You can send email from anywhere in the world and it's really easy to do if you set up a free email account from www.hotmail.com, www.yahoo.com (or probably hundreds or thousands of others) since all you need is access to the Internet. Internet access is commonly available in the business center of any hotel, or for that matter, in coffee houses, truck stops, etc. And if you set up Home Domination to monitor your email account for incoming messages, you can monitor or control your house from these places too. It's not real time, which means that if you are at that coffee house with the Internet access, may have to sip a cup of coffee before you'll find out if it worked or not, but hey, it's a lot quicker than driving home from halfway across the state to see if you remembered to turn the lights out. If you really need that instant gratification though, you need to find out about the remote network client.
If you want to monitor email, you first need to set it up. Click here for instructions on that.
OK, so you have it set up to check your email. Now what? All you have to do is send yourself an email with the right subject line and in the message area, just type in what you want it to do. For instance, if you want to turn on the outside front lights, just type in something like the following message:
The password is "Cool!".
Would you please be a dear and turn on the "outside front lights" please? Oh thank you so much, I really appreciate it!
To which it will respond:
The password is "Cool!".
----->OK.Would you please be a dear and turn on the "outside front lights" please? Oh thank you so much, I really appreciate it!
----->Processed: Set switch "outside front lights" to On.
So do you have to be this wordy? Nope. You can do the same thing by typing:
Password "Cool!". "Outside front lights" on.
All it is really doing is looking for certain key words and trying to dig out the data from the rest of the sentence. You do need to create a separate sentence for each thing you want to do though. A sentence can end with a period or be on a line by itself. Quotes: It's best if data (such as the name of a switch) is put in quotes since if there are no quotes, it will take the first word it sees (that isn't a keyword) as data. This may be fine if you don't have any other verbal garbage in the sentence and the name consists of only one word. However, if anything is in quotes, it will assume that is the data, or the name of whatever you are talking about.
Below is a list of the keywords and what information each keyword needs. This may look a little confusing, but if you write a normal sentence using these keywords, it will probably work just fine. And it will send you a reply telling you if there is something it doesn't understand.
CONCISE or ! - By now, you've probably noticed I have a tendency to be a bit wordy. The reply that comes when processing a command email can tend to get a bit lengthy too. This can be a bit of a problem if you're emailing from a cell phone since some phones truncate to 256 characters, and others will break the message into numerous messages, charging you for each one. By putting the keywork "CONCISE" at the beginning of the email comand, or simpler yet, just an exclamation point (!), it will drastically trim down the amount of clutter in the response email. If you're testing things out, you may want to leave this off until you're comfortable with it, since it's sometimes nice to know how your text is being interpreted. It will report errors even in the concise mode, but won't always confirm success (it will just shut up and do what it's told).
DIM or %- Used to dim a switch to a certain percentage. It expects the name of the switch (in quotes) and a percentage to appear somewhere in the sentence. This can be used with or without the Set or Turn commands.
HELP - This will send you a nice description of the commands. No other words are necessary.
PLAY or SOUND - This is used to play a sound. You send a .wav file as an attachment and include the filename after "Play" in quotes.
SET or TURN - This is used to set the status of a switch or sensor to on or off. It can also be used to set a user or password. If you don't have any of these words in the sentence, it will assume you mean a switch. It expects the name of the sensor, switch, user or password to follow (in quotes). For switches and sensors, it should also use the keywords ON or OFF somewhere in the sentence, or you can also use the word Dim or a percent sign and include a percentage to dim the light to.
RUN - This is used to run a macro. It expects the name of the macro (in quotes) to follow.
SEND - This expects the words "Client", "Log", "Program" or "Data" to follow. It will send a reply message with the item requested as a attachment. If you want more than one of these to be sent, you will need to put them in separate sentences or it will ignore all but the last one. Here is a list of the things that can be sent:
CLIENT - This will send the network client program that is used with Home Domination. So if you want more immediate control than email will allow, just have it send the client to wherever you are and voila, you're in control! You can also download the latest version from http://www.homedomination.com/download.html.
LOG - This will send the log file so you can see in detail what's been going on at your house.
DATA - This will send your control file.
STATUS - This will send the status of all your switches, sensors and macros. If the CONCISE keyword or ! is used, this will only show active switches, sensors and macros.
IP - If you want to connect to the main control program using the remote network client, you'll need to know your IP address. If you have a dynamic IP address, which is the most common, it might be tough to keep track of this because it can change periodically. However, you can send a command email with a "Send IP" command to have it send you a reply with the IP number and port to use.
STOP - This is used to stop a macro. It expects the name of the macro (in quotes) to follow.
TRIGGER - This is used to trigger a macro. It expects the name of the macro (in quotes) to follow.
UPDATE - This is used to update the program or the data file with the file attached. This is used with keywords PROGRAM or DATA.
VALIDATE - If this word is used, then it won't process
any of the commands but instead just check to see if it understands
everything. The reply email will report any errors.
CLIENT - This is used by the Send command. This will cause the network client program to be sent as an attachment.
DATA - This is used by the Send command. This will cause your control file to be sent as an attachment.
LOG - This is used by the Send command. This will cause your log file to be sent as an attachment.
MACRO - This can be used alone to start a macro, or it can be used by the Set, Run, Stop, and Trigger commands.
PASSWORD - This is used with the Set command to set the password. This is required if you have password checking set up or if you have users and passwords set up on your system.
PROGRAM - This is used by the Send command. This will cause the main Home Domination program to be sent as an attachment.
SENSOR - This is used with the Set command to indicate that you want to set a sensor. It can also be used without the Set command.
STATUS - This is used with the Send command to indicate that it should reply with the status of sensors, switches and macros.
IP - This is used with the Send command to reply with the IP address and port number to use with the remote network client.
SWITCH - This is used with the Set command to indicate that you want to set a switch. It can also be used without the Set command.
USER - This is used with the Set command to indicate that you are setting the user name. If you have users and passwords set up, you must enter a user or it won't authorize you to do anything.
OFF - This is used with the Set command to indicate that a sensor or switch is to be turned off.
ON - This is used with the Set command to indicate that a sensor or switch is to be turned on.