I recently purchased a whole house fan, basically a giant fan that sucks hot air out from the highest point in my house. They are great if you live in a climate with cool nights.

The controls for my fan were very basic, an on/off switch and a two-speed setting.

With Misterhouse, I created an “auto” mode which will only turn on the fan if both the indoor temperature is above a defined threshold and the outdoor temperature is 5 degrees below the indoor temperature.

This is how I did it.

Starting Materials
- A Fan
- 2 IOLincs, (1 for on/off, 1 for fan speed)
- A MisterHouse enabled indoor temperature sensor (I used my Insteon Thermostat)
- A MisterHouse enabled outdoor temperature sensor (I used data from a neighbor’s weather station through weatherunderground)

I created the following items in my mht file:

GENERIC, house_fan, HVAC|WHF_Group
GENERIC, house_fan_temp, HVAC|WHF_Group
GENERIC, house_fan_setpoint, HVAC|WHF_Group
GENERIC, house_fan_ambient, HVAC|WHF_Group
INSTEON_IOLINC, DE.AD.BE:01, whf_main, HVAC
INSTEON_IOLINC, DE.AD.BE:01, whf_speed, HVAC

I also had the following items already setup:

$upstairs_thermo_temp #the temperature upstairs
$w_temp #the outside temperature

First, I set the available states for my generic objects:

$house_fan->set_states('on', 'off', 'auto');
$house_fan_speed->set_states('high', 'low');
$house_fan_temp->set_states('cooler', 'warmer');

Then I tied my generic items to my Insteon Devices:

$house_fan->tie_event('$whf_main->set("on")', "on");
$house_fan->tie_event('$whf_main->set("off")', "off");
$house_fan_speed->tie_event('$whf_speed->set("on")', "high");
$house_fan_speed->tie_event('$whf_speed->set("off")', "low");

Then I tied my Generic temp item to my Generic setpoint item, and inserted some custom code:

$house_fan_temp->tie_event('house_fan_temp_change($state)');
sub house_fan_temp_change {
	my ($state) = @_;
	if ($state eq "warmer"){
		$house_fan_setpoint->set(int($house_fan_setpoint->state) + 1);
	} elsif ($state eq "cooler") {
		$house_fan_setpoint->set(int($house_fan_setpoint->state) - 1);
	}
}

By doing this, I can have a nice cooler and warmer button in the web panel.

Finally, every minute I check to see if the device is in “auto” mode and whether or not it should turn on:

if ($New_Minute){ 
	if($house_fan->state eq 'auto') {
		if (int($upstairs_thermo_temp->state) > int($house_fan_setpoint->state) &&
		(int($upstairs_thermo_temp->state) - 5) > int($w_temp->state)) {
			if ($whf_main->state eq 'off') {
				::print_log("[a1housefan.pl] Auto: Turning on fan");
				$whf_main->set("on");
			}
		} else {
			if ($whf_main->state eq 'on'){
				::print_log("[a1housefan.pl] Auto: Turning off fan");
				$whf_main->set("off");
			}
		}
	}
}

The result, is a temperature controlled whole house fan.  The image above is a screen shot from my web interface.

The Insteon RemoteLinc 2 is a battery powered insteon remote, that remains in a sleep state when it is not sending messages.  In this state the remote does not listen or respond to any packets sent to it.

As a battery operated device, the remotelinc will eventually need to be recharged, and it would be nice to know when a recharge is needed rather than finding out when the device doesn’t work.  The remotelinc has a command to query the battery level, but this query won’t work if the device is asleep.

This is where a heartbeat message would be nice.  It would automatically wake up the device at a periodic interval, allowing a battery level request to be sent to the device.

Best I can tell, the Remotelinc heartbeat function has been disabled or not included.  The following settings are supposed to control the hearbeat function:

Other users have reported similar problems over at the Indigo support forum.

