kkeast
Hi all,
I love what DJ has done with ARC and all the enhancements that have been made and continue to be made. Having the SDKs are awesome but I really like what DJ has already done in ARC (why would I want to write custom code?).
I have been doing Home Automation for years now and just recently robotics has sparked my interested and now I am addicted!
I want to interface ARC with my Home Automation System and other programs. Because I am not an extreme coding guru my question is "How hard would it be to conrol ARC software and vice versa from within Windows? In other words could an interface be added to ARC that would allow control of ARC through either TCP/IP interface using or even a command line to allow execution of a command (ControlCommand maybe to execute a command line) from within ARC? I know DJ has talked about variables and other things in ARC, but just some basic external interface in the ARC would only add to an already awesome piece of software.
Scenario: Your home security system detects an open zone (front door maybe). Robot moves to the Foyer area. Alarm system counts down as zone has been opened...standing by for home owner to enter the passcode into the keypad.......the robot speaks "Please speak the correct pass phrase".....robot does some cool....maybe intimidating stuff waiting for the user to speak the correct passcode. If correct pass phrase is spoken the robot welcomes you come with a dance and some cool greeting and launching of your MP3 Jukebox (MediaMonkey or WinAmp (these both can be easily launched/controlled through command line). Otherwise the alarm goes off and the robot moves into a 'Security Breeched' posture and another windows batch file is executed to send a page to your cell phone.
Maybe I am thinking too far outside the box...but I think this would be really really cool...I am already able to 'send keys' to ARC using a software called 'AutoHotKey' which is a little klunky. Without some mod to ARC, My main problem is sending control information FROM ARC that could be received by another program. Any thoughts or ideas?
v/r
Kevin
Will the EZ-B V4 and WiFi open up any doors for your interface ?
The doors are already open. Telnet is the key to communication between ARC and other software.
I'm not familiar with HomeSeer or Mainlobby since my HA system is pretty much all dealt with through EventGhost and a lot of custom code etc. but if there is a TELNET or a Python plugin for them then you can use that. I believe @kkeast uses python and telnet for the cross communication (however haven't seen any posts from @kkeast for a while).
Another method could be using the HTTPGet() command to scrape info from web pages. Jarvis used to use this method and would scrape info from a bunch of PHP pages that basically displayed info stored in the MySQL database my HA uses to log everything. Basically doing things the other way around, getting the robot to check the status of the security system and acting differently depending on the status.
@kkeast,
I would like to see your Python scripts.
Thanks,
Mel