Announce: CQC 1.3 Release Imminent

[Dean Roddey]

!NOTE: This is a very slight pre-announcement. The new release will be available on the Charmed Quark web site in a couple days (i.e. by thursday, 08/05.)

Charmed Quark Software is proud to announce the 1.3.4 release of CQC (the Charmed Quark Controller), its software based control and automation system. CQC is the brains that supplement the brawn of your PC network, to create a powerful, secure, network distributed, highly visual, and highly robust system for management of hardware devices and software applications. With the addition of the need ports (IR, serial, contact, etc...) to a general purpose PC, CQC can provide you with control and automation services on par with far more expensive traditional automation systems. It also has strong home theater front end services, providing a powerful mixture of front and back end services, all in one package. CQC supports the Windows XP, 2000 Server, and 3000 Server family of operating systems, with others coming.

Version 1.3 is a quite extensive step forward from the previous (1.2) version, particularly in the area of graphical capabilities, user interface features, new features of particular interest to the HTPC owner, as well as major new features in the traditional automation category.

In the remainder of this document some screen shots will be provided. These are of the current CQC demo system. Please note that there is nothing about these images that is intrinsic to CQC. They were created using the CQC interface designer, using arbitrary images gathered up by me because I thought they provided an attractive interface. You may create interfaces with any look and feel you want, so just be aware that these interfaces are purely examples. Note that they are also pretty significantly reduced in quality in order to avoid download overhead


What's New Overview
---------------------------------------
This section will briefly introduce the major new features in this version, some of which will be discussed in more detail later in this document.

• Scheduled Events. In the area of traditional automation features, a new optional component provides support for scheduled events. You can schedule one shots, every X minutes or hours or days, or on particular days of the week, month, or year.
• Text to Speech. There is now support for Window's text to speech services, so you can make the computer talk to you, to make announcements or whatever other use you might have.
• User Drawn Interface Improvements. There have been extensive improvements to the user drawn interface system, which will be discussed in much more detail below.
• New/Improved Drivers. There are new drivers for the Lumagen Pro/HDP video scalers, the Lutron Radio RA lighting system, The Weather Channel's XML data feed, and significant improvements in the Lexicon MC-12 and X-10 drivers. The application control system also has some significant improvements.
• New Image Sets. The first two sets of pre-fab images for the user drawn interface system are provided in this release, for DirecTV channel logos and Weather Channel 'condition' icons, and there are new user interface widgets specialized to deal with them.

(IMG:http://www.charmedquark.com/www2/Downloads/NewBlack_Intro_Small.jpg)
Click here for a full sized version


Text to Speech
---------------------------------------
The new text to speech support is provided in two different ways. The CML (macro language) runtime has a new class to support this feature. This class allows you to invoke speech, and control voices used, from your own control macros. This mechanism will invoke speech on the machine where the macro is actully executed.

There is also a text to speech driver which allows you to invoke speech on other machines. CQC is a fully network distributed system and you can have drivers (both to control devices and to provide services such as text to speech) installed on any machine in the network. By providing a text to speech driver, CQC allows you to make any machine in the network speak. This can be very useful in many cases.

In addition to just providing support for the speaking of lines of text, the driver provides some interesting additional features. You can have it repeat a phrase periodically, a reminder for instance, every X seconds.

Also, you can have it do a 'countdown'. In other words, you can have it repeat a phrase every X seconds, in which there is a replacement parameter that is replaced by a current count. You can set that count (in seconds) and the driver will start counting down the seconds to zero, repeating the phrase and placing the current countdown value into the text.

Though I like to use it to do "This apartment will self destruct in 30 seconds", "This apartment will self destruct in 20 seconds", type countdowns, to scare my neighbors, you can use it for things such as a countdown for disarming a security system, or other situations of that type.

User Interface Improvements
---------------------------------------
Significant work was done on the user interface system in this release. Many of the improvements are useful for the adminstrator of the system, by making it easier to create user interfaces, but the sexy ones of course are all the visual goodies. This section will discuss some of these changes, and provide some example demo interfaces, to help graphically demonstrate the new features.

Note that the example interfaces displayed here use a scheme commonly employed in CQC, which is to have a single main interface, and to have a set of buttons that load up various smaller interfaces into a central area. All the buttons in the Options section to the right load up 'overlays', which are just smaller interfaces, into the central area of the main image. This both saves time by allowing you to provide common functionality once, and allows for more flexibility in reuse of sets of overlays that provide access to common types of functionality

(IMG:http://www.charmedquark.com/www2/Downloads/NewBlack_Channels_Small.jpg)
Click here for a full sized version

Alpha Transparency
You can now use both constant alpha and source alpha transparency. This allows you to blend images into the background in interesting ways. It's a key means of creating very sexy looking displays. In the above example, you can see the volume knob is blended into the background, so tha tthe texture shows through. Also, though it's really only apparent in the full size image, the current button is using alpha to become brighter and more transparent.

