x-automate(1)

NAME

x-automate - GUI interface for x10-amh

SYNOPSIS

x-automate GUI interface for x10-amh

DESCRIPTION

x-automate is a GUI interface for Aaron Hightower's

x10-amh. With this program you can attach icons to your various

X10 devices and see them displayed on a toolbar as well as a

floorplan of your own. You can also read, write and edit programs

to download to the CP-290 controller.

x-automate initially reads the file .x10rc in your home

directory. The format of this file is as follows (I've included

a sample.set in this distribution):

Blank lines and those prefixed with '#' are ignored.

First line defines the audio tool:

Audio: cat "%sound.au" > /dev/audio

This will play an audio file when pushing the icon for

the device. Alternately, you can leave this blank for no audio,

or put: speak "%sound" for the 'speak' text-to-speech program.

I've tried this with the cat technique, play from sox, and

vplay. For vplay you need to do this to suppress the stdout mes

sages:

Audio: vplay "%sound.voc" 2> /dev/null

play from sox is the best of these, as it doesn't send

anything to stdout, and it doesn't care about the file format.

Audio: play "%sound.wav"

For any of these techniques using audio files, you'll

need three files: 1 each for on, off, and dim, with the filename

xxxx-on.xxx, xxxx-off.xxx xxx-dim.xxx. I've included some samples

just for demonstration purposes.

The next line defines the floorplan files:

Floors: floor1.xbm,floor2.xbm,floor3.xbm

I would recommend creating the floorplans with xfig with

the -e xbm option, and then exporting them to a bitmap format

file. Keep in mind your screen size when creating this file if

you want the whole floor to be visible on the screen.

The remaining lines outline the devices in your home. The

format is:

floor,x,y,house,channel,desc,dim,audio-prefix,icon-prefix

1,200,300,A,1,dining room,n,~,ceiling,
1,400,500,A,2,porch,d,~,ceiling
2,300,200,A,3,hall,d,~,ceiling,
2,100,100,A,4,stereo,d,~,ceiling
3,600,800,A,5,3rd floor stairs,d,~,ceiling

Definitions:

Floor: The floor of your home for the floorplan

screens
x: The x coordinate on the floorplan
y: The y coordinate on the floorplan
House: The house code assigned to the device. (A-P)
Channel: The numerical address assigned to the device

(1-16)
Desc: The text description for the toolbar.
Dimmable: T for true, F for false - determines whether

a dim control will be present.
Audio-prefix: A ~ means to repeat the text descrip

tion. This is for the 'speak' program I use for text-to-speech

conversion. Otherwise you can specify an audio file for the as

signed audio program in the Audio line of the .x10rc file. This

will be concencated with 'on' or 'off' for the appropriate push

button.
Icon-prefix: The first part of the icon name. This

will be concencated with 'on' or 'off' for the appropriate push

button.

I've include an editing table to simplify the editing of

the setup files. If you load a new setup file, or insert or

delete rows in the setup editing screen, the 'remote control'

display will be updated with your changes. There is no error

checking on this data, so if you enter bad info, you'll probably

break the program.

Menu:

The menu has the following commands:

File:

The file menu has New, Load, Save, and Save As for two

types of files - the Setup File (same as the .x10rc file), and

the Schedule File (for downloading to the CP-290), You should

create an x10 directory under your home as this is the default

location for these files. The setup files have the suffix

'.set', the schedule files '.sch'. This menu also has a Display

Floorplan

It also has an Exit item to exit the program.
Edit:

The edit menu has options to edit the setup and schedule

currently loaded. These will be displayed in a tabular form

where you can edit each field and save the changes.

Utility:

The utility menu has options for :

Query CP-290 - Show Day/Time for the CP-290
Set CP-290 - Set the CP-290's Day/Time to the CPU

Day/Time
Change Housecode - Set the default housecode for the

CP-290
CP-290 Self Test - Run the CP-290 self test and report

the results. (I have to admit - I've never gotten good results

from this, even from the command line)
List CP-290 Contents - List the schedule in the

CP-290's memory. This is dumped to the file .x10dump if you want

to save the data.

Panic:

This menu implements the 'All Units Off' and 'All Units

On'

Help:

The help menu has an 'About' which gives the GNU copy

left statement and thanks to those whose previous work contribut

ed to this effort. It also has x-automate Help which displays

this text.

Icons: I've included an number of icons with the package.

These are 32x32 GIFs, one for the on and off conditions of each

device. There is also a duplicate set of 20x20 GIFs which occupy

less space on the floorplan. These have an 's' on the end of the

filename. Unfortunately, since the X10 system does not let you

poll devices for their state, it's up to you to know whether the

device is already on or off. If you create new GIFs for icons,

I'd welcome getting them to include in the package, as mine leave

a bit to be desired (but they're functional).

Floorplans: When you activate 'Display Floorplan' on the

File menu, you will be presented with a graphical representaion

of your facility with the appropriate device controls located in

frames on the floorplan. These frames can be moved by clicking

and dragging with the mouse pointer near their perimeter. This

will update the x,y coordinates in the setup, which can then be

saved. There will be buttons available to display the various

floors of your facility, and the controls will be present on each

floor according to the floor defined in the setup file. If you

change settings in the setup file, the floorplan will not be up

dated. You need to close and reopen your floorplan.

Schedules: The schedule files follow the format outlined

in Aaron Hightower's x10-amh package. I've include an editing

table screen to simplify the editing of them. The file format is

as follows:

event {

devmap 2

daymap 1,2,3,4,5,6,7
housecode a
mode today
minute 39
hour 23
function dim
dimlevel 5

}

event {

devmap 2
daymap 1,2,3,4,5,6,7
housecode a
mode today
minute 0
hour 5
function off }

NOTES

That's about it, I hope you find this useful in some way.

Feedback is always welcome.

AUTHOR

Copyright 1996 - Stew Benedict, benedict@netcom.com

Options

none

BUGS

Program is dependant on your setup file - you'll probably

break it with a bad setup syntax. CP-290 interface is prone to

getting confused if you hammer it with rapid commands in succes

sion.

21 Jan 96

x-automate(n)