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Comfort UPNP <-> SmartThings <-> Amazon Echo
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 Posted: Thursday Oct 13th, 2016 06:32 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Hi All
I have been busily beavering away on a pet project and have developed a UPNP interface for Comfort. The Interface is written in node.js and can run as a service on a RPi or similar. 
This allows Samsung SmartThings (and presumably other similar systems) to discover and instantiate Comfort devices (primarily Zones, Outputs and if desired basic alarm control).
Using SmartThings as a central hub, I am then able to connect Amazon Echo, IFTTT and other services to it as well as control other devices under SmartThings control (Phillips Hue etc)
Whilst it works well for me, it is still very much a work in progress and I would like to know:
1. Is there enough community interest in this to justify cleaning up my code and making it more generic (by reading configuration from Comfigurator)
2. What other features would people like / find useful aside from Zone, Outputs and Basic Alarm
3. Are there any willing volunteers who would like to give it a go?
Thanks,
Matt



 Posted: Friday Oct 14th, 2016 11:02 am
   
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wexfordman
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Hi Matt, is it possible that your interface can control devices inactivate macros and responses connected to comfort?

I'm interested in getting something like echo or Google's new home to talk tomcomfort but completely illiterate in how to do it.



 Posted: Friday Oct 14th, 2016 01:58 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Absolutely, the UPNP interface is a two way street, the UPNP device can report status via direct polling or unsolicited events as a result of a subscription and devices can be controlled using the UPNP control function.

The UPNP standard defines the interface protocols and some simple standard devices but allows the implementer to build a solution based on the standard but utilising propriety features on a device. This is the approach I have opted for as there really isn't a suitable  device defined in the standard.

Samsung SmartThings can utilise both standard and propriety UPNP devices and provides a programming language which allows custom UPNP devices to be instantiated and then exposed to other services such as Amazon Echo and IFTTT via the SmartThings framework.
In order to use the Amazon Echo (or other 'simpler' home automation devices) without the benefit of SmartThings, the Comfort UPNP interface would need to be customised to emulate a device which is natively supported by the Echo - and this is something I am thinking of adding as a configuration option - it would mean reduced functionality, for example we could emulate a WeMo switch to expose a Comfort output but we wouldn't be able to expose the Flash or FlashOnce function available on the Comfort outputs (as WeMo switches only support on and off).


In my implementation I have decided to use the SmartThings hub as the centre of the HA universe. I have left the Comfort system running essential alarm related tasks and these are enriched by functions and interfaces on SmartThings. The SmartThings hub receives events and sends commands to the following devices:

Cytech Comfort
Honeywell Evohome
IFTTT
Amazon Echo
Sonos


IFTTT also brokers requests to and from other services such as

BMW Connected Drive
Life360
etc

So, you might ask, what is all the point of this? Well, an example of the things I can now do are:

If the garage door is closed (Comfort Zone) and
The car is started (BMW Connected Drive IFTTT) and
The car is at home (BMW Connected Drive IFTTT) and
There has recently been movement in the garage (Comfort Zone) then
Open the garage door (Comfort Output) then
If the car is driving (BMW Connected Drive IFTTT) then
Close the garage door (Comfort Output) then
If the house is empty (SmartThings presence detection) then set the alarm.


I can also do simpler stuff like:

If SCSRIO button 1 pressed (Comfort Output) then Boost kitchen temperature by 2 degrees for 2 hours (Honeywell Evohome).

Amazon Echo integration also allows me do things like:

"Alexa, turn off the patio lights"
 "Alexa, turn on the Alarm" (although you may wish to obfuscate the 'Alarm' keyword)

The UPNP interface already allows for devices to be controlled, in terms of activating responses, the Comfort protocol has the R! function which could be exposed via UPNP or you could tie a response to a virtual input and use that as a trigger.

TL;DR
Yup, using UPNP the Comfort system can be integrated into the new wave of home automation devices (with of course Apple being awkward but not out of the question)

Last edited on Friday Oct 14th, 2016 02:11 pm by mattbrain



 Posted: Friday Oct 14th, 2016 05:55 pm
   
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slychiu
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Thats great. But isnt UPNP for hardware plugged into a Computer?



 Posted: Friday Oct 14th, 2016 08:01 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Not at all, although I can see how it could be confused with it. UPnP, specification can be found here: http://upnp.org/specs/arch/UPnP-arch-DeviceArchitecture-v1.1.pdf is a mechanism to allow networked devices such as routers, modems, media centre, home automation devices to advertise services, be discovered and controlled by end points. This is the same mechanism which is used for Smart TV's to find media content on the local network and games consoles to 'punch' open paths in routers for peer to peer games. Its a pretty neat spec with the intention of allowing networked stuff you buy to just work when you get it home. You would be surprised by just how much stuff is already busy advertising services on your home network.

The implementation I have is an interface between the Comfort proprietary serial protocol and the UPNP standard, exposing Comfort zones, outputs, basic alarm and other functions and services which can be queried, controlled and subscribed to by third party devices without needing to develop specific interfaces for them such as SmartThings, Amazon Echo, etc etc.
 

Last edited on Friday Oct 14th, 2016 08:17 pm by mattbrain



 Posted: Sunday Oct 16th, 2016 07:57 pm
   
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benchan001
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Hi Matt,

This is interesting as I have spoken w/ Mr Chiu about using a Raspberry Pi 3 as my Alexa AVS. The conversation began as using Z-Wave; however, he did point me out to your UPNP and Smarthings that may help simplify matters.

I'm interested in testing your Comfort UPNP w my incoming Raspberry Pi 3s. My goal is voice integration with Alexa AVS (RP3) via my Comfort System.

All the Best,

Ben



 Posted: Sunday Oct 16th, 2016 08:00 pm
   
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benchan001
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Hi Matt,

This is interesting as I have spoken w/ Mr Chiu about using a Raspberry Pi 3 as my Alexa AVS. The conversation began as using Z-Wave; however, he did point me out to your UPNP and Smarthings that may help simplify matters.

I'm interested in testing your Comfort UPNP w my incoming Raspberry Pi 3s. My goal is voice integration with Alexa AVS (RP3) via my Comfort System.

All the Best,

Ben



 Posted: Sunday Oct 16th, 2016 09:03 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Hi Ben

That should be do-able, so long as the Alexia AVS offers the same functionality as the Echo (which is what I am using).

Do you know if it supports UPNP as the Echo does - maybe try 'discover my devices' and see what it does.

I am happy to bundle up what I have into something which can be installed, it is still early days, and whilst it has been running faultlessly for a couple of weeks I need to stress it's still in development and may barf.

Finally, it is currently written to support the Ethernet interface on a UCM, i'm sure i could also add a serial interface support but it isn't highest priority at the moment - can you confirm you have one?

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Sunday Oct 16th, 2016 09:17 pm
   
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benchan001
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Hi Matt,

I presently have the older UCM/Serial. I'll need to request an upgrade to the Ethernet UCM.

I'll plan to have 2 RPi3 and use Home Assistant as the hub and Alexa AVS. 1 connected to Comfort, 1 RPI3 in the bedroom.

I'll plan to loan 1 RPi3 to Mr. Chiu and the Cytech team for further testing. It's been 5 years since I've configured my Comfort/CBUS system, and it's just about the right time for enhancements via Alexa.

Looking forward to testing your UPNP :)

Thanks,

Ben



 Posted: Sunday Oct 16th, 2016 09:25 pm
   
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benchan001
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Hi Matt,

I presently have the older UCM/Serial. I'll need to request an upgrade to the Ethernet UCM.

I'll plan to have 2 RPi3 and use Home Assistant as the hub and Alexa AVS. 1 connected to Comfort, 1 RPI3 in the bedroom.

I'll plan to loan 1 RPi3 to Mr. Chiu and the Cytech team for further testing. It's been 5 years since I've configured my Comfort/CBUS system, and it's just about the right time for enhancements via Alexa.

Looking forward to testing your UPNP :)

Thanks,

Ben



 Posted: Monday Oct 17th, 2016 04:10 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Hey Ben

That should work, as I mentioned earlier, it would be useful to know whether the Alexa on the Pi does support UPNP. I should have some time later this week to implement a WeMo emulator and send it across for you to test prior to getting your UCM/Ethernet.

What Comfort interfaces do you need to have exposed, currently I have zones and outputs (as per the screenshots below from SmartThings). The Alarm status and arming is a work in progress. 

As an added bonus I have also added IFTTT support via the maker channel for zones and outputs which allows them to trigger events on IFTTT, which can be configured on a per zone/output basis, but haven't yet implemented any IFTTT functions (so IFTTT can't initiate actions on the alarm).

I have attached four images from the SmartThings interface, the first one shows a typical room with Comfort zone and outputs (which are PIR's and lights respectively).



The second image shows an output device control interface, which shows the functions which can be performed on the output (On, Off, Flash Once, Flash the final icon being a toggle to enable IFTTT)


The third image is the same for a zone, with functions to enable the IFTTT maker or bypass the zone.


The final image is an illustration of a zones history as viewed in the App.




 Posted: Monday Oct 17th, 2016 04:54 pm
   
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mattbrain
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The link to Alexa in my implementation is via SmartThings, which exposes the devices in the Alexa app after being discovered via 'Alexa, discover my devices':





From there, I have grouped them together into logical groups, as below:





Allowing me to say 'Alexa, turn on the side passage lights'.


For an installation which isn't going to use SmartThings, I need to modify the UPNP to support emulate a device supported natively - I think WeMo lights, sockets, switches and motion sensors are best suited for this - they are widely supported and simple enough to easily emulate - it does mean that some of the advanced functions (such as zone bypass) aren't available as the range of functions per device is limited - but if all you are after is to interact with the alarm in a basic manner (react to zones, interact with outputs, set / unset the alarm) it should be more than sufficient.



 Posted: Tuesday Oct 18th, 2016 03:56 pm
   
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cgiltrow
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Hi Matt,

This looks great!  I wrote (and published in these forums) an interface into Comfort using VB and have been wanting to rewrite it in node.js for a while.  I would like to see what you have done and can possibly contribute.

Thanks,

Clinton.



 Posted: Tuesday Oct 18th, 2016 04:43 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Hey Clinton

I would welcome your feedback, and having more people try this out should certainly help with fleshing out the functionality.

I'm going to do a bit of tidying up of the code later this week (as its a bit scruffy atm) and then pop it onto GitHub. It does has some dependencies on other node modules (some of which I have had to modify as they were only partial implementations) so the install process is a little tortuous but I'm hoping to have those changes merged back into the main branch.

I'll put a link on the first entry of this topic once I have uploaded it along with some other tools to help with determining third party compatibility.

Thanks,

Matt




 Posted: Tuesday Oct 18th, 2016 07:24 pm
   
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benchan001
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Hi Matt,

These are excellent screenshots showing the Comfort Outputs.

Just wanted to see how you selected Smartthings as your central hub.

Have you considered a RPi 3 implementation?

My RPi 3s will be arriving next week and I look forward to testing your UPNP Comfort interface.

All the Best,

Ben



 Posted: Wednesday Oct 19th, 2016 06:34 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Hi Ben

You ask a good question about why I am using SmartThings.

I was lucky enough to be a beta tester in the UK and got one for free! However, now i have it, i would happily pay retail price for it - it allows me to connect a wide range of devices via the local network, z-wave, zigbee and devices exposed on the internet via o-auth.

The way I view this is Comfort provides a robust platform to monitor my house (intruders, fire etc) and SmartThings adds-on complex home automation which is vendor independent and open.

Combining the 2 allows me to make use of the status reports and control exposed by Comfort in a more complex home automation solution.

A (very rough) diagram of my solution is below - I have deliberately missed out some of the devices as it quickly gets too big to be easily readable but you should get the general idea:



As you can see, I have developed a UPNP compliant interface for comfort along with SmartThings device handlers which understand it. This allows me to take advantage of many of the Comfort features which aren't easily represented by standard UPNP devices.

An alternative solution (which I am working on), can replace my comfort UPNP interface with one which follows the simply BinaryDevice UPNP interface, emulating a WeMo switch for each zone, output and alarm set/unset. This removes the need to use SmartThings allowing devices which are WeMo compatible to directly link to the Comfort system. Each Zone, Output and Alarm State will have single binary control and will be represented as separate devices via UPNP.

As shown below this will allow devices such as the Amazon Echo to interface with Comfort directly without requiring SmartThings. It does have its limitations, in so much as it won't allow you to take advantage of some advanced features, and may require further customisation if you want to trigger actions, query counters, timers etc but will allow you to query the status of a zone or turn an output on/off.

Both solutions require a Raspberry Pi or other device which can run node, on the RPi I am using (model B2) it only uses around 5% CPU so could quite easily run on something much less powerful should it be required. On a RPi3 as you have, I am confident it won't even break a sweat!

Hope this all makes sense, I'm hoping to have some code for you to test shortly.


Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Wednesday Oct 19th, 2016 09:44 pm
   
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DavidJ
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HI Matt,I am very interested in HA but come at it from an end user perspective, seems most involved in HA are enthusiasts with who have to attain excellent technical know how.I have had a Comfort system for more that twelve years and its been constantly upgraded and programmed by my maintaining engineer, so a little bit expensive. I must say however on the whole I am really pleased.I do however find creating responses etc, through comfigurator way over my head and therefore saught a more manageable way of controlling basic HA so I opted for Smartthings. I found ST very unreliable and along with many on the ST forum saw many shortcomings, not least constant loss of communication with devices. I have now moved to Vera Plus and have to say there is little in it..... I mainly moved to Vera as it appears one user on here managed to make it work though it required adding the Comfort ZWave UCM.Anyway to my point, I would be really keen of finding a means of communicating with Comfort through either ST or Vera.Your gateway sounds a massive step forward.Any advice assistance would be much appreciated,Regards

David



 Posted: Wednesday Oct 19th, 2016 09:53 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Hi David

I would be delighted if you would give it a go.

I am aware of some of the short-comings with ST; some of which were due to it probably being released before some of it was fully baked, very ambitious goals and a heavy reliance on the cloud. 

It is possible to mitigate against these issues, and some of the stuff coming to the platform now (such as CoRE) are really advanced. I guess if you can separate out the home security / home safety from home automation by leaving the former on the Comfort with the latter on ST you aren't losing any of the stability and reliability of Comfort to the essentials whilst getting the benefit of broader integration via ST.

I'll need to put some notes together on installation, and if you're prepared to try stuff out and help me test it we should all benefit. Do you have access to a Raspberry Pi (any model with Ethernet should work fine) - as this is the current platform I am using for the UPNP interface. Additionally, do you have a UCM with Ethernet?

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Wednesday Oct 19th, 2016 10:00 pm
   
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DavidJ
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Hi Matt, I have a Rpi v1 knocking around with Ethernet.  Yes my UCM is an Ethernet version.  Happy to use it through Smartthings which is back in its box. Appreciate your advise. 



 Posted: Wednesday Oct 19th, 2016 10:09 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Hi David

Sounds great - ok, i'm going to work tomorrow on providing some instructions and tidying up some of the debugging so we can see what is occurring. You will need to get the latest raspbian image from https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/ and set up a clean sdcard as per their instructions.

So long as the RPi is on the same network as the alarm, and you can ssh into it we should be all set.

You will need to get the latest configuration file for your alarm, as the UPNP interface reads that to identify elements to expose, and put it in the same folder as the software.

Can you give me an idea of how big your system is - do you have any SEMs and how many active zones / outputs do you have?

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Thursday Oct 20th, 2016 02:12 pm
   
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DavidJ
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Hi Matt,
Ok, The RPi is up and running. Smartthings is back in action.Where do I copy the CCL file? Into a directory or to the root of the RPi?If I look in comfigurator Zones/Inputs I have 24 entries. Under Names/Outputs I have 8 though I do not believe all those are in use.I dont believe I have any slave modules but I do have 3 UCM's.Hope that helps.Cheers
David



 Posted: Thursday Oct 20th, 2016 05:45 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Hi David

I'm working on the instructions at the moment. I think you will need to convert the .ccl you have to a .cclx (xml format). You can do this by downloading the latest version of comfigurator, loading the .ccl and saving it as a .cclx.


If you have 24 and 8 outputs, you probably have a LEM03 which cannot be mixed with SEMs (which should work fine)

I'll be back in touch shortly with instructions to set up the RPi and test connectivity to the Comfort system.

A couple of things to think about:

1. The alarm should have a static IP address (this can either be set in the alarm or [and a better solution]  is to have it marked as static in your router)
2. The RPi should also have a static address, this is most easily done on the router too.

 Finally, both the alarm and RPi need to be on the same subnet, which is very likely to be the case on a home network.

Thanks,

Matt 



 Posted: Thursday Oct 20th, 2016 05:48 pm
   
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DavidJ
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All good on the static Ip's. Thanks



 Posted: Friday Oct 21st, 2016 08:09 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Hi All

OK - deep breath....

I have published what I have done so far to github. Please note, this is a SmartThings release only (although the included test client will demonstrate it does work).

You can read the release notes, download the software and have a play at : https://github.com/mattbrain/Cytech-Comfort

Please let me know how you get on - I have to stress this is an early release, it will undoubtably go through many revisions - if you aren't comfortable testing this out - please don't download it just yet, however if you are willing to give it a go and report back your findings i will be grateful.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Tuesday Oct 25th, 2016 06:03 pm
   
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DavidJ
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Within a week of reading this post I now, thanks to the incredible help and support of Matt, have added 40 odd devices to smartthings. Importantly this is not just about Smartthings this development lets Comfort get on with what it is REALLY good at, home security, and let you get on with using mainstream products to integrate.I cant say how impressed I am with this, I strongly recommend others consider integrating with this. Best plug-in ever!Thanks again Matt.

Last edited on Tuesday Oct 25th, 2016 06:09 pm by DavidJ



 Posted: Thursday Oct 27th, 2016 04:45 pm
   
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waszaa
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Hi Matt

This is great and all working for me so many thanks for sharing - any thoughts on implementing Comfort responses (for pulsed gate and garage door control) and counters (for C-bus Lighting / smartfit heating) in the future ?



 Posted: Thursday Oct 27th, 2016 05:58 pm
   
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DavidJ
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I'll second that request. The flash once works for garage doors and gates but the on really messes them up. So I guess a default device as a flash would be excellent.



 Posted: Thursday Oct 27th, 2016 09:50 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Hi Guys

Thanks for your feedback, and glad you have both managed to get it working.


Pulsed output (flash once) should be easily doable as a preference in the SmartThings device handler - so you can select on/off, pulsed/off, pulse once/off as the primary action.



Initiating responses should be easily done too - just thinking how it should be done, a separate device per response (or response pair to simulate on/off) or a single device with multiple responses - any thoughts?


Counters are half implemented already and I have been working with David on his C-Bus lighting - watch this space...


Thanks again,


Matt



 Posted: Thursday Oct 27th, 2016 11:33 pm
   
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waszaa
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Thats all great - I was thinking one device one response.

can't wait to get my C-bus connected!

thanks

Mike



 Posted: Friday Oct 28th, 2016 12:18 am
   
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wexfordman
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so, just that I understand, your now able to control comfort respones, read counter value etc ? And this can be done via amazon echo ?

If thats correct, then with this, has comfort and your application now effectively created echoe control of pretty much every home control protocol comfort supports ?