Another nice use of transparency is to do a set of buttons (such as numeric) that have no color of their own, i.e. they are just gray scale, and which therefore can be used on pretty much any background and displayed slightly transparently. This makes them pick up a little of the underyling background's color, so that they look like they are designed for that background, but are really just generic.

Input Focus
The interface viewer now has the concept of input focus, which it did not previously. This allows you to navigate around with the arrow keys and invoke buttons with the enter key. To support this, buttons now allow you to indicate focus in a few different ways.

If you are using images for your buttons, then there is a new 'focus' image option, in addition to the 'unpressed' and 'pressed' images. In the examples here, this is the scheme used. Actually the same image is being used, but its transparency options are different. So as you arrow around, the active button lights up nicely and becomes more transparent.

If the button doesn't use images, but it uses flyover emphasis, that will be used. Flyover allows you to have some visual attribute change when the mouse is over the widget. So far the only attribute supported is the text color. If you notice in these examples, the active button also has brighter text because the mouse was over them when the image was snapped. But if the button doesn't use images, the focus mechanism will use this flyover color change to indicate emphasis as well.

If you have neither of those, then a default red 'emphasis cursor' is displayed, which is just a rounded box around the button.

Interface Driver
There is also now a CQC device driver for the user interface viewer. This means that you can, among other things, drive the user interface focus movement and button invocation via an IR remote. The driver allows you to do arrow up, down, left, and right, enter, and to invoke the blanker.

For those folks who are displaying the control interface on their projector, this is obviously of great utility if they don't want to use a mouse to navigate the control interface. Of course for general IR control you can just train CQC to invoke macros upon receipt of an IR signal. Since you are talking to an IR reciever driver running under the CQC service, you don't have to be logged on to invoke these types of IR driven events.

DirecTV Logo Widget
There is now a specialized image display widget for DirecTV logos. You can see it in the above example. You just associate it with the 'Channel' field of a DirecTV set top box, and it will automatically display the logo for that channel (if it is available.) This is a very helpful 'power assist' type tool. You could do the same thing using the existing capabilities, i.e. the 'mapped image' widget, which allows you to set up the mappings from a field value to the image displayed, but it would be tedious for such a large number of images. With this new widget, you just pop one into the interface and all of that is handled for you.

Nested Overlays
Though these examples don't demonstrate it, overlays can contain other overlays now. This is very convenient when you want to create, as discussed above, overlays that provide common chunks of functionality. Previously, if that functionality required the ability to load up overlays, you couldn't do it in a template that would be loaded as an overlay.

The interface system will insure that you create no recursive links, and the viewer will automatically remove any offending overlays if that would happen. They only work 'downward', so a link button in an overlay can only target a child overlay, not one above it. This also promotes the building of 'standalone' overlays that can be reused and insures you don't do anything wierd.

Hierarchical Image Repository
All the images used in user interfaces are uploaed to CQC's image repostory (on the master server) where they are available to any other machine on the network running (or desinging) interfaces. This repository used to be a flat list, but it is now hierarchical, so you can much better arrange and categorize your images. It also allows Charmed Quark to deliver pre-fab image sets without possible name clashes. All CQC images are in the /System scope, and all user images are now in the /User scope.

The standard file browsing dialog has been extended to support image preview, so it can be used to browse the image repository just like it is a local disk, and you can see thumbnails of the images as you browse.

Weather Data

There is a new Weather Channel driver, which allows you to pull in data from the Weather Channel's XML data feed. This is something that has been on the list for some time, and it is nice to finally get it into place.

(IMG:http://www.charmedquark.com/www2/Downloads/NewBlack_Weather_Small.jpg)
Click here for a full sized version

In this example, you can see the display of current conditions, plus 3 days of future condition forecasts. You can also see the use of another new specialized image widget, which understands the Weather Channel 'condition codes' and displays the correct icon for the reported conditions.

What the Future Holds
---------------------------------------
As you can see, CQC has made some major steps forward with this new release. It has always arguably had the most extensive back end tool set of the major software based control system, and now the front end is moving forward to the same level of power, and more of course is to come. The next major steps will be happening in two areas, 'power assist' tools and pre-packaged hardware based systems.

