Charmed Quark Systems, Ltd. - Support Forums and Community

OK, I am going to keep this as a running thread to track my progress and equipment through this new phase of HA.

edit 5/25/15:

I started keeping a running track of my install on post #39 of this thread. I will update this main post when I have a little more time.

I'll be interested to see how your zwave network does in an apt. Mine is completely unreliable.

Well, I am doing a wholesale replacement of my switches plus modules. So my ZWave network will end up consisting of 12 switches, 3 or 4 multi-sensors, 12 contact closures, 8 modules, and the Danalock. Given that, I am seriously hoping that the mesh will work. :-D

And I am still debating what to do about keypads. I think I might try to add 2 of the Vizia 4 Button Keypads for CQC controlled 'Scenes' as well, plus 2 of those Aeon 4 button remote controls.

As a running commentary on my quest for HA Simplicity and Nirvana -

(1) There is a Spotify API which can provide you with the currently playing track information. I found a few examples on the web which demonstrate the functionality. The API is here: http://developer.spotify.com

(2) I'm back to Plex again. The Plex API provides the ability to get all library data (for a repo), control individual players, and send a player a file for playback. This is the coup de grace to all other systems. This + a $99 Roku is likely the best solution on the market right now. I know a lot will wonder about .iso files and .vobs, but ... it's 2014. :tounge

(3) Speaking of Roku - We already have a one way driver built, entirely because the ECP doesn't provide useful status data. However, there is a new push on the Roku Dev forums to get support added to query for a currently loaded channel. It has the attention of a couple Roku Dev's, so I hope this gains traction. With this implemented, CQC could know what was loaded and react accordingly

I am almost entirely done buying equipment for my new build out, and am now having drivers written, and working on the IVs and backend triggers.

If I can get ahold of the things mentioned above, I believe it will be the first time every aspect of my home will be integrated ... some 21st Century shit right there.

ZWave, Hue, Nest, Sonos + Spotify, Roku + Plex = Control, Lights, HVAC, Audio, Video.

BTW, the Hue driver is working great. No lag in the polling at all, and with Dean's little test interface, it seems like I have more colors available than the Hue app itself.

FYI, your PM's are full.

That spotify API returns so little info. A lot of text in some cases that ultimately provides very little information. It's not really remotely enough to be useful as a metadata source for CQC, but I also don't see how it could be useful otherwise, because you'd have to know the Spotify album (or track) id that is currently playing, but how would you get that into CQC unless CQC was actually doing the playback?

potts.mike Wrote:FYI, your PM's are full.

Not anymore!

My hope was that perhaps we could utilize the new 'MetaData' class. The use case I was thinking of would be if I were to start playing Spotify outside of CQC (the Roku app), at least we would be able to display the metadata in the IV.

It might not be possible, but I can see a driver where we put in our Spotify username/pass, and just get back the artist/album/track/art. So regardless of where we are playing Spotify, through iOS app, Sonos, Roku, web player, or software, we would know what was currently playing. I have seen a few examples written around the web that do just that, and quite a few more 'widgets' that will put your 'Currently Playing' track on your website (your website certainly wouldn't know what you were playing, so it has to get the data from somewhere).

Dean Roddey Wrote:That spotify API returns so little info. A lot of text in some cases that ultimately provides very little information. It's not really remotely enough to be useful as a metadata source for CQC, but I also don't see how it could be useful otherwise, because you'd have to know the Spotify album (or track) id that is currently playing, but how would you get that into CQC unless CQC was actually doing the playback?

Dean are you talking about the metadata API or the Libspotify SDK? From what I can tell through the SDK you can fully interact with Spotify.

I was looking at the metadata API. I don't want to use any of their code in our process space, and anyway those are not available for commercial use anyway.