Re: Interfacing PIR's

[Nigel Orr <Nigel.Orr@xxxxxxx>]

At 11:39 10/08/00 +0100, you wrote:
>Next I would like HomeSeer to know the status of the PIRs around my
house.
>However I don't want to be buying an expensive powerflash module for
each
>PIR.
>
>Does anyone have any ideas on how I could interface my alarm inputs to
>my PC so I can inform Homeseer about the PIR states, of course this
should
>be in an inexpensive and reliable way :o)

Inexpensive?  Reliable?  I think you want to get some copper in :-)

I don't know homeseer, just what I've read on their website, which doesn't
say much about anything except X10.  2 ideas come to mind:

1) Parallel port, it's fairly straightforward to use it as 8 general
purpose i/o lines, if it's bidirectional- would 8 be enough?  Can homeseer
talk to the parallel port at a low level?

2) X10- it would be possible, though slightly more complex, to have a
microcontroller doing a parallel to X10 conversion- eg pick 2 spare
housecodes, and send a signal any time one of the inputs changes, via a
7223 or whatever it's called, that will give you 8 'bits' of data, which
might be easier for homeseer to understand?

Those are more "ideas to get you thinking" than design
suggestions, further
discussion might turn them into usable ideas...

Nigel


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