 Posted: Friday Oct 28th, 2016 12:55 am
   
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mattbrain
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At the moment it requires Samsung SmartThings to act as an interface between the Echo and Comfort, however I am working on adding WeMo emulation which will allow an Echo to interact natively with Comfort. This will enable outputs and responses to be controlled by the Echo, but there isn't yet an unprompted mechanism in Echo (i.e. you can't wake the echo up programmatically to announce an event) to allow zones or status changes to make the Echo do stuff.

SmartThings itself has a lot of other products integrated and with this interface you can add Comfort to the mix - allowing you to write complex scripts linking all your SmartThings devices and Comfort devices together.

I mentioned some examples previously, my latest little script is automatic closing of Fakro windows when the alarm is set and setting the heating to economy mode.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Saturday Oct 29th, 2016 06:48 pm
   
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lwillerton
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Hi All,
I have been doing some research and have recently decided to try and get Comfort to control some of my AV kit. However seeing this thread I wanted to run a few things by everyone.

My plan is to access the amps 12 scenes on the amp with a bit of IR code to turn on the TV select the appropriate input set the volume etc. This could be controlled by the comfort app or one of the comfort scenes switches. I would also program IR commands for the aircon / electric blinds and for TV / audio zones not connected to the amp. Please see the rough diagram attached.
Reading this thread I am now wondering if I should include a SmartThings hub and a RPi (the bits in the red box on the attached) to allow better control of my TV's and lighting (veralite) and to allow amazon dot to control the equipment in the kitchen (keep hands free) 

If I buy SmartThings Hub will it detect vera, samsung TV's, Sony TV's etc (sorry don't know much about this)? how easy is it to get the interface between SmartThings and Comfort working using the RPi? I have a eth3 UCM do I need anything else? I have quotes for all the cytech kit but before I place the order though it would be worth checking to see if I need to add anything else to the list.

Sorry forgot to put on the diagram my heatmiser thermostat could this be included in to the SmartThings/Amazon dot config?
Best Wishes 

Lee

Attachment: AV install.png (Downloaded 189 times)

Last edited on Saturday Oct 29th, 2016 06:52 pm by lwillerton



 Posted: Saturday Oct 29th, 2016 09:27 pm
   
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DavidJ
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I cant answer all of questions, do I take it you currently do NOT have a Comfort system? If so I would consider how capable you are to set it up, its far from simple. Obviously if you are Very techy I guess you'll have no problem.
With regard to Vera and Smartthings, I'd probably consider moving devices from Vera to Smartthings rather than running both although I do believe it is possible.
Although rteading this https://community.smartthings.com/t/smart-things-as-secondary-zwave-controller/2531 it does dound doable.
With regard to setting up the Rpi with Comfort and Matts App - thats a breeze.



 Posted: Saturday Oct 29th, 2016 10:46 pm
   
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lwillerton
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Sorry I have had comfort installed for 5 years controlling lights electric gates, guarage doors etc, self programmed with a lot of help from the cytech team (they are fantastic). Was considering control 4 but decided that I would buy the extra kit cytech produce to provide the AV solution. The idea of using the dot just becomes really interesting.

I will add SmartThing hub and a Amazon dot to the kit list, I am sure it has got to be worth a go.



 Posted: Saturday Oct 29th, 2016 10:46 pm
   
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lwillerton
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Sorry I have had comfort installed for 5 years controlling lights electric gates, guarage doors etc, self programmed with a lot of help from the cytech team (they are fantastic). Was considering control 4 but decided that I would buy the extra kit cytech produce to provide the AV solution. The idea of using the dot just becomes really interesting.

I will add SmartThing hub and a Amazon dot to the kit list, I am sure it has got to be worth a go.



 Posted: Saturday Oct 29th, 2016 11:02 pm
   
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DavidJ
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I had Vera plus in place for past six months with varying results. Since Matt's app became available I've brushed the dust off of Smartthings and started moving everything back over. Also a new app on. ST called CoRE makes it much easier to set up rules.



 Posted: Sunday Oct 30th, 2016 12:02 am
   
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mattbrain
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@Iwillerton:
In my day job I have written IP based controls for LG and Samsung TV's - they both support a variant of UPNP - I believe SmartThings support recent Samsung (2014+) TV's natively - although I don't know, I should think if the Sony is a recent TV with ethernet / wifi it most likely has a control interface exposed over IP.
I don't know about veralite - I haven't come across it before (is it z-wave? - if so it should work).
@All:
I have made some updates to overcome an issue David reported yesterday due to subscriptions not being renewed in a timely manner. Please download the updated Device Handlers and SmartApp and install over the existing (paste over the existing code, save and publish). This will automatically update the devices in SmartThings (no need to restart discovery) and the new refresh button in the Bridge device will force a global resubscribe. The refresh button in the zones / outputs will now do the same for that device and get the latest values.
Thanks,
Matt



 Posted: Sunday Oct 30th, 2016 01:49 pm
   
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@All:

I have just updated the output device handler to allow each device to define a default action for 'On', such as Flash / Flash Once / Turn on - this should help with external devices looking for momentary functions. Please download and paste over the existing Output device handler, save and publish to update. To enable Flash / Flash Once go to the settings cog in the device to select the behaviour. Default behaviour for existing and new devices will be 'Turn On'

@Iwillerton:


Just had another look a your diagram, I think you could take out veralite and have the SmartThings hub replace any functions that offers - devices paired with it could be paired with the SmartThings Hub - this will likely make your setup more reliable as there are less links in the chain. It is entirely possible that code could be written to support the UPNP bridge I have built on vera but I don't have access to one (and would need to spend some time understanding how it works - I believe it does have a programming language of sorts but don't know how broad its capabilities are)


I would also have the Amazon Dot talk directly to smartthings and control other devices from there rather than a direct link to your devices in the kitchen (indicated by the yellow line) - native device support in Alexa is limited and there is an excellent plugin which exposes SmartThings devices and allows it to be tightly integrated.


Thanks,


Matt


Last edited on Sunday Oct 30th, 2016 01:49 pm by mattbrain



 Posted: Sunday Oct 30th, 2016 10:04 pm
   
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Thanks Matt, all make sence and I agree removing vera will be a positive step.

Before I order ST has anyone seen any posts about ST V3?



 Posted: Sunday Oct 30th, 2016 10:11 pm
   
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ST2 Is just over a year old. Can't see them releasing anything very soon. Some good deals on ebay though. If you do get on ebay make sure the code comes with it. I'd just get the hub only as the devices in the starter pack are Zigbee.



 Posted: Monday Oct 31st, 2016 01:54 am
   
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Swiss-Toni
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Forgive my ignorance, but what interface would you use without samsung smarthings using Amazon echo directly with comfort (I am presuming it would be through Etho conncetion & the echo programed accordingly, The voice control aspect is very appealing, I do not use either echo or smarthings, But I can see this as an extension and will be come obligatory in the very near future......



 Posted: Monday Oct 31st, 2016 02:17 am
   
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lwillerton
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Hi Matt,

I was reading back through the posts and I just want to check that I understand correctly, will the interface allow me to run a scene or response setup in Comfort.

E.g If I interface with the Yamaha amp through the universal UCM and run one of the 12 Yamaha scenes to turn on amp set volume etc and also fire an IR TV on command can echo and ST the trigger this scene or response?

Was also thinking of buying the heatmiser UCM would I be able to set temperatures or turn on the hot water using dot ST and comfort?

Is there a plan to include flags as well as counters? my system auto arms unless a flag is set to stop the task. So dot command to that sets auto arm or stops auto arm.

If this is the case the operatunities are endless and limited to the individuals imagination. Once ST and dot can run comfort responses happy days very powerful combination.

This seems to be one of the most exciting additions to what is alread a great system.

Best Wishes

Lee



 Posted: Monday Oct 31st, 2016 04:28 pm
   
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@Swiss-Toni

I have used SmartThings as a mediation layer between Echo and Comfort - The Echo supports SmartThings natively and therefore makes things easy. I am working on a variant of the UPNP software which exposes Comfort zones and outputs (and possibly flags) to other devices, including Echo, via WeMo emulation - as these seem like popular IOT devices with broad support and they are simple enough to be able to emulate without too much trouble. Whilst this will allow the Echo to talk directly to the Comfort, it is limited in terms of capability. I plan to emulate WeMo sockets to map to outputs and flags (simple on / off) and WeMo motion sensors to emulate zones.

@Lee

Yes, good question, I also plan to support flags (and it is likely I will finish these before counters). They will appear in SmartThings as devices with switch capabilities, similar to outputs but without flash/flashonce.

Responses will also be supported - not sure yet how to do this, I was thinking of a device per response, allowing it to be triggered like a switch.

Counters will be supported and will look like variable devices (such as dimmable bulbs), exposing the value of the counter as a 'brightness' value and allowing SmartThings to set discrete values and increment/decrement the counter as appropriate.

I'm in the middle of a critical piece of my day job at the moment, so I won't have time to do much this week, but hope to have something back to you all to try before the weekend.

Thanks,

Matt

Last edited on Monday Oct 31st, 2016 04:41 pm by mattbrain



 Posted: Monday Oct 31st, 2016 09:05 pm
   
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Hi All

Having given this some more thought (and prototyped some of it) I am proposing the following.

Zones and Outputs will be implemented as they are.
Counters will be implemented like Outputs, but with configurable actions for On/Off (set to a specific value, increment / decrement and a slider to set a specific value similar to that of a dimmable bulb in SmartThings
Flags will be simple on/off switches
Responses will be a switch where the on button triggers the response

As this has the potential to create many hundreds of virtual devices in SmartThings, I am changing the alarm.config format to require the desired zones, outputs, flags, counters and responses be explicitly listed, so for example

maxzones = 16 is now deprecated and replaced with zones = 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16.

This should also increase performance on Pi and allow the user to only expose those things required. It does place an additional burden of effort on the user to list out the things required, but I think the effort / benefit trade-off is worth it.

I anticipate I will have a new release for the end of the week supporting at least Flags and Responses if not the whole lot.

Alarm state / set / unset is in the works and will follow shortly afterwards.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Matt 



 Posted: Tuesday Nov 1st, 2016 11:55 am
   
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wexfordman
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Hi Matt, really excited about this, gotta figure out now the route I need to go. I had been holding off in the echo in favour of Google's home, but this might be the trigger to go to echoe



 Posted: Tuesday Nov 1st, 2016 11:55 am
   
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Hi Matt, really excited about this, gotta figure out now the route I need to go. I had been holding off in the echo in favour of Google's home, but this might be the trigger to go to echoe



 Posted: Wednesday Nov 2nd, 2016 12:12 am
   
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lwillerton
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Hi All,

Is there a problem with ST security?

Do we think cytech will make a UCM to connect to amazon echo or google home?

Cheers

Lee



 Posted: Wednesday Nov 2nd, 2016 04:13 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Thats a really good question, and i'm sure other people have different views on this, but here are mine:

The Cytech solution, when not connected to a network is quite secure. A determined bad actor could potentially guess the usercode (and therefore gain access) by taking advantage of the telephone interface or keypad (either by brute force or educated guessing)

When it is connected to a network, the Cytech serial protocol (presented over IP) is unencrypted and trivial, a bad actor could easily listen to activity to determine the usercode or use brute force to crack it. Common sense security will help prevent this by not allowing internet access to the UCM/Eth module, putting it on a seperate VLAN etc.

If integration of the Comfort system into third party devices is desirable (which it is for me), security risks can be mitigated in the following ways:
* Limit direct access to the UCM to only authorised devices
* I have done this by putting the UCM/Eth and a secondary interface on the Pi on their own subnet, with the primary interface on my Lan without any routing enabled
* Ensure that devices which expose Comfort functions are locked down
* I have configured the Pi to only exposes Linux services necessary for Comfort
* The configuration file for the UPNP interface limits the features exposed to those which I think are necessary for the integrations I want to do

This means that only the Pi can talk to Comfort, and only things within my home network can talk to the Pi.

If the question is, is ST as a platform secure, the answer has to be 'only as secure as any other cloud based service'. Amazon Echo and Google Home are also cloud based services and have the same inherent weaknesses. Obviously by combining Echo and ST, the security risk is increased, but if there is no vector to do mischief on Comfort as you have only exposed the functions necessary on the Pi - the risk is minimal.

It has been mentioned before (by David I think) but in my opinion, leave Comfort in charge of critical stuff (security and safety) and then use ST / Echo / Google / Vera to perform all the fancy home automation stuff which are enhanced by third party services or integrations.





 Posted: Wednesday Nov 2nd, 2016 07:57 pm
   
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DavidJ
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I would have thought there are easier ways, if a thief was that determined, to break into a property than trying to hack into the alarm remotely. If they are that techy it would be easier and certainly achieve a better return by hacking into your bank account.



 Posted: Wednesday Nov 2nd, 2016 09:41 pm
   
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Hi All

I have now added Counter and Flag support as well as made other changes to the configuration.

Please see the updates posted at https://github.com/mattbrain/Cytech-Comfort

If you are updating an existing configuration, please take note of the updates section at the bottom of the installation notes, you will need to download and modify the alarm.config as significant changes have been introduced which will not function if this file is not updated appropriately.

I am planning another release (likely early next week) which will allow responses to be triggered and the alarm set / unset to be controlled by SmartThings.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Wednesday Nov 2nd, 2016 09:56 pm
   
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Swiss-Toni
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Last edited on Wednesday Nov 2nd, 2016 10:45 pm by Swiss-Toni



 Posted: Thursday Nov 3rd, 2016 03:04 am
   
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lwillerton
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Hi All

Sorry another question.

Vera worked with z-wave UCM. If I move everything over to ST will that include the z-wave UCM in to the ST z-wave network? Also will ST be able to do an association from a door sensor or z-wave PIR to a comfort virtual node?

Currently I have a light sensor connected to comfort which turns on lights when it goes dark (planning on installing electric blinds to shut as well), this is better than setting a set time. My lights also trigger by PIR's differently depending on security mode. I am just trying to work out if I need comfort to send commands to ST or ST to send commands to comfort or (think preferred option) a bi directional operation, this would mean if ST fails comfort would still ensure lights, blinds etc work.

@DavidJ good point about security. Think I will take a look at some of Matt's ideas though.

Best Wishes

Lee



 Posted: Friday Nov 4th, 2016 02:59 pm
   
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@Lee
It looks like this could be resolved in several ways.

Given that the most robust solution is one which doesn't involve ST or Vera, can you pair the devices directly with Comfort via the UCM. You can then add basic automation using Comfort which will survive power and broadband outage events.

More complex automations, such as those which require input / outputs / control from ST or attached third party interfaces can then be performed if you expose the Z-Wave devices as virtual outputs / flags / counters / responses mapped to ST devices.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Wednesday Nov 9th, 2016 01:18 am
   
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lwillerton
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Hi

I have gone ahead and purchased ST hub, Harmony Hub, amazon dot and for now things are working such as turning tv on setting a station, but becomes very expensive to buy all this kit for each room. Plus this setup will work well in the kitchen as you are often cooking and don't want to touch remotes. I have not purchased the raspberry pi yet, I have never set one of these up so will need some help using this to interface between Echo and comfort / comfort and ST so I hope you are all going to be to help.

I am also going to purchase the cytech kit. I am thinking the universal ucm will help access 8 scene settings on the amp which are not accessible by IR, plus the IR output from comfort will cover some of the automation in other rooms.

Just thinking out loud but if I setup the Harmony hub to do a set of IR tasks, turn on tv, select hdmi output, turn on amp etc and then fire that at comfort it could be an easy way to automate IR controlled kit using comfort.

Anyway I will be back in touch once I have installed the additional cytech kit and got the Pie working.

Best Wishes

Lee



 Posted: Wednesday Nov 9th, 2016 01:18 am
   
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lwillerton
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Hi

I have gone ahead and purchased ST hub, Harmony Hub, amazon dot and for now things are working such as turning tv on setting a station, but becomes very expensive to buy all this kit for each room. Plus this setup will work well in the kitchen as you are often cooking and don't want to touch remotes. I have not purchased the raspberry pi yet, I have never set one of these up so will need some help using this to interface between Echo and comfort / comfort and ST so I hope you are all going to be to help.

I am also going to purchase the cytech kit. I am thinking the universal ucm will help access 8 scene settings on the amp which are not accessible by IR, plus the IR output from comfort will cover some of the automation in other rooms.

Just thinking out loud but if I setup the Harmony hub to do a set of IR tasks, turn on tv, select hdmi output, turn on amp etc and then fire that at comfort it could be an easy way to automate IR controlled kit using comfort.

Anyway I will be back in touch once I have installed the additional cytech kit and got the Pie working.

Best Wishes

Lee



 Posted: Wednesday Nov 9th, 2016 01:18 am
   
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lwillerton
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Hi

I have gone ahead and purchased ST hub, Harmony Hub, amazon dot and for now things are working such as turning tv on setting a station, but becomes very expensive to buy all this kit for each room. Plus this setup will work well in the kitchen as you are often cooking and don't want to touch remotes. I have not purchased the raspberry pi yet, I have never set one of these up so will need some help using this to interface between Echo and comfort / comfort and ST so I hope you are all going to be to help.

I am also going to purchase the cytech kit. I am thinking the universal ucm will help access 8 scene settings on the amp which are not accessible by IR, plus the IR output from comfort will cover some of the automation in other rooms.

Just thinking out loud but if I setup the Harmony hub to do a set of IR tasks, turn on tv, select hdmi output, turn on amp etc and then fire that at comfort it could be an easy way to automate IR controlled kit using comfort.

Anyway I will be back in touch once I have installed the additional cytech kit and got the Pie working.

Best Wishes

Lee



 Posted: Thursday Nov 10th, 2016 07:56 pm
   
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mattbrain
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@Lee

Happy to help when you have the kit - it's probably worth spending a little time at raspberrypi.org to get to grips with how it works. You will need to be able to connect to the Pi remotely (so that you can put it somewhere sensible) using SSH (PuTTY on Windows).

I'm elbows deep in DIY at the moment, I'm hoping to do some work on responses and alarm status tomorrow evening (it's the wife's turn to go out)...