There will be a fairly quick followup release, probably a month from now, which will not introduce any major new features, but will concentrate almost completely on tools which assist you in the installation and configuration of the system. This is a major undertaking and the first cut of these tools won't be the ultimate versions, but it will be a major start, and will be improved significantly in subsequent releases. These tools will walk you through the steps of installing the system, choosing installation options, getting devices under control, setting up IR control, and generating some standard user interfaces so that you can get going quickly with a quite nice system, and then take your time to learn and tweak the system to be exactly want you want.

There is also a big movement here towards beginning to provide CQC pre-packaged in hardware. This will be accomplished in a few incremental steps. Firstly, we will start offering CQC in a very small form factor system with attached touch screen, pre-configured with the needed hardware, and if you are interested in such services, pre-configured with drivers for your devices. These initial systems will be general purpose PCs running XP, just slimmed down and dedicated to this task. This will be happening very soon.

Next we will be moving forward into more touch screen systems, based on Embedded XP, with a wireless touch screen running the interface viewer and a controller system in the closet/rack controlling the devices. This will be a higher end system of course, for those folks who don't want a directly attached touch screen.

And finally we will be moving into a fully custom designed enclosure for a wireless touch screen, and either a rack mount or custom cased PC in the closet or rack handling control, or a fully 'no moving parts' appliance type controller in the closet or rack, for those folks looking for fixed function but highly robust control systems.

We will also be moving into the WinCE world here soon, so the user interface client will be available on things like PocketPCs or other smaller touch screen devices for wall mounting. This will be an incremental move, with more and more of the user interface functionality being supported as we move forward. But a core set of features will be available initially. Because of the massive difference in screen real estate between a normal 12" or 14" or 17" touch screen and a PocketPC, and the differences in capabilities between a desktop/XP system and WinCE systems, you'd probably always being designing interfaces specifically for these small clients anyway.

All of these systems will be well under half the price of what you would pay for a Crestron system of similar utility, so they will provide very high bang for the buck for customers who want to move into the control world, but don't want to pay huge bucks just to get the hardware, or pay someone huge bucks to set up the hardware once obtained. The software only version will still be available as a separate product for those who want to roll their own, or who already have a robust network infrastructure in their home that they want to build on.

I will also let everyone know that CQS will soon no longer stand for Charmed Quark Software, but Charmed Quark Systems, Limited. We have now incorporated, and soon the web site will have a new look and feel and we'll have a spiffy new logo for the new company, and I'll be changing over to the new name in all my postings.

(IMG:http://www.charmedquark.com/www2/Downloads/NewBlack_Transport_Small.jpg)
Click here for a full sized version

What's Available
---------------------------------------
CQC consists of a 'base package' and a number of optional packages. The base package provides all that most folks will need, though in some cases they might want to pick up one or two optional packages.

The base package provides the following features:

• Network distributed front and back end architecture
• User drawn interface development and deployment tools
• IR control
• X-10 control
• Serial and socket device control
• Macro development tools
• Device driver development tools (what would be called 'plug ins' in some systems)
• Security and user management

The optional packages available as of version 1.3.4 are:

1. Scheduled Events Server. As discussed above allows you to schedule events to occur at regular interfaces.
2. Application Control. If you want to control other applications as though they were devices, then you need to get the application control system. It allows applications to be managed via standard CQC device drivers, so that they integrate cleanly into the CQC system (within the natural limits imposed by the fact that applications are often not designed to be controlled.)
3. XLM Gateway Server. Provides a simple XML over Sockets interface into the CQC system, to support third party clients.

Other optional packages will be made available over time. The purpose of structuring the system in this way is to allow the core functionality cost to be kept reasonable, and to only ask you to pay for those less common features that you really need, and to keep system requirements down where that is an issue.

Give it a Try
---------------------------------------
CQC is available for use in trial mode for 30 days, without any encumberances. So you can fully evaluate it for a month without commitment. If you decide to buy at any time within the trial period, you can convert your existing trial system into a fully licensed system without any interruptions.

CQC is also safe to try. It does not install any system files, or modify your configuration in any way except to create some start menu items and to create a small registry entry. It also creates a service, but all of the files it uses are within the CQC directory. So if you decide not to commit, just use the uninstaller and it can be completely removed without any danger of destabilization of your system.

So feel free to give it a try and see if suits your needs. CQC provides a lot of functionality, all under one roof, where it can be managed and configured as a whole, and where the pieces are designed from day one to work together seemlessly and will continue to do so into the future. You don't have to master multiple systems and tie them together yourself, and hope that they do not diverge at some point, leaving you in the lurch, nor do you have to worry about the security of multiple systems not designed to provide comprehensive built in, user based security.

CQC can adapt to scenarios from a locked down, kiosk mode system, up to a "PC based and not ashamed of it" full home network in which every machine is a CQC node, so it is applicable to many sorts of control system topology and usage patterns, and can change easily over time because of the flexible nature of software based systems.

