iPhone Home Controller 2.0 - Release and Mini-Tutorial
Okay, I have stabilized the code and skinned the project a bit nicer thanks to my man at http://www.iphone-home-automation.com/. In this release there is an admin area that allows for adding modules and creating macros or, as I call them, schemes. The attempt in this release is to make the whole process of getting this system up and running as smooth and easy as possible. With that in mind I am going to list the simplest way to get the iPHC going on your iPhone or iTouch.
- X10 Hardware - You will need at least the ActiveHome Pro CM15a USB module plugged into your computer and into the wall, and one x10 module. There is a driver that should come with the module that will need to be installed as well (not sure if it is mac compatible).
- Apache/MySQL/PHP - The easiest way to get these up on your computer is XAMPP. I have not tried it (yet) but I think the lite version should be sufficient for these purposes and may or may not already contain PhpMyAdmin. Or you can do it all yourself using this tutorial.
- PhpMyAdmin - You will need this or something like it to upload the iPHC SQL file to create the database and tables. Be sure to change the settings in the connect.php file to reflect your database settings (if you upload the included SQL file the database will be called “fonhome”).
- The iPHC 2.0 Code - The package comes with everything needed to run the system. Move all the files in the iPHC2 folder into your root web folder and upload the SQL file. Once you access the system you can begin adding modules in the admin area.
- If you want to know more about the iPHC system and how it works check out the other tutorials and posts in the sidebar. The earlier posts go into the nuts and bolts of how everything functions.
Well that is about it. If you have any questions or comments please leave them here. I plan on doing a more invloved admin area for the 2.1 release so stay tuned for that. Peace.
20 Responses to “iPhone Home Controller 2.0 - Release and Mini-Tutorial”
October 15th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Is this a comercial application or intenteded for future comercial use? Is this application limited to the X10 Protocol?
Thanks for any info.
October 15th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
@Chris
This is a free and completely open application. It is limited to the x10 protocol only inasmuch as the interface hardware is x10 based. If other systems have a SDK then there is a possibility that the app can be ported.
November 5th, 2008 at 8:31 am
[...] X10 Hardware
November 20th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Hello,
I tried to follow up your instructions, but I am not a computer guru. Better put my skills are very limited. Is any way to get a step by step how to install everything and make it work for the rest of us. Maybe a youtube video? I purchased from the ap. store X10 commander, and works “ok”, but the pictures of your interface are far superior in features and I would love to try it out. Thank You
November 24th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Your software was listed in The Ultimate List of Home Automation Software for iPhone.
http://ulanoff.com/blogs/automation/2008/11/05/the-ultimate-list-of-home-automation-software-for-iphone/
Thank you.
December 13th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
I get an error when trying to run the mysql script in phpmyadmin.
Any help please??
December 22nd, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Hello,
I was wondering if I can use my existing Firecracker instead of having to purchase the CM15a as you have recommended? Also, is there any additional driver that I should be aware of?
Thanks for a great product. Can’t wait for your next version!
December 23rd, 2008 at 12:11 pm
@Qd
Hey,
I am not sure about the poratability of this app to other devices. If another x10 controller device has a SDK and it supports PHP then yes I am sure it can be ported. If anyone had info on other x10 controller modules as far as that goes please let me know and i’ll look into it.
January 4th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Any chance we’ll see a z-wave version of this product?
January 5th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I used your setup instructions and had a issue getting everything to work “behind the scenes”. I wanted it all to run as a service so that it would be avaliable after computer restarts or power failures. I finally got it working so I though I share my pains to help everyone else out.
XAMPP 1.7.0 installs mySQL but the service does not startup properly. When it does start it does not allow access to the imported “fonhome” database. After a lot of digging i found that the mySQL service starts using the config file in the windows root directory “X:\windows\my.ini” but the XAMMP install puts its config settings in the “X:\xampp\mysql\bin\my.cnf” After i copied the contents of my.cnf into my.ini I was able to get mySQL to start as a service and still allow access to the fonhome database.
Hope this helps others.
James
January 8th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Hello,
very nice piece of software, and it works also perfectly on Linux. That’s a good goal Linux/Windows/Mac compatibility.
If you are also open to feature requests, I know something there would be useful: a wake-up button to send a wake-on-lan.
For example, I don’t want my computer to be on all day just waiting for me to get home. It could be on stand-by and then, by pressing the wake-up button a magic packet could wake it up in a couple of seconds.
I have no knowledge in web-programming, I did a couple of tests inserting a button on your interface which sent a request to a second webserver running php that would send the magic package. It worked. But needing another server is very bad. Do you know if it would be possible to send an UDP package to the server using javascript?
Thanks,
[]’s
Andrey
January 8th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Hi Andrey,
Thanks for the comment.
The only reference I could find to sending UDP packets with Javascript is with JNEXT.
I am not too familiar with UDP or JNext but check it out. It may be what you are looking for. I have some other people checking in to it as well.
January 10th, 2009 at 7:56 am
Unfortunately, it looks like the JNEXT is a browser plugin. Thus, the installation on a ipod/iphone would be not trivial (to say the least ;-).
I will keep searching, if I find something, I post it here.
[]’s
Andrey
January 14th, 2009 at 12:16 am
A follow-up to the Firecracker (CM17A device from X10).
I was not able to find an SDK for this particular controller. However, my understanding is that it is the same as the CM15A you are using. I was able to dig up a Python script that implements the command call to a serial port.
Please see the following link to see if it helps with your experimentation. As always - appreciate your hard work!
Link: http://www.averdevelopment.com/python/x10.html
Thanks,
-Qd
January 26th, 2009 at 11:57 am
Hi hi…
First, I want to thanks you for this great tool.
I’m setting up my system these days,
installd XAMPP and now I’m securising the Apach server.
My question : should we get the ActiveHome Pro CM15a USB Module ?
IS the CM11 module enough, with Standard ActiveHome software ?
Thanks,
Christophe
January 29th, 2009 at 10:27 am
@Chris
I’m not really sure if the CM11 will work or not. I guess since you have one give it a try. The IPHC system is based on the sdk for the CM15a but if the CM11 will accept the same types of commands then it should work…
February 3rd, 2009 at 2:44 pm
I wrote an interface to the firecracker module that’s similar to the activehome command line interface. If you think it’d help, I could post somewhere. It doesn’t support queryplc or even sendplc for that matter. It does support sendrf which would then send a command to the transmitter.
February 12th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Cool product. Cant wait to hack it into my existing solution. As for the next release, may I suggest a new feature: Indented Code.
February 18th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
I try with Cm11 seem doesn”t work /
February 18th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
@Man Tran
You are right. The system is made to work with the CM15a. Although I have someone that is working on a Firecracker version so stay tuned for that.
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