Home Control Assistant Newsletter for Mar 29
Have you looked over the version 16 release notes? Lots of changes that you can incorporate into your designs right away.
And if you are looking for answers to the most common questions about HCA check out our Frequently Asked Questions page.
Version 16
In case you missed it, HCA version 16 was released in October 2019. There are two big reasons to upgrade to this new version. First there are a lot of new features and a lot of stability improvements that make things go better and faster even if you make no changes in your design. Take a look at the release notes and you can see all the changes. Let me highlight two reasons to upgrade.
First, over the years we have had a lot of requests for ZWave and Zigbee device support. These wireless devices have their pluses and minuses and some people really like them. If this is what you are looking for, then you should look into Samsung SmartThings and Hubitat Elevation. Both offer hubs that provide the interface that HCA needs to talk to these kinds of devices.
The second big reason to upgrade is that you have a lot of time invested in HCA and by upgrading, at a nominal cost, you support the company that keeps this software going year after year. Recently the HCA Cloud got caught up in a bit of a squall when our hosting company came under attack. While it was nothing to do with HCA, our team was there over the weekend and sorted it out within a day. Upgrade now to keep this level of support going.
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A short bit of philosophy
Normally each week I talk about a support issue, show some feature, or make some HCA announcement. This week, please join me in a bit of musing on HCA and automation.
Gale Boetticher
Yes, I did watch Breaking Bad. So how does this character tie to HCA? In one of the first episodes where he was introduced Walt asked him why he is involved with something that isn’t legal. He replies with a long story about how he needed to leave the academic world because of all the bureaucracy and because he – and I don’t have the exact quote – loves the “magic of the chemistry”. To him it is working with the tools of his trade that is the most important thing and not the endless struggle to acquire the money and resources to do that.
HCA is a different product then perhaps it should be. Rather than a “solution” it is a “toolbox”. Right out of the “box” it does nothing. You must add your devices, craft your schedules and event handling, and build the presentation of information. And that’s work. And that doesn’t appeal to everyone. But as you are reading this HCA must have some appeal. Take a minute to think about the magic you have built with the HCA tools. I hear about applications where people do the most amazing things. This from a user:
My washer/dryer is far away from where we usually hang out in the house. I put a current sensor on one side of the AC line feeding the washer and dryer. The contact in the sensor closes when the motor in the appliance is running. When the motor stops, the current sensor opens. I have it connected to a Simply Automated UPB contact closure sensor. When HCA gets the UPB signal, it speaks a message on the kitchen HCA client that the wash has finished and, based on geolocation info, sends a text message to my wife and/or me if we are home (no need to know the wash is done if you aren't at home to do anything about it). Also, it sets a flag, so the next time someone walks by the washer and dryer and triggers the motion sensor in the kitchen, it will tell them the wash has finished, so they can take it out. This is great when you start a load of wash and leave to do errands--it reminds you when you get home to attend to the wash.
There is no product anyplace that would do that right out of the box, so he built it. I like that.
Going beyond Insteon
I know a lot of you use HCA with Insteon. I know this because I get support questions frequently, and some of them are real tragedies because their PowerLinc has died. If you don’t understand why this is a tragedy, you will when yours does die. In preparation, read this.
But the world is now so much more than Insteon. I’m working with one user to automate sunshades. Working with another user with a multi-sensor that is amazing in all it does, including temperature and light levels we will use to improve his cooling system this summer. And a user who is getting all the info they need on temperature and humidity in every room using some multi-purpose sensors.
All this is now possible with SmartThings and Hubitat and they are getting better every day. Soon the Hubitat support will get upgraded by a new package in the library that will do so much more. It is an exciting time.
I do want to address one issue I have heard about a few times. Some users say that they don’t want a “man in the middle” approach to automation. What that means is that they don’t want to talk to “something” and then the “something” talks to the device. In the case of SmartThings I can understand that – sort of – because it involves talking to the SmartThings cloud. But Hubitat is all in the home. No cloud. So how is this different than talking to a PowerLinc which talks to the devices? To me it is just another interface. It’s Spring when new things start to grow. Time to grow your automation beyond Insteon.
Spring!
Why the picture of colored eggs at the top? While I don’t do Easter, it is Spring and colored eggs are pretty. Enjoy.
HCA Computers
Several issues have come up in the last weeks relating to HCA “failures” that were not failures of HCA but failures of the computer it was running on or the use of it. Had one case where the computer was getting turned off, so HCA wasn’t running 24/7. Had another case where other programs running on it were causing Windows to freeze. Had a third case where an anti-virus program was just way too aggressive and was blocking inbound connections for voice assistants. And then the odd weather problem I related above.
Back when HCA started (anyone on this list used HCA 1.0?), computers were expensive. I remember an article in a print magazine(!) that said that the computer you want always costs $1000. HCA was designed to use little resources and could comfortably run on the “family PC” should no one shut it off.
But so much has changed since then. Hardware costs have come down as capabilities have increased. A few years back we started shipping products that uses a small footprint machine with custom software that operated as a “black box” to users who got it. They plugged it in and that was all they needed to do. They didn’t need to know It was the HCA server specially configured.
For the last year we have been selling these machines to the HCA user community because we get a great price on bulk purchases.
Given the “world situation” we may not be able to get more for a while, but we do have a bunch in stock for now, and if you don’t have a dedicated machine for HCA you really should consider this. And it doesn’t just have to be for client-server. You can use HCA standard just fine on the machine with an attached monitor. These machines have lots of capabilities, are priced well, and very reliable. We do the Windows install, updates, and HCA setup for you.
I recently contacted by a user of our product that uses this machine and they have experienced no problems for over two years. I connected to their machine to check something and it was just ticking along fine.
Worth taking a look
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Want to watch instead of read?
If you are interested in watching some videos about how HCA and Insteon can work together, George De Luca, a HCA users of a few years and technology video creator, has started to add HCA videos to his channel. He has a good knowledge of HCA and its ins-and-outs.
His channel can be reached at: https://www.youtube.com/deluca2008. While I’ve offered him some thoughts on the videos, his opinions and advice on using HCA are his own. If you have questions about something you see, ask them in the video comment section and you may see a video with an answer.
User-to-User forum
An HCA User who wanted to set up a forum for user-to-user communication. I'm passing this on, but please know that this is not a HCA company project and I will not be spending much time there so I don't know how this will work out. Here is a link to what he set up.
https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeControlAssistant/
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Want to take the next step in automation? Want to get started with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant and control HCA by voice commands? Even if you are a long-time user of HCA, the Getting Started guides have all the info you need on client-server, mobile applications, DDNS, and voice assistants.
All of the Getting Started Guides are available on the support website.
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