CQC is licensed on a network basis. So the price is basically for a license to run the 'master server' on one machine. You can then run the other client and server components on other machines in your network as desired. So the price compared to some other options is more competative than it might seem once you move off a single machine configuration.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us at support@charmedquark.com, or you can register on the CQC support forums and join the growing community of CQC users, many of whom can provide you with help and practical experience.

[Dean Roddey]

For those of you who prefer a more minimalist look, you can easily create that as well. Some comments on the screen caps above (as usual) lead me to believe that folks think that that is the 'look' of CQC, but CQC has no 'look', you create a look that you want to have. These aren't 'skins' that are layed over a fixed set of functionality. They are completely created screens, created using built in designer tools, as would be the case in a high end automation system, where the customer wants a given set of interface features and the installer must be able to create them.

Just to give an example, here is an adaption of the weather channel overlay from above, which took me about 5 minutes to adapt to a completely different look and feel, which is of course similar to another product recently released. I'm not trying to step on their toes, just trying to make it clear that you almost always can create screens that fit your particular ideas of 'cool'.

(IMG:http://www.charmedquark.com/www2/Downloads/Minimalist_Weather.jpg)

[Dean Roddey]

Ok, version 1.3.4 is now posted and available for download. So give it a spin and let me know what you think. Comments and criticisms are always welcome.

[Dean Roddey]

So what do you think of this? This is CQC running on a HushPC, with a Planar 15" touch screen LCD on it.

(IMG:http://www.charmedquark.com/www2/Downloads/Sample1_580_Med.jpg)

This is a hardware platform that we are thinking of delivering as our initial non-software-only type product. The first scenario will be pretty straightforward, just stripped down XP and with a hard drive. But we think we can deliver a diskless system in this same enclosure as well, for a 'no moving parts' type system.

The HushPC is fanless and as long as it's not hitting the hard drive, and it would hardly ever do so in most CQC operations, it makes no noise at all. You can see the elaborate heat sinks on the side, which actually look pretty cool as well. It's also available in a silver finish for those folks who want it to be a visual element in and of itself.

The planar is a 15" with USB based touch screen. It works just fine with the finger, and has a few mounting options. This one shows the standard desktop top mount. In my own use, I'll put the HushPC on the shelf under the table top but I wanted to put it on top for this picture so that you could see it, and just sit the planar on the table top.

But you can also wall mount it and run the cables to it through the wall. And it has a moveable arm type mount so that you can flip it out in front of you and then push it away when you are done with it.

It has 4 serial ports built in, and 4 USB ports, so many folks wouldn't need any outboard serial or USB ports. You can see a USB UIRT there just under the touch screen, which is being used for IR receiving in this case. The IR blasting is done via a GC-100 over ethernet, and there's a USB based multi-port serial box over in the rack. So in my case I didn't need the serial ports, though I might end up using them at some point.

But with the placement options available (with ethernet, USB based outboard ports, or long video/serial (touch screen) runs, you could go either way. I.e. you could do it like me, or put the HushPC in the rack and do a video/serial run over to the touch screen mounted near the couch, and use the onboard USB/serial ports of the HushPC for device control.

Anyway, comments are welcome.

[SsZERO]

Very cool. So are you going to be offering the hardware along with the software as a package?

[Dean Roddey]

Yeh, it'll come pre-installed with a stripped down XP Pro and CQC, and with CQC having some amount of pre-configuration. It will include a CQC license for all the available optional features.

[Dean Roddey]

In response to requests to make it easier to draw interfaces, I've been adding a lot of new conveniences to the user interface designer for the next release, including multiple selection (so you can drag, move, size, copy, paste, etc... multiple widgets), and I'm just about done adding 'theme' support. This allows you to select from a set of pre-fab themes which will apply attributes to new interface widgets you create, in order to create a coherent look without your having to do anything in terms of visual attribute setting.

Here are the first two I've done. Now that the code for the theme system in place, I can whip out some others pretty quickly to provide a nice little starter kit for the next release. I hope to have may 8 or so of them for the next release, which should provide enough variety to cover a lot of people's tastes. And of course you can tweak the widgets after you create them, so the theme can just be a starting point. And you can apply a theme after the fact, not just when you create the interface, so you can experiment and see what you like the most.

(IMG:http://www.charmedquark.com/www2/Downloads/Theme_Sunset.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.charmedquark.com/www2/Downloads/Theme_WaterWorld.jpg)

Anyway, this will go a long way towards lowering the effort required for you to create your interfaces. It doesn't generate any interface widgets for you, you still have to create your interfaces by putting the widgets on them that you want, and setting them up to control/display device settings as desired. The next step will build on this theme support and will be part of the upcoming configuration wizard tool which will walk you through the setup of the system and generate default interfaces for you, based on a selected theme.

