From KHarms at HCATech.com Mon Jul 7 17:04:58 2008 From: KHarms at HCATech.com (Kimberly Harms) Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 17:04:58 -0700 Subject: [HCAInfo] Home Control Assistant version 8 now available Message-ID: <20080708000452.2B22C50724@mx1.blastzone.com> Hello. You are receiving this email because at sometime you downloaded an evaluation copy of the Home Control Assistant software program, asked a question of technical support, or registered a copy of HCA. Regardless of what software you now use for your home automation solution you may want to take a look at HCA release 8. To sum up HCA 8 in a single word, that word would be INSTEON. We have worked hard to provide you with a series of tools that will make installing and using Insteon a much more pleasant process. If you have been working with Insteon you are probably very tired with all the "Press and Hold" and "Tap the set button" kind of stuff to create scenes. No more! With HCA 8 you can create all the programming for your Insteon LampLincs, KeypadLincs, SwitchLincs, and a whole host of other Insteon devices using a new tool we call the Visual Scene Editor. Want to link one keypad button to 3 devices? With a few drag and drops and pushing a "Program" button it can all be done for you without getting out of your chair! There are lots of other Insteon features like the Multi-way wizard, support for the EZ-Rain and the Insteon Thermostat adapter, network documenter and a tool to search out problems in your network. Too many for this email. Take a look on our support web site. http://www.hcatech.com/v80.htm But that's not all for V8! While we have focused on supplying great tools for Insteon we have also created a new Web Server component that is so simple to install and configure that, well, it almost needs no extra effort beyond installing HCA. With the new Web Server and an internet connection you an access your home design from any browser or mobile browser - from work on a desktop machine or on-the-go with a PDA. And, without sounding like a late-night television commercial - there is even more! HCA 8 includes great support for the Global Cache GC-100 IR interface. With this you can control any device that accepts IR signals. Keep in mind that in addition to directly controlling TVs, radios, and other A/V equipment, HCA can act as a protocol bridge - use Insteon keypads to control both Insteon devices and X10, UPB, and now IR devices as well. If you would like to take a new look at HCA 8, an evaluation version is available: http://www.hcatech.com/demo.htm Upgrading from a previous version of HCA is very easy: http://www.hcatech.com/V80Upgrade.htm Purchasing HCA is easy too ! http://www.hcatech.com/V80Howget.htm We know how much email you receive every day and we respect your privacy by not sending frivolous e-mail. However, with each new release we send one email to everyone in our database, whether an existing user or someone with a past interest in HCA. This is the official announcement of the new HCA release. The HCA Team. From KHarms at HCATech.com Tue Jul 15 05:17:50 2008 From: KHarms at HCATech.com (Kimberly Harms) Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:17:50 -0700 Subject: [HCAInfo] HCA 8 update Message-ID: <20080715121730.155FA5084F@mx1.blastzone.com> Hello HCA Users. The response from HCA release 8 has been very good and we want to thank you all for the nice comments. It's unfortunate but we have to report several difficulties that occurred with the initial release of HCA 8. These have been corrected so you may not be experiencing them. Please read though this list to see if any of the problems effect you. HCA Standard ========== In the initial release of HCA Standard a problem with its menus caused it to crash almost immediately upon execution. This was caught early before many copies were shipped. If you have this crash problem please contact technical support. A second problem was that HCA Standard didn't have the Insteon menu - in the menu bar to the left of the HCA menu - as it should have. If your copy of HCA Standard does not have the Insteon menu please contact technical support. A third problem in HCA Standard was that the parts file showed the Insteon Thermostat adapter. It should not have been listed in the set of available device types as HCA Standard does not include thermostat support. HCA's actions if you create a device of that type are undefined and HCA will crash. If you see this in the list of Insteon devices please contact technical support for an updated parts file. HCA Pro ====== HCA Pro for Windows Vista - full, upgrade, and evaluation downloads - didn't include the HCA Web Server executable. This should have been included in the installation Program folder. If you do not have HCAWeb.exe in the Program folder please contact technical support. HCA Web Server ============ On some computers - but not all - during install the HCA Objects that the Web Server uses didn't get properly registered. This caused the HCA Web Server to crash as soon as the Start Web Server button was pressed in HCA. We have a simple fix for this and if you are having this problem please contact technical support. Finally a few common questions and their answers. 1. To add an Insteon device in the New Device Wizard select as the manufacturer "Insteon by SmartHome" and not "SmartHome" which only lists the X10 device types. 2. You can use the new Insteon Database Capture to add an Insteon network to your HCA file. All you need do is to add one device manually and then use Database Capture which uses the linking table in the manually added device to locate other linked devices and add those as well. 3. If you don't see the new Scene element in the list of Visual Programmer elements then select from the menu HCA - Properties and click on the Visual Programmer tab. Locate the Scene element in the left list and move it to the right list. And finally, please be sure to review the documentation on the Visual Scene Editor. We have made it as simple to use as possible but it still is a powerful tool and as such takes a bit of learning. That documentation can be found here: http://www.hcatech.com/Docs.htm Again, thanks for all the kind words in support of this new version. The HCA Team