Which 3 technologies/devices would you like to see supported

Which 3 technologies/devices would you like to see added to and/or officially supported in Indigo?












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Posted on
Mon Jul 25, 2016 3:02 pm
DaveL17 offline
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Re: Which 3 technologies/devices would you like to see suppo

matt (support) wrote:
FORTRAN 90 with a mixture of machine code.

I've seen the equipment used to compile Indigo, and it looks something like this (i wasn't allowed to take pictures.)

image.jpg
image.jpg (101.38 KiB) Viewed 17027 times


And here is a copy of my newest plugin:

plugin.gif
plugin.gif (94.75 KiB) Viewed 17027 times


p.s. I s**t you not, I learned to program one of these in high school. It was one of those "we're going to teach you how *we* used to do it so you know how good you have it with this fancy mainframe computer." deals.

I came here to drink milk and kick ass....and I've just finished my milk.

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Posted on
Mon Jul 25, 2016 3:03 pm
Different Computers offline
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Re: Which 3 technologies/devices would you like to see suppo

I can't tell who's kidding here... not quite anyway.

Wasn't XTENsion written in Assembly?

SmartThings refugee, so happy to be on Indigo. Monterey on a base M1 Mini w/Harmony Hub, Hue, DomoPad, Dynamic URL, Device Extensions, HomeKitLink, Grafana, Plex, uniFAP, Fantastic Weather, Nanoleaf, LED Simple Effects, Bond Home, Camect.

Posted on
Mon Jul 25, 2016 3:04 pm
durosity offline
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Re: Which 3 technologies/devices would you like to see suppo

jay (support) wrote:
bschollnick2 wrote:
I'm assuming that the server is python


Incorrect. ;)


AppleScript? *flees*

Computer says no.

Posted on
Mon Jul 25, 2016 3:16 pm
jay (support) offline
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Re: Which 3 technologies/devices would you like to see suppo

Different Computers wrote:
I can't tell who's kidding here... not quite anyway.


LOL. So far, not me.

Different Computers wrote:
Wasn't XTENsion written in Assembly?


I'd always heard it was RealBasic (now Xojo). But I could be wrong.

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Posted on
Mon Jul 25, 2016 3:17 pm
jay (support) offline
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Re: Which 3 technologies/devices would you like to see suppo

durosity wrote:
AppleScript? *flees*


OMG, I shudder to think... :P

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Posted on
Mon Jul 25, 2016 3:21 pm
durosity offline
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Re: Which 3 technologies/devices would you like to see suppo

DaveL17 wrote:
matt (support) wrote:
FORTRAN 90 with a mixture of machine code.

I've seen the equipment used to compile Indigo, and it looks something like this (i wasn't allowed to take pictures.)

image.jpg


And here is a copy of my newest plugin:

plugin.gif


p.s. I s**t you not, I learned to program one of these in high school. It was one of those "we're going to teach you how *we* used to do it so you know how good you have it with this fancy mainframe computer." deals.


SSSSHHHH! You're not suppose to leak details about future indigo developments! You know Jay has our basement setup to torture those who do.. believe me.......

Computer says no.

Posted on
Fri Jul 29, 2016 1:19 pm
elf55 offline
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Re: Which 3 technologies/devices would you like to see suppo

I've got to concur with SPIV. I have a few "light weight appliance computers" that are running ARM cores and consume milliwatts and never seem to go down. I have even more if you include AppleTVs, Echo, and Harmony controllers. I really like Indigo and think it is far better than some of the open source or Linux based HA platforms. I like the UI, the extensibility, and the overall design pattern. But I don't like dedicating a Mac for every day run time chores. I used to use a Gen1 AppleTV that I loaded with OS/X 10.5.8, but the current Indigo won't run on that any more, but when it did I never lacked for performance. A whole house of controls running on single core pentium with a megabyte of RAM. A platform that a Raspberry Pi can run circles around today.