[Dean Roddey]

Just a little teaser of what's coming up in the next drop, which isn't very far off now...

We were going to go straight to a 1.4 for the next release, all oriented towards media management. However, the opportunity came up, finally, to get a Z-Wave driver done. So, we decided to do an interrim release that would include that driver, because it will be an important one for us. It will allow us to support a cost effective, wireless lighting control system. We already support the Lutron RadioRA, but it's considerably more expensive and high end.

Unfortunately, it took a lot longer than hoped to get the required information to get the Z-Wave driver done, though it's about complete now finally. So, in the meantime, I couldn't do any fundamental surgery for this next release, so I've just done a lot of surface improvements. That might not sound too exciting, but many of those surface improvements are in the area of graphics capabilities in the user interface system, and in the creation of a LOT of really cool new images that can be shipped in the product.

Just to tease you a bit, here is a screen snap (reduced in size and quality for here) of a one of set of 'reference interfaces' I'm working on now that takes full advantages of all of the new graphics features and images:

(IMG:http://www.charmedquark.com/www2/Downloads/NewDemoPreviewSmall.jpg)

Pretty nice, huh? You can create VERY slick looking interfaces now. This particular interface is done completly with images that will be available in the next release. And, as with the examples above in this thread, it uses an 'overlay' scheme, where the buttons in the button bar on the top allow you to load one of a set of smaller interfaces in the central area of the main interface, leaving the the main controls unchanged around the edges. In this case, an overlay for weather information has been loaded.

Here is a full sized image, though still a JPEG so it's reduced in quality. Here is a full sized PNG so it's lossless and you can see the full quality. This one is about 300 and something K, so don't go for this one if you have a modem connection probably.

And to show you some of the effects that are being used in this one that won't show up in a static screen cap...

(IMG:http://www.charmedquark.com/www2/Downloads/NewDemoDetails.jpg)

You can see various focus and pressed effects. In the original screen cap, you see focus emphasis on the Weather Info button at the top. When it's pressed, you get a different color emphasis. And the same with the two/sided volume button at the buttom. You can see the blue focus glow and the red pressed glow.

And with the buttons on the lower right, a 'halo' style focus and emphasis scheme is being used. When you move focus to it, it has a blue halo behind it, and when pressed, the halo turns red.

So, though no major new feature have been aded, a lot of smaller ones add up to the ability to create a very sexy and realistic looking interface. There will be more and more of these images coming along. I've really gotten into the whole process, which allows my inner artist to come out a bit. And a lot of the other changes were in in the area of improving the tools by providing more hot keys and graphical menus, so you can really blast out interfaces pretty quickly now, and make changes easily.

Anyway, just wanted to give you a peak at what is coming. There's been a perception that CQC, though probably having the most powerful back end, is a little lighter on the graphics side when it comes to creating really sexy looking interfaces. But hopefully this release will put the final nail in the coffin on that perception. With this new graphical abilty, plus the tightly integrated front and back end, so that you don't have to combine systems to get both the sexy front end and things like Z-Wave support, the next release is going to be very interesting.

[Dean Roddey]

Charmed Quark Software is proud to announce the 1.3.10 release of CQC (the Charmed Quark Controller), its software based control and automation system. CQC is the brains that supplement the brawn of your PC network, to create a powerful, secure, network distributed, highly visual, and highly robust system for management of hardware devices and software applications. With the addition of the needed ports (IR, serial, contact, etc...) to a general purpose PC, CQC can provide you with control and automation services on par with far more expensive traditional automation systems. Combined with its strong home theater front end services, which make excellent use of the strengths of PC graphics, CQC is a one stop shopping system that often requires the manual integration of three or more packages in competing products. CQC supports the Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows Server family of operating systems, with others coming.

Though there are no major new system features in this release, it contains numerous improvements which together add up to a substantial increase in CQC's capabilities. In particular, this release significantly improves CQC's graphics capabilities, and adds support for two important lighting systems.


In the remainder of this document some screen shots will be provided. These are of the interfaces created for current CQC demo systems. Please note that there is nothing, visually or functionality, about these images that is intrinsic to CQC. They were created using the CQC interface designer, using arbitrary images chosen for their asethetics and the functionality provided is purely a matter of design, so they are not 'skins' providing alternate looks for a fixed set of functionality, nor are you in any way limited to a particular visual style. they are pretty significantly reduced in size and quality in order to avoid download overhead. In these particular interfaces, all of the images used are part of the CQC product, but you can upload any images you choose and use them.

