Feature List

• Supports the CM11A (serial interface device sold with ActiveHome), the CM19A (a USB device sold with many X10 video packages), and the CM15A (see this page for limitations).

• Supports the U401, U421, U421-SC3 and U451 USB interfaces.  

• More than one type of controller can be used at one time if necessary.  So macros can be created to trigger an X10 device when an input is received from a U401 (for example).

• Any house codes and unit codes for X10 devices can be used at one time.  There are no limit to the number of sensors and switches that can be added.

• Each switch can be associated with a security level, so only people with a high enough authorization can control them.

• Unlimited macros (make it do things by itself)

  • Quick Macros - Macros that use a single sensor to control a switch can be quickly added without knowing about the full capabilities of macros.  You can easily switch to a normal macro from a Quick Macro window.
  • Unlimited triggers and actions
  • Triggers:
    • Time - Trigger at a certain time or times
      • Specific time
      • Day or night, either calculated or via a sensor
      • Recurring date or time
        • Hourly
        • Daily
        • Certain days of the week
        • Weekly
        • Monthly (on specific day, week, or last day of month)
        • Yearly
    • Sensors - Trigger from sensors from any of the supported interfaces. You can trigger on any function (on/off/all on, etc) and you can also trigger if the value of the sensor is >, >=, =, <=, < than a certain value, for instance, start a macro that sends an email if the temperature falls below 40 degrees Fahrenheit..
    • Activity - Trigger based on the activity or lack of activity for a variety of sensors. For instance, if there is no motion from any of your indoor sensors for 30 minutes, turn all the lights in the house off (inactivity trigger), or if you want to do a welcome home kind of macro when activity resumes for the indoor sensors after there has been inactivity (activity trigger).
    • Group - Lets you group triggers together for when you want to mix triggers that you want to trigger when any of them are active with ones that you only want to trigger when all of them are active.
  • Trigger when all triggers are active, or when any triggers are active - You can make it so a macro will trigger precisely when you want based on complicated sensor or time criteria.
  • Day/Night triggering - Easily set a macro to trigger only during the day, or only at night or both.
  • Actions:
    • Control Switches - Lets you control switches, including turning off after the macro triggers are inactive for a period of time, and repeating if desired.  It also can have built in delays.
    • Delay - Lets you delay before the next action.
    • Beep - Lets you make the computer beep from a macro.
    • Play Sound - Lets you play a wave file from a macro.
    • Email - You can send email, or buffer email data to be sent later using another macro.
    • Alert - This will display a pop up message on a particular remote network client, or on all remote network clients that are attached.
    • Video Snapshots - This lets you snap a picture, or a series of pictures, from a macro.
    • Run - Lets you start a program, display a web page, or do virtually anything else that you can do via Start / Run.  You can even start processes on other computers that are using the remote network client.
    • Start / Terminate Macro - A macro can start other macros, or stop other macros that are in progress.
    • FTP - Easily copy files or video snapshots (using static file names) to a web site or anything that supports the FTP protocol.
  • Choose to restart a macro if it's triggered again, or just ignore triggers if the macro is in progress.
  • Set the access level of each macro so only authorized individuals can manually start a macro. 
  • Macros can also be triggered from the main control window.

• Video monitoring

  • The video add-on can support an unlimited number of cameras.

  • Several X10 cameras can use the same USB device.  A controlling switch is used by the video source to turn video devices on and off as you switch from one tab to another or when taking snapshots from macros.

  • Video snapshots are stored to the hard drive for later reference and the file names are marked with the date and time of when they were taken.  They can be stored in separate directories at regular intervals as well.

  • You can store the snapshots to static file names with a prefix, so the latest snapshot will always have the same name, and the same with the second latest and so forth.  You can choose the number of static filenames to use.

  • Automatic cleanup of video snapshots - Video snapshots can be automatically deleted after they are past a certain age, or more than a certain quantity, or both.  You can also choose the cleanup interval.

  • You can choose to have a Date and Time stamp displayed directly on the snapshot along with the video name if desired.

  • Save the video snapshots as JPEG, GIF or BMP files.

• Remote Access
  • It can monitor email for commands and send responses.  Email commands are nearly natural language, where it keys of certain words and ignores what it doesn't understand.
  • The remote network client can be used on your network or from anywhere in the world via the Internet.
  • If the connection is lost for any reason, it will retry until it reconnects.
  • If users are set up, they will not be able to log on without a valid user id and password.
  • The remote client allows to control switches, view and snap pictures from video devices, monitor sensors, and manually start and stop macros as long as the user is set up with that authority.
  • Control from the remote client is in real time.
  • The main control program can send messages to a remote client and even start programs on the remote client.
  • Can be controlled from other programs using Command Files.  A command file uses the same format that email commands use.

• Temperature Sensors

  • The current temperature is shown in the sensors tab

  • Temperature can be shown in Fahrenheit or Celsius.

  • A log entry can be made when the temperature changes by an amount you specify (like every degree or every 5 degrees, for example).

  • Macros can be triggered based on the temperature value being less than, greater than, or equal to an amount that you specify.

  • Two macros can be used to act as a thermostat when used to control a heating device.

• Control IO boards for low voltage wiring applications

  • Supports the U401, U421, U421-SC3 and U451 from USBmicro.

  • Can be used both for sensors and for switching.

  • Can be used to trigger macros and control switches from macros. 

  • Can be used to control X10 devices by triggering a macro which controls the X10 devices using any of the X10 controllers.

• Security

  • An unlimited number of users can be set up with varying access levels.

  • The main program can be password protected, or it can log in as a particular user automatically.

  • Email commands must specify a user and password if user and passwords are set up.

  • Remote network client users must specify a user and password if any are set up, and access is limited to whatever that user is authorized for.

• Logging

  • Actions are displayed on the log tab.

  • The log tab can be sorted by any column.

  • The log tab can be cleared so it's easier to see what happened recently, and it can be restored to the full list.

  • When selecting a log item and then clicking the Filter check box, it will filter the list to only include the items with the same name as the selected entry.  Unchecking the filter box will show everything again.

  • All actions are logged to a data file.  You can choose where the file is located and what it is called.

  • The log file can be automatically trimmed down to a size that you choose at an interval that you choose.

  • You can choose to log all X10 codes, or just the ones that are set up as sensors or switches.

  • You can choose to log all the actions in a macro, or just that the macro was started.

  • You can have the log file on the log tab start fresh each time the program is started, or have it filled from the log file on startup.

  • The data is written to a text file and the format of this file is documented in the help in case you want to write a program to parse it.

• Auto Update
  •  You can easily update to new versions of the program by simply going to the Version Info window and clicking Update Now.  This automatically downloads the latest version and automatically restarts.
  • You can also have it update automatically at certain times, if it's been updated.
  • The Version Info window also shows the current version and the release notes.
  • Click Buy Now to purchase an authorization code.  This automatically takes you to the buy now portion of the web site.
• Email Support
  • If you have a problem or a question, you can easily email support and automatically attach your control file and log file if desired.
  • This can use Outlook Express to send the email, or you can set it up to use a specific email account.
• Other Features
  • Split Screen - The screen can be split by clicking the Split View check box.  Any tab can be displayed on the top by right clicking it and clicking "Show On Top".
  • Context Sensitive Help - Press F1 from anywhere in the program and you'll get detailed help.
  • Pause Macros - Lets you temporarily stop processing any macros.
  • Mute - If you have macros that play sound and they're getting on your nerves, you can click Mute to temporarily shut them up.
  • Add Log Message - You can add your own messages in the log.  This can be helpful for making notes in the log file when you're trying to figure out if your X10 equipment is set up right.