Haiku Myro:Home Helper for Leviton/HAI Systems

mavromatis

Member
Hi!  I'm proud to announce that Myro:Home Helper for Leviton/HAI has been approved and released in the MacOS store.  
 
This application can standalone to enhance your Leviton/HAI system (expose units as HomeKit accessories, etc) or be used with our Myro:Home iOS app to enable push notifications, etc. (in development).
 
Here is a direct link to the Mac App Store:
[url="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/myro-home-helper/id1334844181?mt=12"]https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/myro-home-helper/id1334844181?mt=12[/URL]
 
Thanks for your support!
 
OK, this is awesome... but before I plunk down 100 bucks it would really be nice if there was a manual, help file, or something that really laid out what the helper is capable of doing. 
 
Also, I noticed it is suspiciously close in UI design to HaikuHelper.  Is that intentional?  Is there a shared code base here?  What about scripting?
 
Hi, working on all that (documentation and MHH product website) -- this has been a pet project of mine for many nights and weekends, my wife and kids keep asking when it will be done, LOL  --  hopefully some of the beta testers of MHH can vouch for simplicity and ease of setup -- it's been in testing for over 6 months -- so this wasn't a rush job, but it is an ongoing iterative process and there are lots of complexities in this product as well as lots of different Leviton/HAI configurations out there.  Motivation kicked in to top gear when Haiku Helper went away and I lost my push notifications... now, I finally got to a minimum viable product and I'm releasing it for everyone to enjoy.  This is hopefully just the beginning and others find the value of this endeavor...
 
As for the familiarity -- yes, that is intentional and a tribute to Haiku Helper, as many, including myself, were fans and users of that software.  That said, the generic/standard controls of the Mac interface and how they are arranged are not proprietary to anyone company.  There is also ZERO codebase being shared -- wish that wasn't true -- as it would have made things a whole lot easier.
 
No scripting yet, the framework of the application allows for this, but I have not put that into this initial release.  It is a feature I've had requests for and is on the product roadmap -- it will most likely be a "PRO" version in-app purchase when released.   I am a little reluctant to provide this because it could cause instability to the app and become a support nightmare -- I know the Haiku folks had warnings about scripting... so I may have to adopt something similar.  I've tried to capture most of the typical scripting like notifications and customized messages, etc without having to use scripting... so depending on how you are using scripting, the current release of MHH could satisfy you.
 
Also, the $100(Apple takes 30%) price is primarily for the HomeKit bridge and push notification (paired with our iOS app) capabilities -- that alone is worth it if you compare to other hardware solutions -- I didn't want to do a subscription model for the helper, so a one-time purchase with in-app features where appropriate is the business model I'm using for the Helper.   TBD if this was a smart move or not... 
 
Also, if you have any feature requests that require a "server" component that makes sense to add to Myro:Home Helper, I'd love to hear about them... 
 
Bit of background of my company, Myro Control, LLC is a U.S.A based company that has been around since 2009.  First product was a PC version of Myro:Home (www.myrohome.com).  Also, manufacture two hardware solutions, Myro:Bridge (www.myrobridge.com), bridges Russound whole house audio systems to Sonos and Matrix switches and the Myro:Air (www.myroair.com), an Apple MFI certified audiophile grade AirPlay streamer.    As I'm also a user of these products and privacy is an important element of the company.   I hope to continue to build the brand around maintaining that trust while creating great products.
 
Thanks for the explanations!
 
I used to do a lot of stuff through scripting, but with the demise of Haiku I ported a lot of that through a very painful process into HomeSeer.  So it's doing a lot of that right now.  Things like polling my Rainforest Automation EAGLE for electrical usage, price tiers, etc.  Before I was polling it in HaikuHelper and then setting the energy level in the panel accordingly.
 
My biggest feature request would be to implement some kind of web API like what HaikuHelper has/had.  Being able to make web calls from other systems to query and control items was a huge hidden benefit that I don't think a lot of people knew existed.  It really was an elegant way to interface into the crazy HAI ethernet API.  While the full blown web interface was nice, the real power was the simple API.  That, and include support for the Rainforest EAGLE smart meter gateway instead of the TED.
 
Also, just to be clear, we don't get push notifications until we have a Myro app on our iOS devices, right?
 
Yes, I think that is more inline with my thinking around how scripting should be.  Focuses on a web API to further extend capabilities to/from HAI panel.
 