Also note that the example interfaces displayed here use a scheme commonly employed in CQC, which is to have a single main interface, and to have a set of buttons that load up various smaller interfaces into a central area. All the buttons in the Options section to the right load up 'overlays', which are just smaller interfaces, into the central area of the main image. This both saves time by allowing you to provide common functionality once, and allows for more flexibility in reuse of sets of overlays that provide access to common types of functionality


What's New Overview
---------------------------------------
This section will briefly introduce the major new features in this version, some of which will be discussed in more detail later in this document.

• Interface Editor Improvements. As in the 1.3.5 and 1.3.6 releases, the interface editor got a considerable number of improvements, mostly in the area of making it a faster tool for power users, such as adding a nice set of hot keys to do common operations, and a graphical action palette for common operations without having to actually bring up each individual widget's attributes dialog. There are also some very nice improvements in the image handling capabilities that allow you to create much slicker looking buttons, and offset the positions of individual images in a widget. You can also visually display the snap grid for easier alignment, and new alignment options are available.
• New Lighting Systems. This version introduces both Z-Wave and C-Bus drivers, both of which are important lighting control systems. Previously CQC had only supported X-10 (very low end) and RadioRA (fairly high end, read expensive.) The Z-Wave driver allows CQC to support a moderately priced wireless lighting system, and the C-Bus driver allows CQC to meet the needs of many users in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and Europe, where C-Bus is a widely used.
• Denon Universal DVD driver. A new Denon DVD driver now supports the 2900, 3800, 3910, 5900, and 9000 models. This allows CQC to support a range of serially controllable DVD players at various price points to meet different needs
• Interface, Image, and Macro Packages. Previously, CQC could only import/export device drivers, and then only Charmed Quark could do this. This version introduces the ability to import and export images, user interface templates, and macros, in addition to device drivers. This is very important for a couple reasons. One is that it allows users to easily exchange these things among themselves. But it also allows Charmed Quark to create libraries of such items (we cannot ship everything in the downloadable release for size reasons), that you can download and import into your system. This will very much help us provide much more pre-fab functionality for our users.
• Many New Interface Images. Charmed Quark is now starting to build up a very nice library of original images that we are shipping with this version (and some which will show up on the web site for download.) These will make it far easier for users to create attractive user interfaces. And it will make it far easier for Charmed Quark to create nice pre-fab interfaces for download, because these can draw on a library of standard images that ship with the product. We will continue to expand this graphics library.
• Sunrise/Sunset Support. The scheduled events server now supports sunrise and sunset as scheduling options. The first time you create a new scheduled event of one of these types, you will be asked to provide your latitude and longitude, which CQC will use to determine sunrise and sunset in your area. You can also indicate up to an hour offset before or after the actual calculated sunrise or sunset time.
• HID USB Support in CML. The CML language now provides support for accessing HID type USB devices, so third parties can write drivers for such devices. Previously only Charmed Quark could write such drivers.
• XML Gateway Improvements. The XML Gateway interface to CQC has been significantly improved to support access to interfaces and images, so that third party clients can display CQC user interfaces.
• Various Fixes. There are also various small fixes and improvements that, though not life altering individually, really improve the feel of the product.

(IMG:http://www.charmedquark.com/www2/Downloads/Demo_Main_Small.jpg)
Click here for a full sized version



New Images
---------------------------------------
Many new original images have been created for this release, so you can now create very slick user interfaces using only images that ship with the product. You can always import any images you want to use, but it's no longer required in order to have a broad selection of buttons, LEDs, button bars, panels, and so forth.

(IMG:http://www.charmedquark.com/www2/Downloads/NewDemoPreviewSmall.jpg)
Click here for a full sized version

Charmed Quark will continue to create more original images in each successive release, so that we can support many different visual styles.


User Interface Improvements
---------------------------------------
Significant work was done on the user interface system in this release, mostly in the area of improving the speed with which you can create and modify interfaces.

Action Palette
There is now an action palette that lets you apply attribute changes to all selected widgets quickly, without having to go through the widget's attributes dialog. These types of global attribute application features allow you to very quickly modify the look and feel of an interface.

(IMG:http://www.charmedquark.com/www2/Downloads/IntfEdSnap.jpg)

The action palette also supports various types of alignment features, so that you can quickly and accurately align and spread out widgets. You can also now make the snap grid visible if you find that a useful aid to alignment.

Image Control Improvements
The interface editor also has a couple of small but very important improvements that allow you to create much slicker user buttons and interaction effects. The most important is that buttons now support an 'overlay' image, which can be overlayed over whichever base image is being displayed (pressed, unpressed, or focus), so that Charmed Quark only has to provide sets of button blanks and you can layer any images or symbols over them you want.

