What's new in Adaptive Home Logic 3.4
Dec 13, 2011
- CM15 X10 status reporting:
- Although the program makes a note of the last instructions sent to an X10 module, an event conditional upon the status of a module will now check with the CM15 interface to see if the module’s status has been changed outside of program control, making it aware of the status of two-way X10 lamp and appliance modules that may have been turned on or off manually.
- E-mail:
- An issue has been rectified that could prevent the program from sending an event message by email. Incoming emails are also now better parsed, so that a sender’s name containing underscores is more accurately pronounced by the speech system.
- System Status:
- The space above the program’s scanner display can now be utilised by the events to display or flash the system’s condition status, such as condition white, blue, green, yellow or red (alert!). More profoundly bringing attention to itself that a certain condition as arisen.
- 1-Wire Temperature Sensors:
- Instructions are now provided on how to easily interface the program with any number of 1-wire temperature sensors, making it very easy to accurately display indoor and outdoor temperatures within the program’s virtual weather station display, to control HVAC systems, and / or to log different temperature reading from around the home.
- Bluetooth Proximity Detection:
- This release also sees the introduction of a new driver to detect the presence of your Bluetooth enabled smart phones, and therefore whether the person carrying the smart phone is at home or away. This can be used to automatically (and discreetly) alert you that another family member has arrived home safely, and / or to automatically lock the computer when you go out, etc.
- Other:
- Unfortunately, it has become necessary to disable the enter key, as a way to quickly submit requests entered within the program’s interaction field, until a better solution is found. Although this minor ability was very convenient, it’s not the way Window’s was supposed to work, we got around this by using the program’s advanced call-back functionality, but have found that this could interfere with the program’s networking capabilities, causing it to eventually become unstable and crash.
- Remote telnet operations are now recorded in the program’s log file.
- The Extract Data routine has been updated to accept the wildcard character not only in the middle of the prefix word but also at its beginning or instead of it, making it even easier to interface the program with an even wider range of peripherals.
- The optional closing wave file is now played synchronously, following a customer request, which allows the final closing wave file to be completely played out even when the termination process is quicker than expected.
- A new facility, accessed via the interaction field, to hide or show the desktop icons, making the display screen clearer and to improve privacy whilst making videos of the program.
New in Adaptive Home Logic 3.3 (Dec 13, 2011)
- Power Line Modules:
- The data validation routine within the PLM entry screen has been improved to better detect invalid data input that could later cause the program to crash during processing.
- Natural Language Interface:
- The keyboard enter key can now be used to very quickly process requested entered within the program’s interaction field, significantly improving the effectiveness of the Natural Language Interface. Several new functions have also been implemented within the NLI to rapidly clear any or all of the CM display boxes, as well as a new function to speak the time, also in plain language, for example “It’s now a quarter past one, p.m.”.
- On Screen Display:
- The program now has a new ability to alert you to an important event by displaying a brief message on the screen in fairly large bright green lettering, a bit like a television that displays the name of a new channel, regardless of any other windows that might be use, or even if the program is operating in the background from the system tray.
- Console Beep:
- The events now have the ability to sound the console beep at a specified frequency and duration, in a similar way to the beep sound that the computer makes when it’s first turned on, providing yet another way to alert the operator, in a fairly profound way, that an important event has taken place.
- Power Status:
- The program can now take into account the computer power status, which is particularly useful if the program is running on a laptop, as an event could then be setup to alert you if the batteries drop below a specified level.
- Other:
- As well as your system’s local time, the program now also display’s UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) during start-up.
New in Adaptive Home Logic 3.2 (May 17, 2011)
- Driver Architecture:
- Tweaked and augmented several parts of the driver management code, improving overall system efficiency and performance.
- Added the ability to transfer the value contained within a driver’s field to a user variable; providing greater flexibility and making it easier to log driver output.
- Velleman K8055:
- Introduced a new driver to monitor and control the digital and analogue inputs and outputs of a Velleman K8055 USB Experiment Interface Board, making the outside world even more accessible!
- Other:
- Several sections within the program’s help file have been updated.
New in Adaptive Home Logic 3.1 (Feb 12, 2010)
- SMS Facility:
- AHL/3 can now alert you to important circumstance by SMS message delivered direct to your mobile phone, as well as allowing the program to be securely and simply controlled via an SMS message sent from your mobile phone, when it’s connected to a compatible GSM modem or another mobile phone via a USB cable or Bluetooth adaptor.
- X10 CM15:
- AHL/3 now includes support to control the new CM15 X10 interfaces.
- Other:
- The system information routine has been updated to correctly identify the newer OS platforms.
- The program has been modified to prevent its graphics from flickering when clicked.
- The email address field lengths have been increased to cope with longer e-mail address details.
- A bug was identified in the set com port routine that could cause the program to crash if the Settings->Com Port dialogue were aborted, and then subsequently when the program was restarted.
- An issue was identified in the edit PLM sub that could cause the program to crash if it reported that the interface method was not ready and then the apply button was clicked.
- A minor issue has been corrected with the Event Message Report.
- The program’s icon has been updated to 3D!
New in Adaptive Home Logic 3.00 (Jan 12, 2010)
- 32/64 Bit Compatibility:
- AHL/3 is compatible with all editions of Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.
