Owner's Manual (Complete)

Chapter 25—HCA for Android
The Home Control Assistant
3
http://www.HCATech.com/Android.html
Make sure that the “A” in Android is capitalized. Save the bookmark.
You want to create a bookmark as you may want to download and install updated versions as we
improve function and resolve issues. A bookmark makes this process much simpler.
Now open the bookmark and the browser opens a page with the Android logo and one link. Click
on that link. The download page appears and in a few more seconds the app is downloaded. Click
on the file it downloaded – called HCAApp-##.apk to install. Work through any popups that
appear. Eventually the “Application installed” message appears. Press the “Open” button to start
HCA for Android or close the installer and then locate the HCA launcher icon in the applications
page and start it.
Android Settings
The first action to take after starting the application is to configure it for access to the HCA Server.
Use the dedicated menu button to open the application menu.
Choose HCA Server Settings and set the primary IP address to the address of the server computer.
Also set the port number. The port number must, of course, match the port number that the server
was configured for.
Hint: You can enter the address as a.b.c.d or something the resolves to an IP address like
“myhome.homedns.org”.
The use for secondary IP address is explained in the next section.
Android Server Settings
 Server Settings - Remote Password
This is the password configured in your home design in HCA – Properties on the security tab.
You must enter it here before you connect. It remains part of the configuration so you need
not enter it each time you connect.
 Server Settings – Server Reply Timeout
Each transaction with the server timeouts after this many seconds if no reply is received. If a
timeout occurs it is assumed that connection to the server is lost.
 Server Settings – Keep Alive Timeout
Like the HCA Windows client,
HCA for Android can periodically send a message to the server
and get a response back. This may help to keep the connection open. This setting enables
this.
 Server Settings – Keep Alive Timeout value
This is the number of minutes between each “keep alive” message sent.
Connecting and Disconnecting
Once all the sever settings are configured, you can connect by pressing the Connect on the home
page. To disconnect, select
Disconnect from the menu.