Running ScreenLogic on a Macintosh Computer

[Dirk]

From a reddit post it does seem possible. Whether it's worth the effort is debatable.

Right, but it's still up to Pentair to port ScreenLogic using the M1-compatible Wine. And then would that Wine run on MacOS on an Intel chip? And all the older implementations it's currently working on? As I said earlier, while I wish Pentair would take the time, I can understand why they would make the decision not to. If they keep ScreenLogic running on iOS, they'll probably cover about 99% of the Mac market. That 1% is my conservative guess at the percentage of people that would spring for the cost of ScreenLogic without any way to run it remotely from a phone.

 

[Dirk]

Reality check: I've got ScreenLogic and SLConfig currently available in six rooms of my house. I've got ScreenLogic in two devices in my bedroom alone! And I can carry both apps into any of the other rooms, the garage, by the pool, or on the other side of the planet if I had to. Plus I've got an Indoor Control Panel in my hallway! Just how lazy am I!?!

 

[Dirk]

OK, well that was easy. I fired up VMWare Fusion on my Intel Mac running MacOS 10.14 (Mojave). I've got Apple's Snow Leopard OS running on Fusion.

Then I just copied ScreenLogic Connect from the Application folder of Mojave to Snow Leopard. ScreenLogic fired right up, but couldn't find my EasyTouch. Turns out I had never configured the Network Adapter of Fusion properly. So that took a few more minutes and then I re-fired ScreenLogic and bingo! ScreenLogic works fine, including the Configurator. I made a small change using Configurator. And I started up an Aux circuit in ScreenLogic. Then I quit that ScreenLogic and started the Mojave ScreenLogic and both the configuration change and the running Aux circuit showed up as expected. I didn't test more thoroughly than that, but so far I think I have a solution for upgrading that Mac to Monterey without losing ScreenLogic. I'll report back when I upgrade that computer. It's possible that ScreenLogic won't run in Fusion when Fusion is running on Monterey instead of Mojave, so we'll see. But I expect it'll be fine.

And I actually did all that "work" from my M1 Mac! I use the MacOS's built-in Screen Sharing feature to operate any of my computers from any of my other computers, even my iOS devices. I can "see" ScreenLogic running on Snow Leopard running on Fusion running on Mojave running on a different computer from my M1 laptop! So, technically, I have ScreenLogic available on my M1 Mac, and will even when it will no longer run natively on that Intel Mac (when I upgrade it to a 64-bit OS). That's not a solution for everybody running a Mac, obviously, but at least it's a possibility for some.

Ha, technically, that was the Windows version of ScreenLogic running on Wine running on Snow Leopard running on Fusion running on Mojave running on an Intel Mac computer operated from an Apple M1 laptop! Hey, what could go wrong?!

But much more importantly, I don't have to get out of bed to run my pool!

 

[rstrouse]

Reality check: I've got ScreenLogic and SLConfig currently available in six rooms of my house. I've got ScreenLogic in two devices in my bedroom alone! And I can carry both apps into any of the other rooms, the garage, by the pool, or on the other side of the planet if I had to. Plus I've got an Indoor Control Panel in my hallway! Just how lazy am I!?!

I hear you. I have a Pentair indoor controller installed next to the back slider and a Pentair wireless controller that hangs out in the back yard and there is also a complete indoor controller on the IntelliCenter load center. Then I have an njsPC touch screen in the garage to fire up the spa as I walk in the door and one on the pad that I use when I am doing work on the pool. But mostly, I have a couple of iPads and our phones that I access njsPC-dashPanel with. Finally it is all tied together with Home Automation and if I feel that I need more access, there is the Pentair Web app or the Mobile app which I almost never access. My wife also uses her Apple watch in the spa tied to njsPC. It is a little much but the entire house is actually like that with the exception of the backyard heater... but I have an ESP that is ripe for automating that soon.

 

[Flying Tivo]

I tried almost all VMs and crossover, various types of wines, just too much effort and time invested. I run the apps from my iphone and is enough for me.

