I’ve just installed the latest beta (0.31, I think?) and am finally taking some time to test it out… Some quick notes, as I’m typing (and I’ll post this as it stands becuase I don’t have much time to really write it up nicely….)

It’d be nice to be able to change the name of a device. I selected a device, changed the name, but had problems saving — first had to change the group to “default” instead of “create new group,” but I was also trying to fix the device type from “others” to “lamplinc” and it gave an error “cannot change device category.” So I deleted it and created a new one.

However, after creating the new device, the old name was still in the “Main” area (and the new one not in the list of available devices). I tried to delete the entry from the left (double-clicked) but it wouldn’t go away. The device still shows in the “show zones” command from the command-line interface (as DEV[0]) but of course there is no device 0 any longer. Trying to delete with DelDevZone didn’t work either. (I tried “main,” “Main,” and “MAIN” for the zone name, and “0” and “DEV[0]” for the device name).

While I’m thinking of it, it’d be nice if the right-hand list in the area management panel only showed devices that are available but not already in the current (left-hand) area.

As I’m debugging this, I see that my newly-renamed instance of the device is not in the list. Trying to add again…. Could it be that it doesn’t like a space in the device name? No, that’s not it — still not getting added. It seemed to get added via XML just fine, though (and also took device 0 in the list…) (and though it’s now showing up properly in the list, I can’t manually (via XML) delete it from the zone (as a test)). Deleting the zone from the web app succeeded. And attempts through XML to add it back fail — though both “AddDevZone Main 0” and “AddDevZOne Main DEV[0]” (appropraitely phrased in XML) give “True” responses, but don’t actually add the device to the zone. I was able to re-add the device in the web gui.

The pop-up as you type invalid characters in the device field — “Please use only capital alphabets” is sort of awkward. Maybe “Please use only capital letters” would sound better. It might also be better if it didn’t give a pop-up, but instead just ignored the letter, or maybe added red text just under the entry field with the warning, instead of interrupting the user typing in the letters. Best yet — just accept the lowercase letter and either convert it before it gets sent from the app into the database, or make sure the database can handle lowercase.

Now, I’m trying to add that (manually) added replacement-name device into a timer, and see that only X10 commands are coming up, because I obviously used the wrong device category when I set it up in XML. Trying to change the device type from “OTHERS” to “LamplincV2” and I get “duplicate device category details — please assign unique device category details” error. So now I’m going to remove it from the main zone, then delete the device, and then see if I can create it in the gui. And it’s still not getting created. I see the progress bar, I see a “STLINK” message come through the command line, but no device is created.

BTW, every time I come into the device page I get a short progress bar and “adding / deleting device information, please wait”… (might be linked to the incorrectly added device I’m trying to delete).

And now I just finally read that pop-up carefully — I need to go hit the button on the device I’m adding (to create the PLM link, I guess). I thought that could happen automatically, w/out having to hit the buttons? BTW, it’d be nice if the device type pop-up was sorted alphabetically — it’s hard to find LampLinc or ApplianceLinc in there… Alright, that one got added! W00t! (I guess it helps to *read* what’s coming at me. Sorry.)

And now I know the right format for the add command (0x0100 for LampLincV2, not “001000” or “1000”), and was able to add that device, FINALLY, through XML, and have it show up in the device list properly. And it works! Yay!

Okay, now I’ve added that in a timer, and we’ll see if it works tomorrow morning…

My Wife is now looking at me angrily — guess I’d better go start on that Xmas to-do list.

Sorry this has been so rambling. I guess I’ll sum up quickly:
* Change the name of a device [this might have been broken ’cause the entry’s category was wrong]
* Trouble adding the device through the GUI if I don’t do the formal push-the-button linking stuff
* Would be nice if I didn’t need to push the remote device’s button
* Couldn’t remove a deleted device from the zone/area list (through gui or xml)
* Couldn’t add a device to a zone list though XML, though it returned “True”
* Pop-up for “capital alphabets” is awkward. Maybe make red warning text appear next to text field, saying “Capital letters only”, but without the interrupting dialog box. Or better yet, web app converts letters to uppercase before submitting.
* Can’t change the device type of an already established device.
* The “GetLatLong” command in XML *STILL* does not include a final carriage return, so any script issuing that command won’t know when the result is complete. I’ve mentioned this in every beta, and am repeating it just to see if it either gets fixed or if someone explains to me why it isn’t broken. 🙂

Gotta run! Merry Christmas everyone!

Okay, I’ve been trying to use this “in production” for a couple days, and have some further observations.

The sendx10 command doesn’t send the right “ON” command, if you use “on” in lowercase (it sends 00 instead of 02). Works fine if you use ON. I still recommend that the system not be case sensitive wherever possible — accepting lowercase Hex numbers, X10 codes, and X10/Insteon commands in lowercase. While I’m mentioning case sensitivity, it’s also annoying to have “EZServe” required in that mixed case for the web login — userids are never case sensitive, while passwords almost always are. And it’d be nice to have the hex “designator” in lowercase — 0x1A instead of the 0X1A that’s displayed now. That’s just more of the standard….

I just tried to add a KeypadLinc, and couldn’t figure out how to do it. I need to be able to control that keypad’s load (button A in the 8-button config) remotely, and it’d be nice if when I control it remotely, if the LED would also change appropriately. Then I’d also want to be able to respond to actions from the other buttons, possibly. Do I need to do this via a formal INSTEON-level link between the KPL and the PLM? And if so, how do I do that? (and how does the Bridge then recognize those links and “devices” on the KPL?)

The big problem I’ve had so far is that my timers don’t work right. They all seem to run *once* only, and then the next day, don’t run again. Twice now I’ve set a timer up, and it worked great the next day when the appointed time rolled around, but the day after, it didn’t work. So I updated the timer information (just added 1 to them minute and saved), and it worked again, but again, on the 2nd day, it didn’t. This has happened with both X10 and INSTEON targets.

Another question about usability (that may not be there yet): I can’t see any links for any devices — or is the link management feature still not ready? I even tried adding the PLM itself to the EZServe device list, but that didn’t seem to work.

And how will I be able to use a group “target” for a trigger or timer? That is, once I finally get this working and replace all my X10 lamp modules with INSTEON, how do I set up a group so that all my indoor xmas lights work as a single group / scene, so that I don’t need a timer for each module?

Finally, every time I hit the device tab I get the “Device addition/deletion in progress, please wait” panel, even though I haven’t had anything added
lately.

It seems like we’re finally making some progress on this, but I keep running into issues. I wouldn’t be so concerned if the XML interface were fully reliable, as I could just do all my configuration through that instead of the web, but there still seem to be issues there, and even once it’s configured, things just aren’t quite working right. I’m going to try a factory reset to see if anything gets better (especially the timers) but I’m not really holding my breath…. 🙁

Looks like we’re also having the timers not work as they should.

I’ve set timers to run every day at a fixed time, and although they all work the first day, subsequent days most don’t work at all.

Also, I’ve tried using the Sunrise and Sunset type timers, and neither type work at all (first time or next day, that is). The Lon and Lat fields are correct for our location, and the time seems to be right, although I don’t see any NTP settings anywhere…