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Tuesday Nov 15th, 2016 03:33 am
   
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mattbrain
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Hi All
Just a quick update, not forgotten I have promised a responses update - there is one coming, I have just been dragged into more decorating by the wife. I will get something out soon, please watch this space.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Tuesday Nov 15th, 2016 07:42 pm
   
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lwillerton
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Sorry All another large post, but I have been experimenting.
I now have a combination of SmartThing, Yomomi, Harmony allows the control of TV's and AV kit. Still waiting for confirmation on my Cytech additions so can't comment on them yet.  I am finding ST has very limited capabilities with z-wave, there is a big community support group, but by no way does it seem as simple as Vera copying the z-wave network to Comfort. Two fundamental show stoppers for me are:
 1, I have included 2 x 1.5kw fibaro relays and only one switch is detected so I can't control both devices within ST's
 2, When including the comfort UCM-Z-Wave it only detects a PC controller, ST doesnt seem to download the z-wave network to Comfort, massive problem and I will be migrating back to Vera over the weekend.
My conclusion is ST will not deliver the level of functionality I require for my z-wave network. For example if the internet is down and I am on holiday I still want to the alarm system to create the effect of me being at home, which comfort does very well using the UCM-Zwave bridge, but if ST doesn't pass on the Z-Wave network game over.
To be honest I want the alarm and its functions to be rock solid so that’s why I think the Z-Wave UCM is critical in my installation and on the whole comfort has achieve this in bucket loads at my house for a number of years.
I can cope with a system failure of the AV kit so if I can’t turn the TV on using the echo (this does work well using the new technologies) then no big deal. If I can’t set a scene using ST again no big deal these are nice to have items no essentials.
Possible solution moving forward:
Leave Vera as the main Z-wave network controller and do not use ST in the z-wave network, especially as the main controller.
Use the Raspberry Pi developed by Matt as an interface between, ST and Comfort. I uses counters and flags to control z-wave devices so by rights ST should be able to change the status of these via the Raspberry Pi interface very easily, not sure what this looks like on the ST App. 
Other considerations:
How would ST trigger a Comfort scene? I could install a Harmony hub in each room (very expensive) and it only controls 8 devices which includes the TV you are controlling, plus the amp i own is broken down in to 3 devices if you want to control all 3 zones. Whereas Comfort can easily learn the on / off commands for IR to control the TV and setup the rest of my AV kit using the Universal UCM. 
Would it be possible to setup ST as a secondary z-wave hub to learn the z-wave network? 
I have not managed to get Comfort to control all the combinations of a fibaro RGBW module which sits behind my TV so can only turn one colour on / off, would it be possible for ST to interface with Vera to achieve this? 
I would like to trigger a scene that puts my TV on, selects the DVD, sets the volume and sound program, sets the LED RGBW stripe behind the TV to say Red, and dims the rest of the lights. All of which is very achievable with a little bit of Comfort, Vera and Smartthings. The key is what triggers what.
Hope this all makes sense


Attachment: Update Control Plan.png (Downloaded 141 times)



 Posted: Tuesday Nov 15th, 2016 07:42 pm
   
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lwillerton
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Sorry All another large post, but I have been experimenting.
I now have a combination of SmartThing, Yomomi, Harmony allows the control of TV's and AV kit. Still waiting for confirmation on my Cytech additions so can't comment on them yet.  I am finding ST has very limited capabilities with z-wave, there is a big community support group, but by no way does it seem as simple as Vera copying the z-wave network to Comfort. Two fundamental show stoppers for me are:
 1, I have included 2 x 1.5kw fibaro relays and only one switch is detected so I can't control both devices within ST's
 2, When including the comfort UCM-Z-Wave it only detects a PC controller, ST doesnt seem to download the z-wave network to Comfort, massive problem and I will be migrating back to Vera over the weekend.
My conclusion is ST will not deliver the level of functionality I require for my z-wave network. For example if the internet is down and I am on holiday I still want to the alarm system to create the effect of me being at home, which comfort does very well using the UCM-Zwave bridge, but if ST doesn't pass on the Z-Wave network game over.
To be honest I want the alarm and its functions to be rock solid so that’s why I think the Z-Wave UCM is critical in my installation and on the whole comfort has achieve this in bucket loads at my house for a number of years.
I can cope with a system failure of the AV kit so if I can’t turn the TV on using the echo (this does work well using the new technologies) then no big deal. If I can’t set a scene using ST again no big deal these are nice to have items no essentials.
Possible solution moving forward:
Leave Vera as the main Z-wave network controller and do not use ST in the z-wave network, especially as the main controller.
Use the Raspberry Pi developed by Matt as an interface between, ST and Comfort. I uses counters and flags to control z-wave devices so by rights ST should be able to change the status of these via the Raspberry Pi interface very easily, not sure what this looks like on the ST App. 
Other considerations:
How would ST trigger a Comfort scene? I could install a Harmony hub in each room (very expensive) and it only controls 8 devices which includes the TV you are controlling, plus the amp i own is broken down in to 3 devices if you want to control all 3 zones. Whereas Comfort can easily learn the on / off commands for IR to control the TV and setup the rest of my AV kit using the Universal UCM. 
Would it be possible to setup ST as a secondary z-wave hub to learn the z-wave network? 
I have not managed to get Comfort to control all the combinations of a fibaro RGBW module which sits behind my TV so can only turn one colour on / off, would it be possible for ST to interface with Vera to achieve this? 
I would like to trigger a scene that puts my TV on, selects the DVD, sets the volume and sound program, sets the LED RGBW stripe behind the TV to say Red, and dims the rest of the lights. All of which is very achievable with a little bit of Comfort, Vera and Smartthings. The key is what triggers what.
Hope this all makes sense


Attachment: Update Control Plan.png (Downloaded 140 times)



 Posted: Tuesday Nov 15th, 2016 08:05 pm
   
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DavidJ
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I cant answer most of what your asking but thought I'd just give you my take on Vera vs Smartthings. I initially dumped Smartthings in favor of Vera. I have since had massive problems with Vera's include, fundamentally I don't think the Z-Wave radio is as powerful (not a lot in it but every couple of meters count). The benefit of the ST app in using include/exclude was a bonus. Vera is also really clunky.When I saw Matt's app I immediately got the ST back into use and have slowly phased out the Vera over past three weeks. I'm now actually enjoying using ST much more so than I did before, I think they may have ironed some bugs and it runs pretty solidly (so far). There is also a very powerful rules engine called Core (which Matt mentioned to me), that alone is a big plus against Vera. I also think its more UK biased (although worryingly I see there are rumours of them pulling out of the UK).With regard to the fibaro relay, and very much like much of ST's devices, it relies on the community support. There is a device handler here:https://community.smartthings.com/t/faq-fibaro-fgs-222-relay-installation-guide-how-to-for-beginner/46090I used the Pukahq version, works perfectly.If you need any further help installing it i can try to help, i'm no guru but can talk you through it.



 Posted: Wednesday Nov 16th, 2016 01:25 am
   
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lwillerton
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Thanks David, I have managed to setup another Fibaro 2 x 1.5kw relay working following your instructions.

Now its just getting ST to download the z-wave network to comfort.

Cheers

Lee

PS All fibaro's working now ST getting another chance.

Last edited on Wednesday Nov 16th, 2016 02:04 am by lwillerton



 Posted: Sunday Dec 4th, 2016 05:02 pm
   
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DavidJ
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This is working rock solid!! In fact even Smartthings seems to be working well :-)Hopefully Matt will get his decorating finished and  update to include Responses and set/unset through ST.One thing I did notice is that Comfort only allows one client connection at any one time therefore the Comfort standalone app will not work while Matts App is connected. I'm sure this is obvious to most.Looking forward to next release but no rush.



 Posted: Sunday Dec 4th, 2016 09:27 pm
   
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Hi David
Thanks for your feedback, and glad it is working out so well for you.
I am close to finishing alarm control and responses - I want to do a little more testing and make some improvements to the user experience, i hope to have it done by end of week if all goes well.
In terms of the UCM - indeed, UCM/Eth and UCM/Eth2 can only support one simultaneous connection and UCM/Eth3 supports two simultaneous connections - someone else has released a windows service which allows many connections via a proxy and I am thinking of similar on the PI but with the added functionality of defining what commands are allowed (to add a later of protection).
I'll post an update later this week on the ST work,
Thanks,
Matt 



 Posted: Monday Dec 5th, 2016 01:55 pm
   
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Hi All

Thanks for the patience - I am still knee deep in decorating, but have managed to find time to implement alarm control and responses. It is still a little rough around the edges (for example, all the alarm state conditions aren't yet mapped) but it does allow the alarm to be set and unset remotely, as well as the creation of virtual devices for responses.

I have uploaded the code to github in the usual place but haven't updated the notes yet. Please replace all the existing devices and smart-app with the new code as well as the alarm.js on the Pi - the configuration file should still be ok, and your existing device configuration (once the devices are upgraded) in SmartThings will still work but discovery is recommended to find and create the alarm control device which allows the alarm to be set / unset and process responses.
The create a response, there is a button in the Bridge device 'Add Response Device' - clicking this will create a new device called 'ComfortAlarm Response', open it up and cog allows you to set the 'on' and 'off' response code as well as rename it (highly recommended).

At the moment, ST has no knowledge of the response names so you have to know in advance (via configurator) which responses you wish to control.

To manage the alarm, you will need to ensure you have discovered and added the alarm control device which creates a 'Comfort Alarm' device; in setting cog you can set the PIN to allow remote set and unset (it is stored securely in a password field).

The alarm control allows alarm off, away mode, night mode, day mode and vacation mode and reports on condition although I need to do some work on the UI and refresh rates.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Thursday Dec 8th, 2016 07:43 pm
   
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Superb Matt. Works a treat. Thanks for constant development. 



 Posted: Saturday Dec 10th, 2016 12:00 am
   
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Hi All,

I have been away, but I will take the time over Christmas to investigate a little more with my setup, need to buy a PI.

I have found ST does not work with Z-Wave UCM so had to go back to vera. ST works well with the Harmony Hub for turning TV on, but I now need to move on to looking at more advanced activities.

Just wanted to echo DavidJ's comments and say thank you Matt for all your efforts. This could be a game changer.

Best Wishes

Lee



 Posted: Saturday Dec 10th, 2016 03:31 am
   
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Just thinking ahead...what is the best Pi option to buy? I have seen a starter kit on Amazon for £42.99.



 Posted: Saturday Dec 10th, 2016 06:21 am
   
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Hi Matt. 
Perhaps one day you could bundle together the RPI and uPNP for the users who are not familiar with this stuff or dont have time, and sell it so people could immediately start to get all this working.
I think many people would be interested



 Posted: Saturday Dec 10th, 2016 01:11 pm
   
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wexfordman
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slychiu wrote: Hi Matt. 
Perhaps one day you could bundle together the RPI and uPNP for the users who are not familiar with this stuff or dont have time, and sell it so people could immediately start to get all this working.
I think many people would be interested


I second that :-)



 Posted: Saturday Dec 10th, 2016 02:41 pm
   
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Really guys. If i can get it working anyone can. Matt was mega helpful with issues and suggestions. It took half an hour at most. A pi cost around 30 quid complete. Got to be worth a go.



 Posted: Saturday Dec 10th, 2016 03:30 pm
   
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Just to clarify, Matt, the smart things hub is a requirement here also?



 Posted: Sunday Dec 11th, 2016 03:03 pm
   
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Its built for Smartthings so yes. It enables integration within the smartthings environment.



 Posted: Sunday Dec 11th, 2016 03:06 pm
   
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DavidJ wrote: Its built for Smartthings so yes. It enables integration within the smartthings environment.

Yeah, but my query is if you need the St hub to connect to comfort, or can you do it without St? 
Do I need to buy a St hub to get this up and running? 



 Posted: Sunday Dec 11th, 2016 03:07 pm
   
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Yes and an RPI



 Posted: Sunday Dec 11th, 2016 03:08 pm
   
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DavidJ wrote: Yes and an RPI

Cool, thanks, on the Christmas list now :-)



 Posted: Monday Dec 12th, 2016 12:52 am
   
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Would this be ok from amazon? Raspberry Pi 3 Official Desktop Starter Kit (16Gb, Black)



 Posted: Monday Dec 12th, 2016 01:06 am
   
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Any RPI works fine.  I'm using a version 1. So yes the V3 is fine.  Dont forget you will also need a power supply and an SD card.  



 Posted: Monday Dec 12th, 2016 01:15 pm
   
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Hi Guys
Sorry, not been on the forum for a couple of days and see a bunch of questions have arisen.

1. Which RPi [Raspberry Pi]?
Any RPi with Ethernet will work (avoid model A), I believe David is running on the first version of a Model B which has been superseded several times - the new Model B v3 has twice the memory and >4x the processing power.
If you are new to Raspberry Pi's i suggest this is a good starter kit: https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-3-starter-kit but there are many out there equally good.

2. Do i need SmartThings?

Current, the UPNP interface requires SmartThings as this is the only automation hub I have written handlers for. If I can get hold of a Vera hub, and there is sufficient demand, I can do the same for that. However, ST is where I have personally invested and although it isn't perfect, it does a lot for me.
To add native support for Google Home, Amazon Alexa and others I am working on WeMo emulation. This will undoubtably make it easier to get going but the limitations of using emulation will mean that it will be less functionally complete.
By using SmartThings, it can be linked to a huge variety of third party devices and services including Alexa - I get a kick out of being able to use Alexa to control comfort, it's a really neat interface.

3. Can I make it easier to install?
This is a priority item for me. At the moment it takes 30 mins and a bit of experience with the command line to install. I would like to get to a position where you simply plug it in and it works out of the box. An intermediate position might be I offer disk images or SD cards which can be used to prime a RPi.
I guess to judge the demand [and therefore whether I should pursue this over WeMo emulation or additional features] it would be useful to get some feedback. 
What do people want as a priority?


A. Raspberry Pi Bundle with SD Card so it is plug and play
B. SD Card to buy which is pre-configured
C. SD Card image to download and install myself (will cut out much of the initial command line install)
D. WeMo Emulation for native Alexa / Google Home support
E. Additional comfort functions to be exposed [please indicate]

A & B will have to be priced to account for my time dedicated to your individual build. There is no charge (from me at least) for C -> E.


If Cytech or a third party distributor are in a position to make this more accessible, I would be more than happy to have a conversation with them :)


Thanks again,

Matt



 Posted: Monday Dec 12th, 2016 01:23 pm
   
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wexfordman
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Matt, thanks a million for all if this it sounds very exciting and I also can't wait to get voice control of my comfort.
What I have at the moment, if you don't mind me explaining, is I have comfort, which controls my home heating ajfbkighting also via Velbus ucm.
My thinking is that it will be a while before Venus interface to echo will be about, so a comfort interface is the way to go (in addition to the fact, that I will be able to control security and home automation doing it this way).
Anyway, here is my thinking if you could tell me whether you think it's the right thinking or not.
1) I have a Google home device on the way for Christmas, I decided on this as opposed to echo.2) I will purchase a smart things hub, but mainly just to get integration to comfort.3) once I have Google home and smart things hub, I will be able to use your rpi interface to get control of comfort, and the Venus network via comfort? 
Is this a fair assessment? 
I  taking the smart things hub will allow me add more off the shelf products as well over the longer term? 
Regards
Eamon



 Posted: Monday Dec 12th, 2016 02:05 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Hi Eamon.

Yes, I can't see any reason why this shouldn't work  although I haven't tested the Google Home device and its integration with SmartThings. As long as it can control SmartThing Switch type devices you should be all set.

Thanks,

Matt




 Posted: Monday Dec 12th, 2016 03:03 pm
   
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DavidJ
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Here's my thinking:
A & B - Whilst I was initially daunted by the install I slowly worked through it and got there. If you supplied the Pi or SD card the user still has to create a password, unique Ip and edit the configuration. They may well gain that experience by going through the install.
C - This would be nice.
D- I understood WeMo was Belkins proprietary software, Personally I dont use any Wemo products and believe for those integrating to ST the benefits that this brings with it are pretty limitless, so I'm unclear of what D really achieves. I do plan to get Google Home as soon as I can as I expect it to link in well with ST (as its one of the few things supported)and thereby acting as my voice gateway to Comfort. Had considered importing one but read it may not be totally compliant.
E. Yes definitely. I personally would like a doorbell connector.

Thanks

David



 Posted: Monday Dec 12th, 2016 03:43 pm
   
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wexfordman
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mattbrain wrote: Hi Guys
Sorry, not been on the forum for a couple of days and see a bunch of questions have arisen.

1. Which RPi [Raspberry Pi]?
Any RPi with Ethernet will work (avoid model A), I believe David is running on the first version of a Model B which has been superseded several times - the new Model B v3 has twice the memory and >4x the processing power.
If you are new to Raspberry Pi's i suggest this is a good starter kit: https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-3-starter-kit but there are many out there equally good.

2. Do i need SmartThings?

Current, the UPNP interface requires SmartThings as this is the only automation hub I have written handlers for. If I can get hold of a Vera hub, and there is sufficient demand, I can do the same for that. However, ST is where I have personally invested and although it isn't perfect, it does a lot for me.
To add native support for Google Home, Amazon Alexa and others I am working on WeMo emulation. This will undoubtably make it easier to get going but the limitations of using emulation will mean that it will be less functionally complete.
By using SmartThings, it can be linked to a huge variety of third party devices and services including Alexa - I get a kick out of being able to use Alexa to control comfort, it's a really neat interface.

3. Can I make it easier to install?
This is a priority item for me. At the moment it takes 30 mins and a bit of experience with the command line to install. I would like to get to a position where you simply plug it in and it works out of the box. An intermediate position might be I offer disk images or SD cards which can be used to prime a RPi.
I guess to judge the demand [and therefore whether I should pursue this over WeMo emulation or additional features] it would be useful to get some feedback. 
What do people want as a priority?


A. Raspberry Pi Bundle with SD Card so it is plug and play
B. SD Card to buy which is pre-configured
C. SD Card image to download and install myself (will cut out much of the initial command line install)
D. WeMo Emulation for native Alexa / Google Home support
E. Additional comfort functions to be exposed [please indicate]

A & B will have to be priced to account for my time dedicated to your individual build. There is no charge (from me at least) for C -> E.


If Cytech or a third party distributor are in a position to make this more accessible, I would be more than happy to have a conversation with them :)


Thanks again,

Matt


Hi Matt,
I think option c would suit a lot of people on this forum, who are either installers, or DIY ers whow would be able to take the else with a bit of support and documentation? 
Wit regards additional comfort functionality?  The ability to enable alarm, run or execute macros, and report status, counter and flags would be cool :-) 
I think of your interface can handlenthose, because of these way comfort works, the result is complete access to every device comfort can control



 Posted: Monday Dec 12th, 2016 04:45 pm
   
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DavidJ
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Hi Matt,
An observation . In the things on the ST app Comfort Alarm appears when set with a Green Icon which says "No Alarm", I assume this relates to there being no triggered alarm state?
Clicking into the device The first Icon on top row again shows the same "No Alarm" while the one next to it shows (in my case) another similar Green Icon stating "Day Mode Active" which is correct.
I would have thought though that this could be maybe Amber or Red to show the state as set (day mode active). And possibly this swapping with the other icon to the left so you can easily see the current status.
I appreciate that this is no meant to replace the Comfort App however see no reason why it couldn't.

Thanks

David



 Posted: Monday Dec 12th, 2016 04:56 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Hi David

Thanks for the feedback, the alarm control is the newest bit i have added and I do think the UI could be improved. In the summary view, ideally I would like to show the alarm set condition and whether it has been triggered but not sure how best to represent this.

In the detail view, we can easily change how these are represented. Any suggestions on the colour scheme for the set conditions (off, day, night, away, vacation). For alarm state I was going to use Green, Amber, Red along with the associated status message.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Monday Dec 12th, 2016 05:21 pm
   
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DavidJ
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Hi Matt,
I would have thought the colour scheme you suggest is correct with Green representing Unset - Amber as Set - Red as triggered. Not sure the color should be any different for each set type, probably uniform throughout.
Just be great to see a easy to view status from the main page.
Thanks
David



 Posted: Monday Dec 12th, 2016 07:40 pm
   
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wexfordman
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Whoo hoo, my google home arrived today :-)
Cant open it till christmas day though, mught have to sneak in a pi and a smart home hub as well between now and then though!



 Posted: Tuesday Dec 13th, 2016 12:31 pm
   
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Looking forward to the review.

