New guy

General HouseBot discussion. Any issues that don't fit into any of the other topics belong here.
NW27
Member
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Jul 18, 2011 6:55 pm

Using XAP?

Post by NW27 »

Ben,
To make xAP work you first need to understand/do a couple of things -
1. xAP is a UDP protocol that uses port 3639. Only one application on the PC can use this port. It cannot be shared.
So to make xAP work with multiple applications on the same PC, a software based version of a network hub is created.
This is normally set as a back ground service. This service listens for traffic on the ethernet connection that is incoming on UDP port 3639.
It then sends this via other ports to the user based applications on the PC and re transmits data from these apps back out through the ethernet port (on UDP 3639 of course).
So to make all of this easy, you need to simply install the software based xAP hub from http://www.erspearson.com/xAP/xFx/hubs_main.htm
Make sure that your firewall has UDP port 3639 enabled.

2. Apart from application specific data. each xAP application sends out heartbeat messages. These appear as network traffic on the ethernet (UDP 3639).
The heatbeat messages are great for at least seeing if you have the xAP hub up and going and seeing data on the network.

3. To see xAP data moving around the place, you need a viewer. http://www.erspearson.com/xAP/xFx/viewer_main.htm
The viewer will actually show it's own heartbeats as well as heartbeats from the hub service.
If there are issues, check your firewall, maybe turn it off for a short period to see if this is the drama.

4. Another handy little app is Speedfan http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php Apart from great insights into your PC, it can also transmit this data using xAP. Of course this can then be seen in the viewer (3)

5. Do not worry about the 1wire at http://www.erspearson.com/xAP/xFx/viewer_main.htm. You do however need the 1wire app from http://mcssprinklers.com/xapXap.htm. This can be a bit tricky getting going but lets get to this point first.
So after you have xAP up and running and data streaming around the place, it is time to get Housebot talking to xAP

6. We need the xAP plugin for Housebot http://www.erspearson.com/xAP/HouseBot/#. The download link is at the bottom of the page.

7. I presume you already have Housebot installed and running. *** Make a backup of your database ***

8. Run the application you have downloaded in (5) and restart Housebot.

9. It is now at this point I think we need to add xAP as a hardware interface. So now we should be able to go to "Hardware Interfaces", "Add Interface", select "xAP Network", give it a name ie "xAP Network", press Next etc BUT this is where Housebot completely crashes on me :(
Attempting to restart HB brings me to the point in the attached image. Unfortunately, there is nothing in the dump folder.
The hardware module and basic config has been added to the DB but no Network, Source Address, UID has been created. Manually putting values does not work either. It still won't start. Good thing you made a backup of the database :wink:

HELP

Neil.
Point at which HB crashes after adding xAP hardware device
Point at which HB crashes after adding xAP hardware device
HB Crash.jpg (208.9 KiB) Viewed 1896 times
PilotBMP
Member
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2012 11:43 am

Re: New guy

Post by PilotBMP »

Neil,
What a lot of information! I appreciate it and will get started right away. I live in Ohio so I'm -4gmt. I'm sorry for the long delays between posts. I will start checking the forum at least twice a day. I will get started and let you know where I stand. Again, thank for the help and my gotoassist offer still stands.

Ben
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