Sending TCP and UDP packets as actions in flows & use Pronto hex to add IR devices

Friso

Hi there, I'm completely new to Homey (bought the last one available in MediaMarkt Tilburg yesterday) but not completely new to home automation. So far, I'm still learning the concepts behind Homey. Pleasantly surprised that some things that are very hard to do on other platforms are very easy to do on Homey - but there's a flip side of course: some things that are easy to do on other platforms seem to be missing (for now) from Homey. I'm really looking forward to making Homey the central 'brains' of my home - at the moment I'm running a combination of Domoticz, Plugwise and HomeWizard, combined with Global Cache and IRTrans devices to talk to my AV hardware. Would love to simplify that! With that long introduction out of the way, on to my questions:

1) I'm not sure what to do about automating my AV devices. Some of them I have to control over infrared, some can use IP (found the Denon app already) but some older devices simply need raw hex/ascii codes sent to them as TCP or UDP packets. Would anyone be able to write an app like 'HTTP flow cards' but with the option to send raw TCP or UDP packets? I'm thinking of an action card that allows you to specify a) TCP or UDP b) IPv4 address and port # to send to and c) the packet to send, where it would be nice to be able to type ASCII characters but also send raw hex by escaping it with something like \x. My TV wants "**PWON\x00\x03" as a string for instance. No need for bi-directional communication (would be nice but would add a lot of complexity I guess) - just send and be done with it. Possible?

2) I have many devices here that will need IR codes programmed for them. The current process is very tedious. It would be nice to add the option 'specify Pronto hex code' for a command, as many manufacturers have published their IR codes like this and it would be simple copy-paste, to quickly and cleanly add IR commands. Or am I missing something obvious here?

Sorry for the long explanations, hope it makes sense.

Regards
Friso

bvdbos

I've never heard of a device which needs raw TCP-packets. Are you sure you don't need simple http-requests? These you can send using https://apps.athom.com/app/com.internet

There is no general IR app where you can add Prontohex-codes. You could take an existing app and edit that for your device. It's not that hard...
Prontohex : https://developer.athom.com/docs/apps/tutorial-Signals-Prontohex.html

anne

I have, some devices are controlled via hex strings for instance, sent over a tcp socket (NAD) or udp (DMX stuff). 

I have thought about something like that. It would probably never make it to the app store as it quickly becomes fiddly and difficult to support, not really the Homey way (I guess I wouldn’t want to support it...). It could be useful as a tool for sideloading (installing directly without the app store) for testing. 

Actually, it would be a nice addition to the Athom developer tools

Friso

The devices in question don't have a network interface themselves, they're RS-232 and are hooked up to Global Cache iTach (https://www.globalcache.com/products/itach/wf2slspecs) WiFi-to-serial devices. These modules are actually very straightforward to use, you send raw data to a TCP port and it gets forwarded unaltered to the RS-232 interface (and vice-versa). My Pioneer television and my JVC projector are hooked up this way.

The HomeWizard does allow you to specify an 'IP-switch' as a device class, and you can then select HTTP GET/POST, TCP or UDP to send commands for the 'on' and 'off' actions. I more or less expected the Homey to have something similar. Not yet...

Regards
Friso

anne

Well, for HTTP it does. Why not make an app yourself? There’s help available in the Athom slack channel and lots of examples in the store