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Indigo v5.0.3 is now available for download.

Congrats to Perceptive Automation on the milestone…

And, the Indigo SDK has officially been released. While it’s been available on the Wiki, this is a milestone, since they have officially announced it’s availability.

The Indigo Plugin SDK is now available for downloading.
At this point, because all of the developer documentation is online, the SDK consists just of a ReadMe with pointers to the documentation and several very useful example plugins. The example plugins, which include the full XML and python source, are a great place to start when developing new plugins.
We’ve included examples that create plugin based relay, dimmer, thermostat, and custom devices. Also included is an example showing basic Indigo database traversal, how to catch low-level X10/INSTEON messages, and how to create an Indigo telnet server using the python twisted framework. We’ll be adding additional example plugins in the future.

According to the author, there is now an new updated Insteon Health Test Tool for Indigo v5…

iHealth UPDATE
I have just submitted v1.2 of the iHealth tool to the Contributions LIbrary and it should be available later this week. I have also placed a temporary copy on dropbox.
This version fixes two recent problems with Lion and Indigo version 5. The Perl libraries are properly linked and the Indigo INSTEON interface is now correctly taken off line.
There are no feature changes, so if your current version of iHealth is working properly there is no need to upgrade until you switch to Lion and/or Indigo 5.

Here’s the announcement...

Here’s a great example of how to solve problems through automation….

The problem, living next to a set of train tracks, and the noise that they make… The solution, automatically close the windows, when a train is passing through…

Using a webcam, open-source motion detection software, and an arduino, I’ve created an automatic window closer for my bedroom windows. This is a demonstration of how it works.

It’s a nice rig, custom built, and very functional. I can see some possible improvements, including sound triggering, or leveraging the web cam to detect the trains from further away…

But, it’s a great solution.

Indigo v5 has introduced a new Plugin system, to extend the hardware and functionality of the Indigo server. This is a terrific step forward, but there’s another issue lurking in the background….

I won’t count the number of times where someone has reported a problem with an Attachment script, or plugin, and it has already been fixed…

I feel that we need to be pro-active, and fix this issue… Indigo Plugins need a way to check for an updated plugin, to help ensure that the operators know when a new version of a plugin is available. http://www.indigo-plugins.com is the first step in solving this problem…

Currently, I am a beginner with Django. I would welcome any assistance from the Indigo Community, in assisting in the creation of this site…

In a nutshell, the site assists in several different ways:

How can I find new plugins? Try here, http://www.indigo-plugins.com/ListAll .
What information is available through the web site?
1. The current Version of the Plugin
2. What version of Indigo this plugin ahas been tested with
3. The Price of the plugin (This is my own future planning. I do not know if this field will ever be used)
4. What URL downloads can be found at
5. A Short description
6. A Long description
7. Author’s name
8. Author’s web site
9. Author’s Email
10. The Bundle ID of the plugin that Indigo recognizes
How can I be sure that I am running the latest version of a plugin? If the developers enable the Update system built-in to this website, you will be notified in the Indigo log when a newer version of the plugin is released.
How can developers use this to help ensure their plugins are up to date? When you register your plugin at the web site, one of the fields contains the bundle ID of the plugin. The plugin contacts the server, and requests the latest version number of the plugin. When the site returns the version number, the plugin checks to see if it’s newer. If so, it writes an alert to the log file… No personal information is ever sent to the server…

Technical Details, and the first prototype

Demo URL for update server…
http://127.0.0.1:8000/VersionCheck/com. … xternal_IP

These are the changes necessary, to make this update engine work… These are the changes that I made when I updated the External IP Address & Dynamic DNS plugin:

I added the following Globals variables:

plugin_id = r’com.schollnick.indigoplugin.External_IP’
version_check_site = r’http://www.indigo-plugins.com’
version_check_url = version_check_site + “/VersionCheck/%s” % plugin_id

In the startup() function:

Added self.VersionCheck ()

def VersionCheck ( self ):
#
# Run a VersionCheck to help ensure that the plugin is up to date
#
data = urllib2.urlopen( version_check_url ).read()
version_found, update_url, plugin_name = data.split(“,”)
self.debugLog (“Version Check Server reports %s is available.” % version_found)

if float(version_found) > float(self.pluginVersion):
indigo.server.log ( “A New Version of %s v.%s is available. You can download the upgrade from %s” % (self.pluginDisplayName, version_found, update_url), type=”Upgrade”, isError=True )
#self.browserOpen ( update_url )

And that’s it. The server will return the version number of the latest version of the plugin, the URL to find the update, and the Plugin Name. The VersionCheck function will fetch this, and compare that with the existing plugin’s version number. If the server “wins”, then a log message is entered into the log. Optionally (self.browserOpen), a web browser window can be opened to the URL that the server sent.

I am planning to add additional features to the server, but I want to invite all the developers to contact me, so that we can start to register their plugins and enable these features…

At this point, one missing feature on the server is user registration… So please email me at Benjamin AT schollnick DOT net, and I’ll setup an account for you, so that you can enter your plugin information… (Or you can email it to me…)

If you have any suggestions, please feel free to send it as well…

Updated 9/7/2011, with the addition of the browser URL & Plugin name, being sent from the update server.