I got an apple watch the other day (it was heavily subsidised by my critical illness policy) - and as SmartThings supports the apple watch, I can arm and unset the alarm from my wrist :)




 Posted: Wednesday Dec 14th, 2016 01:22 am
   
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waszaa
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Hi - This is all working well now for me on a PI 2

Just wondered what the best way is to sync the comfort alarm status to the smart things hub (away-home-night) Mode ?

Thanks

Mike



 Posted: Thursday Dec 15th, 2016 01:53 am
   
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mattbrain
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Hi Mike

Glad you have got it installed and working. I know my installation notes are out of date on the github site - hopefully you managed to get responses and alarm set / status working.

In terms of mirroring ST and Comfort modes - this is something I am working on, I think I may need to create a couple of virtual devices so that the specific functions for Day / Night / Away / Vacation are exposed in a way which can be accessed by the ST modes.

Please let me know how you get on with what we have so far, any questions - please don't hesitate to contact me via this thread or PM.

Thanks again,

Matt



 Posted: Thursday Dec 15th, 2016 02:05 am
   
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waszaa
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Hi Matt

yes alarm set/status working fine ,for responses i have some devices that just require firing from a button and don't need a off response as in a switch, could this be an option?

sounds like you have a plan re mirroring.

Thanks

Mike



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mattbrain
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Hi Mike

In terms of the response device, you could simply set the off response to be a non operational response or would you rather a device which didn't have an off function. I could make the off function optional and have a checkbox to disable it if that would be more appropriate.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Thursday Dec 15th, 2016 09:30 pm
   
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waszaa
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Hi Matt

Thanks for the suggestions

One use for triggering a response is to set my heating set point override using comfort to smartfit heating UCM, so its a one press function and doesn't need the off setting.If it was optional it would be tidier and less confusing i guess for other users at home.
I suppose it would be useful to just have a status device for counters which don't need control i.e. i have a counter which just displays the room temperature or one that displays the heating demand as (1-100)

Mike

Last edited on Thursday Dec 15th, 2016 11:31 pm by waszaa



 Posted: Friday Dec 16th, 2016 08:23 am
   
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slychiu
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A. Raspberry Pi Bundle with SD Card so it is plug and play
B. SD Card to buy which is pre-configured
C. SD Card image to download and install myself (will cut out much of the initial command line install)
D. WeMo Emulation for native Alexa / Google Home support
E. Additional comfort functions to be exposed [please indicate]

A & B will have to be priced to account for my time dedicated to your individual build. There is no charge (from me at least) for C -> E.

If Cytech or a third party distributor are in a position to make this more accessible, I would be more than happy to have a conversation with them :)



I think A and B would be useful for the less technically inclined  eg Installers

We will talk with Matt to further this



 Posted: Friday Dec 16th, 2016 09:22 pm
   
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Hi Matt, slychui,

Been in a few long drives for work the last few days, so my mind had been wandering :-)

In particular I was wandering about comfort and google home, echoe etc, and interfacing all of these to comfort.

It seems to me that Matt's solution is the way it should go, and appears to be there, but perhaps a focus should be on getting comfort ifttt compliant using Matt's solution, rather than specificity via smart things. If I understand the workings corrxtly, making comfort ifttt compliant ofns up comfort to all of these interfaces, including hue, and snartthingd etc?
It also opens up a world of other possibilities such as geofencing, interfacing to thousands of other devices, push notifications etc etc

Last edited on Friday Dec 16th, 2016 09:25 pm by wexfordman



 Posted: Friday Dec 16th, 2016 09:38 pm
   
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Hi Wexfordman

Already ahead of you; the code I have published now already supports limited IFTTT via the maker service direct from the RPi. I have some experience of IFTTT and use it to connect non ST devices to my hub. It's a great solution for joining the spaghetti of IoT but offers little in the way of logic. So, for example it would be easy to have it turn on an output if a device breached a geofence (so turn on outside light when you got close to home) but doesn't string events together, allow for conditional logic (at least not well), or allow for more complex routines.

In terms of next steps, Slychui and I have been exchanging emails and whilst it is early days I am hopeful we can collaborate on a more user friendly, robust and comprehensive solution.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Saturday Dec 17th, 2016 06:19 pm
   
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Pgordon
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This is a fascinating and (to me) extremely exciting development.
I'd like to know a bit more about how the whole ecosystem integrates with, and utilises SONOS - I believe Matt mentioned early on having SONOS in the mix too...
Is anyone doing very much to leverage SONOS integration? there's the very obvious possibilities like automatically stopping playback on all zones when away mode is set for example, and voice control of SONOS via Alexa (although I believe that's coming soon directly from SONOS anyway).
But what about things like - pause playback when the doorbell is pressed, make an announcement, then resume playback...
what else?...
Paul G.

Last edited on Saturday Dec 17th, 2016 06:31 pm by Pgordon



 Posted: Saturday Dec 17th, 2016 06:20 pm
   
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Pgordon
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mattbrain wrote: Looking forward to the review.

I got an apple watch the other day (it was heavily subsidised by my critical illness policy) - and as SmartThings supports the apple watch, I can arm and unset the alarm from my wrist :)


That is so cool!I *have* to get me some of this kit and start playing...



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Pgordon wrote: This is a fascinating and (to me) extremely exciting development.
I'd like to know a bit more about how the whole ecosystem integrates with, and utilises SONOS - I believe Matt mentioned early on having SONOS in the mix too...
Is anyone doing very much to leverage SONOS integration? there's the very obvious possibilities like automatically stopping playback on all zones when away mode is set for example, and voice control of SONOS via Alexa (although I believe that's coming soon directly from SONOS anyway).
But what about things like - pause playback when the doorbell is pressed, make an announcement, then resume playback...
what else?...
Paul G.


Hi Paul

Glad to see you're interested; In terms of Sonos, SmartThings can control them - and therefore routines can be built which can do something like you suggest - I'm actually also thinking about how Sonos could be used to play announcements on KeyPads - let me ponder on that some more....

Thanks,

Matt



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Pgordon
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mattbrain wrote: Pgordon wrote: This is a fascinating and (to me) extremely exciting development.
I'd like to know a bit more about how the whole ecosystem integrates with, and utilises SONOS - I believe Matt mentioned early on having SONOS in the mix too...
Is anyone doing very much to leverage SONOS integration? there's the very obvious possibilities like automatically stopping playback on all zones when away mode is set for example, and voice control of SONOS via Alexa (although I believe that's coming soon directly from SONOS anyway).
But what about things like - pause playback when the doorbell is pressed, make an announcement, then resume playback...
what else?...
Paul G.


Hi Paul

Glad to see you're interested; In terms of Sonos, SmartThings can control them - and therefore routines can be built which can do something like you suggest - I'm actually also thinking about how Sonos could be used to play announcements on KeyPads - let me ponder on that some more....

Thanks,

Matt

Definitely interested Matt, see my comments that I made about a month ago re SONOS (and Echo) integration here: http://www.comfortforums.com/view_post.php?post_id=21148
Uncannily close to what you're doing...  I only wish I'd discovered this thread back then...
I have added a Smarthings Hub and a R-PI to my Christmas list (Echo was already on there), and come January, when I believe I will have a couple of weeks off work, I will definitely get some testing going on with this...
Cheers..
Paul G



 Posted: Saturday Dec 17th, 2016 08:10 pm
   
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DavidJ
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HI Matt, Fairly basic one if I wish to run a Piston through Core that for example says "when Comfort Alarm is SET".
Do I: If - Capability - Select Alarm - Alarm List - Comfort Alarm - Comparison - IS - Both (being Strobe and siren)? Will that lot apply the logic that "if the alarm is in SET mode"?
I cant find anything that simply says is "SET". Hope you understand question...
Cheers

David

Last edited on Saturday Dec 17th, 2016 08:12 pm by DavidJ



 Posted: Tuesday Dec 20th, 2016 01:09 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Hi David

Good question, I think I need to take a look into this further - there isn't a native capability for alarm mode, so I think I need to create a new one which will be compatible with CoRE. Leave it with me and i'll see what I can do.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Wednesday Dec 21st, 2016 06:37 pm
   
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Ian
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All this looks fantastic but made me wonder (and I speak with no knowledge!), could a skill be written for echo so that it can interact directly with Comfort?



 Posted: Wednesday Dec 21st, 2016 07:39 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Hi Ian

A skill could be developed for the Echo, but it would need to be executed in the cloud - and the Comfort system currently doesn't have any elements which could communicate with it.

I am planning on getting the ST functionality working and then adding on Echo support starting natively with simple functions via WeMo emulation and following with enhanced support via a Skill.

I'm currently stuffing turkeys, hanging baubles, wrapping presents and controlling very excited children - i'm planning on spending a couple of days on this between Christmas and the New Year and there should be a new release before 1st Jan with more functionality.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Monday Jan 2nd, 2017 11:28 pm
   
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Hi All

Just to provide an update - the turkey took more stuffing than expected and the children have been running rings around me so I haven't had time to do much on this yet.

I'm spending some time on this later this week and will be releasing an update on or around the weekend. In the meantime, I would be interested in any feedback you have - and in particular if there are any improvements you would like to see added to go onto the rather informal roadmap.

I'm also looking to get hold of some more end user devices - Google Home is next on the list, and there is a possibility I could add basic functionality to apple homekit via a third party library - let me know if this is of interest.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 3rd, 2017 12:11 am
   
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Pgordon
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mattbrain wrote:
Hi All

Just to provide an update - the turkey took more stuffing than expected and the children have been running rings around me so I haven't had time to do much on this yet.

I'm spending some time on this later this week and will be releasing an update on or around the weekend. In the meantime, I would be interested in any feedback you have - and in particular if there are any improvements you would like to see added to go onto the rather informal roadmap.

I'm also looking to get hold of some more end user devices - Google Home is next on the list, and there is a possibility I could add basic functionality to apple homekit via a third party library - let me know if this is of interest.

Thanks,

Matt



Good to hear... I've got 2 Echo dots, a smarthings hub, and an R-PI waiting for me in Blighty, which I hope to be able to get over & collect in the next week or two, so I'm getting quite excited to start playing with all of this... I'm also picking up an Apple Watch series 2 when I'm there, so that's double excitement value... :)

In the meantime, is there anything I should start to bone up on?.... Do I need to get a particular build for the R-PI for instance? Is there anything I would benefit from reading up about that?

I do already have Apple TV, so HomeKit integration might also be something I'd be interested in having a play with, although I have absolutely no other HomeKit devices...

Cheers.

Paul G



 Posted: Saturday Jan 7th, 2017 12:14 am
   
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mattbrain
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Hey Paul

The instructions for installation are on the GitHub site, but they aren't particularly user friendly. I'm doing some work on an easier installation process (albeit still requiring code pasting on SmartThings) which will simply require you to download a disk image and write it to an SD Card.

I also need to think about an easy upgrade process, so you don't have to write a whole new SD Card for a simple update - but that might have to wait a while.

I'll be posting the update shortly (hopefully Monday) which will include some of the requests from the forum (doorbell, link to CoRE from alarm mode and state) and a way to easily get log files from the RPi.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 10th, 2017 05:34 pm
   
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Hi All

Just a quick update; I have abstracted out the Alarm Mode (Day, Night, Away, Vacation of Off) into separate linked switches which will now allow for better control - for example, setting the SmartThings mode using a SmartThings Response in the App or on your watch will correctly set the right mode, and Alarm mode can be used in CoRE logic.

I have also added a doorbell device, so you can make things happen when the Doorbell is pushed (for me I'm having Sonos announce when I'm home, and ST take a photo of the porch and send a notification when I'm out)

I have a little more testing to do and will upload it later this week - apologies for the delay in getting this out.

I shall also release a disk image within the next week which should make installation a whole lot easier, no more funky business with using the command line to install a bunch of stuff onto the RPi - just write an SD Card, plug it in and upload your configuration via a webpage.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Sunday Jan 15th, 2017 09:16 pm
   
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lwillerton
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Hi Matt, All

That sounds great and thank you for the update. Look forward to the image as I have only got so far with the instruction on your page... mainly because I have been distracted on other things :-)

I have managed to get my IRIO to work today, which uses counter to send IR commands. Therefore, if you set counter x to 0 it turns the TV on, if you set counter x to 1 it changes the channel to BBC1 etc. This seems to match your development well.

Sorry if I am repeating myself, but what I would like to be able to do is run a response that sets a scene rather that using the scene controllers as this gives me so many more options, something like "echo turn on Lounge movie" which dims lights (controlled by comfort counters or flags in my installation) puts on the surround sound (might be done by the universal UCM not played with this yet) turns TV on (using comfort counters again) :-)

Hope to get some more time on the PI this week, but diary looking full so not sure,

Best Wishes Matt, All

Lee



 Posted: Sunday Jan 15th, 2017 11:08 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Hi Lee et al;

Again, apologies for the delay in the next release - it's really close, just putting the final touches in place.

To keep you in the picture, we have done an awful lot in the background, some of which will be evident in this release - and lots of other stuff which will be announced over the next few weeks.

I anticipate the release will take place early this week, and will be in the form of a Raspberry Pi Disk Image - full instructions for writing this to an SD Card will be provided - you will need an SD Card of at least 4Gb but 8Gb is recommended (as not all 4Gb card are actually 4Gb and those few bytes they shave off may mean the image doesn't fit).

The image also provides full web management of the interface - no more command line jiggery pokery - a demo of the interface (just to prove how close we are) can be seen here:  http://www.alphawerk.co.uk/cytech/demo/index You will notice that this includes the ability to update the configuration, start and stop the service, send diagnostics to us for review and even update the software to future versions just by clicking a button.

You may notice the use of alphaWerk. Without giving too much away, this is a signpost to the future of this project and I can't wait to reveal more as things pick up.

Thanks again for your interest and as ever any and all feedback is immensely welcome,

Matt

Last edited on Sunday Jan 15th, 2017 11:10 pm by mattbrain



 Posted: Monday Jan 16th, 2017 12:47 am
   
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lwillerton
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I really appreciate your hard work Matt as I am sure everyone else will do.I have wanted to video the art of the possible with the comfort system and publish this on youtube, or at least what I have achieved. However, I spend more time playing with the system rather than sharing the possibilities with other customers / potential customers. I will do my best to get a video done before the June and include what you have done here along with the new kit I have purchased.

I think Chiu has suggested that you try and do a commercial offer, I am not sure what that would look like, but if I can get this to work I would consider paying a sensible price for the solution.

I was considering control 4 but I feel this community could easily be a control 4 beater. We just need to share our achievements.

Best Wishes

Lee



 Posted: Wednesday Jan 18th, 2017 01:38 pm
   
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Pgordon
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mattbrain wrote: Hi Lee et al;

Again, apologies for the delay in the next release - it's really close, just putting the final touches in place.

To keep you in the picture, we have done an awful lot in the background, some of which will be evident in this release - and lots of other stuff which will be announced over the next few weeks.

I anticipate the release will take place early this week, and will be in the form of a Raspberry Pi Disk Image - full instructions for writing this to an SD Card will be provided - you will need an SD Card of at least 4Gb but 8Gb is recommended (as not all 4Gb card are actually 4Gb and those few bytes they shave off may mean the image doesn't fit).

The image also provides full web management of the interface - no more command line jiggery pokery - a demo of the interface (just to prove how close we are) can be seen here:  http://www.alphawerk.co.uk/cytech/demo/index You will notice that this includes the ability to update the configuration, start and stop the service, send diagnostics to us for review and even update the software to future versions just by clicking a button.

Absolutely *fabulous* - can't wait. I hope this project goes from strength to strength. With such a versatile & flexible interface I can't even begin to imagine the possibilities for all the various things Comfort could start to interface with.  All my lights (well, pretty much all of them) are on CBUS, and with the Comfort-UCM-CBUS I have good integration & control from Comfort, but really no other way to hook CBUS into the overall HA (or alternatively you could say no way other than through comfort to hook the rest of the HA system into CBUS). Since Comfort is at the epicentre of my HA system, this hasn't been a problem thus far, but as more & more new & exiting HA devices come out I have been looking on enviously from the sidelines, because they don't/won't/can't easily integrate. (This is a personal ideology that I have adopted for a fair few years now... if it doesn't play nice with what I already have, then it's not coming into my HA system - hence I have no smart locks, no smart bulbs etc.) I'm just not interested in some or other device which claims to be smart just because it has it's own smartphone app which can control it, but won't talk to devices outside of its own ecosystem... 
I'm especially intrigued by your mention of using SONOS to announce doorbell events.. - something I have wanted to implement for several years now, - can you elaborate with any details on just how you are achieving that? Does it work "elegantly" - by which I mean deal gracefully with whatever the target SONOS speakers may already be playing? (pause current playback, announce event, resume playback from same source... etc.)
I've got all my "bits" back from the UK now, - just need to nip out & buy an 8GB microSD card for the Pi in the next couple of days, so hoping to start setting this up in earnest this coming weekend...
Cheers Matt, and keep the good stuff coming! :)



 Posted: Saturday Jan 21st, 2017 05:28 pm
   
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Hey Matt.
I have all the various bits & pieces in place now. the Echo dots are in & running well. the ST hub is sat on the network ready & waiting, and as I write this, I'm installing the latest Rasbian build on the Rasberry Pi.
No doubt when I get to the end of the Pi install, I will then have a big "what now" moment, and I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.
But I've been thinking ahead a little bit...  you see in my house, all my lights are on CBUS, and with the CBUS UCM in Comfort, I have full 2-way control & status of all my lights. Comfort controls various lights in response to PIR activations and mode state changes etc. however, most human interaction with CBUS is via wall switches, many of which are set to trigger CBUS scenes. What I really want to do is enable voice control of lighting scenes via Alexa. I figure I can likely boil down the number of required scenes I need Alexa to command to maybe half a dozen or so... so I figure that I will probably need to code each of those scenes as responses in Comfort, then using your sterling efforts I hope I can trigger those responses by voice... but will I be able to do that in a "friendly" way? i.e. I don't really want to have to say things like "Alexa, turn on Comfort Response 142" - I'd far rather be able to say something like "Alexa, turn on lounge scene watch TV" or something similar...
I'm hoping that between the UPnP drivers on the R-Pi, and the Smartthings system, I can abstract out specific Comfort responses to meaningful command names that can be spoken to Alexa.
Is this kind of scenario possible / easy?
TIA
Paul G.



 Posted: Saturday Jan 21st, 2017 07:54 pm
   
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Hi Paul

Thanks for your note - and absolutely it can be abstracted out - this is one of the key features.

When you install the SmartThings elements you will find an option on the Comfort Bridge device called 'Add Response Device' - this will allow you to create a virtual switch which will allow you to assign responses to an On and Off function which can be named however you choose. Running discover devices on the Amazon echo (once connected to SmartThings and properly permissioned) will then find those devices as 'native' devices - which means they don't need an specific echo skill to initiate - allowing you to say 'Alex, turn on the cinema' (if the device was called cinema) or 'Alex set the lounge cinema mode on' (if the device was called lounge cinema mode). Alexa is pretty clever so the sentence structure if fairly flexible.

In terms of installing Raspbian - I would suggest you hold fire, the new release is undergoing final testing and I want to get it out the door this weekend - you don't need to do all the command line jiggery pokery, just create an SD Card from the image i'll publish, plug in and open your web browser to it - I'm just in the process of writing the installation and usage instructions...