You can also now adjust the relative position of each of the images. Combined with the overlay image support, you can now create effects like these, quite easily:

(IMG:http://www.charmedquark.com/www2/Downloads/ComboButtons.jpg)

These all use the same button blank, and just overlay a different image over it, and adjust the overlayed image over to the left.

You can also create various types of focus and pressed button effects, by using the overlay image in conjunction with the focus/pressed image support, such as these:

(IMG:http://www.charmedquark.com/www2/Downloads/NewDemoDetails.jpg)


Hot Keys
The editor now supports a set of hot keys that allow you to adjust vertical/horizontal font alignment, transparency, font size, border, underline, shadow, and other attributes of all selected widgets. Power users can really put these hot keys to use and very quickly adjust the look and feel of an interface.


Drivers and Driver Support
---------------------------------------
This release includes some important new device drivers, and expanded capabilities for third parties wanting to write CQC device drivers.

Lighting Systems
This release introduces support for both the C-Bus and Z-Wave lighting systems. Until now, CQC had supported only X-10 at the lower end and RadioRA, a fairly high end system. Z-Wave now allows us to support a reasonably priced wireless lighting system. And C-Bus support allows us to meet the needs of users in Australia, South Africa, and Europe, where C-Bus is a widely used standard.

USB-HID Support in CML
CQC's object oriented macro language, CML, now provides a USB-HID runtime class, so third parties can now create device drivers for HID type USB devices, whereas Charmed Quark had to do those device drivers previously.



What's Available
---------------------------------------
CQC consists of a 'base package' and a number of optional packages. The base package provides all that most folks will need, though in some cases they might want to pick up one or two optional packages. If you need them all, there is a discount for buying a full system with all options.

The base package provides the following broad features:

• Network distributed front and back end control architecture
• User drawn interface development and deployment tools
• IR control
• Serial, socket, USB, and X-10 device control
• Macro development and deployment tools
• Device driver development and deployment tools (what might be called 'plug ins' in some systems)
• Security and user management
• All available device drivers are included in the base package.

The optional packages available as of version 1.3.10 are:

• Scheduled Events Server. Allows you to schedule events to occur at regular intervals, particular times of the day, particular days of the week, etc...
• Application Control. If you want to control other applications as though they were devices, then you need to get the application control system. It allows applications to be managed via standard CQC device drivers, so that they integrate cleanly into the CQC system (within the natural limits imposed by the fact that applications are often not designed to be controlled.)
• XLM Gateway Server. Provides a simple XML over Sockets interface into the CQC system, to support third party clients.

Other optional packages will be made available over time. The purpose of structuring the system in this way is to allow the core functionality cost to be kept reasonable, and to only ask you to pay for those less common features that you really need, and to keep system requirements down where that is an issue.

(IMG:http://www.charmedquark.com/www2/Downloads/NewBlack_Transport_Small.jpg)
Click here for a full sized version


Give it a Try
---------------------------------------
CQC is available for use in trial mode for 30 days, without any encumberances. So you can fully evaluate it for a month without commitment. If you decide to buy at any time within the trial period, you can convert your existing trial system into a fully licensed system without any interruptions.

CQC is also safe to try. It does not install any system files, or modify your configuration in any way except to create some start menu items and to create a small registry entry. It also creates a service, but all of the files that service uses are within the CQC directory. So if you decide not to commit, just use the uninstaller and it can be completely removed without any danger of destabilization of your system.

So feel free to give it a try and see if suits your needs. CQC provides a lot of functionality, all under one roof, where it can be managed and configured as a whole, and where the pieces are designed from day one to work together seamlessly and will continue to do so into the future. You don't have to master multiple systems and tie them together yourself, and hope that they do not diverge at some point, leaving you in the lurch, nor do you have to worry about the security of multiple systems not designed to provide comprehensive built in, user based security.

(IMG:http://www.charmedquark.com/www2/Downloads/Demo_DVD_Samll.jpg)
Click here for a full sized version

CQC can adapt to scenarios from a dedicated and completely locked down, kiosk mode system, up to a "PC based and not ashamed of it" full home network in which every machine is a CQC node, so it is applicable to many sorts of control system topologies and usage patterns, and can change easily over time because of the flexible nature of software based systems.

CQC is licensed on a network basis. So the price is basically for a license to run the 'master server' on one machine. You can then run the other client and server components on other machines in your network as desired. So the price compared to some other options is more competative than it might seem once you move off a single machine configuration.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact us at support@charmedquark.com, or you can register on the CQC support forums and join the growing community of CQC users, many of whom can provide you with help and practical experience.

