DFP unboxed

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  • Paul_B
    Automated Home Legend
    • Jul 2006
    • 608

    DFP unboxed

    I received my DFP on Saturday, 13th December, and took a few pics as I unboxed it.

    Initial thoughts are that the devie is very well constructed and has a whole raft of sensors and relays that you probably only need this device in a room. Although this approach does raise the question of how you wire high-voltage to be controlled by the relays.

    It has inputs for IR, Temperature, Humidity, Motion, Lightlevel and outputs to relays, speech, display. So pretty muh everything you need in one small unit.

    I have only had this device for a few hours so my comments should be taken in this light. Functionally the device is just amazing, which is what I have come to expect of Idratek. In terms of presentation the display is good but not great, the fonts and default displays are functional over attractive. I am sure this will change over-time, after all presentation, fonts and graphics are easy to change in comparison to basic functionality.

    What I am hoping is that this very good product can become excellent with the sharing of experiences on this forum and interaction with the guys at Idratek.

    Paul

    Kit unpacked:




    Startup on first attach:




    Basic display:
  • ajaxuk
    Automated Home Jr Member
    • Oct 2008
    • 17

    #2
    Nice pictures Paul.

    I set up my display yesterday but unfortunately I seem to have "lost" my phone (camera) so couldn't post any pictures.

    It was my first Idratek order so I have been busy this weekend! What has amazed me is that everything seems to work straight out of the box with very little effort.

    At the moment I have only installed the panel in one of the rooms and have it controlling the main lights via the XRM relay based on occupancy and light level.
    Also I've been playing around with the speech and IR Rx/Tx which work perfectly but have failed to get voice recognition to work - only spent a few minutes on this though.

    I agree with you that the LCD display is fairly basic, but the various lighting options certainly help with the visuals.

    For the price it has exceeded my expectations, so i'm sure there will be some more appearing around our house in the near future.

    Comment

    • Otto-Mate
      Founder
      • Jan 2004
      • 882

      #3
      Thanks for those Paul - I've added a link to this thread from the AH piece on the unit.

      M.
      Editor AutomatedHome.co.uk


      www.facebook.com/AutomatedHomeUK
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      Comment

      • Karam
        Automated Home Legend
        • Mar 2005
        • 863

        #4
        Originally posted by Paul_B View Post
        Initial thoughts are that the devie is very well constructed and has a whole raft of sensors and relays that you probably only need this device in a room. Although this approach does raise the question of how you wire high-voltage to be controlled by the relays.
        There is a more detailed wiring document downloadable from our web site in the folllowing directory:

        Comment

        • Kevin
          Moderator
          • Jan 2004
          • 558

          #5
          Posties arrived

          I've joined the ranks of DFP-02 owners now

          Just playing so far - but can I say what a great cosmetic improvement this is over the previous version - and also what great build and packaging quality there seems to be . From a value perspective it's excellent too.

          I have a question though on the key lighting. Although I can get the LCD backlighting to change colour I can't do the same for the key lighting - it seems stuck on cyan.

          Also the 'red' key indicator - is that a single on/off fixed colour like the LED's on the other switch inputs , or can I colour change those individually too - such that I could say have a cyan backlighting colour with a red key and a green key displayed ?

          This way having entered a 'mode' I can see which keys are active for further choices and in which state they are in. I know the lcd could guide me too. I'd kinda hoped to have say green for on and nothing for off and a red to say 'please investigate' eg when there is an email or telephone message waiting - that way a quick glance at the panel to see if anything was red would be very intuitive whilst still supporting on/off indication of lights etc. Maybe I will have to use flashing red instead if that's easy to do ?

          K
          Last edited by Kevin; 18 December 2008, 12:32 PM.

          Comment

          • ajaxuk
            Automated Home Jr Member
            • Oct 2008
            • 17

            #6
            Kevin

            I believe there will be updates in Cortex v24 to address the key lighting.

            Comment

            • Kevin
              Moderator
              • Jan 2004
              • 558

              #7
              I think its correct - as I just re-read the spec... although the Cortex behaviour editor indicates otherwise - maybe it's a bonus in v 24 :-)


              15 x Blue / Red backlights with brightness control

              K

              Comment

              • Otto-Mate
                Founder
                • Jan 2004
                • 882

                #8
                Anyone able to do a review of the unit yet to feature on AutomatedHome ?

