at www.elcomtech.com On Thu, 3 Sep 1998, Dan Carrington wrote: > Cool. Maybe some day when I have a house of my own I could set up this > kind of system. I am restricted by renting as I have no good way to run > wires arround. This kind of system would be much better than local > phone and X10 remotes. Any way to set up this kind of thing as a > wireless thing to leave on one's coffee table? I think the little > screen only pc's are small enough...? > > Dan Carrington > > > > > Dan Hoehnen wrote: > > > > Dan, you've just about got it right. But, I will clarify a few points... > > > > On Thu, 3 Sep 1998, Dan Carrington wrote: > > > > > Thanks for the pics Michael. Very clean and simple to look at. Nice > > > tabs for different menus. Just a refresher for me if you would. Please > > > correct me if I am wrong. I am trying to get a better handle on the > > > system you are running. > > > > > > You are running touch screen laptops or screen only computers arround > > > the house. They are connected by a common serial line or ethernet. > > > > I have all my ace clients connect to the ace server via a tcp/ip network > > connection. I think Michael does the same. However, a client can also > > connect to the server over a serial port. The serial port connection > > will still allow ecs to send commands to ace and for ace buttons to send > > commands to ecs. But, the automatic item state status reporting is > > currently only sent over the network to all clients. So, a client > > connected via a serial port would not get these item state updates. You > > would have to send them yourself from code you write in your ecs.cfg file. > > > > I could probably add the ability to send item state info over a serial > > port if necessary. > > > > The network and serial communication is pretty flexible. A command > > received on a client or server serial port can be forwarded to another > > serial port on either the client or server. Or it can be forwarded to > > the server or another client over the network. Likewise, a command > > received over the network can be forwarded to a client or server serial > > port. > > > > >You > > > run Ace client over windows95 on the touchscreen computers with your > > > button setups on them. > > > > The ace client and server are 16 bit programs and so can run on Win 3.1, > > 95 or NT (haven't tried it yet on 98). Of course, if you are using ECSW > > then you must run the ace server on the same pc as ecsw, so it must be a > > Win 95 or NT pc. > > > > My clients in my house run on 3.1, 95 and NT. My server runs on the same > > pc as ECSW on a Win95 pc. > > > > > You run Ace server on the automation commputer > > > running on windows95, which watches listens to ECS and the touchscreen > > > computers. ECS and ACE communicate in a windows environment with DDE > > > commands. ECS publishes it's states of items to ACE server to be > > > displayed on the touchscreens. > > > > Correct. > > > > > ACE clients take screen hits and tell > > > the server such and such button has been hit. ACE server then sends a > > > command to ECS and ECS will fulfill said command. ECS then sends the > > > corrected status back again. > > > > Just a fine point to clear up here. The command(s) for each button are > > stored in each client. So, pressing a button actually sends the entire > > command to the server for processing, not just the button that was pressed. > > > > If a command is sent to ecs that changes the state of an item, and > > monitoring is enabled for that item, then ecs sends the new state to the > > ace server. The ace server then broadcasts the new state to all > > clients. So, even if you change the state of an item from one client, all > > the other clients will know about it. > > > > One final point is that you don't need a touchscreen to use ace. A mouse > > or other pointing device works just fine. > > > > Dan > > Hoehnen > > dhoehnen@infinet.com > > He who dies with the most toys, wins! > > ************************************************************************* > > * Home Automation Index: http://www.infinet.com/~dhoehnen/ha/list.html * > > * * > > * ACE HA Software: http://www.infinet.com/~dhoehnen/software/ace.htm * > > * * > > * Port16.ocx & Port32.ocx - Give Visual Basic access to I/O ports * > > * http://www.infinet.com/~dhoehnen/software/ * > > ************************************************************************* > Dan Hoehnen dhoehnen@infinet.com He who dies with the most toys, wins! ************************************************************************* * Home Automation Index: http://www.infinet.com/~dhoehnen/ha/list.html * * * * Port16.ocx & Port32.ocx - Give Visual Basic access to I/O ports * * http://www.infinet.com/~dhoehnen/software/ * *************************************************************************