NetHomeServer 0.10 released

NetHomeServer 0.10 is now released! The functions have been available in the nightly builds for quite a while, so I guess the only real difference is that I have documented the new Items on the Wiki. The release notes can be found at: http://wiki.nethome.nu/doku.php/nethomeserver_release010. The big change is that the new WEB GUI is now the officially supported GUI. This GUI is much more focused on actually controlling the devices and giving an overview. It also offers more support when configuring actions in other Items. The old one is still present, but will be phased out. Other highlights are: support for Waveman, Nexa absolute dim, Rising Sun and TeamCity.

Beeing alarmed

A user mailed last week and wanted his car warmer to start in the morning if the temperature was below a certain level and asked if there was no Item that could act on temperature levels (like a thermostat). This seemed like such an obvious function so I actually had to check if it was not already there – and it was not! So now I have made the new HomeItem “ValueTrigger”. You specify an attribute in another Item (a thermometer for example) and specify a max and a min level, together with actions to be performed if the value goes above max or below min. There are also separate methods which are called once a minute as long as the value is above max or below min. The Item has enable and disable actions so you can use a timer to only activate it during specific time periods.This is now in the nightly build.

Dogfooding

I do use the NetHomeServer server at home and the latest builds (nightly builds) are always available on the web site (install page), so when I installed the server at work I tried to use the latest nightly build. I realized that a lot of the stuff I use at home was not there, the start scripts for different OS versions and the latest swt-libraries for example. I have now fixed this, so the nightly builds now contain start scripts for 32 bit windows, Linux and OSX, 64 bit windows, Linux and OSX and OSX carbon.

NetHome@Work

The project have been standing still for a while (even though the server of course still run my home), but now it has gone to work for real. On my work we have a lot of automatic tests running on our product code base, unit tests continually during the day and heavier database tests during the night. They are run by a TeamCity server which of course can display the results on a web page. But with my new written “TeamCityBuildMonitor”-home item, I can configure a list of builds to monitor and the NetHome server can act on the result. So now we have two lava lamps, one green and one red which display the current state of the tests. The challenge for the teams is to correct any problem before the red “lava” has melted and starts to float…

So, after some down time in the project, I have started looking into the code again. I have finally installed Sonar on the build server - and it dug up quite a few skeletons from the old parts of the code. I have spent a few days refactoring some of the central classes that really needed looking into.

I also got some unexpected - but very appreciated help, Christian Aune Thomassen has updated my CUL-firmware to support CUL V3 - thanks Christian!

Sun rising over NetHomeServer

A couple of weeks ago I, started thinking about finally adding a timer that is controlled by the sunrise/sunset, but I realized I just did not have the time. The day after(!) Peter called and said he had found a Java API for getting sunrise/sunset, and that he wanted to write a HomeItem for this.

I guess it is the shorter days that made us think about this at the same time. After a short design session about how to specify the times Peter started working – and now he has finished the coolest HomeItem in a long time: DayLiteTimer!

For each day of the week, you can specify multiple times when the connected lamp shall be activated like: 08:00-10:00,17:00-21:00.

You can also refer to sunrise [R] or sunset [S] like: 08:00-[R],[S-00:30]-21:00, where [S-00:30] means 30 minutes before sunset.

It is also possible to specify a time interval, where the timer will take a random time within the interval: <15:00-17:00>-<23:00-00:20> meaning the lamp will turn on sometime between 15:00 and 17:00 and turn off sometime between 23:00 and 00:20.

It is also possible to combine all: <06:30-07:00>-<08:00-09:00>/[R+01:00] meaning that the lamp will turn on between 06:30 and 07:00 and turn off between 08:00 and 09:00 or at one hour after sunrise, whichever comes first. If one hour after sunrise occurs before the start time, the lamp will not turn on at all. DayLiteTimer is now available in the Nightly Build. Thanks Peter!!

NexaFire

So, now I have completed (and refactored) the NexaSmokeAlarm-item. I added the ability to actually trigger the alarm via the NexaSmokeAlarm-item too. I also added a "self learn"-function for the address of the smoke detector. Each detector have its own unique address, and by activating the "learn mode" on the home item and then manually triggering the alarm by pushing the test button on the smoke detector, the NexaSmokeAlarm-item learns the address from the alarm.
The protocol decoder/encoder and the NexaSmokeAlarm-item are available in the nightly build. One cation - never rely on NetHomeServer for performing any real fire alarm functions. The smoke detectors provide the real alarm, the NetHomeServer can simply provide additional features when the alarm goes off.