As a work around, Misterhouse will send a battery level request immediately after receiving a message from the RemoteLinc.  The RemoteLinc will stay awake after sending a message for the amount of time specified in Awake Interval, I set mine to 10 seconds. Battery level requests will only be sent if the amount of time since the last battery level response has exceeded a defined threshold.

All of this works well, except for rarely used devices.  It is possible that such a remotelinc could die without there being a chance to query its battery level.

Link Control Flags:
Bit 7: 1 = Record is in use, 0 = Record is available
Bit 6: 1 = Controller (Master) of Device ID, 0 = Responder to (Slave of) Device ID
Bit 5: 1 = ACK Required, 0 = No ACK Required (currently always set to 1)
Bit 4: Reserved
Bit 3: Reserved
Bit 2: Reserved
Bit 1: 1 = Record has been used before (‘high-water’ mark)
Bit 0: Unused

In fact, command 0×56 is actually only 6 bytes in length.  The 3rd byte listed in the documentation does not exist.

<?php
$year = 2012; 
//Pick your year
$interval = 4; 
//Week number, in this case the 4th week
$dayofweek = 4; 
//Day of week 0=Sun, 1=Mon. . .
$month = 11; 
//Month 1=Jan, 2=Feb

$firstday = jddayofweek(gregoriantojd($month, 1, $year), 0);
if($firstday <= $dayofweek){
  $date = (($interval * 7)-6) + ($dayofweek - $firstday);
}else{
  $date = (($interval * 7)-1) + (6 - $firstday);
}
echo date("n/j/Y", mktime(0, 0, 0, $month, $date, $year));
?>

It looks a little messy, but it works perfectly.

UPDATE:

So apparently as bad as this looks it works too:

echo date("n/j/Y", strtotime("3 weeks thursday",mktime(0,0,0,11,1,$year)));

But I can’t get it to work correctly for the 1st Thursday in November.  Also I have seen a few comments that strtotime is significantly slower than other functions.

Another user on php.net posted the following, it is a significantly cleaner version of my code:

<?php

function get_day( $describer, $weekday, $reference_date ) {
   //$reference_date format = m-Y    $d = explode('-',$reference_date);
   switch ($describer) {
        case 'first':  
$offset = get_day_offset($reference_date, $weekday); 
break;
        case 'second': 
$offset = get_day_offset($reference_date, $weekday) + 7; 
break;
        case 'third':  
$offset = get_day_offset($reference_date, $weekday) + 14;
break;
        case 'fourth': 
$offset = get_day_offset($reference_date, $weekday) + 21; 
break;
        case 'last':
$reference_date = ($d[0]+1).'-'.($d[1]); 
$d = explode('-',$reference_date);
$offset = get_day_offset($reference_date, $weekday) - 7;
break;
    }
    $r = mktime( 0, 0, 0, $d[0], 1+$offset, $d[1] );
    return $r;  //returns timestamp format}

function get_day_offset( $anchor , $target ) {  
//$anchor format = m-Y
    $ts = explode('-',$anchor);
    $ts = mktime(0,0,0,$ts[0],'01',$ts[1]);
    $anchor = date("w",$ts);
    $target = strtolower($target);
    $days = array( 'sunday'=>0, 'monday'=>1, 'tuesday'=>2, 'wednesday'=>3, 'thursday'=>4, 'friday'=>5, 'saturday'=>6 );
    $offset = $days[$target] - $anchor;
    if ($offset<0) $offset+=7;
    return $offset;  //returns 0-6 for use in get_day()
;}
       $date1 = get_day("second", "saturday", "12-2007");$date2 = get_day("last", "friday", "11-2007");
echo "Second Saturday of December, 2007: ".date("m-d-Y", $date1)."<br>";
echo "Last Friday of November, 2007: ".date("m-d-Y", $date2)."<br>";
?>

Sorry I don’t have much time at the moment to write up a whole entry about this, but I am very excited about this.

I am a big fan of roundcube but I have always wanted the ability to integrate some instant messaging into it.  Well google finally released a gtalk gadget that allows you to integrate gtalk/gchat into any page you want.  Although, google has done a very poor job of announcing this and I don’t think most people know about it.

