The xPLDiag xPL network diagnostic tool has been updated to include version 1.80 of the CurrPorts utility. This should fix issues on Vista and Windows 7 where the name of the process bound to the xPL UDP port could not be identified.

Last year I planned to work on two major projects, xPLMPC (an xPL wrapper for the excellent Media Player Classic - Home Theater), plus a complete revision of the xPL support for Z-Wave.

Unfortunately neither project was completed. xPLMPC stalled when I changed my approach to triggering xPLMPC via my intranet movie menu. I have a system mostly in place now, but it will take a lot of cleaning up and documenting before anything can be released.

As for Z-Wave, there has been a great deal of progress. The project was far more ambitious than I had first imagined, and finding documentation and hardware to test with has been a challenge. I have now reached a point where I can communicate with Z-Wave devices via xPL, without relying on any commercial devlopment kits.

Due to the help I have received from the Open Source community in developing my Z-Wave code, I have decided to rework the Z-Wave side of my project into an Open Source collaboration called Open Z-Wave. This will allow me to give something back to the community, and hopefully act as a springboard for others to create free Z-Wave software for Windows and other platforms too. The Open Z-Wave website and first versions of the software (including an xPL application) should be launched early this year.