On Sale

Today the Paterson Technology web site was updated to take orders for the WebCell and Cell Development Kit. I’ve spent most of my time on the production process, from ordering parts to developing production programming software. (The actual assembly is handled by a nearby factory, Printed Circuits Assembly.) We now have both products in stock.

There has been some progress on the documentation, but there is still a long way to go. This will be a continuing emphasis for me.

The standard web pages for the WebCell are still as rough as ever. But I now have a contractor lined up to give them a beautiful new design.

The Unveiling

Today I rolled out a completely new Paterson Technology web site featuring the WebCell as a product “coming soon”. The WebCell documentation is skeletal at best and the pre-built web pages provided with it are pretty rough, so I don’t know when it will actually go on sale. But I felt I needed to get the obsolete products removed from the site and start talking about what’s coming up.

A Change of Schedule

Wow, it’s been a long time since my last update. I have continued to work on developing the WebCell into a product. I’ve used a few contractors from Elance.com to help with specific things, like make icons for the CellScript Simulator. But I’ve spent the most time on a total rewrite of the web pages for home automation.

The home automation web pages are no longer generated by running CellScript code on the WebCell. They create their content themselves with JavaScript by using a web service written in CellScript on the WebCell as the source of data. The web service provides an interface to the WebCell scheduler, which tracks things like thermostat settings and irrigation times.

With this rewrite I also recently completed a web page that for the first time provides access to a feature that the scheduler has had from the beginning – the ability to schedule a change of schedule. Here’s how I put it to use:

I have thermostat schedules called “Home” and “Away”. The Home schedule changes the temperature setting each morning and evening; the Away schedule is basically set to turn the system off, with the heat set to 55° and the cooling set to 85°. I was leaving town for a week, but my son-in-law was staying at my house for an additional night, so I set the Away schedule to start at 8AM the next day. I also set the Home schedule to start in the morning on the day I get back. So now I get to save energy when nobody is in the house, but it will be a comfortable temperature when I return.