Anyways, it is a very simple single line <iframe> code.  I just quickly added it to the roundcube template and made a few changes to the CSS code and it works perfectly.

Click the image above to see a larger screen shot.  I will write up the code for this later when I have some free time.

How to get procmail Back

After reading the most recent entry I realized that it is possible to still use both procmail and spamassassin.  However, this solution is not elegant.

Currently Dreamhost has a rudimentary Mail Filter system that is accessible by all mail users.  This system is due to be upgraded soon.  Dreamhost also allows regular shell users to access and run procmail as well as spamassassin.  In fact, shell users can install their own custom install of spamassassin.  Lastly, shell users can also receive email, although there is no imap or pop service for this mail.

Using the above features it is possible to run a spamassassin setup that seems identical to the end user.  It works by forwarding your email all over the place.  First, your email is received by a mail account, this mail account has access to the rudimentary keyword filter.  The mail filter looks for an X-Scanned header to see if this email has already run through the procmail system.  Second, if the message has not been run through the procmail system it is forwarded to a user shell account.  Third, the user shell account receives the email and runs it through procmail and spamassassin.  During the process the procmail script adds the X-Scanned header, the procmail script can also add an X-Sort header if necessary.  Fourth, the last recipe in the procmail script forwards the email back to the mail account.  Finally, the mail account filters the email again, this time seeing the X-Scanned header and places it in your inbox.

The following is a flow chart that describes the process:

As noted, the setup requires a mail account and a shell account.  Also this scheme receives your email 3 times in order to accomplish the process:
1. The Mail Account receives incoming email
2. The Shell Account receives the mail forwarded from the Mail Account
3. The Mail Account receives the mail after it has be processed by the Shell account.

To me this seems to put more strain on the servers than was on them before using the old setup.  But if this is what they prefer than so be it.

Downsides

This is obviously less than ideal, and will likely slow down the delivery of mail slightly, but in the end you will still be able to process email using spamassassin and procmail.

We still have to wait for Dreamhost to update the keyword filter.  Currently you would have to alter the subject or the body in order to process your mail.  As I said earlier, I would imagine that Dreamhost will update the filter very soon.

Upside

There is one upside to this system.  Using this method you could create a single shell account to handle all of your spamassassin work, including work for any user whether on your domain or not.  This would allow you to tweak global SA settings for all users.

This would be accomplished by setting procmail to forward the email back to which ever mail account sent it the email in the first place.  Theoretically you could filter and process any mail account this way, even accounts that are not hosted by dreamhost, as long as they can filter by message headers.  A feature that most cPanel accounts have accessible to them.

I worked around the problem by setting the value one month forward. However obviously, this does not work for december. I tried increasing the value of the MONTH_OF_YEAR setting, however java balks at any unknown value. Currently I am unable to set an event to occur on the second sunday in december. If anyone figures out a work around I would be greatful.

RIM has recognized that this is a bug, but who knows when the bug will be fixed. I attached a copy of the email I received from RIM:

To: Kevin Keegan
Subject: Re: Bug in javax.microedition.pim.RepeatRule ;
 RQST00004960139
------------------------------------------

Hello Kevin,

Thank you for contacting BlackBerry Application Development
Support!

I have been able to reproduce your issue with the RepeatRule 
class and have forwarded the issue to our development team 
for further investigation.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Regards,

Gordon
Software Engineering Consultant
Research In Motion Limited
Email: devsupport@rim.com 
Web: www.blackberrydeveloper.com

As promised I made significant improvements to the Funambol Blackberry Client, while the improvements are geared towards better functionality with ScheduleWorld.com, they should benefit individuals who use other SyncML servers as well.