                Thanks

                M.
                Editor AutomatedHome.co.uk


                www.facebook.com/AutomatedHomeUK
                www.twitter.com/ottomate
                www.instagram.com/automatedhome/

                Comment

                • Karam
                  Automated Home Legend
                  • Mar 2005
                  • 863

                  #9
                  Originally posted by Kevin View Post
                  I think its correct - as I just re-read the spec... although the Cortex behaviour editor indicates otherwise - maybe it's a bonus in v 24 :-)


                  15 x Blue / Red backlights with brightness control

                  K
                  Correct and sorry to dash any expectations on this front - the key lighting is RED/BLUE there is no green. It may have been pretty but the extra cost and effort involved outweighed its inclusion. Cortex 23 has had a generalised interface for the DFP. In V24 the button colouring is 'abstracted' such that you have what is considered a backlight colour and a status indication colour (selectable). From a technical point of view each button red and blue are individually and independently dimmable, however their brightness is at present handled as backlight and status levels. It is possible to flash individual LEDs.

                  Comment

                  • Kevin
                    Moderator
                    • Jan 2004
                    • 558

                    #10
                    Thanks Karam

                    - don't you ever sleep ;-)

                    I think what your saying is that technically you could have some buttons off, some blue, some red and some red+blue , although Cortex currently sets the blue globally across all buttons as a backlight colour. That flexibility in itself for individual blue as well as red control could have some intuitive uses - and flash is a very attention seeking option for something that needs attention. Is flash hardware implemented or does it need network activity for each on/off ?

                    I've found the button on/off lighting actions - and the 'flash on' but I think that's a feature for v24 as I can't get eitherh to work...

                    Also - is there any way to locally generate a tone to the speaker - like a bleep, perhaps to gain attention - or does this always have to come over the audio bus ?

                    Enjoying this so far - I even have some xAP sensors displaying updating values on the lcd :-) and have sent Vivian an email re the potential here...

                    (displaying richer info from xAP like #emails, TV listings, Tel callerID's , #missed calls, 1571 message waiting , traffic alert, news, weather forecast or something... within the 140 chars available)

                    Kevin
                    Last edited by Kevin; 19 December 2008, 02:42 AM.

                    Comment

                    • Paul_B
                      Automated Home Legend
                      • Jul 2006
                      • 608

                      #11
                      Kevin,

                      You got me thinking now. I am thinking this would make a nice addition as a controller for my Squeezecenter via the xAP plugin by Ed. It would seem possible (although a bit of scripting is needed) to get the DFP to see the music collection and play it on a Squeezebox. Once playing the Squeezecenter could pass infomration back to the DFP to display.

                      Paul

                      Comment

                      • Kevin
                        Moderator
                        • Jan 2004
                        • 558

                        #12
                        I would think that's possible although I think it might be more of a 'because I can' rather than an 'isn't that great'. Having transport and volume control is easily achievable though.

                        It needs a bit more experimentation to see just what the capabilities are of the display from xAP. At the moment I am only displaying sensor values.

                        Also I need to investigate a little more the possibilities of switching screen modes/pages and then back again to defaults such that you aren't compromising the main functionality of the display - which is of course neatly integrated with Cortex and it's main purpose.

                        K

                        Comment

                        • Karam
                          Automated Home Legend
                          • Mar 2005
                          • 863

                          #13
                          Originally posted by Kevin View Post
                          Thanks Karam

                          - don't you ever sleep ;-)

                          ........

                          Kevin
                          Kevin,

                          Doesn't look like you get much sleep either ;-)

                          Yes, just to clarify, each button has 2 LEDs (Red/Blue) and each LED can be ON/OFF/Flashing and have a particular brightness setting. The flashing is done by local hardware. The flash rate can be changed but the rate applies to all LEDs in one colour group. Blue and Red flashing is not synchronised. There isn't a way of generating sounds locally - not overlooked but compromise.

                          Like most other modules, although to the un-IDRATEK initiated the DFPH02 looks like a standalone controller, it is in fact another general purpose module whose function largely depends on what's controlling it. Obviously at a more detailed level there is a mix of internally and externally implemented functions to improve efficiency, and more features at both ends will become available as we progress.

                          Technically it is possible to send arbitrary text or graphics to the display. A bit map level user graphics conduit is not implemented within Cortex but as you will see it is possible to construct and display user defined menus, send user defined messages and of course the multitude of realtime signals/object status information already have display version output as well as the existing spoken output forms. A xAP specific conduit for text I believe already exists. More graphic functionality is being worked on... we're not stuck with the present two fonts either - infact a 3rd smaller font is being experimented with for other future function, but obviously only so much you can do with 64x128 pixels.

                          For further details see Cortex 24 release notes, now at http://www.idratek.com/public/ReleaseNotes.pdf

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