Thanks,

Matt




 Posted: Monday Jan 23rd, 2017 05:31 pm
   
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Hi All

So after much procrastination (for which I apologise), please find a link to the new version below:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4178750/Cytech/1.0.0.img.zip

Unzip the file and follow the generic instructions to write your SD Card here: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/README.md

One the SD Card is written, pop it into your Raspberry Pi, plug it into the network, give it a few moments then open a browser to http://alpha-uhai.local/ or http://alpha-uhai/ which will take you to the management interface. From there, click on the instructions tabs to complete your setup.

Capabilities

This release is focused on improving the usability and installation of the software. It has support for Zones, Outputs, Flags, Counters, Alarm Mode and Status, triggering Responses and a Doorbell virtual device.

When first installed and configured it will provide me (alphaWerk) with anonymous usage data - this is very high level and does not include any information regarding your comfort system, but rather just whether the interface is operational.

You can register the installation from the web UI which will allow you to share more detailed information, as you can do when uploading configuration - this is entirely optional but if you choose to do so, will help us identify issues.

Registration will also allow us to communicate directly with you, which we promise to limit to only information about the solution (such as updates, known issues etc). Updates can be made, with user consent, directly from the Web UI. To be absolutely clear, whilst we do receive a limited amount of anonymous telemetry data, we have no mechanism for disabling or updating an installation remotely without user input.

Note to installers:

You are free to offer this to your customers but may not charge for the software; you may charge for your time, the cost of configuration, supply of a Raspberry Pi and any other peripherals. This software is licensed to end users for them to use freely in their own environment. It goes without saying that we (alphaWerk) offer no warranty for the suitability of this software (which in part explains why it is free) which is all explained in the instructions. If you wish to make a small gift to us which will encourage further development, you may do so from the Web UI.

Finally, Mr Chiu and I are in discussions to make a commercial version of this product which will be very feature rich and meets the technical and reliability standards of the cytech system. This will likely be in the form of a dedicated UCM and will directly support a wider range of IoT devices. More information on this will be made available as development progresses.

Thanks again,

Matt

Last edited on Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 03:02 am by mattbrain



 Posted: Monday Jan 23rd, 2017 05:54 pm
   
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wexfordman
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Hi Matt, Slychiu
Thanks for the update. With respect to the planned commercial version of it, there are a couple of questions maybe you could help with, mainly to help me determine if I go with the current solution or hold off for the later product.
1) As it stands, to get this working, I need an RPI and a smart things hub. I am also thinking of going the route of philips hue, so I will also need a hue hub to at least get hue devices configured before controlling them via smartthings/comfort 

2) So, I am now looking at getting the RPI, ST hub and Hue HUB (all on the wishlist once I get over the christmas overspend :-( )

3) The commercial version, you mention will more feature rich and a more relaible product. With respect to new added features on the commercial version, will these features be supported on the current platform going forward also ?

4) I have a spare UCM, so is it possible the new module would be a matter of adding the RPI onto the UCM board

5) Any rough estimate of availablity of the commercial version and/or beta versions of it ?

I know this sounds like a "I want it, and I want it now" type response (which it actually is, but not in a demanding way ;-) )
Regards,Eamon

Last edited on Monday Jan 23rd, 2017 05:55 pm by wexfordman



 Posted: Monday Jan 23rd, 2017 06:08 pm
   
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Pgordon
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mattbrain wrote:
Finally, Mr Chiu and I are in discussions to make a commercial version of this product which will be very feature rich and meets the technical and reliability standards of the cytech system. This will likely be in the form of a dedicated UCM and will directly support a wider range of IoT devices. More information on this will be made available as development progresses.

Thanks again,

Matt

YAY!!! - *** PLEASE MAKE IT HAPPEN!! *** :cool::D:cool::D:dude::dude:



 Posted: Monday Jan 23rd, 2017 09:51 pm
   
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Hi Eamon, Paul

Thanks for your comments; in answer to Eamon's questions:

1. True - the current solution is dependent on a SmartThings hub which acts as an abstraction layer.

2. Yup - I feel your pain, i'm in the same boat to add support for Philips Hue. I need to get my hands on some test devices. 

3. The commercial version has to be a device which can be installed, configured and relied upon by any installer. Given the rapid pace of development of IoT and the incremental nature in which people add things to their house, it also needs to be end user customisable (for example when they buy a new Hue bulb). The current solution has a number if inherent weak links in the chain which we plan to address in hardware and software. As a result of this, the community version which have a subset of the commercial version from a functionality perspective - and if we are to keep pace with the continual innovation in this space we need to find a commercial model which will allow us to fund the ongoing development.

4. The community version can use any UCM which has an ethernet port (UCM/Ethx) - this does therefore mean it is only as reliable as the household network, RPi PSU (and in the case of SmartThings integration) broadband connection and SmartThings cloud services. The commercial version will use a custom UCM as well as the industrial version of the RPi (Compute module). This will allow us to directly connect the RPi to the alarm, power it directly from Comfort (and therefore have redundancy) and introduce a variety of measures to ensure it is robust and self recovering.

5. It's a little early to be committing to timelines, but it is fair to say both Cytech and alphaWerks recognise this is an import piece of development for the Comfort ecosystem and has the possibility of opening Comfort to new markets.

A couple of final comments from me - we are currently identifying which device families should be high priority. Whilst SmartThings has demonstrated the value this integration can bring, it is only generally available in limited markets (UK & US) and is still very much a hobbyist solution. I see Philips Hue as an ideal candidate for native support; it is widely adopted, low cost and available in many markets. If there are other obvious device families, please let me know and we can consider adding them to the roadmap.

I also need to explain why some devices may only be available in the commercial version. The cost of development and continued support for some device families make it impossible to support gratis - for example, proper IFTTT integration (rather than via 'maker') requires both dedicated cloud server(s) and annual fee to integrate - and we need to find a way to fund it. It would be unfair to provide those services for free to users of the community version when it is being paid for by users of the commercial version. Having said all that, I am committed to continue to develop the community version wherever possible and from a purely development perspective, it is easier if they both operate from the same source tree.

Anyway, I hope all that makes sense - and look forward to your feedback,

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Monday Jan 23rd, 2017 10:27 pm
   
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Pgordon
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mattbrain wrote: One the SD Card is written, pop it into your Raspberry Pi, plug it into the network, give it a few moments then open a browser to http://alpha-uhai/ which will take you to the management interface. From there, click on the instructions tabs to complete your setup.

Hey Matt.

Problem straight away. Having booted up the image on the Pi, I have no DNS resolution for that URL - I guess I could delve into the routers dhcp logs & try to figure out what IP address my Pi has (almost certainly will be the most recent lease issued)...
However, I figured that I should just be able check it out on the pi itself... - since it's on my desk with KVM all hooked up...
I see that although its a raspbian build, it does not have the default raspbian username & password of "pi" and "raspberry" - so I can't logon to it... - I'd very much like t be able to logon to the pi, and run a desktop GUI so I learn more about the Pi and Linux in general - since this is my only one...
I'd also potentially like to maybe run other tasks on it too... - I'm guessing the upnp stuff won't exactly be taxing the little thing... :-)
Is there an account available to logon with in this build?
Cheers.
Paul G.



 Posted: Monday Jan 23rd, 2017 11:43 pm
   
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Hi Paul

It sounds like it hasn't managed to properly get connected to the home network - DNS resolution should happen automagically if your router manages DHCP assignments. Can you confirm it is connected via Ethernet and the link light is active?

In terms of logging in, i'm not it would give you much - its a trimmed down version of Rasbian in order to conserve system resources in order to allow it to run an any variant of a RPi (so long as they have an ethernet port). If i'm honest, I wouldn't advise users to run anything else on the Pi as it may have an impact on the Comfort software and when it comes to troubleshooting - it's a case of the simpler the better.

I have locked out login via the terminal and ssh as a simple security precaution (given these are talking to the alarm and will have your pin code and comfiguration file stored on disk). However, if you do want to login, you need to modify the installation to run in single user mode; to do this insert the SD Card into a PC and add a space and a 1 at the end of the line in the text file 'cmdline.txt'. If you then reboot the Pi with a keyboard and monitor attached you will be automatically logged in - you can then change the password to something you are happy with, and then revert the change and restart the Pi once again.

Hope this helps,

Thanks,

Matt






 Posted: Monday Jan 23rd, 2017 11:52 pm
   
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Pgordon
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mattbrain wrote: Hi Paul

It sounds like it hasn't managed to properly get connected to the home network - DNS resolution should happen automagically if your router manages DHCP assignments. Can you confirm it is connected via Ethernet and the link light is active?

In terms of logging in, i'm not it would give you much - its a trimmed down version of Rasbian in order to conserve system resources in order to allow it to run an any variant of a RPi (so long as they have an ethernet port). If i'm honest, I wouldn't advise users to run anything else on the Pi as it may have an impact on the Comfort software and when it comes to troubleshooting - it's a case of the simpler the better.

I have locked out login via the terminal and ssh as a simple security precaution (given these are talking to the alarm and will have your pin code and comfiguration file stored on disk). However, if you do want to login, you need to modify the installation to run in single user mode; to do this insert the SD Card into a PC and add a space and a 1 at the end of the line in the text file 'cmdline.txt'. If you then reboot the Pi with a keyboard and monitor attached you will be automatically logged in - you can then change the password to something you are happy with, and then revert the change and restart the Pi once again.

Hope this helps,

Thanks,

Matt





DOH!! - I just realised that I made a very senior moment there... - you remember I said I put a build of Raspbian on it over the weekend to play with... after which I connected it to my Wifi... 
So I have it sitting here on the desk... no problem thinks I.. - It's connected by Wifi... totally blanking the fact that of course now it's running a brand new build!... - I must be getting senile!
I'll connect up the LAN cable & give it another go... I'm sure It'll be fine... The question still remains though... I will want to enable wifi connection after its setup... I only have a single spare LAN cable at my desk at the moment, since I also have a work laptop set up just now which I need to use a wired connection.. since it's the evening, I'll unplug the laptop to give it to the Pi, but once up & running I'd like to switch the pi to wifi...
Cheers
Paul G.



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 12:23 am
   
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Pgordon
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mattbrain wrote: Hi Paul

It sounds like it hasn't managed to properly get connected to the home network - DNS resolution should happen automagically if your router manages DHCP assignments. Can you confirm it is connected via Ethernet and the link light is active?

In terms of logging in, i'm not it would give you much - its a trimmed down version of Rasbian in order to conserve system resources in order to allow it to run an any variant of a RPi (so long as they have an ethernet port). If i'm honest, I wouldn't advise users to run anything else on the Pi as it may have an impact on the Comfort software and when it comes to troubleshooting - it's a case of the simpler the better.

I have locked out login via the terminal and ssh as a simple security precaution (given these are talking to the alarm and will have your pin code and comfiguration file stored on disk). However, if you do want to login, you need to modify the installation to run in single user mode; to do this insert the SD Card into a PC and add a space and a 1 at the end of the line in the text file 'cmdline.txt'. If you then reboot the Pi with a keyboard and monitor attached you will be automatically logged in - you can then change the password to something you are happy with, and then revert the change and restart the Pi once again.

Hope this helps,

Thanks,

Matt

Thanks Matt.
I'm still not getting to that URL, even with the LAN cable plugged in. (It's been in my laptop all day, so I know the LAN connection is good. Chrome just says it can't find the site (I clicked on the URL in your post above to be sure I didn't make a typo).
My routers interface is *horrible* for trying to find the DHCP registration... - it's a very basic list, it doesn't show the lease start time, only the expiry time, and I've lots of DHCP devices...

Although I do see now that (helpfully) the Pi has echoed to the screen "My IP address is...." right near the end of the boot.. - I can get to the AlphaWerk web interface by browsing to that IP, so that's good, but there's definitely something awry with name resolution.. - I can fix that much myself  -  I'll make the Pi a Reservation in the DHCP server to give it always the same, known address, and I'll take care of getting name resolution working - I've no local DNS service on my network other than the ISP's router which is a DNS proxy, but there's nothing I can make an A record in, so I guess it's a local HOSTS file entry for now.. :-)

So I'd really like to be able to login on the Pi to check the network status and get it enabled to use the Wifi... I added the "<space> 1" to the end of the line, but after booting that up, I'm not seeing anything different, it's still stopped at a logon prompt...
Cheers for the help so far...
:cool:

Paul G.



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 01:15 am
   
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mattbrain
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Hi Paul

Thanks for the feedback - I think I have some things I need to add to the roadmap :)

1. A way to find the device on the network when local name resolution isn't working.
I'm probably going to do this with a reflector listening on UDP which will respond to broadcast requests.
2. A way to configure wifi via the web interface

3. A way to enable console access

On (3), I'm going to test single user mode - I think there may be an issue with Windows CR/LF vs linux CR. I'll work on it and get back to you.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 01:55 am
   
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DavidJ
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Hi Matt,

Sorry think I'm having same problem. I'm on a wired network. It cannot resolve DNS.
I take it there was no process that i've missed somewhere to give the Pi an address?
Thanks

David



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 02:26 am
   
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Pgordon
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mattbrain wrote:
Hi Paul

Thanks for the feedback - I think I have some things I need to add to the roadmap :)

1. A way to find the device on the network when local name resolution isn't working.
I'm probably going to do this with a reflector listening on UDP which will respond to broadcast requests.
2. A way to configure wifi via the web interface

3. A way to enable console access

On (3), I'm going to test single user mode - I think there may be an issue with Windows CR/LF vs linux CR. I'll work on it and get back to you.

Thanks,

Matt



Hi Matt. I was going to send a further update a while ago, but SWMBO made me come for dinner instead...

You're on the right track with the CR/LF thought... what I was going to post earlier was to the same effect: when downloaded and opened in windows notepad, there appear to be no line breaks at all, the entirety of the text appears or be on one (or possibly 2) lines.. notepad could be adding a line break at one point just because of hitting a line length limit..

It makes it a tad difficult to read, so another question was about if there are duplicate entries for a number of the settings in the first part of the file, but I think I was seeing comments.. - does the # character signify a comment?

Cheers

Paul G.



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 02:41 am
   
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Pgordon
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Oh, of course I'm referring to the config file download/upload rather than the cmdline.txt file edit, but I would presume the same applies with regard to the CRLF issue...



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 02:41 am
   
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Oh, of course I'm referring to the config file download/upload rather than the cmdline.txt file edit, but I would presume the same applies with regard to the CRLF issue...



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 02:43 am
   
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Hi David

You are right, i think some routers are better than others with local name resolution. I think I am going to have to add some logic to assist with discovery where it isn't supported locally.

A couple of things you can try:

1. If this is the same Pi as your previous installation, it has probably been assigned the same IP address as it had earlier. Try http://xx.xx.xx.xx where xx is the old IP address

2. Take a look at the router and see if you can see any entries its DHCP leases or log files.

3. You can try a broadcast ping - ping to the entire subnet, by setting the host portion of the IP address to 1's. For example, if you IP address range is 192.168.1.x and your subnet mask is 255.255.255.0 you would ping 192.168.1.255 (the 0 portion of the subnet mask in binary being 0x00000000 which is 255 when set to 0x11111111. This should list all the devices responding to UCMP. It does vary from O/S to O/S, on linux you need to set the -b flag [ping 192.168.1.255 -b], on OSX it just works as a regular ping - i'm not sure on Windows though.

Let me know if you are still struggling and i'll put a script together which does a UPNP discovery (as the SmartThings hub does).

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 02:48 am
   
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Hi Paul

Yes, # is a comment and is just their for guidance.

Are you experiencing issues when editing the template file? I haven't experienced a problem with CR/LF but if you have found something I would like to dig into it. Can you send me a copy of the config file or tick the share box when uploading it and i can see what occurs if you are having problems with it loading.

Please don't forget to also load the comfigurator .cclx file.

Can you let me know your serial number as shown on the version pane - that will help me identify any errors being reported via the telemetry?

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 02:53 am
   
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Hi David et al,

One other thing for those struggling with local DNS - try http://alpha-uhai.local - if your computer support mDNS (multicast DNS) - it may be able to find it. This is supported by OSX and some variants of Linux, Windows support is a little patchy but I believe it is in Windows 10.

Thanks,

Matt





 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 12:44 pm
   
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Pgordon
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OK, using the .local domain suffix does allow me to resolve the URL without needing to use a hosts file entry. :-)

My Serial Number is 000000008fedacd0

I have only tried downloading, not uploading the config file - since it was all run together without line breaks, it makes it quite hard to figure out where one line ends and the next starts... I will make some changes and try to upload it shortly & see what happens...

If it is of any use, FYI Windows notepad says the encoding of the config file is UTF-8

The formatting with line breaks etc. is correct if I open the downloaded config file in a proper word processor (MS Word, or Windows Wordpad), but of course I wouldn't normally want to edit a plain-text config file & save it with one of those apps, since they invariably change "stuff" and break the file...

I'll try a couple of things & try an upload & post back more details shortly.

Cheers

Paul G.



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 01:04 pm
   
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1 more question if I may... in the config file:
"# flags to be exposed (seperated by ,) - Example below exposes 1 flag
# flags = 1"
could be taken to mean that this is the total number of flags exposed, starting from 1, going up to the number specified - i.e. "flags = 128" would be flags 1 through 128 inclusive... - since that's a change from how the other items are specified... it's not 100% unambiguous from reading the comment text...
If the approach is the same for all items, i.e. individual items need to be listed out, this could make for some long-winded edit sessions! - I use a lot of my 255 flags and counters, and the ones I use are spread out through the entire 1-255 range, not all bunched together contiguously (I use a scheme where a flag or counter number is deterministic based on the group address of the CBUS device it is mapped to).

Could there perhaps be an easier way to list out the various Comfort devices to expose? - allow something like: "Flags = 1-72, 88-137,142,214-223,251" for example? - or, since you already gather the CCLX file as well, could this be taken from there by defaulting to all flags & counters that are referred to in any responses? - maybe with the option of overriding the default selection in the config file if further fine control is needed...

Cheers

Paul G.



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 01:30 pm
   
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Hi Matt. I have uploaded a modified config file, and my CCLX file, each with share tickbox enabled.

I didn't see any problems uploading, but I don't know if there's any validation as part of the upload, or if that only comes when the service starts and reads it in...



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 02:12 pm
   
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Hi Paul


I have received your configuration files and will try them now; may I ask - have you started the service with the [start] button? Once both files are uploaded it should display a status of Online or Offline depending on whether it is running?


Thanks,


Matt



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 02:13 pm
   
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DavidJ
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OK, some progression.
I found it through the IP address directly.
Was'nt sure of the upgrade process so I guess ive done something wrong. Initially I did'nt update any of the ST elements, that may have upset it. I have now updated all ST elements.
I have uploaded the Config file, basically copying my previous configuration where applicable. I have also uploaded alarm.cclx.I have hit the start button on the service status page and all at that end looked good.
I then went to discover within the app it shows no new modules, which I guess is correct. I have also refreshed the Comfort bridge app.
All things show as OFFLINE though.
Thanks
David

Last edited on Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 02:15 pm by DavidJ



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 02:17 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Hi Paul

One other comment - I would highly recommend starting small - maybe pick a few flags rather than the very large number you have chosen. To be honest I haven't exposed that many to SmartThings and I would like to do some performance and memory testing on the SmartThings hub to see how it handles it.