Folks,

What Dynamic DNS providers do you use? I am looking at which Dynamic DNS providers I can add, to increase the functionality of the External IP Address plugin.

Could you please leave a comment, with your Dynamic DNS providers name & URL? Thanks!

Nsheldon, over on the Perceptive Automation Forums, has documented how to connect the Pioneer CSV-1021K AV Receiver into your Home Automation. The workflow he documents involves Indigo Pro, but in theory other software can implement this technique.

Any Elite Series receiver can be integrated in this manner…

Pioneer VSX-1021-K AV Receiver Integration

Part of my recent home theater upgrade included replacing my old AV receiver with the just-released Pioneer VSX-1021-K AV receiver. One of the reasons I chose that receiver was the availability of an iOS remote control app which operates over your home network. Like my recent Panasonic Blu-ray player to Indigo integration process, I did some packet sniffing on my network while the iPod app and the receiver were communicating to discover their communication protocol. What I later found out (and what’s not in the manual) is that this receiver can also be integrated with whole-home automation systems using Pioneer’s published command sets for their Elite series receivers (using a standard telnet connection, see these RS-232 commands for the similar 1120 model here) without affecting the iOS app or IR remote functions.

So, I devised a way to both send commands to the VSX-1021-K and for all response messages from the receiver to be put immediately into an Indigo variable using a persistent telnet connection to the receiver in the background. Be forewarned, this is a somewhat advanced setup, so if you’d like to replicate this with the VSX-1021-K or other networked Pioneer receiver, be prepared to do quite a bit of command-line work on the Mac with Indigo running on it.

Setup requirements:

Pioneer VSX-1021-K (or similar networkable Pioneer receiver. The command set is similar for all of them).
Wired network connection to the receiver (a Wi-Fi connection may work with the optional wireless adapter, but I haven’t tested this).
Static IP address assigned to the receiver.
Indigo 4 Pro (or later).
The Mac running Indigo Pro will need to be on all the time.

Read the full instructions here Pioneer VSX-1021-K AV Receiver Integration.

What is Indigo Weather Conditions?

Quite Simply, it’s a built-in Weather tool for Indigo. While it is similar to the NOAA script, it doesn’t simply populate the variables in Indigo. It is designed for Indigo v5, and it does so much more…

First, it has an honest to goodness, User Interface. Second, it will also product a web page that give you the current Weather Conditions, as well as a Weather forecast.

Forecast Information

Current Time/Date	2011-05-30 04:11:56 +0000
Date of Forecast	2011-05-29
City	Rochester, NY
postal code	14623
Units	US

Current Conditions


	Conditions	Thunderstorm
	Humidity	Humidity: 88%
	Temp in C	19
	Temp in F	66

Forecasts

Sun
	Condition	Thunderstorm
	High	85
	Low	65
Mon
	Condition	Isolated Thunderstorms
	High	83
	Low	66
Tue
	Condition	Partly Cloudy
	High	90
	Low	71
Wed
	Condition	Sunny
	High	76
	Low	58

Table of contents

What is Indigo Weather Conditions?
Forecast Information
Installation

Installation

1) Download the ZIP file, and unarchive it.

Version 0.90 — Available from here

2) Open the folder, and take the Weather-Conditions.indigoPlugin and place it into

/Library/Application Support/Perceptive Automation/Indigo 5/Plugins

3) From the same folder, take the Weather-Conditions folder, and place it into:

/Plugins/Library/Application Support/Perceptive Automation/Indigo 5/IndigoWebServer/Plugins

4) Restart the Indigo 5 Server

5) After the Indigo server restarts, it will immediately open a dialog window, asking you to the set the default settings for the Weather Conditions plugin.

Note:

The User Interface is designed for multiple weather providers, but the results from each provider is different. At this point, I am only supporting Google Weather, due to the forecast. If there is demand, I will be extending it to support other providers.
The automatic refresh is not currently working. Please manually make a Schedule:
- Name – (As you wish)
- Time – Set to Every X hour Y minutes, as you desire. For example every 30 minutes…
- Under Actions
  - Choose Plugin
  - Plugin – Weather Conditions
  - Action – Update Weather Information
- When the Schedule API is finished, you will be able to remove this Schedule, and the Weather Conditions plugin will manage the Schedule automatically.

These image files, contributed by berkinet, contain several sizes of LED icon images for: Amber, Blue, Green, Red, UltraViolet (uv), White, Yellow and bi-color Red/Green LEDs. The “off” image of the colored images is a very dark version of the named color. For the bi-color LEDs the “off” image is Red and the on/true image is Green.

LED Icons for Control PAges.

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The Matrix Data Bank

Indigo v5.03 is out & the Indigo SDK official release is out.

Insteon Health Test Tool Updated application now available

Detect Train and Close Window with Arduino and Webcam

New Indigo Plugin Catalog & Plugin Update System (Updated 9/7/2011)

A New version of the Indigo External IP Address Plugin, is nearly ready…

Pioneer VSX-1021-K AV Receiver Integration

Indigo Weather Conditions Plugin Preview is available…

What is Indigo Weather Conditions?

Forecast Information

Installation

LED icons for Control Pages

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What is Indigo Weather Conditions?

Forecast Information

Installation

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