- Driver Architecture:
- Despite having fairly extensive communication facilities, AHL/3 sees the introduction of a comprehensive driver architecture incorporating exceptionally fast inter-process communications, providing it with almost unlimited extensibility, allowing OEM’s, third-party software developers and your AHL team to add wide-ranging support for some of the more proprietary products and devices into your wider home automation environment.
- Event Logic:
- The program’s event engine together with the event entry screen has been significantly redesigned to allow complex event scenarios to be easily implemented, negating the necessity to write scripts in all but the most complex of circumstances. Now it very easy and intuitive to use multiple (IF / AND / OR / XOR / ELSE) logic to create more intelligent events that can react to more complex circumstances as required.
- SAPI-5 TTS Voices:
- In addition to SAPI4 TTS voices and MS speech Agents, the program can now also support some of the newer SAPI v5 TTS voices as well. The voice dialogue has also been improved with a test facility, making it easier to experiment with the various settings.
- 32 Com port data streams:
- Redesigned and augmented the com port settings routine and dialogue to handle up to 32 com port data streams concurrently. In addition, any changes can now be abandoned before being applied.
- Streamlined data handling:
- The data section within the event entry screen together with the underlying code has been streamlined to remove some minor inconsistencies between file, com port and socket data operations; improving efficiency, uniformity, ease of use and dependability. In addition data stream output has been augmented so that live current data (event status, IO ports, global and / or user variables) can be embedded within an output data stream, allowing a generic device not only to be monitored and controlled by the program, but also permitting it to react automatically to the status of the program as well.
- Event Functionality:
- Along with improved event logic there are also many other improvements. In addition to starting another program or batch file, an event can now also close another program as well. It can also very quickly start or stop a media audio file using its new built-in intrinsic media player, or open / close a particular CD draw, flash the screen or keyboard LED’s, or initiate a shut down sequence.
- Updated Look:
- In line with the greater graphic resolution found in Vista, AHL/3 has been updated to use a smaller more-professional font-size; many of the dialogues now include a small logo that reflect the dialogues purpose and make more use of mouse friendly spin boxes. In addition the program now includes a status bar displaying its status at any given moment; the monitor text window can now be toggled on and off, or the program can be minimised to the system tray whilst it operates completely in the background. It even has an option to slowly display a translucent splash screen at start-up!
- Control via Email:
- As well as being able to send e-mail messages, to alert you to circumstances that may arise, the program can now also be securely controlled via e-mail. It can even alert you to, or speak, newly received (personal) e-mail messages, whilst leaving them on your server in case you wish to reply.
- Log Reporting:
- The program’s log reporting system has been completely revised to record all aspects of the program’s operation including Driver activity, Events, Natural Language Interface, Power Line Modules, System Messages and Warnings. Log entries can now be filtered by Type, Object, Message Level and Date (with built-in calendar control to ease date selection) before being sorted by Date/Time, ID# or Message Level in either ascending or descending order before being displayed or printed, making it very easy to focus in on your area of interest.
- Other:
- The application has now been completely componentized, greatly improving efficiency, consistency, maintainability, security, performance and dependability, whilst at the same time reducing operating overhead. It’s also making greater direct use of the Windows API, improving efficiency yet further.
- Now an event can open or close a particular CD draw, change the program’s default voice, flash the main window, or toggle the keyboard LED’s.
- An issue has been identified that was preventing UPB modules from being controlled automatically by the events.
- An issue was found with the program’s MD5 integrity check that could occasionally cause the program to fail at start-up. Program start-up is also quicker.
- Corrected a minor design flaw within the APRS remote control protocol that was preventing an APRS remote access discontinue from being scheduled or cancelled, and the program’s run level from being changed remotely whilst a security access code was in force.
- In addition to the sun rise and set times for your area, the program can now also take into account the phase and illumination of the moon each day.
- The program’s clock has been upgraded to display the time to a tenth-of-a-second resolution.
- The program’s support menu option has been updated in line with our new e-mailing strategy.
- A number of issues were identified that were causing an incorrect TTS voice to be selected on a machine with a different number of installed voices.
- A file path issue has been corrected within the wave file play routine.
- An issue has been corrected within the log entry purge routine that could eventually cause the program to crash.
- The program now has a new dialogue to select a custom input stream separating character. This prevents the possibility of separating character inconsistencies when multiple events are acting on the same data stream.
- The virtual weather station graphical display now automatically provides a Beaumont scale read out.
- Found a bug within the display mapping routine that under certain circumstances could cause the program to crash.
- An issue was identified in the system info routine that was computing the free space on drive ‘c:’ rather than the drive that the program is actually using.
- Found a potential issue that could prevent the date from being displayed in the correct format, or at all, when the program entered a new day, even though internally the date was being acted upon correctly.
- Extensively reviewed, revised and streamlined the program’s help file.
New in Adaptive Home Logic 2.00 (Jan 4, 2008)
- GUI (Graphical User Interface)
- Display Mapping
- Intelligent Speech Buffer System
- TCP/IP Sockets
- Remote Access Telnet Host
- Technology Matrix
- X10 and UPB (Universal Power Bus) Two-Way drivers
- RSS Weather Feed
- Virtual Weather Station Graphical Display
- RSS News Feeds (Talking News Aggregator!)
- Event Entry Screen