Support for multiple flics?

[danmac]

I can't tell if this is possible currently, but I have 4 flics I would like to connect to my Mac, and can't tell if there is a way to do this currently. The menu doesn't seem to let me add another one once I connected the first one.

[AntonMeier]

The current version unfortunately only supports one Flic. Adding support for multiple buttons is of course of high priority for future versions. We will asses, depending on the response we get on this project, how and when we will continue the development work.

[erikvg01]

I second this. I'm really itching to use the Flic's as the primary human interface to the home automation system in my house...Right now the iPad app is brokering connections to the mac mini server which is executing all the scripts, but that burns up the iPad as being an iPad...It needs to be effectively stationary and always plugged in.

[AntonMeier]

It will be available hopefully sooner rather than later.

[wejstal]

Any ETA on this? Really limiting with just one flic, however it works every time :) much better than using an iPhone.

[dermotos]

Just like to add my +1 regarding Flic on Mac. I'd like to interface with a node.js server. Once some kind of SDK becomes available, i'll be placing my order for ~20 of these!

Edit: Also, it's worth noting that there is a severe lack of physical controls on the market for home automation systems. I use voice and apps for controlling lots of things like blinds and the like, but in many circumstances (e.g.: turning on a bathroom light at 3am) there's no replacement for a physical button. Currently, there is no commercial option for this, I'm using custom made arduino button units. A tidy, wireless, programmable button like Flic is the dream, but connecting via a phone feels too hacky for me right now.

[AntonMeier]

Thanks! We are currently working on something that I believe will be great and should cover all the things you want to do. It is going to be a mix between a full Flic app (for ordinary users) and a hack-app for those who want to make cool things on their own.

On top of that we are also building in support for the mac app to act as a "Flic Deamon" to support the TCP Client/server protocol that we have put together for our Linux SDK, which means that people can hook up the button events to pretty much anything they want. We already have a node.js client lib available for that so I guess that would be something for you to look at in the future.

We will get back to you guys as soon as possible with an ETA. I also think it would be cool to involve more people during the development as well so that we can get feedback early on.

[wejstal]

Sounds good! I will gladly help and give you feedback!

[AntonMeier]

Today I have added a new repository, flic-service-osx, that contains an application that includes a TCP server for Flic communication. This is compatible with the client libs that we have made available previously, such as NodeJS and Java. With this you are free to scan and connect as manny buttons as you like and tie them up to your own applications, either on the local computer, or on your local network.

However, if you try this out you must unfortunately uninstall hax-with-flic first since undefined stuff can happen if you try and use both of them. The idea is that once the Flic app for mac is done in the future then this service will be built into that, meaning that your applications will work with that as well out of the box. Let me know what you think!

[wejstal]

Thanks @AntonMeier unfortunately my skills are limited, installation is pretty straight forward, but I'm not sure how I could add a flic by using the linux-hci. Do I need to compile anything for this? An example would be great :)

[AntonMeier]

Well actually I guess this is aimed for developers. The only thing the flic-service-osx will do is to set up a TCP server on your computer that will distribute button click events to different clients on your computer or network. This means that you would actually have to do the client application on your own. The examples that i referred to on the fliclib-linux-hci repository are just sample clients that can be used for reference, but they don't actually do anything other then print the events.

I don't know how much development experience you have with these kinds of things, but it should not be too hard to get going if you just have some free time :) Otherwise I suggest you wait until someone else publishes their own clients.

[wejstal]

I should probably aim for some free time then :)

[wejstal]

Any news?

[AntonMeier]

We are getting there.. slowly but surely..

[wejstal]

Looks really good! Let me know if you need beta-testers!