The Improvements in 3.0.8.4 include:

• Ignore milliseconds in date, fixes duplication on
slowsync
• Properly display entities such as quotes and ampersands
• Allday events now show up on week and month view
• Multiday Allday events are no longer short one day
• All day events no longer duplicate on SlowSync
• Accept basic ISO 8061 dates
• Fixed error message that popped up whenever sending an email
• Removed configuration section relating to email since Schedule World does not support email
• Altered default settings in configuration to match Schedule World settings
• Added AutoSync Feature - The client will query the server for changes every X hours.

You can download a copy of Funambol-SW or view the source code at Funambol Blackberry Plugin Schedule World Edition.

I am not a great Java programer so most of these changes were pretty simple. I would like to add support for tasks and possibly notes as well, but with my limited skill I may never get around to this.

Because of my limited time and skill with Java I am not offering a whole lot of support for this. But if you are having issues feel free to post your issue on ScheduleWorld Forums.

Those of us without a Blackberry Enterprise Server cannot automatically synchronize our calendar and contacts with our PC without directly pluging the Blackberry directly into the PC with a USB cable. This is where Funambol and ScheduleWorld come in. ScheduleWorld is a SyncML server, basically a Calendar and Contacts server. Funambol is an open source SyncML client for the blackberry. By using both of these programs you can sync your calendar and contacts to your PC over the air, without directly connecting your Blackberry to your PC. There are numerous tutorials for how to set this sytem up so I won’t waste your time discussing it here.

However, the Funambol ScheduleWorld setup has had one main issue for over a year. The problem stems from the fact that Funambol also allows for the synchronization of email while ScheduleWorld does not. Funambol allows users to unselect mail from synchronization. But even with mail unchecked Funambol still does some check of the mail which causes an error. Currently users will get the following error when sending an email:

Sorry you can't synchronize "mail", because the name of 
the Remote Mail in the Funambol configuration panel 
mismatches the corresponding name on the server.

Users then had to select "resend" to force their email to send. Needless to say the whole process was very annoying. Funambol is an open source project so I decided to take a look.

Funambol is written entirely in Java, a language I have only moderate experience with. After reading the code for about an hour I found a sendMessage function that looked like it could be causing the problem. For some reason this function does not check if mail is configured for synchronization. Therefore all I needed to add was a simple conditional statement to check for the syncMail setting. The result is as follows:

    public boolean sendMessage(Message msg) {
        try {
            if (Configuration.syncMail) {
                StaticDataHelper.log("Persistent store: " + PersistentStore.getSynchObject());
                StaticDataHelper.log("Number of objects in storage: " + String.valueOf(Memory.getPersistentStats().getObjectCount()));

                msg.setStatus(Message.Status.TX_PENDING, 0);
                // Reset the draft flag in case it was a sent draft
                msg.setFlag(Message.Flag.SAVED_THEN_ORPHANED, false);

                //bug fix 1113
                if (inSynchronize) {
                    StaticDataHelper.log("[INFO]sendMessages: another sync in progress...");
                    // FIXME: what to say to the user? Wait for the sync to stop?
                    return false;
                }

                new Thread() {
                    public void run() {
                        inSynchronize = true;
                        try {
                            // Send the message
                            synchronizeMail();      // FIXME: synchronize(SYNC_MAIL)?
                            // Move it to SENT if successful
                            synchronizeMail();
                        }
                        //catch (Exception e) {
                        catch (Throwable e) {

                            Log.error("[LOG]Exception in SyncClient.sendMessage: " + e.toString());

                            alert(e.getMessage());

                            // TODO: set the message status to TX_ERROR

                        }
                        finally {
                            inSynchronize = false;
                        }
                    }
                }.start();
            }
        }
        finally {
            /*
             * FIXME: check if this statement
             * is reached before the thread
             * above is started
             */
            setMailListener();
        }
        return false;
    }

I added the lines in green and indented the lines in blue.

I tested this solution using the Blackberry simulator included with JDE and it appears to work perfectly. However, you can never be sure how well a simulator really emulates the real product. Currently I am just waiting for a Signature Key, that I purchased from Blackberry for $20. Once I receive this key I will be able to sign the code and install it on my Blackberry.