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Can I use xAP for this?

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    #1

    Can I use xAP for this?

    I am developing some simple hardware with a Zigbee interface to control my apartment aircon units. Each unit will have a temp sensor for the room along with some IR based control etc. It will communicate with the PC over a Zigbee link that I am developing. I have a simple Zigbee to USB interface and plan to run some software on the PC to control it all but want to integrate with Homeseer.

    I have thought about doing a plugin but I am not a big fan of Visual Basic and would rather do it under C++ and was wondering if I could use xAP to do this?

    How easy is it to get going with xAP using C++ as a programming language (Borland C++ Builder) to allow me to control and display the temperatures in Homeseer? It looks quite simple but as a complete novice to xAP I am not sure how to start. Any pointers greatly appreciated.

    Regards
    Dave...
    Tags: None
    #2
    Seems like xAP would be an appropriate route to take. You will need to establish a UDP connection over the LAN and send/receive simple ascii messages over this connection. The message consists of a header and body portion. You will be using two header formats. One is for heartbeat and the other is for data content. Your data messages can be whatever you want, but to maximize compatibility the Basic Status and Control (BSC) schema would be your best choice. You will send a BSC message whenever a change of device value occurs or when queried. If this is a 2-way interface then you will accept BSC command messages from Homeseer.

    There are a few system design decisions that you will need to make the interface with HS as seemless as possible. When you get past the basics and more information is available about your hardware then this step can be taken

    There are many that program in C with xAP and they may offer some of their sample code. I do use VB and I can provide you something as an example if that will help. http://xapAutomation.org is a starting point for reference. You will want to get the xAp specification and the xAPBSC schema specification as your reference material as a developer. While you can try to digest it, I suggest developing your software by looking at typical message formats and then just code to read and write these formats. You can always then look back at the specs when you have questions.

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      #3
      Thanks Michael, I went to that website but I was not able to create a new account. There was no option to do so.

      Anyway, I will knock up some code tonight and try it out. What I like is the fact I can develop my code on a different machine and test and debug it there and still be able to talk to Homeseer using xAP. Something I can't do with normal Homeseer pluging development, at least not what I could find to do that. Just installing and running is not so good for debugging as you have no way to step through code if you have any issues.

      Thanks
      Dave...

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        #4
        There is an xAP Yahoo developers group that you can sign up for and may be able to get support in that way as well. CoachPotatoe is an excellent source for information. If you search for his posts you may find the link to this group and others that could be useful.

        I also like the independent development environment.

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          #5
          Just signed up to the group and found some C code elsewhere. Also installed the xAP hub and message viewer so I can get an idea of how it all works.!

          Will be my project when I get back from my holidays.

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            #6
            Originally posted by v8dave View Post
            Thanks Michael, I went to that website but I was not able to create a new account. There was no option to do so.

            Dave...
            Hi Dave,

            There is only a need to have an account to edit the web pages/links/wiki content so you should be able to get at everything you need already.

            Do have a read (and post to) the xAP forums too - inparticular to see some detail on slight changes we made to the UID format for xAP v1.3 . Or I'd be happy to help too.

            Welcome onboard :-)

            Kevin

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              #7
              azrobbo & v8dave
              I would suggest reading these posts:
              http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=132896
              http://board.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=133218

              Both of you seem to work in the same direction.

              Also I would suggest spending a little time looking into the code developed by this guy http://www.nldj.com/wiki/Domotica/ProjectPlugwise (I found this on the HS forum too). Although his implementation might not be 100% compatible ZigBee interface, I suspect it might be close

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