Again with the home automation. Sincere apologies.

[Gunnar]

Greetings everybody! Alright, I am a new convert to the ultra hal assistant. I know I'm quite late and have missed a lot. Having to track down info on forum threads over 5 years old is tiresome and it's killing me. I have faced problems, only to then read about them after the fact in the forums, (avatar issues, people putty and haptek's demise for starters) it's been frustrating to say the least.

I am very interested in using the ultra hal assistant interface to run home automation, or ANY automation for that matter. I have seen several leads in the threads, but nothing conclusive. And certainly nothing DIY simple enough for my limited programming knowledge. So I'm just putting this out there for anyone who's patient enough to give me a solid lead, or better yet...a how to guide for implementing automation via the Hal VB script, or perhaps some other cheat/work around. The means is irrelevant to me, I am interested in the end result. I'm using windows 8 presently and have the latest version of Ultra Hal.

Any and all help in this endeavor is VERY appreciated.

Thanks,

Gunnar

[Art]

Well Gunnar,

At least let me welcome you to our Forum!! While it's always nice to welcome new members, it's also frustrating to realize that we're kind of at a temporary roadblock with our somewhat dated technology.

Hopefully, someone will come up with a suitable application that suits your needs.

My personal take is that there are chatbots, of which UltraHal is one of the better ones.
There are many types of Home Control / automation device platforms (X-10, Zwave, Insteon, Zigbee and others....).
There are many software sources with which to control the devices (Active Home , My Servant, iHouse, Smart-i, BVC (Bill's Voice Command), HomeSeer, Hal2000, Vera, Control4 and many others.
There are many voice controlled assistants to provide factual, up-to-the-minute information (Google Now, Assistant, Siri, etc.)
There are some new entry devices that work with voice command to connect you with your home (Cubic, Jibo, EmoSpark Cube, Ubi, etc.) .

So I guess you / we really need to ask ourselves, what it is we wish to accomplish, why, is it practical, does it fulfill our needs, is it what we really want)?

Just throwing my take on "connectable things" for you and others.

Good luck either way and why not just keep Hal for experimentation in the growing AI environment and have fun with it and our community of users!?

[Gunnar]

Thanks for the reply Art, and I appreciate the welcome. I've read some leads in the forums where people started down the path to Ultra Hal automation, but then the thread just dies, as I assume the project did as well. The struggle seems to be finding a way to connect the Hal architecture with whatever system is powering the lights, doors, etc. (like the x10 you mentioned, or maybe insteon?) I have a lot to learn either way, I was just hoping that this problem had already been solved and that someone could point me in a direction, since the barrage of dead ends has demoralized me. Ultra Hal has the ability to be customized from within, and that is what appeals to me about it. I have yet to see anything really on the same level coming out from the smart phone apps and talking toys. At least not yet.

At any rate, I'm here for the long haul. As you put it..."experimentation in the growing AI environment and have fun with it and our community of users." That sounds just fine to me.

[DemonRaven]

Actually there are a few places that have done it you may want them out. http://hackaday.io/project/1214-project-jarvis-ai-home-automation-assistanthttp://www.dronyx.com/dynamix-home-automation-domotics.php[https://github.com/wit-ai/cherry][/url]. Ai cherry looks like it may be open source. I have not downloaded it yet to check it out as i have no use for that kind of AI.

[Gunnar]

Thanks for the links DemonRaven. The hack-a-day page is interesting, and DIY which is nice. They seem to be using Arduino's to power remote servos. I checked to see if arduino is compatible with Visual Basic...turns out is is. So that is a definite option. Here is an instructable link describing how to do it for beginners...http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-Visual-Basic-6-Light-Controller/

The other link you posted "DronyX" is using C++, and is open source. It sounds pretty cool as is, but Making it work using Ultra Hal might be a bit tricky. Saying I'm a novice at programming would be an overstatement, but I'm starting to learn doing some VB tutorials. I am more than willing to start with something like C++ instead, if someone has used it successfully to link up with Ultra Hal Assistant.  I'm still quite interested to hear if anyone from THIS forum has successfully managed to automate something using Ultra Hal.

Finally, I found this; wit a.i https://wit.ai/community, which sounds really promising...I will keep digging and if I find anything conclusive, I will post.

Thanks guys for sharing your information and for being patient with me.

[DemonRaven]

no problem. I am not a expert either but usually when i am not sicker then a dog i can eventually figure stuff out on my own. However for the last couple of weeks that has not been the case my brain takes a walk when i have the flue.

[Gunnar]

I just found this in the forums: http://www.ultrahal.com/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=12067.0;attach=7385 I found it to be helpful. So much to learn, so little time.

[Dave1152]

Ok, so you wanna make this puppy getup an go with as little fuss as possible. The sinple answer is Macro Scheduler by MJT software. I have used it for years with ultra hal . It can control your x10 as well as robots and anything else under the sun you can connect to your pc. I even used hal with my xbox kinect until the whole thing died a month ago. So now I begin again from scratch. And yes I have used it with not just ultra hal but kari, prelude, and verbots as well as alice (old version).. Hope this helps.
Dave