Re: Controllerless distributed automation

["David Paterson (Pixi)" <david.paterson@xxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 14 Feb 2001 00:26:06 -0000, you wrote:

>This method has been discussed before on this list David.  I think Dr
John
>was developing a system similar to this too.

Not _THE_ Dr. John???? I think I've still got one of his albums on vinyl
somewhere :-)  Following on from some of the other replies though, it
looks like I missed a thread on this whole area a while back.

>The idea is sound, however the prospect of designing and building this
>yourself is a bit daunting.  I suppose the question is to you want to
>automate your home now or spend the next X years working on a
propreitry
>system.

Well, I'm going to do both (and hang the expense) putting X10 stuff in
just now for all the basic, standard things, and eventually replacing it
with my own version as and when I get the various bits working.

>While X10 is far from perfect it is available now and (relatively)
>inexpensive.  It's also all "standard" that allows your alarm
to talk to
>your lights etc.

Very true, and I'm going to be using it as a good example of how to do
things (and in a few cases how not to :-)

My plan is to use a software simulation (sim-house?) initially to get
the worst of the bugs out of the concept, then phase 2 will be an X10
based simulation (still using a central controller, but with all the
individual processes "compartmentalised"), before going on to
design and
build replacement modules to fully distribute the intelligence.

It's not going to be easy, but I hope I'll learn a few useful things
along the way.

DP

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