I'll do some testing now from a Pi perspective and let you know if I see any issues.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 02:24 pm
   
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Hi David

I can see your system has started and appears to be running ok - thanks for sharing your config files.

To be honest, and I know it's a pain, but ideally I would remove all the old SmartThings devices and Smart App and start from scratch. 
Before you go ahead and do that you can try a refresh from the Bridge device which may bump them all back to life as it attempts to renew subscriptions from scratch.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 02:29 pm
   
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DavidJ
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I have already tried refreshing the bridge numerous times.
When you say delete all devices, there are over 60! Do I have to go into each on the app and individually delete. Do I also delete the bridge,etc. Delete the smartapp and start again?I try removing in the Zone UPNP Manger and get An Unexpected Error - we had this before if you recall. I do have a constant spinning circle next to Discovery which may be the problem. Although as phone turns off every minute or so, this may be confusing it....
Apologies or the rather basic query.

Last edited on Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 02:36 pm by DavidJ



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 02:43 pm
   
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Hi David

Yes, i'm sorry but I think it may be required - I don't expect this to be the case every time, but as this is a significant change I think it will be required. I know it's a pain (and believe me I feel it too - I have had to do it numerous times during development).

Let me know how you get on,

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 02:46 pm
   
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Pgordon
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mattbrain wrote: Hi Paul


I have received your configuration files and will try them now; may I ask - have you started the service with the [start] button? Once both files are uploaded it should display a status of Online or Offline depending on whether it is running?


Thanks,


Matt

No, sorry I hadn't... uploading the file was the last thing I did this morning before I stole the LAN cable back for my work laptop...  I can give that a go later... I think there may a spare port on the switch in my office, in which case I'll grab a longer LAN cable from the spares bin & drape it across the office floor... :-)



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 02:49 pm
   
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Just to add - I found the removal of devices was easiest from the web gui rather than on your phone. If you attempt to delete the smart App prior to devices, and those devices are used in other SmartApps it will fail.
My process is:
Delete each Device from the web gui in your things list (so the things not the template_
Delete the Smart App instance
Delete and Re-Add the devices and Smart App from the templates - don't forget to publish each one as you go.

This leaves the system in the cleanest possible state and tidies up the environment.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 02:51 pm
   
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Hi Paul

Have tested and it loads fine (takes a few moments to start up, but thats to be expected).

As I said earlier, I would highly recommend starting small and building up - I'm not sure how ST will handle so many things - perhaps cut the number of flags and counters down as you can always add more later without having to start from scratch.

Thanks,

Matt

Pgordon wrote: mattbrain wrote: Hi Paul


I have received your configuration files and will try them now; may I ask - have you started the service with the [start] button? Once both files are uploaded it should display a status of Online or Offline depending on whether it is running?


Thanks,


Matt

No, sorry I hadn't... uploading the file was the last thing I did this morning before I stole the LAN cable back for my work laptop...  I can give that a go later... I think there may a spare port on the switch in my office, in which case I'll grab a longer LAN cable from the spares bin & drape it across the office floor... :-)



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 02:55 pm
   
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Pgordon
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mattbrain wrote: Hi Paul

One other comment - I would highly recommend starting small - maybe pick a few flags rather than the very large number you have chosen. To be honest I haven't exposed that many to SmartThings and I would like to do some performance and memory testing on the SmartThings hub to see how it handles it.

I'll do some testing now from a Pi perspective and let you know if I see any issues.

Thanks,

Matt

Thanks Matt. Point taken. :D
I'll reduce it to just the ones I actually use, which is a lot fewer than the full 255...
I take it I can just re-upload the config file, & overwrite the previous one.



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 03:04 pm
   
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Yup, download, edit and upload - it will overright the existing config with the new one. You can pull down previous versions via the log files which will package all the logs, old configs and system reports into a tar ball.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 03:15 pm
   
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DavidJ
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OK so I delete the smart app through the IDE and ALL THE Cytech related ST "things" each individually through the app?
Then re add the app and do the discovery?



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 03:20 pm
   
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Yes, but hold fire a moment - I think I may have found a problem with your setup. Give me 10 mins to check and I'll get back to you.



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 06:05 pm
   
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Hi Paul, David

Apologies...

Please hold fire with continuing - I think there is a small issue introduced with a change made on Sunday night which means the alarm code can't find the configuration file. I'm going to make a small change and send it over to you both.

Please sit tight, i'll be back shortly with an update.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 09:42 pm
   
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Hi Guys

I'm sorry, found the issue, which is a minor oversight and a result of making changes late Sunday. The issue was basically when the alarm service was started from the web gui, it was starting with the wrong working directory and couldn't find the configuration files.

It wasn't apparent during testing as I manually started and restarted the service which instantiated is differently - oh well, never mind.

The quickest way to get this out to you, rather than use the upgrade mechanism which will require the upgrade test to be written and tested, will be to publish a new image. I'm in the process of uploading it now and when it is available i'll publish the link on this forum.

Again, apologies for this issue, and the inconvenience.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 09:51 pm
   
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No worries Matt. Kudos for jumping on it so quickly... - don't you *have* a day job?!?!
:P

Paul G.



 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 10:39 pm
   
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mattbrain wrote: Hi Eamon, Paul

Thanks for your comments; in answer to Eamon's questions:

1. True - the current solution is dependent on a SmartThings hub which acts as an abstraction layer.

2. Yup - I feel your pain, i'm in the same boat to add support for Philips Hue. I need to get my hands on some test devices. 

3. The commercial version has to be a device which can be installed, configured and relied upon by any installer. Given the rapid pace of development of IoT and the incremental nature in which people add things to their house, it also needs to be end user customisable (for example when they buy a new Hue bulb). The current solution has a number if inherent weak links in the chain which we plan to address in hardware and software. As a result of this, the community version which have a subset of the commercial version from a functionality perspective - and if we are to keep pace with the continual innovation in this space we need to find a commercial model which will allow us to fund the ongoing development.

4. The community version can use any UCM which has an ethernet port (UCM/Ethx) - this does therefore mean it is only as reliable as the household network, RPi PSU (and in the case of SmartThings integration) broadband connection and SmartThings cloud services. The commercial version will use a custom UCM as well as the industrial version of the RPi (Compute module). This will allow us to directly connect the RPi to the alarm, power it directly from Comfort (and therefore have redundancy) and introduce a variety of measures to ensure it is robust and self recovering.

5. It's a little early to be committing to timelines, but it is fair to say both Cytech and alphaWerks recognise this is an import piece of development for the Comfort ecosystem and has the possibility of opening Comfort to new markets.

A couple of final comments from me - we are currently identifying which device families should be high priority. Whilst SmartThings has demonstrated the value this integration can bring, it is only generally available in limited markets (UK & US) and is still very much a hobbyist solution. I see Philips Hue as an ideal candidate for native support; it is widely adopted, low cost and available in many markets. If there are other obvious device families, please let me know and we can consider adding them to the roadmap.

I also need to explain why some devices may only be available in the commercial version. The cost of development and continued support for some device families make it impossible to support gratis - for example, proper IFTTT integration (rather than via 'maker') requires both dedicated cloud server(s) and annual fee to integrate - and we need to find a way to fund it. It would be unfair to provide those services for free to users of the community version when it is being paid for by users of the commercial version. Having said all that, I am committed to continue to develop the community version wherever possible and from a purely development perspective, it is easier if they both operate from the same source tree.

Anyway, I hope all that makes sense - and look forward to your feedback,

Thanks,

Matt


Hi Matt,
Thanks for the reply, very helpful as usual, and also trigging lots of other possibilities, this s really excting stuff. I fully understand and appreciate the logic behind the community version versus the commercial version as you have explained it.
You menton IFTTT, which again is something that gets the juices flowing, as if we had IFTTT integration, then the possibilities expand even further,  am thinking for example of options around geo-fencing and activation of comfort responses based on that. Other possiblities also such as integrating IFTTT compatible routers where we can start getting comfort to behave based on how is home (what devices are registered on the router etc.)
I took a plunge and purchased a hue hub today, so part of the way there, just need the ST hub now, and rpi :-)





 Posted: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 10:42 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Hi All

So the new version can be downloaded from this link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4178750/Cytech/1.0.0a.img.zip

A quick disclaimer (and as a result of Paul's observation) - I have been in the office today, so whilst I have tested the fix remotely by VPN'ing into my test environment, I have repackaged it by mounting the distribution image on a linux machine, popping in the changes and then saving them out. I haven't actually written an SD Card using this image myself so there is an outside risk it won't mount properly.

Please give it a go and let me know how you get on - my wife has a cold so suspect i'll be looking after the kids (and her) this evening and won't get chance to test this disk image until tomorrow.

The feedback you have both given me today has been invaluable - one of the things which caught me out is how windows and linux differ in their use of CR/LF. All the work I do is on OSX and Linux and had overlooked this obvious gotcha.

It's worth mentioning the text file editing will be the next thing to go - I want allow the configuration to be edited directly in the web gui and will make this happen for the next release.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Wednesday Jan 25th, 2017 02:25 am
   
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Its working :-)
Haven't tried the new functionality yet but it looks like I am up and running to at least where I was previously.
Great work Matt - well done!



 Posted: Wednesday Jan 25th, 2017 02:42 am
   
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Hi David

Brilliant - thanks for confirming.

Let me know how you get on with it,

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Wednesday Jan 25th, 2017 06:11 am
   
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As there has been much interest in this subject, I have created a new forum Comfort RPi, and have moved this post into it

Please feel free to create new topics here, instead of adding to this post



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 12:18 am
   
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Hi Matt.
I too have just written the 1.0.0.a image, booted it up, and everything looks fairly hunky-dory.  I've uploaded the config file and the CCLX file (both with share enabled).
I tried to do the registration process, but when I filled in the pane, the Register button does not seem to do anything.. - I just kept on clicking it, and it kept on doing nothing... (apologies if you've now received a dozen odd registrations from me...)
I started the service, and it appears to be running...
Now I guess I need to read some instructions to see what I need to do next.. :shock:
Cheers.
Paul G.



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 12:27 am
   
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Pgordon
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OK, no doubt this is an embarrassingly obvious newbie question, but I am unashamedly a smartthings newbie.. - I just got the hub a week or two ago, did basic setup with the smartthings app on my phone, and put it on the shelf... That's it... never heard of a smartthings web portal as referred to in the instructions... what's the URL for that? - perhaps in a future version you could mention it in the documentation, or better still, put a link to it on the http://alpha-uhai.local/smartthings/ page in the UI...

Cheers!

Paul G.



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 01:24 am
   
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https://graph.api.smartthings.com/
You should try to develop some basic knowledge of the IDE as it's fundamental to getting the most out of ST particularly the community written devices, smartapps, etc. It's definitely not a steep learning curve but some things not so obvious. 
[size=If you want to speak on the phone I'll talk you through it. ]



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 02:44 am
   
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Pgordon wrote: Hi Matt.
I too have just written the 1.0.0.a image, booted it up, and everything looks fairly hunky-dory.  I've uploaded the config file and the CCLX file (both with share enabled).
I tried to do the registration process, but when I filled in the pane, the Register button does not seem to do anything.. - I just kept on clicking it, and it kept on doing nothing... (apologies if you've now received a dozen odd registrations from me...)
I started the service, and it appears to be running...
Now I guess I need to read some instructions to see what I need to do next.. :shock:
Cheers.
Paul G.

Hi Paul

Can you send me your serialnumber - that will help me understand what is going on with registration?

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 12:38 pm
   
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Sure. 
Serial Num: 000000008fedacd0
:-)
Cheers
Paul G.



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 01:12 pm
   
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Slight issue following the instructions... as you can see from the pic, I don't have the "My Apps" selection in the app on my phone... I checked in the "More..." section too... it isn't there either...

No doubt I've done something wrong... or does it perhaps need some time to elapse between publishing and the items appearing there?

Everything up to that point went pretty much as per the instructions said...

Cheers

Paul G

Attachment: IMG_3085.PNG (Downloaded 91 times)



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 01:18 pm
   
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Hmm... hold fire on that one...after going to the app on the phone, then coming back to the IDE, it seems I had been logged out (inactivity timer?) - so I logged back in to my ST account, and went back to the My SmartApps, and My Device Handlers sections...
There's nothing there!!!
I *absolutely definitely* saw each and every one of them put up the green banner saying "published successfully" after every single one of the 11 items...
***k knows where they've gone then...
Right... I'll repeat myself and go through all of them again...
Will let you know the outcome

Cheers.
Paul G.



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 01:19 pm
   
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Go to Automation - Third from bottom - Then Smartapps alongside Routine in second bar down from top.

Last edited on Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 01:19 pm by DavidJ



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 01:20 pm
   
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Pgordon wrote: Hmm... hold fire on that one...after going to the app on the phone, then coming back to the IDE, it seems I had been logged out (inactivity timer?) - so I logged back in to my ST account, and went back to the My SmartApps, and My Device Handlers sections...
There's nothing there!!!
I *absolutely definitely* saw each and every one of them put up the green banner saying "published successfully" after every single one of the 11 items...
***k knows where they've gone then...
Right... I'll repeat myself and go through all of them again...
Will let you know the outcome

Cheers.
Paul G.


Dont repeat logout and login again. It sometimes gets confused. Or try a different browser. I'm sure it will be there.

Last edited on Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 01:21 pm by DavidJ



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 01:36 pm
   
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Hi Paul

Just looking through the telemetry and your Pi isn't able to connect to the alarm. Can you please check the configuration of the alarm, specifically the IP address and port number as set up in your UCM/Eth.

Also, can you re-attempt registration please?

Finally, can you click on the send button under logs - that will help me see if there is anything else going on.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 01:44 pm
   
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DavidJ wrote: https://graph.api.smartthings.com/
You should try to develop some basic knowledge of the IDE as it's fundamental to getting the most out of ST particularly the community written devices, smartapps, etc. It's definitely not a steep learning curve but some things not so obvious. 
[size=If you want to speak on the phone I'll talk you through it. ]

Hi David, Paul

(Many thanks to David for stepping in and providing guidance - that's a huge help).

SmartThings can be a little 'picky', if you have a UK SmartThings hub, it is likely registered to the UK portal (https://graph-eu01-euwest1.api.smartthings.com) - the generic North American one should redirect, but I would suggest logging into the UK one if your device is from the UK just to be sure your settings are to be applied correctly to your hub.

Thanks,

Matt




 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 01:56 pm
   
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mattbrain wrote:
Also, can you re-attempt registration please?

Finally, can you click on the send button under logs - that will help me see if there is anything else going on.

Thanks,

Matt

Logs sent...
Got a clue for the registration... if the "Send Continuous Usage Data" checkbox is ticked, hitting the Register button does nothing... as soon as I cleared that, hit send, the dialog box closes, and I presume it has sent...
Cheers.
Paul G.



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 02:02 pm
   
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DavidJ wrote: Dont repeat logout and login again. It sometimes gets confused. Or try a different browser. I'm sure it will be there.
Oops. sorry. too slow... I already did it... 
it worked the 2nd time.... phone app found the My Apps section, and showed the Comfort device... I've added it & it is running discovery... it has discovered 35 devices, and seems to have stopped at that point.. - it's been running some 15 mins or so now, and has not increased, so I presume that's all there is to find.. - it's not obvious here when it has "finished"  - no window pops up to say so...Cheers
Paul G.



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 02:06 pm
   
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Pgordon wrote Oops. sorry. too slow... I already did it... 
it worked the 2nd time.... phone app found the My Apps section, and showed the Comfort device... I've added it & it is running discovery... it has discovered 35 devices, and seems to have stopped at that point.. - it's been running some 15 mins or so now, and has not increased, so I presume that's all there is to find.. - it's not obvious here when it has "finished"  - no window pops up to say so...Cheers
Paul G.


Yep it normally takes 5 mins or so you can always go back.Click on the list of the discovered devices and select (via checkbox) the ones you want displayed in the smartthings "things" area.You do need to get your head around smartthings though which is by trial and error. THe community site is relatively helpful.



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 02:39 pm
   
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Pgordon wrote: DavidJ wrote: Dont repeat logout and login again. It sometimes gets confused. Or try a different browser. I'm sure it will be there.
Oops. sorry. too slow... I already did it... 
it worked the 2nd time.... phone app found the My Apps section, and showed the Comfort device... I've added it & it is running discovery... it has discovered 35 devices, and seems to have stopped at that point.. - it's been running some 15 mins or so now, and has not increased, so I presume that's all there is to find.. - it's not obvious here when it has "finished"  - no window pops up to say so...Cheers
Paul G.


Ah, thats the nature of pure UPNP discovery - you never actually know when it is complete (as new stuff may pop on and off the network at any time).

I'm thinking of revising this process so UPNP is used to initiate the process, but a master device then reports on all it's children which don't use UPNP in the same way. I'm going o give this some thought as it will mean changing pretty much all the code and i'm not sure the immediate benefit is worth the effort when i want to work on some other stuff.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 03:21 pm
   
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For What its worth. I don't think its a biggee, not a real major issue at all. Maybe we could start some sub-forums that Chiu set up. Also this forum is now getting a bit overpowering for a newbie to follow, perhaps split off, to setup/new feature requests/Smartthings/Etc.



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 03:46 pm
   
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DavidJ wrote: For What its worth. I don't think its a biggee, not a real major issue at all. Maybe we could start some sub-forums that Chiu set up. Also this forum is now getting a bit overpowering for a newbie to follow, perhaps split off, to setup/new feature requests/Smartthings/Etc.
You read my mind - I'm going to take some time after I get the update to fix your door station issue out to add some topics. I am thinking of:

Latest Release Link and Notes
FAQ
Device Wish List
Roadmap

Anything else you would like to see?



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 03:56 pm
   
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No rush on door station. The integration now with Core, via the ability of it knowing set/unset is awesome has opened up so many opportunities.
With regard to forum its useful to read through a full thread to understand the likely hurdles and how to overcome. This thread has now become a bit cumbersome to follow.
Otherwise I think you've covered all relevant elements for now.



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 04:00 pm
   
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bagushandhoko
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Matt, 
just setting up Raspberry, smartthings all seem work as expected, add device also succesfull.... Marvelous work ..
trying to turn on off one device from smartthings app , not working...  I think only need to learn more about this ...maybe because still very new for me :)  

My system has 96 output installed, with zwave ucm, GSM4, 3 IRIO ( with sub modules ). 

Attachment: Screenshot_2017-01-26-19-24-40-330.jpeg (Downloaded 127 times)

Last edited on Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 04:29 pm by bagushandhoko



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 04:07 pm
   
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bagushandhoko wrote: Matt, 
just setting up Raspberry, smartthings all seem work as expected, add device also succesfull.... Marvelous work ..
trying to turn on off one device from smartthings app , not working...  I think only need to learn more about this ...maybe because still very new for me :)  

My system has 96 output installed, with zwave ucm, GSM4, 3 IRIO ( with sub modules ). 

Fantastic - glad you have got it working. Would you mind sharing your serial number with me and I can take a look in the telemetry to see if it is talking to your comfort panel ok?

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 04:21 pm
   
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mattbrain wrote: bagushandhoko wrote: Matt, 
just setting up Raspberry, smartthings all seem work as expected, add device also succesfull.... Marvelous work ..
trying to turn on off one device from smartthings app , not working...  I think only need to learn more about this ...maybe because still very new for me :)  

My system has 96 output installed, with zwave ucm, GSM4, 3 IRIO ( with sub modules ). 

