Upcoming 3rd Party Plugins

IMO, you guys should collaborate so that there's a single DSC plugin that uses either interface - that would really be slick!

I'm happy to contribute where I can. The two devices are so dissimilar that I'm not sure a single plugin would make sense; though from a user's point of view, I suppose it might... I'm open to any and all suggestions.

If you've ever done any programming in a C-like language you shouldn't have any trouble at all - the hardest things I think are:

1) no line ending chars needed (;)
2) indentation is how you identify blocks rather than brackets
3) colons start a block (e.g. "if x == 1:") followed by the indented code

But, even if you don't have much/any experience in a C-like language it's really not hard to learn.

Python Tutorial is your friend... http://docs.python.org/release/2.5.4/tut/tut.html

Link is to Python v2.54 docs, since that is the Python version that Indigo uses... (Well, technically Python 2.51, but there's not much difference between v2.51 and v2.54)


I'll start playing around with it and get my feet wet.

@raneil and jay

I'm happy to contribute where I can. The two devices are so dissimilar that I'm not sure a single plugin would make sense; though from a user's point of view, I suppose it might... I'm open to any and all suggestions.

I agree a single DSC plugin would be great, we can certainly shoot for that. Raneil, I completely agree the two interfaces function completely differently from one another. The serial DSC interface is always sending zone and alarm updates in real-time as events occur, where the ethernet interface would have to be constantly polled and parsed for status.

Raneil, what happens if you try to arm your alarm while a zone is still open? With the serial interface I immediately get a response telling me the alarm cannot arm, and which zones are the cause. Does your web interface respond with a list of zones or some other indication of the zones at fault when you try that? Simply parsing the usual zone open/close indicators on that web page might not be reliable as it's ok for some zones to be open when the alarm is armed. ie. some alarms are programmed to allow motion sensor and bedroom window zones to be open when the alarm is armed in stay mode.

Hopefully we can abstract out the routines for each interface so if they use interface x we call routine x, interface y we call routine y. The serial interface will respond in real-time, the ethernet one would likely have to be constantly polled.

Once the interface plugin is done it'd be nice to make a web plugin that can dynamically create a control page for any setup. Mine looks like this at the moment:

Raneil, what happens if you try to arm your alarm while a zone is still open?

The system's status is indicated in the smaller table to the right of the zone status grid. The script parses the System Status (e.g., "Ready", "Not Read", "Away", "Error", "In Alarm", perhaps a few others I don't recall at the moment) as well as the individual zone statuses and allows arming/disarming only as appropriate. That is, the system can only be armed when the system status is "Ready", and can only be disarmed when the system status is "Away" or "In Alarm".

There is no provision to "Arm Stay"; only "Arm Away". And no detail as to the nature of any "Error" status. These are limitations of the TL-150.

Incidentally, the TL-150 also reports (individually for each zone) the number of minutes (up to 1 hour, I think) that have elapsed since the zone's status changed. I find that to be very handy. This is not shown in the screen shot since that information is only displayed as a tooltip if you hover the cursor over a zone in the grid (can't capture that in a screenshot). But, since the information is in the HTML, it's easily parsed and can therefore be made available to Indigo via the plugin.

Hopefully we can abstract out the routines for each interface so if they use interface x we call routine x, interface y we call routine y. The serial interface will respond in real-time, the ethernet one would likely have to be constantly polled.

First, I think we'll need to clearly define exactly what we want the plugin to do. Personally, I'm of the Keep It Simple philosophy. I would propose a plugin that simply updates a collection of user-named Indigo variables that represent the current System Status, the status of each zone, and optionally, the elapsed time since the most recent status chagne for each zone. The user could then decide what to do with those variables.

Yes, the TL-150 would need to be polled (or queried in response to real-time events generated by additional hardware, but that's well beyond the scope of this proposed plugin). Perhaps allow the user to establish a polling frequency (withing a permitted reasonable range, of course), as well as the ability to update the variables on demand.

Once the interface plugin is done it'd be nice to make a web plugin that can dynamically create a control page for any setup.

Now that's an ambitious project!

Mine looks like this at the moment:

Looks good! So, you can arm/disarm the system from your phone without entering an access code? I debated myself endlessly about that, and finally decided to require the code. It shouldn't be hard to make that part optional, though; let the user decide.

I created a thread dedicated to the DSC Alarm Plugin and continued the conversation over there.
http://www.perceptiveautomation.com/userforum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=6891

Any further thoughts on a 1-Wire plugin?

It's coming. I'm finishing up my DSC Alarm plugin first. Should have it mostly done tonight or tomorrow.

It's coming. I'm finishing up my DSC Alarm plugin first. Should have it mostly done tonight or tomorrow.

really? You have the DSC plug in almost done? Thats great news. Can't wait to try it.

Any new news on the 1-wire temperature sensor plugin? I just ordered a bunch of 1-wire sensors.

Any new news on the 1-wire temperature sensor plugin? I just ordered a bunch of 1-wire sensors.

I'll be getting to this in a little bit. Which 1-wire interface are you using?

I'll be getting to this in a little bit. Which 1-wire interface are you using?

I got a LinkUSB. Don't have my 1-wire chips yet, but they should be arriving in about a week or two. Adding 1-wire to Insteon is so exciting. I've been looking for something like this for over 1.5 years.

I use RFXSensors to monitor temperature in each room of my house. Will the plug-in for 1-wire temperature sensors be able to be used or re-purposed for this device? Indigo currently sees them through the RF receiver but reports them as errors.

RFXSensors: RF transmitter for 1-Wire® temperature, humidity and barometric pressure sensors. It is a DS2438 sensor with optional DS18B20 external sensor. The detailed messages are in the documentation which I can send if needed (4 byte binary message).

I am a software tester by trade and used to program, but testing is really my expertise and joy.

I use RFXSensors to monitor temperature in each room of my house. Will the plug-in for 1-wire temperature sensors be able to be used or re-purposed for this device? Indigo currently sees them through the RF receiver but reports them as errors.

Hmmm. I just had a quick peek at the sensors. They function quite different from 1-wire sensors connected to a more typical 1-wire interface, even though at their heart they use the same sensor. Once I get the main plugin working with the typical interface I'll take another look.

Thanks. I will be glad to help on getting the RFX sensors working, let me know what I can do. I've been boning up on Python and could start working on tailoring for defining the RF message type or class.

Interesting, but I found this in my research... https://github.com/jamusj/OneWire

This is a java implementation to get one wire devices read into indigo from a couple of years ago. The source code is there with the author's permission for free use.

Just following up, did the 1-wire plug-in ever get finished?

I'm looking at implementing temperature sensing and need an interface to Indigo.

[jay (support)]

Any progress to report on the 1-wire plugin?