Is Ezlo Plus Ready for Prime Time?

@melih

If you want to see what these Ping Sensor devices look like? In the Vera UI7 Web GUI it’s just an ON or OFF device.

This is the Kodi Home Theatre PC in my lounge which is currently Off.

1 Like

we are writing an http plugin already …
so we just add “pinging” capability to that plugin to create you a “Ping Sensor” per se?

If you can periodically automatically ping a LAN / WAN device and have a plugin device on the Ezlo hub, that displays the state either as ON or OFF, based on if that LAN / WAN device replied / responded to the ping requests or not, then yes you then have a “Ping Sensor” device.

In addition the WOL with Ping Sensor plugin for Vera will also send Wake On LAN magic packets out when you press the ON button, to turn on that networked device assuming it supports WOL like PCs do etc.

1 Like

@melih I think for any such plugins like Sonos for example, your dev team are probably best to look at Home Assistant and its various plugins if they call them that, for 3rd party systems like Sonos etc.

Whatever Home Assistant can do? you want to be trying to match that functionality I would think, or at the very least trying to match any new Ezlo functionality with previous Vera plugins that were available and what they could do.

I don’t have Sonos myself as it’s too expensive but I have installed them before, so know how they worked.

1 Like

@melih

On a similar vien to Sonos, I’d like to see a Google Home and Google Chromecast plugin.

The Home Remote dashboard app supports this to some extent.

For example I have some dashboard page tiles that will display an image and title or what is currently playing on a Google Home speaker or Google ChromeCast device.

It also gives basic transport controls, so from the Home Remote dashboard tile, I can pause / play and adjust the volume or that Google Home device etc.

Im sure the Home Assistant integration with Google Home / Chromecast devices goes deeper and gives more functionality and control.

TTS text to speech would also be needed. So you can from your MeshBot rules send TTS announcements to the various Google Home speakers around the house.

I’m sure Amazon Alexa users / households would want the same also.

TTS is a function to the Sonos Vera plugin I believe also.

This is the Chromecast connected to the TV in my daughters room now.

If I click on that tile, I then get this expanded “details” page.

In the first screenshot “Kodi03 Power Status” is a read only “Ping Sensor” tile.

The other tiles with the power buttons, are Logitech Harmony Activity tiles, for turning on / off and controlling AV equipment etc

2 Likes

More Audio Visual ideas. This is my lounge room, Harmony activities and Google Home speaker / Chromecast tiles and I’ve even been able to embed as a web page the Kodi Web GUI, with additional custom control buttons I added along the top.

This is on my phone, looks better on a landscape tablet however.

Kodi Web GUI remote.

Home Remote dashboard app Harmony activity remote control page.

Don’t think I can give up and replace my Home Remote dashboard app any time soon if ever.

1 Like

Do you mean the current WOLPlusPing app in the plug-in Marketplace for Vera? (App id : 2658) Because that one is brilliant and I use it a LOT.

Speaking of things A/V, I’ve been utilizing the features of the RokuControl (App id :9041) on my VeraPlus to great effect. For example, I can use it to reset the volume level of my Roku (TCL brand) TV when certain events happen, such as bed time, front door unlocks, phone rings, etc.

All that if-then logic lives on MSR, which then tells Vera what to do in response. But I’m probably the only user with this particular workflow, so won’t be shocked if ezlo doesn’t hop aboard the Roku API train any time soon.

I would nominate this is a prospective plug-in for upcoming ezlo controllers.

1 Like

The Ping Sensor is an olden and golden Vera plugin, I don’t use it myself, as I do my ping calls via Lua, but I know others have used @amg0’s NetMon - GitHub - amg0/NetMonitor: Network Monitor plugin for VERA which does the same sort of thing…

FYI - A ‘ping’ is another one of my occupancy state checks…

1 Like

Looking at your screenshot, I can see that what I’m thinking of as conditions/validators seem to be part of your triggers.

A basic example in my mind would be to : have a time Trigger (at 6PM) , Action to (turn on light) but that has a Condition to only complete required action ( if that light is NOT already on).

With EZlogic, that looks like it would be : have a time Trigger (at 6PM) , for a defined light that is confirmed as NOT being on, and then complete the required Action to (turn on light) .

That works too, as you are just shifting the conditions/validators to the left. What I can’t see however if the ability to include in the logic the result of some Lua code ? Is that possible ? For example I have my DSC alarm connected, lets say I want to check that no motion or door/windows sensors have been tripped in the last 15 mins. As i have 20 sensors, it looks like I will have to add all 20 sensors ? Whereas having an IF Lua Script option, which does a loop through all registered motion sensors to confirm if False (or True) would save a bit of effort ?

local SEC_SER = "urn:micasaverde-com:serviceId:SecuritySensor1"
for n,d in pairs(luup.devices) do
	if d.category_num == 4 and d.subcategory_num == 3 then -- motion sensors 
		local lasttrip = tonumber(luup.variable_get (SEC_SER, "LastTrip", n) or os.time())
		local timediff = os.time() - lasttrip
			if lasttrip > 0 and timediff < 900 then -- 900 seconds = 15 mins
				return false
			else
				return true
			end
	end
end

With HA systems having more and more devices/nodes - having the ability to have some logic shorthand will be very valuable (this again is where Lua Global Functions/Variables come into help)

2 Likes

Another thing to be conscious of is support for ciphers/keys/encryption etc. what were once very open systems, are now requiring a bit more security - for example I had been working on a plugin for my Panasonic Viera TV, but it soon became clear it was going way beyond my knowledge and Lua skills and the required models ffi , aes etc would not easy to do via Vera.

So having support for a Panasonic Viera TV plugin would be good :star_struck:

when you say “Result of some Lua code” are you referring to lets say a “Variable” (integer/string etc)?
If so, then yes thats in the works and coming soon.

interesting!!

Sonos, on trigger switch on/off using either radio station or playlist

Honeywell evohome on trigger set temperature

milight on trigger switch on/off set dimlevel, set color

Ping sensor I’m using App id :1228, Current Version:0.36

Samsung tv on trigger switch off

It would also be nice to have the house mode change for trigger in Meshbot (currently I’m using the House modes plugin App id :7246, Current Version:1.62)

Just search the app store for Ping.
pingsensor

No, but if that can ping a device and subsequently set a virtual switch on or off that’s fine with me too.

The reason I opted for WOLPlusPing over Ping Sensor is that the former includes the ability to send (Wake-On-LAN) “magic packets” that can wake up network-connected devices like my laptop. That’s a huge bonus. For example, I can speak to Alexa, “Turn on computer”, which flips on the virtual switch in WOLPlusPing called “computer”, which in turn sends the wakeup call to my WOL-enabled PC. And on it goes.

Likewise, if I manually turn on the PC, WOLPlusPing sees/senses its IP as active, and the virtual switch indicates so by turning itself ON in the Vera UI. This opens up a whole world of control based on device status.

So, in brief, I guess I’m suggesting ezlo hubs should have WOL capability as well if that’s how we’re voting to go.

2 Likes

I agree!!! its a great feature.

If you are to have a remote wakeup capability for other devices , then you should also ideally have a remote reboot and shutdown capability for them too.

1 Like