Fantastic - glad you have got it working. Would you mind sharing your serial number with me and I can take a look in the telemetry to see if it is talking to your comfort panel ok?

Thanks,

Matt

just registered.... by the way, what do you think better for your system , amazon echo or google home ?

Last edited on Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 04:31 pm by bagushandhoko



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 04:34 pm
   
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Pgordon wrote: Hmm... hold fire on that one...after going to the app on the phone, then coming back to the IDE, it seems I had been logged out (inactivity timer?) - so I logged back in to my ST account, and went back to the My SmartApps, and My Device Handlers sections...
There's nothing there!!!
I *absolutely definitely* saw each and every one of them put up the green banner saying "published successfully" after every single one of the 11 items...
***k knows where they've gone then...
Right... I'll repeat myself and go through all of them again...
Will let you know the outcome

Cheers.
Paul G.

Happen to me too, at first uploading... after back from work, open the smartthings web,, nothing there, create again ... and ... working

Last edited on Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 04:35 pm by bagushandhoko



 Posted: Thursday Jan 26th, 2017 05:24 pm
   
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bagushandhoko wrote: mattbrain wrote: bagushandhoko wrote: Matt, 
just setting up Raspberry, smartthings all seem work as expected, add device also succesfull.... Marvelous work ..
trying to turn on off one device from smartthings app , not working...  I think only need to learn more about this ...maybe because still very new for me :)  

My system has 96 output installed, with zwave ucm, GSM4, 3 IRIO ( with sub modules ). 

Fantastic - glad you have got it working. Would you mind sharing your serial number with me and I can take a look in the telemetry to see if it is talking to your comfort panel ok?

Thanks,

Matt

just registered.... by the way, what do you think better for your system , amazon echo or google home ?


I haven't tested with Google Home - so Echo is highly recommended. Integration is currently via SmartThings but am planning on direct integration to drive adoption.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Friday Jan 27th, 2017 04:12 am
   
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bagushandhoko
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anyone has experience like this ?
Hi Matt, this is the answer from smartthings support  :
Tony (SmartThings)
Jan 26, 6:58 PM MST
Hi there,
Thanks for reaching out to SmartThings Support!
Taking a look, it appears that this issue is associated with a Custom SmartApp, which is something that we won't have much insight to since we had no part in developing it. What I would suggest is going to our Community to see if the creator of the app can lend a hand with this issue or if anyone else has some insight, as the users there will have more experience with Custom SmartApps and the like.
Apologies that I don't have more here, but if there was anything more I can help with feel free to let me know!
Warm regards,
Tony
SmartThings Support

Attachment: Screenshot_2017-01-27-07-04-47-680.jpeg (Downloaded 108 times)

Last edited on Friday Jan 27th, 2017 10:37 am by bagushandhoko



 Posted: Friday Jan 27th, 2017 11:56 am
   
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Smartthings support are useless. First port of call is always community. THats a weird error you have and one I have not seen.



 Posted: Friday Jan 27th, 2017 01:46 pm
   
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Hi Bagushandhoko

I suspect the UPNP discovery on SmartThings has got into a mess - when you redid discovery, did you do it via the existing App instance or create a new one - it's quite confusing as once you run it for the first time, it creates a copy of the App in a new location. I need to provide more detailed instructions to do manage all this, and I'll try to do it today.

My recommendation, from the web gui, delete all the devices in the My Devices tab, remove the SmartApp and re-add and publish it and start again.

Let me know how you get on.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Friday Jan 27th, 2017 07:05 pm
   
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Hi Matt, 
i confuse ... before delete them ... i found my uploading file : my smartapps, my devicehandler, gone ( empty ) again ... but at mobile app, my apps still be able to accessed ...  is it the cause of error above ?


update : 
  • just realized,  i should choose the location first, sign in, and found the uploading file... but How to delete it ? 
  • How to delete my apps at mobile apps ?
so i wait your guideline

Last edited on Friday Jan 27th, 2017 07:33 pm by bagushandhoko



 Posted: Friday Jan 27th, 2017 07:36 pm
   
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I believe what Matt is suggesting is that you go to the Smartthings IDE at https://graph.api.smartthings.com/ - Log in - Go to My Devices Handlers and delete all the ones in that start MattBrain. Then reinstall them all as you did yesterday, thereshould be 9. Do the same for the My SmartApps - theres only one there.



 Posted: Friday Jan 27th, 2017 07:53 pm
   
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DavidJ wrote: I believe what Matt is suggesting is that you go to the Smartthings IDE at smartthings.com/" TARGET="_blank">https://graph.api.smartthings.com/ - Log in - Go to My Devices Handlers and delete all the ones in that start MattBrain. Then reinstall them all as you did yesterday, thereshould be 9. Do the same for the My SmartApps - theres only one there.Already normal again ... Just need to delete location and create again ...No need  to delete mysmartapp or my device handler



 Posted: Saturday Jan 28th, 2017 04:52 pm
   
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hi Matt,
testing on and off lamp from smartthings work well ...  only the lamp status not update when lamp turning off by manual switch 
update 29.01
testng on and off lamp from amazon dot work well too 

Last edited on Sunday Jan 29th, 2017 10:06 am by bagushandhoko



 Posted: Sunday Jan 29th, 2017 06:01 pm
   
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Was playing a bit over the weekend. I didn't think I was seeing all the devices I should, so I figured I'd just run discovery again to see if anything new was found...

It was... this time it fairly quickly found 78 devices... almost double what was found before... I enabled all of them, and then I too saw the same error as in post 178... devicenetworkId must be unique...

As I backed out through the app, I noticed there was now a second instance of the comfort smart app installed... obviously the cause of the aforementioned error...

Attachment: IMG_3086.PNG (Downloaded 154 times)

Last edited on Sunday Jan 29th, 2017 06:02 pm by Pgordon



 Posted: Sunday Jan 29th, 2017 06:07 pm
   
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but interestingly... after I submitted that post, I went back to the same smartapps screen, and one of the 2 instances had disappeared... all on it's own...
I went back into discovery on the sole remaining instance, and its running now... currently up to 122 devices, and finding a few more every few minutes...



 Posted: Sunday Jan 29th, 2017 07:44 pm
   
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I need to clarify how to renew discovery - the ST interface isn't particularly clear. I will rtite these up in proper instructions and add to the forum, but below is a summary

Initial discovery should be done by going to:

MarketPlace -> SmartApps -> My Apps -> Comfort Manager (or Cytech Zone UPNP Manager v1 for 1.0.0 installs)

Subsequent discovery (once you have selected some initial devices) can be done from:

Automation -> SmartApps -> Comfort Manager (or Cytech Zone UPNP Manager v1 for 1.0.0 installs)

If you repeat the first stage you may end up duplicating devices causing the error message.

Thanks,

Matt



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Pgordon wrote: but interestingly... after I submitted that post, I went back to the same smartapps screen, and one of the 2 instances had disappeared... all on it's own...
I went back into discovery on the sole remaining instance, and its running now... currently up to 122 devices, and finding a few more every few minutes...


Thats more devices that I have tested with - be aware that SmartThings limits SmartApp persistent memory to 100,000 bytes which may be run into during discovery for lots of devices.

We are considering changing discovery to overcome these limitations but it requires some changes at the back end which will follow when I refactor the UPNP engine.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Monday Jan 30th, 2017 07:55 am
   
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bagushandhoko
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mattbrain wrote: Thats more devices that I have tested with - be aware that SmartThings limits SmartApp persistent memory to 100,000 bytes which may be run into during discovery for lots of devices.

We are considering changing discovery to overcome these limitations but it requires some changes at the back end which will follow when I refactor the UPNP engine.

Thanks,

Matt

Is it why only 152 devices found from my system , i expect more that 192 devices, because except IRIO i use full 96 output and mostly have input related 

Last edited on Monday Jan 30th, 2017 07:56 am by bagushandhoko



 Posted: Monday Jan 30th, 2017 12:47 pm
   
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bagushandhoko wrote: mattbrain wrote: Thats more devices that I have tested with - be aware that SmartThings limits SmartApp persistent memory to 100,000 bytes which may be run into during discovery for lots of devices.

We are considering changing discovery to overcome these limitations but it requires some changes at the back end which will follow when I refactor the UPNP engine.

Thanks,

Matt

Is it why only 152 devices found from my system , i expect more that 192 devices, because except IRIO i use full 96 output and mostly have input related 


Wow - ok - there are a lot of devices there.

So, it is clear there is a need for more than 200 devices, and given the limitations in SmartThings I need to be a bit 'crafty' with memory management during discovery. May I propose the following:
1.For the time being can you limit the number of devices exposed to SmartThings to less that ~ 125?

2.I'll work on a workaround for discovery using the existing mechanism to run this through several passes, which will allow all your devices to be found whilst working within the constraints imposed by SmartThings. I'll work with Ben to put this in a future bugfix release (most likely 1.0.0c).

Can you comment on the number of events which occur with all the devices - one other constraint imposed by SmartThings is a maximum event triggers per SmartApp which is at around 250 per minute - this is reported in the Comfort Bridge device as EPM. If you exceed this threshold, SmartThings may drop events (although I have never seen this in practice).

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Monday Jan 30th, 2017 01:58 pm
   
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I believe I have also seen odd things with what's discovered... As I mentioned a couple of posts above, I am seeing some devices discovered which I'm fairly sure aren't in the config file I uploaded.. - but they may have been in the *default* template - and you remember that at one point earlier I uploaded the unmodified template inadvertently... is it not the case that uploading a config file should fully overwrite any config already uploaded previously? Is there any possibility that devices may have been remembered from a previous config? - I can't see any other reason why I would be getting additional devices...
Also, I'm fairly sure that even though it has found 123 devices, and seems to have topped out there, I reckon I am still missing some... Yesterday afternoon I spent a little time organising all 123 into their respective rooms, so I've created a dozen or so rooms in the app, moved everything thus far discovered into a room, and when looking at several rooms I am noticing absent devices...
The upside is that what is there does indeed seem to be working perfectly. :)  I have seen PIR's change state in the ST app, and I have used the app to control lights that are CBUS channels represented in Comfort as a flag or counter.
What I don't see are any responses - is that normal? - given what you've previously said about the memory limits in ST I'd half expect that you didn't try to discover & represent all the responses... that being the case, how does one then get a response represented in the ST app?
Cheers!
Paul G.



 Posted: Monday Jan 30th, 2017 02:08 pm
   
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Pgordon
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Pgordon wrote: What I don't see are any responses - is that normal? - given what you've previously said about the memory limits in ST I'd half expect that you didn't try to discover & represent all the responses... that being the case, how does one then get a response represented in the ST app?
Cheers!
Paul G.
DOH! - I just saw the relevant information in the instructions document! - ignore me, I haven't had enough coffee yet...
Cheers
Paul G.



 Posted: Monday Jan 30th, 2017 02:48 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Hi Paul

Yes, SmartThings may remember old devices if you have more than one instance of the SmartApp installed - as I mentioned earlier, the interface isn't ideal - rule of thumb is:

Initial discovery should be done by going to:
MarketPlace -> SmartApps -> My Apps -> Comfort Manager (or Cytech Zone UPNP Manager v1 for 1.0.0 installs)
Subsequent discovery (once you have selected some initial devices) can be done from:
Automation -> SmartApps -> Comfort Manager (or Cytech Zone UPNP Manager v1 for 1.0.0 installs)
If you repeat the first stage you may end up duplicating devices causing the error message.

I would recommend that any old devices 'hanging around' should be deleted which will tidy stuff up. Please check in Automation -> SmartApps to make sure you don't have more than one instance of the App installed which might cause some friction.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Wednesday Feb 1st, 2017 01:09 am
   
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HenleyBranch
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Hi Matt

I have had a Comfort system going for 6+ years and have connected it to my Mac via Indigo. Have been following this thread with serious interest. I have now got all the required bits and am ready to roll.

I started following the steps on Github, but not being experienced with Pi have struggled with copying across the various files such as peer-ssdp.js across. I then discover there is now (as of 23rd Jan) a preconfigured disk image on drop box (on page 6 of this thread). Except the link doesn't work for me? Is this saved anywhere else?!

Really excited by what you have done here, and keen to get going.

H



 Posted: Wednesday Feb 1st, 2017 01:49 am
   
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Hi H

I updated the image to fix an issue - please see the new link below:

mattbrain wrote: Hi All

So the new version can be downloaded from this link: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4178750/Cytech/1.0.0a.img.zip

A quick disclaimer (and as a result of Paul's observation) - I have been in the office today, so whilst I have tested the fix remotely by VPN'ing into my test environment, I have repackaged it by mounting the distribution image on a linux machine, popping in the changes and then saving them out. I haven't actually written an SD Card using this image myself so there is an outside risk it won't mount properly.

Please give it a go and let me know how you get on - my wife has a cold so suspect i'll be looking after the kids (and her) this evening and won't get chance to test this disk image until tomorrow.

The feedback you have both given me today has been invaluable - one of the things which caught me out is how windows and linux differ in their use of CR/LF. All the work I do is on OSX and Linux and had overlooked this obvious gotcha.

It's worth mentioning the text file editing will be the next thing to go - I want allow the configuration to be edited directly in the web gui and will make this happen for the next release.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Wednesday Feb 1st, 2017 02:18 am
   
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HenleyBranch
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Thanks Matt, for such a prompt response. It's downloading now. Will try again tomorrow evening.

HB



 Posted: Tuesday Feb 7th, 2017 01:33 am
   
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** Just in case you missed the topic in the main forum **

Hi All

Ben and I are conscious that it isn't always easy to keep you guys informed when new releases are made available or to keep you in the loop.

We have created a simple mailing list, please register using the link below to ensure you're kept up-to date.

Mailing List

We promise not to share your details or send spammy mails - we'll limit what we send to information pertinent to the solution and you can opt out at any time,

Thanks,

Matt & Ben.



 Posted: Sunday Feb 12th, 2017 07:07 am
   
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bagushandhoko
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Can you comment on the number of events which occur with all the devices - one other constraint imposed by SmartThings is a maximum event triggers per SmartApp which is at around 250 per minute - this is reported in the Comfort Bridge device as EPM. If you exceed this threshold, SmartThings may drop events (although I have never seen this in practice).

Thanks,

Matt

really sorry not monitor this thread for some time .....  How to know the events per minute ?  Other side the events occur per minute seem less than 250  



 Posted: Sunday Feb 12th, 2017 01:24 pm
   
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bagushandhoko wrote:
Can you comment on the number of events which occur with all the devices - one other constraint imposed by SmartThings is a maximum event triggers per SmartApp which is at around 250 per minute - this is reported in the Comfort Bridge device as EPM. If you exceed this threshold, SmartThings may drop events (although I have never seen this in practice).

Thanks,

Matt

really sorry not monitor this thread for some time .....  How to know the events per minute ?  Other side the events occur per minute seem less than 250  

Events Per Minute are reported by the ComfortBridge device in SmartThings - Its reported as xxx EPM where x is the number of events in the last minute. I'm going to add a couple of additional metrics such as daily, weekly and all-time high so it can be better monitored.
Thanks,
Matt



 Posted: Sunday Feb 12th, 2017 05:01 pm
   
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Pgordon
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Matt, did you make any progress with the login option on the Pi? - I'd like to be able to logon to the console on he Pi, - if I'm reading it right, the load on the Pi by the comfort bridge is really trivial, (It's the latest Pi 3 model B), so I think I could easily have it doing some other things as well...
I recall there was an option to add a "1" to the end of the options set in a config file, - but I think the Windows vs Linux CRLF issue made it not work for me...
Not urgent, but when you have a moment, it would be a nice to have... :-)

Cheers

Paul G.



 Posted: Monday Feb 13th, 2017 02:13 pm
   
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bagushandhoko
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Hi Matt,
yesterday I scanned my windows network from my laptop ... all my comfort devices appear at the network, is it secure for my home system ?



 Posted: Tuesday Feb 14th, 2017 01:32 pm
   
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mattbrain
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bagushandhoko wrote: Hi Matt,
yesterday I scanned my windows network from my laptop ... all my comfort devices appear at the network, is it secure for my home system ?


That's a good question - let me explain what is going on.

UPNP uses a discovery mechanism by broadcasting to the local subnet on port 1900 over UDP. Devices respond to these broadcasts by advertising their capabilities and devices. This is how the vast majority of IoT devices make themselves available to other devices (you may have also seen other devices such as Sonos, WeMo, Philips Hue, etc).

These broadcasts and responses are limited the local network and won't route to any outside networks so as long as your home WiFi network is secure there is no issue.

Furthermore there are a couple of additional layers of security layered on top of UPNP.
  1. the alarm.config file allows you to define the comfort devices (inputs, outputs, flags, counters and responses) which are permitted to be exposed
  2. A pin is still required to unlock the alarm (i.e. it is possible to set the alarm without a pin, but it is necessary to use the pin to clear it - just as you do with the keypad)
We have an additional security feature on the roadmap which is analogous to WiFi easy setup - which will only enable discovery for a short period following a request on the Web GUI. Combined with a password protected GUI and the concept of pairing Comfort with external devices this should make it even more secure.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Tuesday Feb 14th, 2017 05:00 pm
   
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bagushandhoko
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I see



 Posted: Thursday Feb 16th, 2017 04:46 am
   
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bagushandhoko
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Related with new firmware : 

1. I just upgraded to 1.0.0a from 1.0.0 , it happen only few seconds , is it normal ?
2." All zone devices now have the capability to act as a contact sensor" ... please explain more regarding this 

Last edited on Thursday Feb 16th, 2017 08:38 am by bagushandhoko



 Posted: Thursday Feb 16th, 2017 01:31 pm
   
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bagushandhoko wrote: Related with new firmware : 

1. I just upgraded to 1.0.0a from 1.0.0 , it happen only few seconds , is it normal ?
2." All zone devices now have the capability to act as a contact sensor" ... please explain more regarding this 

1. Yes, it should only take a few moments; if it is successful it will report the new version installed and the upgrade button should be greyed out. If upgrading from a 1.0.0 release (such as 1.0.0a or 1.0.0c) you may need to attempt it a couple of times if the upgrade file isn't downloaded quickly enough. This issue is fixed in 1.0.1a.

2. The device will appear as a motion detector in SmartThings (although the icon can be changed to reflect that of a door etc) but it now also has the capability of 'ContactSensor' so SmartApps which allow you to select devices with that capability can find them.



 Posted: Friday Feb 17th, 2017 10:47 am
   
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bagushandhoko
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1.For the time being can you limit the number of devices exposed to SmartThings to less that ~ 125?

Matt

Hi Matt, 

How to limit the number of devices exposed from comfigurator side  ? 



 Posted: Friday Feb 17th, 2017 02:03 pm
   
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In the alarm.config only list the Inputs, Outputs, Flags and Counters that you need (and to a maximum of around 125). 

I am working on instructions for a workaround which will selectively discover devices in batches to overcome this limitation.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Friday Feb 17th, 2017 04:54 pm
   
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bagushandhoko
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I see
Total all output + zone + response + etc = max 125 ?



