| ECS Home Automation and Security Archives |
| Subject: From: Date: | RE: [ecs] Smarthome USB Powerlinc Mark Gilmore Sun, 15 Feb 2004 15:06:15 -0800 |
thanks :-) At 06:01 PM 2/15/2004 -0500, you wrote: >I e-mail Karen, the technical support person at Homeseer, and she said the >following: > >"Smarthome MFG is the developer. The person that you want to talk to is >Scott >Klodowski at Smarthome MFG. You can reach him at Smarthome in Irvine, CA." > >I'll give send him an e-mail next, asking him if he would be prepared to >provide the specifications to you as the developer of ECS. > > >-----Original Message----- >From: Paul Fitch [mailto:pfitchjr@bellsouth.net] >Sent: Saturday, February 14, 2004 11:12 PM >To: ecs@netbloc.com >Subject: RE: [ecs] Smarthome USB Powerlinc > > >Yes, I noticed the revision stuff, but I think thats a flaw with Linux right >now, in that the USB portion of it is a moving target. > >As for windows support, theres software out there that does talk to it. I >might send some e-mails to the companies that have home control software >that supports it, and see who they had to sleep with to get the specs. Home >Control Assistant, Homeseer, and Hal 2000 all support it, so the specs are >available. I'll see what I can find out. > >-----Original Message----- >From: Mark Gilmore [mailto:mark1@markgilmore.net] >Sent: Friday, February 13, 2004 9:41 PM >To: ecs@netbloc.com >Subject: RE: [ecs] Smarthome USB Powerlinc > > >Hi Paul, >I'm sorry, but this looks like a *major* hassle (plus Linux only, *and* >revision-dependent). >What I can't figure out is how they expect companies to support a device >without a protocol spec. > >At 10:11 PM 2/10/2004 -0500, you wrote: > > >Here is the section I think will do you the most good. This is from his > >FAQ. I'm keeping it here in the list because others might be interested. > > > >Q: How did you get the programming documentation for the PowerLinc USB? > >A: This was the most difficult transceiver to write code for. I started by > >contacting SmartHome and they were very polite but said that they didn't > >have the time to provide the information. The original PowerLinc Serial > >manual was somewhat limited and took a few days of experimentation to make > >work. Imagine the number of technical support calls they would get by > >releasing programming information for a USB interface that few people have > >programmed to in the first place. I can't fault SmartHome at all because >USB > >isn't as simple as writing to a serial port and generally is not likely to > >be a simple weekend project for someone. To write a transceiver driver, >you > >need 4 basic things: 1) the communications method for the device, 2) the > >translation table for generating the X10 signals, 3) the transmission > >communications sequence and packet format, 4) the receive communications > >sequence and packet format. The communications method was easy enough to > >figure out by interrogating the USB device to find out that it was a HID > >class device which preferred interrupt mode for communications. All of the > >documentation for USB drivers skips over how to communicate in interrupt > >form and always uses polling with bulk transfers. Even the Synapse >software > >from SmartHome says that it uses polling. I turned to the IBM Bluetooth >USB > >drivers that had an interrupt driven receiver and figured out how to at > >least write a receiver. By complete accident I was just testing out the > >receiver to see if I could even load the module at 10:30pm at night when my > >main computer started sending the X10 signals to put the house to sleep. I > >received all of the signals and found out that the receive protocol is > >incredibly simple in that it doesn't require any handshaking (identical in > >process to the PowerLinc Serial). From there I turned on the receiver and > >sent enough codes on the line to figure out the translation table (minus >the > >extended codes). The last one was the most difficult. After banging > >against the device for a day thinking that the transmission process was as > >simple as the receive, I went to www.usb.org and found a link to USB >Central > >which had a freeware USB sniffer for windows. I fired it up, fired up the > >USB Synapse software from SmartHome, and captured the USB traffic. The > >protocol is similar in process to that of the PowerLinc Serial. The actual > >data to be sent is very different, and the packet format is different, but > >the concept is similar. After a bit of signaling, I was able to figure out > >what the fields were for the basic X10 protocol. After about 32 hours of > >trial and error hacking with the device, I had the protocol documented, and > >about 4 hours later I had fully working drivers. The documentation for >what > >I worked out is provided in the wish-1.4.0 and later packages in PDF >format. > > > > > > > >-----Original Message----- > >From: Mark Gilmore [mailto:mark1@markgilmore.net] > >Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2004 8:25 AM > >To: ecs@netbloc.com > >Subject: RE: [ecs] Smarthome USB Powerlinc > > > > > >thanks, Paul. > >i'll peruse the stuff tomorrow. > > > >At 08:00 PM 2/10/2004 -0500, you wrote: > > > > >On the Smarthome page I found the following LINK > > >http://wish.sourceforge.net/ > > >That link leads to a site with an absolute BUTLOAD of Linux X10 stuff, >with > > >Linux code for the USB Powerlinc. Smarthome itself does not have specs, > >but > > >the guy that set this site up seems to have worked out most everything >you > > >would need to get Linux ECS working with the USB Powerlinc. The Windows > > >version should follow, once you have an idea on how it works. > > > > > >Personally, I think that ECS supporting the newest PLC out there would be >a > > >good selling point. Especially since most everything else X-10 is years > > >old. > > > > > >Take a look at the site, and if you are interested, I would be happy to >let > > >you use my USB Powerlinc to play with. They are only $35 new, so I could > > >get another if there was a Discount in it for me on my copy of ECS<g>. > > > > > >-----Original Message----- > > >From: Mark Gilmore [mailto:mark1@markgilmore.net] > > >Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2004 11:24 AM > > >To: ecs@netbloc.com > > >Subject: Re: [ecs] Smarthome USB Powerlinc > > > > > > > > >Hi Paul, > > >I might consider this if I can find a protocol spec. > > >Do you know where I can find one ? > > >Thanks, > > > > > >At 08:16 PM 2/9/2004 -0500, you wrote: > > > > > > > > > >Mark, have you considered this device? I purchased one, and am > >considering > > > >running ECS on my XP machine. My XP machine does not have serial >ports, > >so > > > >this seemed like a good idea<g>. I would be happy to send my USB > >Powerlink > > > >to you for testing. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >--- > > > >Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. > > > >Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > > > >Version: 6.0.580 / Virus Database: 367 - Release Date: 2/6/2004 > > > > > >Mark Gilmore > > >http://OmnipotenceSoftware.com > > > > > > > > >--- > > >Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. > > >Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > > >Version: 6.0.580 / Virus Database: 367 - Release Date: 2/6/2004 > > > >Mark Gilmore > >http://OmnipotenceSoftware.com > > > > > > > >--- > >Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. > >Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). > >Version: 6.0.580 / Virus Database: 367 - Release Date: 2/6/2004 > >Mark Gilmore >http://OmnipotenceSoftware.com > > > >--- >Incoming mail is certified Virus Free. >Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). >Version: 6.0.580 / Virus Database: 367 - Release Date: 2/6/2004 Mark Gilmore http://OmnipotenceSoftware.com
--- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.580 / Virus Database: 367 - Release Date: 2/6/2004