Do you have access to the Rainforest EAGLE API so I can add some basic support under the energy section of MHH?
 
Yes, the Push Notifications will require the Myro:Home iOS app.  It does however use local notifications for the machine running MHH -- so notifications show up in the Notification Center of the OS as well.
 
For me, maybe post a list of capabilities or applications which it can perform. I had HaikuHelper, but I can't say it really did all that much for me. Notification, OK that is nice, but it’s easy to get email alerts from the panel, which for me work fine. I do have a Mac running as a server in my house, so running it is easy. All my other computers are Macs as well.

I guess what would be valuable for me would be using it as a bridge to connecting the HAI panel to other outside devices, which is difficult currently. I use an Amazon Echo, and Samsung Smartthings Box, but they can't communicate with my Omni Pro II panel. Yes I knw about the HAI Logger but that runs on a PC and was a mess to maintain. I nice connection of the Omni to the outside world would be really beneficial. For example having access to my UPB lights, security status, etc.

A few yours ago I used HomeSeers and also CQC, but programming and maintaining them got to be a full-time job. So I moved to simplicity, and the OMNI can do lots itself, but still having access from control and services is the way to go in my book. But unfortunately, this also isolated the Omni in most respects.

For example, SmartThings uses our smartphones to know if we are home or away. It works great, but the Omni can't get this info. But if Myro:Home Helper could create a two-way bridge to SmartThings, Echo, IFTTT, etc. that would be quite compelling to me.
 
@ano I was afraid of that type of sentiment towards HaikuHelper functions.   Given I've been a part of this "home automation" scene for a long time also hoping for a "perfect solution".   
 
I've found that our systems (HAI) are too personal for any one solution to handle.
 
HAI's platform is remarkable given stability and product life -- that's why I still recommend it for new installs.  
 
The OpenHAB and Homeseer platforms are powerful but made for the DIY or "engineers" that want to roll up their selves and manage their homes, not very wife and kids friendly and it seems like the system is always a work in progress.  How do I know?  Been down that route before! :) 
 
Then you have Apple and Amazon trying to get into the space and it's currently more aimed for smaller, simpler homes/condos/apartments -- "mass market" which is great! -- But, the interfaces don't provide much details/overview of the system and purely voice based is difficult to get people inside the home to remember/use -- except for simple things.
 
That's where I focused Myro:Home Helper to extend modern capabilities around the Apple eco system (HomeKit, Siri, Shortcuts, etc) exposing HomeKit and in the Myro:Home iOS app introduce "Actionable" notifications where you can leverage the push to do something -- like turn off the alarm or lights, etc. with a single tap.   I like the idea of only having to open the App for when necessary and the rest is brought forth based on context and intent.   This, I believe, is where the power of Siri Shortcuts and AI/ML will take us... 
 
The beauty of HomeKit integration is you can do "scripting" with other HomeKit or Siri Shortcut based apps... it's actually quite elegant...
 
I have nothing against Homekit, although I don't know much about it.  Definitely at one time, I was in the Homeseer and CQC bandwagon. They are very powerful, but their weakness that all their interfaces have to be maintained, and they typically are proprietary, so that was their downfall. Being small, these companies couldn't pull-it-off.
 
That is why I really like SmartThings, Echo, and probably Homekit.  Let the OMNI do what it does best, security, and control some hardware, but let "smarter" ecosystems have access to it, and add their own layer of smarts.
 
Because you allow access to Homekit does that mean you can't allow access to SmartThings and Echo?  There are many devices out there that allow access to all three.
 
The Rainforest EAGLE APIs are here:
 
https://rainforestautomation.com/support/developer/
 
Note that there are 2 versions, the 100 and the 200.  They have, naturally, different APIs because reasons.
 
There are also code examples at the bottom of the page.
 
I know a lot of folks out here in CA use the EAGLEs, as they interface seamlessly with all 3 of the major utilities (PG&E, SoCal Edison, and SDG&E).
 
neillt said:
The Rainforest EAGLE APIs are here:
 
https://rainforestautomation.com/support/developer/
 
Note that there are 2 versions, the 100 and the 200.  They have, naturally, different APIs because reasons.
 
There are also code examples at the bottom of the page.
 
I know a lot of folks out here in CA use the EAGLEs, as they interface seamlessly with all 3 of the major utilities (PG&E, SoCal Edison, and SDG&E).
 
