It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood ...

So I've fixed the problem causing my HA to stop working. I remove the power strip and everything started working again. The book is out and doing pretty well (about 6K copies sold in it's first year). With all the new stuff going on I'd have to say that there needs to be a second edition. :-) But before writing anything new I'm getting busy with MH code. I want my Insteon support working so I can start replacing the X10 modules with Insteon modules. Unfortunately the Insteon module causes the X10 signal to attenuate (get weaker) and the X10 module no longer works as reliably as it did before (did I just use X10 and reliable in the same sentence?). Another device called the XTB may solve some of those problems (the XTB boost the X10 signal), we'll see.

So the Mr. House folks have been busy again. Jason Sharpee has the Insteon PLM (not a serial or USB PLC) working with Mr. House under Linux. Another user has confirmed that it works under Windows. He previously added support for UPB so Mr. House now supports X10, KNX (aka EIB), UPB and the Insteon Protocols. Jason also found information on a Leviton RS232 Z-Wave interface. Looks like Mr. House can support anything given the chance. :-) The serial devices tend work work with any OS as a serial port is a standard they all support. The USB is a different beast. I have several drivers for Linux that support the CM15A, the CM19A, the Labjack and the Insteon USB PLC. I hope to have support for these devices working soon. Right now I've added the Insteon Serial and USB PLC to Mr. House but only as far as that it receives X10 and passes it correctly to Mr. House. Insteon isn't working yet as I have to figure a few things. Once I've added the support for the ! Insteon USB PLC other USB devices should fall into place. It's my understanding that the BSD folks have a generic USB driver that does the same thing as my Linux drivers so they may be able to take advantage of that. As far as Windows goes, well I'm not sure how to solve that problem. There are ways it's just not been done yet with Mr. House. Expect to see the CM15A and CM19A also properly supported by Mr. House, at least for Linux.