It's hard to beat the Mac for UI and extensibility, but a Indigo slave server running on a minimal hardware platform would be wonderful. I have an ISY-99i and it does full feature HA on hardware that is also inferior to a RPi, so I'm sure it can be done. I also have Indigo controlling an embedded app on a Arduino clone to open a vent and monitor humidity, so I see the benefit of the UI features staying as they are and offloading rule execution and interface to a less expensive and lower cost device.

I expect the initial audience for this kind of feature would be small relative to the HA mass market. But face it, the mass market is going to be running HomeKit, or Alexa, or some other cloud HA in the near future. Makers and tinkerers and going to stay away from that and will find Indigo attractive even if it isn't open source. It just does a lot of stuff that even tinkerers don't want to reinvent.

Posted on
Fri Jul 29, 2016 1:46 pm
spiv offline
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Re: Which 3 technologies/devices would you like to see suppo

elf55 wrote:
I expect the initial audience for this kind of feature would be small relative to the HA mass market. But face it, the mass market is going to be running HomeKit, or Alexa, or some other cloud HA in the near future. Makers and tinkerers and going to stay away from that and will find Indigo attractive even if it isn't open source. It just does a lot of stuff that even tinkerers don't want to reinvent.


I think there will be a good sized market for "prosumer" customers. I see many potential applications for deploying a "run-time" ARM-based appliance which runs the rules engine/real-time control while the consumer/user has access to Indigo Touch or Control Pages for their daily use.

In spite of being aimed at consumers, the mass-market hubs out there today (such as Samsung SmartThings and Lowe's Iris) have a reputation as still being only for early adopters/techies and too complicated for real consumers. (And Insteon hubs are so bad they got kicked out of WallMart and Best Buy last year.) So none of the power and still none of the convenience or ease-of-use.

Many of us are drafted as unpaid admins for family and friends - in those cases, having a run-time appliance that can be installed in a non-Mac household while being able to use Indigo on a MacBook to administer would be the best-of-both-worlds and multiply the number of potential customers.

Posted on
Fri Sep 09, 2016 3:30 pm
akimball offline
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Re: Which 3 technologies/devices would you like to see suppo

Late to the party as usual... I've been away traveling in Europe for awhile.

Loved reading the responses on this poll and I'm still laughing about the punch-card plugin. :)

Strangely enough my 3 choices when I voted turned out to be the three most popular and I'm glad I'm in the mainstream.

My better half (my wife) is actually pretty handy with technology and has become more of the "Mac" person than I am since she runs a large constellation of Macs for the Doctors up at the University research facility where she works; she got me looking at "Home Kit" because she took the time to watch the most recent Apple Event (9/7/2016) where Apple apparently demonstrated they will be milking their cash cows for yet another year... and she asked me straight out, why aren't we using HomeKit?? So, I hemmed and hawed and came up with the fact that Indigo actually brings together many technologies for the Mac which would otherwise require multiple apps... and that our system is well over 250-devices. In my view, homeKit is only good for a few dozen devices max (in it's current state)... and it would require us to use Insteon software not Indigo.

So, she asks "what's wrong with that?"

Ummmm... because insteon software is not supposed to be as flexible I said.... not really knowing if it is or it isn't. (Truth is, I haven't used insteon's software... yet... but my technologically adept spouse wants me to look at it... she thinks HomeKit and Apple are super cool and keeno... for some reason I dunno why.)

Any tips? Believe me, I'm an electrical engineer and I know a ton about what I know a ton about... but when I kick the bucket, she will do just fine without me and may become the 2nd Indigo female customer; this could start a wave. 53% of the population is female you do know that right?

So, I'm still going to do my 'due' diligence and research why Indigo can't use HomeKit... but just wanted to add my 2 cents, albeit late.

-Al

Posted on
Fri Sep 09, 2016 4:15 pm
jay (support) offline
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Re: Which 3 technologies/devices would you like to see suppo

I'm not quite sure what you're talking about with "Insteon Software", so I can't really comment on that without more information.

Indigo can't use HomeKit because Apple won't allow software bridges - so we can't talk to HomeKit devices directly (though of course the Homebridge open source software can because they reverse engineered the protocol and there's quite a few users using it now to connect Indigo to HK devices).

