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Server- Home Automation (HA) Plugin


Xzener

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chef

I have searched the internet to try and find a UDP string that it would understand and have it reply.

 

That would be perfect! But I just can't find any documentation on it.

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techywarrior

I've sent an email to someone who may help. I am also going to see if I can find a good program to monitor network traffic because I believe the Vera Windows app that I use has a discovery mechanism. And then maybe I can see what it is doing.

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chef

I found it . we can use their website in order to locate the IP address for The Vera device.

Thanks to my new found knowledge of JavaScript I was able to open their website and look at the HTML 5 and the JavaScript that was contained inside it.

From there I was able to find a PHP file which the site uses to return JSON information about the vera Device on your network.

We can use the same hidden PHP file from their site and locate the information ourselves.

 

I kind of feel like a hacker LOL

Edited by chef
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techywarrior

I heard back from the guy who writes the Windows app and he doesn't use UDP. He does an account lookup on the MiOS (Vera) webservice to get the local IP. This requires that you select what UI version you are running <=5 or >5 (because they changed the way authentication worked) and then enter your username and password.

 

 

I’m pretty sure the udp discovery is the same other than changing the “ST” value.  Below is how I do it for finding rokus.

 
"M-SEARCH * HTTP/1.1\r\nHOST: 239.255.255.250:1900\r\nST: roku:ecp\r\nMAN:\"ssdp:discover\"\r\nMX:3\r\n\r\n"

 

Not sure if that would help but he offered that as well.

 

 

 

I found it . we can use their website in order to locate the IP address for The Vera device.
Thanks to my new found knowledge of JavaScript I was able to open their website and look at the HTML 5 and the JavaScript that was contained inside it.
From there I was able to find a PHP file which the site uses to return JSON information about the vera Device on your network.
We can use the same hidden PHP file from their site and locate the information ourselves.

I kind of feel like a hacker LOL

 

But I guess you found an alternate way. :)

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chef

A little scarey accually. It is an https link.

 

There really isn't a whole lot if information about this stuff, but the site has a whole bunch of code to work off of once you open the code up.

 

So that is a positive.

 

Moving forward...

Edited by chef
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gator99

I've sent an email to someone who may help. I am also going to see if I can find a good program to monitor network traffic because I believe the Vera Windows app that I use has a discovery mechanism. And then maybe I can see what it is doing.

As information, I use wire shark to monitor traffic to find undocumented IP commands for my iRule remote.

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Edited by gator99
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chef

Sweet, we are using media browsers internal json deserializers with Vera now. Getting info is so easy.

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techywarrior

Good work Chef. This plugin is coming together pretty quickly.. and I guess you are soon going to have a fun new toy to setup/configure (just wait till you start replacing everything in the house with z-wave devices :) )

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gator99

Looking forward to see how this comes together, I don't have z-wave but use insteon throughout my home

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

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Xzener

Iam not familiar with Insteon... I'd imagine it basically works the same way. I'm sure Chef will be working on additional controller manufacturers. in the future.

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chef

If you can control it with Vera, you will be able to add it to Mediabrowser.

 

Really we are creating a glorified switch (which is MB) to trigger scenes in Vera.

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gator99

If you can control it with Vera, you will be able to add it to Mediabrowser.

 

Really we are creating a glorified switch (which is MB) to trigger scenes in Vera.

No go on insteon with vera, it has its on gateways isy, hub, hub 2, plms, however I doubt it would be hard to setup, all the commands are easily found, I control mine through iRule and their native app, using a insteon hub and hub 2.

 

 

 

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

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chef

We are pretty close to an end product of Vera, once that is done we can look at Insteon, since the plugin template will have already been written.

 

Might be a while still, but we could do it.

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techywarrior

Bought my first home automation device this afternoon. It's a plug.. (Please no jokes...)

 

But Butt...

 

I saw a crazy z-wave 6 receptacle strip at Staples but I think only have was controllable. Was pretty neat though. My network is lots of outlets and some thermostats. It's fun being lazy.

Edited by techywarrior
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techywarrior

Yea, that was it. The cooler part is that Staples is carrying z-wave devices now. Of course everyone is jumping on the home automation bandwagon. I just wish half of the companies didn't decide to create new proprietary formats when they entered the market :(

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Xzener

Yes, its confusing for most. Luckily, there is software being written to be all inclusive.

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chef

@@chef, I don't think Lutron has Z-Wave support (maybe new stuff).

 

@@techywarrior If it's Z-Wave, it's probably this unit: http://www.amazon.com/Aeon-Labs-Aeotec-Z-Wave-DSC11-ZWUS/dp/B00H3RL6JW

Oh crap. I asked the guy at home depot if they had wifi switches. He pointed out the plug I bought.

 

The only thing is, none of the switches had the z wave logo on them.

I hope it works. I might return it.

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chef

Hey techy,

 

I was trying to embed the Vera dashboard into the configuration. It seems like a good idea.

 

Then media browser is always accessible and you'll beable to configure Vera as well.

 

All seems to going well, but I am not sure if using iframe tags is the best way.

 

Do you have any tricks?

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techywarrior

No, iframe is probably best. Unless you want to re-create a portion of the Vera UI. There is an added benefit that you can tell someone that they can configure their Vera in the plugin and make mention that they are configuring the VERA and not something that only takes effect in Media Browser. It should be pretty obvious in an iframe.

 

The biggest disadvantage is that it may not work that well on a mobile device. Not that an iframe doesn't work or anything but the small size may make the content area very small and the Vera UI isn't really mobile friendly (I haven't looked at UI7 tho). I don't think it's that big a deal because configuring the server from your phone is probably not the most common thing. I think CA has fixed widths and some unfriendly mobile aspects too and no one has complained about it.

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chef

I ran I to some trouble with my Vera device. I spent the last day talking with a guy over I. Their site.

 

We had a power outage and when the modem rebooted it recycled all my subnet ip address, including my Vera lite. But the php file wasn't updated.

 

So that way of getting the device ip was out of the question.

 

I was getting a little frustrated with the device, so I posted a question on their fourm.

 

I have a foolproof way of getting up addresses now from the device, thanks to a Vera dev.

We can also tell luke that I talked up media browser until I was blue in the face, over there.

Lol

Edited by chef
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techywarrior

You going to ask for the login info and poll the MiOS server for the internal and external IP? Or did they tell you how to use UDP to find the controller?

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