(IMG:http://www.charmedquark.com/www2/Downloads/NewBlack_Misc_Small.jpg)
Click here for a full sized version

[Dean Roddey]

We are getitng some user galleries up on the web site now, if you want to see some real world CQC systems and how it is being used:

http://www.charmedquark.com/Gallery/Gallery.htm

[Dean Roddey]

Charmed Quark Systems has announced the upcoming availability of its .Net Interface Viewer, a version of the CQC graphical interface viewer utility based on the Microsoft .Net Framework. This new version of the .Net Viewer allows CQC's graphical interfaces to be deployed on smaller devices, such as PocketPCs, Smart Phones, and other handheld tablet devices.

(IMG:http://www.charmedquark.com/www2/Downloads/PPCCap1.jpg)

The .Net Viewer will be available in beta form within the upcoming CQC 1.4 beta time frame. It will become available for general use after the 1.4 CQC release. It will be a new optional component, purchased separately from the core CQC components. It will require the XML Gateway optional component, since it accesses the CQC system via the XML Gateway Server.

This new interface viewer displays standard CQC graphical interfaces, created with the same CQC Interface Designer tool that is used to create all CQC interfaces. It provides full two way control, just as the standard interface viewer does. Since CQC is fully network distributed, access is available anywhere within your wired or wireless network.

It only requires a single IP port to be available on the CQC host providing XML Gateway access, so it will also be an excellent tool for accessing you CQC system remotely via your laptop from the road. It fully supports CQC's security system, and supports encrypted sessions to the XML Gateway, so it will not compromise the security of your CQC automation solution.

(IMG:http://www.charmedquark.com/www2/Downloads/PPCCap2.jpg)

The .Net Viewer option will have a price of $35. It will be made available as a free upgrade to all existing CQC customers who have purchased a full system package, or a base package plus XML Gateway option. Others will be able to purchase the new option separately when it becomes available (which will also require a purchase of the XML Gateway if that component is not already licensed.)

As an incentive, Charmed Quark will provide a free .Net Viewer license to new customers who buy a full CQC system license between now and the official release of the new viewer option. Since the full system license already includes a discount, this offer will provide a substantial savings.

* Note that the sample interfaces displayed here are purely arbitrary, created with the CQC Interface Designer. Your own interfaces can have any look and feel you want them to have

[Dean Roddey]

A new CQC version 1.3.13 has been posted to the web site. This release is primarily designed to support the Alpha release of our new .Net Interface Viewer

The changes/fixes in this release are:

• .Net Interface Viewer Alpha Support. This release contains the features required to support the Alpha release of the .Net Interface Viewer, which allows users to access CQC graphical interfaces on small handheld devices.
• Sony Qualia 004 Projector Driver. A new driver is available for the high end Qualia 004 video projector. It uses the Qualia's Ethernet based control interface.
• Runco VX-1000 Projector Driver. A new driver is available for the Runco VX-1000 DLP projector. This is a one way driver for now, i.e. no feedback, but it has all the necessary features for day to day control.
• Sunset Scheduled Events. Sunset scheduled events could be rescheduled for the next day if the system is restarted near the scheduled time, so that today's sunset event would be skipped.
• Z-Wave Driver Improvements. The initial Z-Wave driver became available in the previous CQC release. Based on feedback since then, some improvements have been made.

It is recommended that all users upgrade to this latest release, in order to get these bug fixes, so that you won't ever have to worry about being affected by them.

Here is a link to a discussion thread on the new .Net Interface Viewer on the support forum. See this thread for the latest information and links to the installer files and release notes.

[Dean Roddey]

Just an FYI, we are changing ISPs, and just began the DNS transfer process. So the web site is being transferred and there will be a new and different support forum set up on the new site. So starting later today until tomorrow probably the change will start to propogate outwards to various DNS servers.

The current web site, and support forum will still be accessible via these URLs once the DNS change is seen by your ISP's DNS servers, so you'll still be able to get to them.

http://205.214.171.228/
http://205.214.171.228/www2/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?Cat=

On the support forum you'll have to log back in since it'll not look like the URL you were logged in last time so the cookie won't work I would imagine.

The web site is already over there on the new server and should be ready to go, so you shouldn't notice the transition at all there in theory, you'll just either just get the old one or new one as the change propogates.

It might be late tonight before the new forum software is set up on the new site, since I can't really start working on it appropriately until I can access it via the charmedquark.com domain name (as apposed to direct IP address.) So if the old support forum stops working for you via the normal link, just use the one above until the new forum is ready. I'll post something when that happens.

Sorry for the disruption, but it's a necessary move to crank the hosting support up a notch on our end for business reasons.