Thank you,  I scanned the API for EAGLE, The TED data has current and billing cycle projected use values.  Do you happen to know if EAGLE has this available or do you have to poll and store to get that kind of history?  Can you send me an XML formatted example of the data I could use?  I can then create a parser for it and add support -- like I did for TED.
 
Perhaps we can move this conversation over to our support system so I can track easier?
 
ano said:
Because you allow access to Homekit does that mean you can't allow access to SmartThings and Echo?  There are many devices out there that allow access to all three.
 
No, I could add support for other platforms but they have to meet the following criteria:
1) Cannot require a 3rd party server to store data on -- for privacy issues, I do not want to be responsible for logins, etc that go outside of the local network.  I also do not want to run/manage servers in the cloud and act as a man-in-the-middle.
2) Is there already a solution out there that does something similar, if so, how could it be improved upon? 

I just don't want to add support if I'm not going to improve upon it. For HomeKit, I've looked at all the solutions out there and they seemed subpar (incomplete) to me in relation to HAI/Leviton platform. Hence the reason why I focused on that and I feel my solution works better.
 
As someone that has 5 Macs running in my house (I've had Macs since they were invented) a full-time Mac server, an Apple watch and all iPhones, I have nothing against the Apple ecosystem. But I generally like open hardware standards like Zigbee and Bluetooth and WiFi.  As far as I can see, I don't think Homekit supports Zigbee. SmartThings and Amazon Echo have done a great job embracing all standards. My Echo can even control my Samsung TV. Homekit seems more closed, so I see no reason to switch over to it. No advantage I can see.
 
Maybe you've done your research and you think the number of HAI/Leviton Omni owners who also have a Mac running full-time who also use Homekit is a high number. Maybe it is. But by excluding the more common echosystems out there, like SmartThings and Amazon Echo, you are also excluding many potential customers.
 
ano said:
As someone that has 5 Macs running in my house (I've had Macs since they were invented) a full-time Mac server, an Apple watch and all iPhones, I have nothing against the Apple ecosystem. But I generally like open hardware standards like Zigbee and Bluetooth and WiFi.  As far as I can see, I don't think Homekit supports Zigbee. SmartThings and Amazon Echo have done a great job embracing all standards. My Echo can even control my Samsung TV. Homekit seems more closed, so I see no reason to switch over to it. No advantage I can see.
 
Maybe you've done your research and you think the number of HAI/Leviton Omni owners who also have a Mac running full-time who also use Homekit is a high number. Maybe it is. But by excluding the more common echosystems out there, like SmartThings and Amazon Echo, you are also excluding many potential customers.
 
It just comes down to ROI and what I feel I can bite off and do better than others with my resources -- 1) I'm one guy  2) the market is way to small for me to support everything and be able to turn this into a bigger venture.   To give you an idea, sell MHH one-time for $100, Apple takes 30%, $70 (before taxes) you'd need to sell a lot to make this worthwhile -- the amount of work to support and QA, regression test etc, and speed of how these technologies, etc are changing and making other technologies less relevant, well, makes things difficult. 
 
So my reasoning is that I'm betting on Apple HomeKit for the time being and there are other solutions out there that can solve for Echo and SmartThings -- think of my software as more of a "distributed system" focusing on doing a few things great running on your Mac than a monolithic system trying to be all and doing things OK.
 
I understand completely.
 
You say there are other solutions to connect SmartThings and Echo to a Leviton Omni panel. Could you suggest some?  I've been looking for this for sometime. I know about the "HAI Logger" but there are so many parts to that solution it is really not very useful. There is a $600 device called the VoiceUPB Bridge that lets Echo connect to UPB devices (but not the panel itself). I tried contacting them but I'm not sure they are even in business anymore. Other than that, I don't know of anything.

And you can message me if you don't want to post here.
 
ano said:
I understand completely.
 
You say there are other solutions to connect SmartThings and Echo to a Leviton Omni panel. Could you suggest some?  I've been looking for this for sometime. I know about the "HAI Logger" but there are so many parts to that solution it is really not very useful. There is a $600 device called the VoiceUPB Bridge that lets Echo connect to UPB devices (but not the panel itself). I tried contacting them but I'm not sure they are even in business anymore. Other than that, I don't know of anything.

And you can message me if you don't want to post here.
 
I have the HS3 ZEE S2 with HAI plugin working with Alexa/Echo... I believe they also have plugins for SmartThings? 
 
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