 

[Dirk]

I hear you. I have a Pentair indoor controller installed next to the back slider and a Pentair wireless controller that hangs out in the back yard and there is also a complete indoor controller on the IntelliCenter load center. Then I have an njsPC touch screen in the garage to fire up the spa as I walk in the door and one on the pad that I use when I am doing work on the pool. But mostly, I have a couple of iPads and our phones that I access njsPC-dashPanel with. Finally it is all tied together with Home Automation and if I feel that I need more access, there is the Pentair Web app or the Mobile app which I almost never access. My wife also uses her Apple watch in the spa tied to njsPC. It is a little much but the entire house is actually like that with the exception of the backyard heater... but I have an ESP that is ripe for automating that soon.

OK, so are you saying I'm not a weirdo, or that weirdos love company?!

 

[Dirk]

For 15 or 20 bucks I may try out the rs485 adapter, just to see what's what. One of my complaints about ScreenLogic is the interface. If I could create a unified interface across all my devices that accesses the handful of things I use most often, then that might be worth the effort. Access to a few Aux circuits, the SWG setting, the pump RPM, etc. Instead of having to wait for ScreenLogic to load, and then to traverse the various screens, it'd all be on one place, accessible much more quickly than ScreenLogic can be. It's why I use my Indoor Control Panel much more than ScreenLogic, because I just need to push a button most of the time.

I'm also interested in restoring control of my 5G pool light back to EasyTouch. I've got it on an HA switch, so that I can easily and quickly access it from multiple rooms. But control of it's color options is better left to the EasyTouch. If I could have the best of both, that'd be nice.

 

[guinness]

You should give it a shot, it's not too hard to setup. It also has an integration into Home Assistant if you prefer that interface.

 

[rstrouse]

No you are not a weirdo. However, I may have crossed that line as I have 60 moisture sensors that I am about to start installing all over the property. Maybe that starts falling into weird.


In the end you will get a dashboard with a single unified interface. You also get color selections for your lights in HA as well.

 

[Dirk]

No you are not a weirdo. However, I may have crossed that line as I have 60 moisture sensors that I am about to start installing all over the property. Maybe that starts falling into weird.

I'm trying to get around to a write up on the temperature sensor solution I came up with. So I get you.

In the end you will get a dashboard with a single unified interface. You also get color selections for your lights in HA as well.

I remember you sharing some of that in another thread. I assumed you built all that. Is one or more of these software components your doing, or did you just discover someone else's work? Is it being maintained? Can you post a link to your thread about the interface?

 

[rstrouse]

@tagyoureit is the repo owner for nodejs-poolController and I am an open source contributor. For dashPanel and relayEquipmentManager I am the repo owner and @tagyoureit is a contributor. This is a true open source effort and it is being actively maintained.

GitHub - rstrouse/nodejs-poolController-dashPanel: A dashboard panel for tagyoureit/nodejs-poolController

A dashboard panel for tagyoureit/nodejs-poolController - rstrouse/nodejs-poolController-dashPanel

github.com

 

[Dirk]

Update. I upgraded all my Apple computers, with both Intel and M1 processors, to macOS Monterey. The following is true based on my limited collection of Apple Macintosh computers. I cannot say with any authority how these various implementations will or won't work on the myriad of Apple devices.

M1
The ScreenLogic iOS app runs great on macOS Monterey.
The SLConfig iOS app will not run on macOS Monterey.

Intel
The ScreenLogic macOS app will not run on macOS Monterey.
The ScreenLogic iOS apps will not run on macOS Monterey.

VMware Fusion on M1
There is currently no version of Fusion that will run on macOS running on an Apple M1 computer.

VMware Fusion on Intel
Fusion runs great on macOS Monterey running on an Apple Intel computer.
The ScreenLogic macOS runs great on macOS Snow Leopard running on Fusion. That includes the Configurator component of ScreenLogic.

Screen Sharing
macOS built-in Screen Sharing allows access to Fusion from any other macOS computer and iOS device, which means the ScreenLogic macOS app can be used from any Apple device. Screen Sharing is built-in on the macOS, but not iOS. You need a third party screen sharing app for iOS devices.

iOS
The ScreenLogic iOS app runs great on iOS devices (iPhones and iPads).
The SLConfig iOS app runs great on iOS devices (iPhones and iPads).

So basically I have numerous ways to run ScreenLogic and ScreenLogic Config from all my current Apple devices running their latest-ish OS versions. (I won't be running macOS Ventura any time soon.)

If you have specific questions about which versions of devices and software I got ScreenLogic running on, just ask. But for now, the mid-range future of ScreenLogic is looking OK.