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Posted on
Fri Sep 09, 2016 4:37 pm
akimball offline
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Re: Which 3 technologies/devices would you like to see suppo

Thanks for that info... and I was referring to the Insteon App mostly for controlling your devices which I've seen on the iPhone... and I know that there is some Insteon software which I think only runs on a PC (hey, I forgot to tell her that... she hates PC's... yeah) that you use to monitor and program stuff through their hubs. As I said, I've always gone the Indigo route so I really don't know too much about life with Insteon and without Indigo.

I will definitely steer my research and reading then into HomeBridge.

You know, I don't mind using plugins, but I have to say I'm wary of them because they can break at the whim of the major industry player involved (Apple, Hue, whoever). I suppose it's less of a problem when you have lots of people using it.

Best regards and thanks again.

-Al

Posted on
Fri Sep 09, 2016 4:53 pm
jay (support) offline
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Re: Which 3 technologies/devices would you like to see suppo

Reverse engineered stuff is definitely something to be careful of - I'm not fond of using it myself even though I maintain a couple of plugins that use reverse engineered libraries/specs.

The vast majority of Indigo plugins use official APIs (Hue, Nest, etc) so you're pretty safe using those.

So, the Insteon iOS app only works with the Insteon hubs. Neither of which have the capabilities of Indigo in any respect (triggering, scheduling, actions, plugins, etc). In fact, they don't even really keep state synced very well (though this is second hand information). And HouseLinc, their Windows software, is actually even further behind their hubs and has no mobile clients that talk to it.

Jay (Indigo Support)
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Posted on
Fri Sep 09, 2016 5:06 pm
akimball offline
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Re: Which 3 technologies/devices would you like to see suppo

Thanks. That's exactly what I needed to know and I will pass it on to my wife. But I will still take a look at HomeBridge. My wife and I will be talking about HomeKit again this evening (I have yet to see the latest Apple Event all the way through... we generally make a "date" together watching Apple Events because we're kinda nuts that way). But your info on why we are using Indigo is just what I needed to help explain to her why we aren't using HomeKit...yet. She really does like Apple (did I mention that?) and me just telling her it can't/shouldn't be done is usually taken as a personal challenge to prove me wrong. :) It's all good I'm attracted to Einstein-like women...

My goal now that my system is pretty much finished in a hardware sense is to make it as bullet proof as possible for countless generations to come.

-Al

Posted on
Mon Sep 12, 2016 8:59 am
jay (support) offline
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Re: Which 3 technologies/devices would you like to see suppo

Note - HomeKit also doesn't have the breadth of scheduling, triggering, and actions that Indigo does. It only supports a limited number of devices types and those aren't expandable by developers (you can't create a custom device type with it's own set of events and actions). So any expansion requires Apple to think of it first.

Homebridge is definitely a way to use Siri to control Indigo devices. It's a little challenging for novices to install/use, but it's definitely doable. And, IMO, the only real reason to use HomeKit is for it's Siri integration.

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Posted on
Mon Sep 12, 2016 9:11 am
spiv offline
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Re: Which 3 technologies/devices would you like to see suppo

A quick hack for controlling Insteon devices with Apple Siri is to install the Insteon Hub Pro (not the Hub II). The cost is reasonable and if you compare with the cost of a PI running HomeBridge, and your time, it is probably easier/simpler than HomeBridge.

The downside is that it relies on a round-trip through the cloud and will get device status out of sync with Indigo (Insteon limitation). If you only use voice commands for convenience of device on/off, and let Indigo handle all true automation and schedules, it will work ok and let you control a few lights from your phone with Siri.

Similarly, if you would rather use Amazon Alexa, then install the Insteon Hub II (not the Hub Pro), and you get first-level Alexa voice integration. Insteon is one of the privileged few companies that are integrated directly by Amazon into Alexa without loading a 3rd party "skill" (driver). Again, best to only use for simple device control or grouping devices.

In both cases, these are hacks, so YMMV and please be aware of the limitations and issues you may be causing, but it does give you a quick way to try out voice control from the two major players to experience what all the excitement is about.

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