 Posted: Friday Feb 17th, 2017 05:08 pm
   
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Broadly yes - responses aren't included as they are manually added rather than discovered. The total number is limited by the available memory to the discovery process in SmartThings which is 100,000 bytes. Devices which have shorter names use less memory and as a result it isn't exactly 125 devices.

If you have a lot more devices you would like to discover, a new version which is in development overcomes this limitation with 2 step discovery but is not backwardly compatible. This version will form the basis of the commercial UCM.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Friday Feb 17th, 2017 05:56 pm
   
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bagushandhoko
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yeah ... ideally match with maximum capacity of comfort :dude:



 Posted: Sunday Feb 19th, 2017 04:30 pm
   
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Hi Matt is it possible to add a secondry Smartthings hub to this setup to be used in a partioned system using the same R-PI source.



 Posted: Monday Feb 20th, 2017 12:54 pm
   
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Swiss-Toni wrote:Hi Matt is it possible to add a secondry Smartthings hub to this setup to be used in a partioned system using the same R-PI source.

Yes, that should work fine. With each ST hub, run discovery and select only the devices necessary for that partition.

Let me know how you get on,

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Friday Feb 24th, 2017 06:24 am
   
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bagushandhoko
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hi Matt,
Why my "responses" un discovered by ST ?

Last edited on Friday Feb 24th, 2017 06:32 am by bagushandhoko



 Posted: Friday Feb 24th, 2017 08:36 pm
   
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bagushandhoko wrote: hi Matt,
Why my "responses" un discovered by ST ?


Hi,

Can you explain what has happened please. ST shouldn't delete responses you have added via the 'add response' button in the ComfortAlarm Bridge device.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Saturday Feb 25th, 2017 05:04 am
   
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bagushandhoko
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 you have added via the 'add response' button in the ComfortAlarm Bridge device.

Thanks,

Matt

which menu I find add response ? at ST ?  in initial scan ST not find "responses"
My problem now :

1. all my lamp are dimmer that use momentary switch ( short press for on/off, long press dimming function ) . I have about 30 group of lamps, consist of fibaro group and hytronik dimmer control ( http://www.hytronik.com/products/dali-trailing-edge-dimmer-hdd2200.html ).  For Hytronik ,in comfort control menu 1 should set pulse few seconds in order to make same response with manual switch.  So if there is no setting about pulse response, become unreliable using on/off  at ST Things, i should click on or off several time , some time success to make it "on" sometimes not....Amazon alexa become useless, isnt it ?
2. the status device at ST not same with the real status of the device/lamp , annoying right ?
3. i have motorized gate, any command at alexa using "open/close" instead of turn on/off ?

Last edited on Sunday Feb 26th, 2017 08:03 pm by bagushandhoko



 Posted: Saturday Feb 25th, 2017 09:21 pm
   
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Hi Matt.
I appear to be having some difficulty in changing the published devices... - I noticed that I'm missing a couple of devices (Comfort counters) that I really want to have in ST...
I downloaded the alarm.config from UHAI.. I noticed that one of the counters I wanted wasn't in there in the first place, so I added it...Whilst there, - and bearing in mind what you've previously said about discovery limitations, I decided to remove a bunch of devices that I could do without (I'm currently at 123 devices discovered in ST by the Comfort Manager smartapp). I reckon I must have removed 20 or so flag devices from the config file.Saved it.. uploaded it (apparently sucessfully)... restarted the service..
In the ST app I'm attempting rediscovery... Automation>smartapps>Comfort Manager>Next
It goes into the discovery screen, it says "discovery started" it shows the already-existing 123 devices previously found, and sits there with a spinny-wheel indefinitely... It never discovers any new devices.. I have a big red remove button at the bottom, but I'm wondering if that will delete *all* the devices already discovered? - I don't really want to do that, as I've already spent a fair while re-naming them in ST, grouping them into rooms etc... - Is there a way I can *selectively* remove devices that have previously been discovered? - I guess 123 devices has hit the limitation which is why I presume it won't discover any more...
Also, according to the UHAI webpage, I'm running 1.0.1a - but it says no upgrade is available, however the releases thread states 1.0.1c is the latest...
Cheers.
Paul G.



 Posted: Sunday Feb 26th, 2017 01:06 am
   
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Pgordon wrote: Hi Matt.
I appear to be having some difficulty in changing the published devices... - I noticed that I'm missing a couple of devices (Comfort counters) that I really want to have in ST...
I downloaded the alarm.config from UHAI.. I noticed that one of the counters I wanted wasn't in there in the first place, so I added it...Whilst there, - and bearing in mind what you've previously said about discovery limitations, I decided to remove a bunch of devices that I could do without (I'm currently at 123 devices discovered in ST by the Comfort Manager smartapp). I reckon I must have removed 20 or so flag devices from the config file.Saved it.. uploaded it (apparently sucessfully)... restarted the service..
In the ST app I'm attempting rediscovery... Automation>smartapps>Comfort Manager>Next
It goes into the discovery screen, it says "discovery started" it shows the already-existing 123 devices previously found, and sits there with a spinny-wheel indefinitely... It never discovers any new devices.. I have a big red remove button at the bottom, but I'm wondering if that will delete *all* the devices already discovered? - I don't really want to do that, as I've already spent a fair while re-naming them in ST, grouping them into rooms etc... - Is there a way I can *selectively* remove devices that have previously been discovered? - I guess 123 devices has hit the limitation which is why I presume it won't discover any more...
Also, according to the UHAI webpage, I'm running 1.0.1a - but it says no upgrade is available, however the releases thread states 1.0.1c is the latest...
Cheers.
Paul G.

Hi Paul
You can selectively delete devices by removing the instance of the device by clicking the cog on the device which will give you an option to delete it.

It should find the new devices so long as you have uploaded the alarm.config file and restarted the service. Since there are so many it may take a while (ST has a limit of something like 5 devices a minute - and it will have to discover all the devices, not just the new ones).

You have the latest version, 1.0.1a is the newest 1.0.1c is still in the oven behind 1.0.1b :)

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Sunday Feb 26th, 2017 01:12 am
   
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bagushandhoko wrote:  you have added via the 'add response' button in the ComfortAlarm Bridge device.

Thanks,

Matt

which menu I find add response ? at ST ?  in initial scan ST not find "responses"
My problem now :

1. all my lamp are dimmer that use momentary switch ( short press for on/off, long press dimming function ) . I have abour 30 group of lamps, consist of fibaro group and hytronik dimmer control ( http://www.hytronik.com/products/dali-trailing-edge-dimmer-hdd2200.html ).  For Hytronik ,in comfort control menu 1 should set pulse few seconds in order to make same response with manual switch.  So if there is no setting about pulse response, become unreliable using on/off  at ST Things, i should click on or off several time , some time success to make it "on" sometimes not....Amazon alexa become useless, isnt it ?
2. the status device at ST not same with the real status of the device/lamp , annoying right ?
3. i have motorized gate, any command at alexa using "open/close" instead of turn on/off ?



You need to add responses by clicking the 'Add Response' button in the ComfortAlarm Bridge 'thing' in ST things list. This will create a new thing called 'ComfortAlarm Response', you need to click it and use the cog to set the response code for on and off and rename it. 

This should then be able to call the responses to solve (1).

2. Occasionally (usually due to a hub or Pi restart) the ST thing and comfort device can get out of sync - use the refresh button in the ComfortAlarm Bridge thing to resynchronise everything.

3. Unfortunately the Alexa / ST integration doesn't provide the flexibility to change the action words - we are stuck with On and Off. We are looking at a richer Alexa integration but it requires the development of an Alexa Skill (which increases the complexity) and requires a cloud service hosted by us to do it - which can be expensive :(. I'll let you know how we get on.

Thanks,
Matt



 Posted: Sunday Feb 26th, 2017 12:06 pm
   
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slychiu
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When you use Responses here, are the Responses executed using The Response Number in the CCLX file?
If so then be careful as the Response number can be changed by Comfigurator when you edit responses
eg the previous response is edited to increase the actions beyond 8 then the Response uses up the next response number, so the response number does not point to the correct Response

It is better to map to Counters which trigger Counter Responses in Comfort. This gets around the response renumbering problem. Thisis why in the new UCMs eg KNX2, CBUS2, modbus, Zwave etc, mapping to Responses is not supported, instead mapping to Flags, Counters and sensors are yused



 Posted: Sunday Feb 26th, 2017 02:34 pm
   
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Pgordon
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mattbrain wrote:
Hi Paul. You can selectively delete devices by removing the instance of the device by clicking the cog on the device which will give you an option to delete it.

It should find the new devices so long as you have uploaded the alarm.config file and restarted the service. Since there are so many it may take a while (ST has a limit of something like 5 devices a minute - and it will have to discover all the devices, not just the new ones).

Thanks,

Matt


I'm not sure I follow exactly where you mean...
I've deleted the devices in the ST app just as you described...
But when I go into:Automation>SmartApps>Comfort Manager>Next...There is a discovery screen, which says at the top "Discovery started" followed by 1 paragraph of blurb, followed by "Select Devices (123 found)" followed by a comma separated list of the 123 devices...
That list of 123 has not altered since it was built several weeks ago after the initial discovery... if I remain on that screen, there is a spinny wheel appearing every few seconds so it certainly looks like it's doing something...That list of 123 includes the devices that I have since deleted in the ST app...If i select any device in the list, the screen moves to the tickbox list where I can select the devices I want to publish to ST... I can't delete devices there - all I can do is tick or untick...
I think my problem is that once discovered by Comfort Manager, those devices seem not able to be "undiscovered"... and because there's already 123 of them, I guess it's hit the limit and won't ever find any more unless & until I can remove some from the list...
As I say, I have the option to delete the "entire" list of 123 and start discovery again, but that would lose quite a bit of effort I've already done customising all the names, & putting them in the right groups etc...
What I really need is a way to delete devices from that initial discovery list.. - I've already removed them from the alarm.config file, uploaded it & restarted the service...
IF I delete everything & start again, no doubt it will discover the set of devices that I actually want... - but I'd have to re-do all that customisation... :-(
Is it possible for you to amend the "tickbox list" screen, so as well as tick/untick to publish to ST, I can also delete?
TIA
Paul G.



 Posted: Sunday Feb 26th, 2017 08:16 pm
   
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bagushandhoko
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other problem on PI, maybe because my old SD card or application, without any reason PI can not be accessed, restart service or restart PI not help ... i need to re-copy  the image to solve the problem,  it happen several times . anyone has same experience ?

Last edited on Monday Feb 27th, 2017 06:50 pm by bagushandhoko



 Posted: Sunday Feb 26th, 2017 09:50 pm
   
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Pgordon
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I'm having funnies too... 

yesterday, i deleted a bunch of devices from the ST app, - under My Home>Things... then click on the "thing", then click the cog to open the thing's settings, then click delete and confirm the command... ST comes back & says the thing was successfully deleted from SmartThings... 

All great... 

Today they're back again!!! - and they all show status of "Offline" in red... - not surprising really, since the devices in question have been removed from the alarm.config file...How and why has ST re-added the devices I told it to delete? - that is immensely annoying!
Also, I'm now going through the list and deleting them *again* in the same way as before... like before, ST app says the device is deleted, but when I back out to the list, it's still bloody well there... and seems to be staying there.... I deleted a bunch of "things" some 15 minutes ago, and they're all still in the things list in the ST app... - however, it looks like they do disappear eventually, so I guess that's just crappy UI management by the ST app...  

One more oddity...there's a fair few things in my things list that also show status of "Offline" in red... - incorrectly... - these are devices that are still in the alarm.config file, and should be there and working... 

How can I be sure just exactly what UHAI reads from the alarm.config file? - could there still be issues due to the different CRLF character between Windows & Mac/Linux? - I'm downloading the file, editing in Windows Notepad, and re-uploading... this appears to be working OK, - there's no complaint about the upload, and the service starts OK... but I don't know if I have complete confidence in what is actually being activated by UHAI....

TIA

Paul G



 Posted: Tuesday Feb 28th, 2017 08:42 pm
   
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Pgordon
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Ok, I'm a little bit stuck now...

I've tried numerous times to delete the discovered devices in the ST app, and it just constantly fails with the error as per the attached screenshot.

So I have devices that I want to use in the app but am unable to discover, and I have discovered devices that I don't want present but am unable to delete... and I think that without deleting some or all devices, I won't ever discover any more?? So I appear to be stuck in a catch-22... as it stands, I cannot get my 2 main living room lights into SmartThings... (it would have to be those ones wouldn't it!)

Any suggestions as to how I can resolve this? - the "An unexpected error has occurred" bar appears almost immediately after I press the big red "Delete" button... *behind* that error message is the bit that says "Select Devices (123 found)" - this is the list discovered by the Comfort Manager smart app a number of weeks ago now, and steadfastly refuses to ever change, it has been "stuck" with the same 123 devices no matter what I do, how many times I change the alarm.config file, or how often I re-run discovery.

Many thanks.

Paul G

Attachment: IMG_3105.png (Downloaded 120 times)

Last edited on Tuesday Feb 28th, 2017 09:29 pm by Pgordon



 Posted: Thursday Mar 2nd, 2017 07:53 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Hi All

Apologies for not responding more quickly, I hadn't seen there had been so much activity!

Paul, 

I have seen this behaviour before, and I think there are 2 core problems:

1. ST isn't honouring the request to delete devices - I have experienced this personally and it is annoying. I have a couple of things I am going to try - but i suspect this may be a 'feature' of the ST platform.

2. Discovery caching. It seems the discovery cache is permanent and on occasion seems to get stuck. I have seen the issue you are having on my test platform with far fewer devices so I'm not convinced it is a memory issue. I'm going to add a flush function to the code and i'll publish a copy for testing prior to the next release, if all goes to plan i'll have it out in the next day or so.

bagushandhoko,

I suspect this is due to file system corruption - to totally fail in the way you indicate leads me to believe you are probably right. SD cards do have a finite life so this might indicate it's time to get a new one. Can you confirm what size card it is, as another (outside) possibility is the disk is filling up but this should be managed by the automatic weekly purge of the log files.

Thanks,

Matt



 Posted: Friday Mar 3rd, 2017 07:12 am
   
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bagushandhoko
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mattbrain wrote:
bagushandhoko,

I suspect this is due to file system corruption - to totally fail in the way you indicate leads me to believe you are probably right. SD cards do have a finite life so this might indicate it's time to get a new one. Can you confirm what size card it is, as another (outside) possibility is the disk is filling up but this should be managed by the automatic weekly purge of the log files.

Thanks,

Matt

16 GB, how much recommended size ?



 Posted: Friday Mar 3rd, 2017 12:16 pm
   
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Pgordon
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Great stuff. Thanks Matt. I'll eagerly await the update before trying the nuclear option :-)
Just as an aside, whilst observing the UHAI status page, I see the load figure is extremely low... typically hovering around 0.05 - 0.08... right now, with not much going on on ST, it's at 0.02...  Presumably this implies that Pi 3 B is way overkill just for running the UHAI bridge... - I wonder how it would fare on a new Pi Zero W? - heck for a mere tenner, I may get one just to find out...

In the meantime, I still might like to make better use of the current Pi3B by runnning some additional tasks on it alongside the UHAI... Which brings me back to my earlier question: can we get logon access to the Pi so I can enable remote access, perhaps run a GUI, and explore the possibility of getting running a few additional thngs? - I'm too impatient to wait for the official SONOS skill for Alexa, so in the meantime, I might try experimenting with a 3rd-party skill, such as this one: https://github.com/rgraciano/echo-sonos#echo-sonos - I need to run an instance of node.js, and I figure the Pi is a good place for that... (unless it's already there for the UHAI??)

Cheers.

P.

Last edited on Friday Mar 3rd, 2017 12:51 pm by Pgordon



 Posted: Friday Mar 3rd, 2017 02:03 pm
   
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DavidJ
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I'm running a Pi A or 1 or whatever the first was - it runs at 0.25 load



 Posted: Friday Mar 3rd, 2017 02:57 pm
   
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bagushandhoko
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Why ST show like this ? 

Attachment: Screenshot_2017-03-03-13-33-04-179.jpeg (Downloaded 111 times)



 Posted: Friday Mar 3rd, 2017 03:05 pm
   
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DavidJ
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What is always worth a go is within ST "Things" go to the Comfort Bridge and push the refresh button. If your not sure where it is i'll send a screenshot.



 Posted: Friday Mar 3rd, 2017 04:00 pm
   
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Pgordon
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DavidJ wrote: What is always worth a go is within ST "Things" go to the Comfort Bridge and push the refresh button. If your not sure where it is i'll send a screenshot.
Thanks. I found it OK, and did it, but it seems to have made no difference... :-(
On an unrelated topic, anyone know how the comfort "Doorbell" device is supposed to work?
I have a "Doorbell" device in my "Things"... it shows as status "On" - which seems an odd choice... but it doesn't do anything.. - I just went & rang my doorbell (Which is a Comfort DP02 doorstation) whilst monitoring the status in the ST app... - the status does not change in the "right now" view, and there are no events in the "recently" view, so it appears that my doorbell 'Thing' is not activating in response to comfort doorbell presses...
Should that be automatic, or do I have to configure something? - I figure I could always put an output activation in my doorbell response, then use that other output as a 'Thing' to get doorbell events into ST... - oh wait... - I can't currently discover any new devices can I?... :-(
I'm trying to use the "speaker Notify with Sound" smart app, in conjunction with the SONOS Thing to get announcements when the doorbell is pressed... 
TIA
Paul G.



 Posted: Friday Mar 3rd, 2017 04:09 pm
   
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DavidJ
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Briefly if you look at recently you should see the activation of the bell. If this works you can use it to trigger other things...



 Posted: Friday Mar 3rd, 2017 04:47 pm
   
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Pgordon
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DavidJ wrote: Briefly if you look at recently you should see the activation of the bell. If this works you can use it to trigger other things...That's the problem... it has no events at all under recently... and I see no change on the live view either - even briefly...  
The ST device does not appear to be responding to a doorbell ring...



 Posted: Friday Mar 3rd, 2017 06:32 pm
   
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DavidJ
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Sorry I can only say that's how mine works i assume you are using the latest published version. Also try refreshing the comfort bridge in "things". 



 Posted: Friday Mar 3rd, 2017 09:17 pm
   
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mattbrain
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Gosh

Lots more activity in this thread - it's becoming difficult to track the different issues.

May I request that you raise new issues as separate threads please :)

I have a beta on a new SmartApp and some devices which can be downloaded here; please give this a go if you are struggling to discover and delete devices.

It adds the ability to flush the device cache and devices which are unticked will be removed (subject to them not being used by a SmartApp). It is in beta, so YMMV.

bagushandhoko,

Refresh should bring them all back to life if they go offline - if they persist in being offline, please check the following:
  • The Pi is still alive
  • The Pi has a static IP address - if it changes via DHCP this could cause it to disconnect. I am working on a fix for this but it is lower priority
  • Try the new discovery following a flush - see if the devices can still be seen.
In terms of SD Card, 4Gb should be sufficient - please ensure you have a known good card, bizarre issues will occur if the card has problems.

Thanks,

Matt




 Posted: Friday Mar 3rd, 2017 09:22 pm
   
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mattbrain
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OK

Further to my previous message, I'm going to lock this thread (sorry folks).

Please raise new issues in separate threads, hopefully it should make all our lives a little easier :)

Thanks,

Matt



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