RE: [Development] Lights, an Idea any comments

["James Hoye" <james.hoye@xxxxxxx>]

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> Ok, I have got the 8 channel dimmer working (No triac's just watching
the
> firing pulse on a scope) still a few bugs to sort out I am using
> code from a
> prototype which is 3 years old but it was much closer to what we want
than
> my current prototype. At the moment I am sending commands to it over a
> serial link using SNAP I am going to change this to something simpler
so
> that a terminal can run it just in case anyone does not want to use
the
> rabbit. I have not started to code the Rabbit yet.

Any ball-park costs yet based on the triacs, opto-isolators and PIC
required?

> The question is this, my initial idea was a rabbit core mounted on a
> motherboard which had the PIC this was then connected to some daughter
> boards each with the drive components on for a channel. This
> would mean the
> box would live either in node 0 or in a cupboard close to the
> room(s) it was
> controlling. But because we have a high spec rabbit, I wondered
> if it might
> be a idea to split the rabbit and the PIC so that one rabbit could run
> several PIC's each of which would be doing 8 channels this would cut
the
> cost down as only one rabbit is required. It does also mean the
> software has
> to be much more complicated.
> If we do this then I think the PIC should also handle the local
control as
> the Rabbit would become a single point of failure for several
> dimmer packs ?

This sounds a good idea.  Where would a keypad controller fit in with this?
Could it ordinarily talk to the Rabbit, and on failure talk to the local
PIC?

> Personally I still prefer one Rabbit, one PIC and 8 Dimmers, with the
PIC
> driving the triac's and the Rabbit doing the local control and the
remote
> interface, but I thought the group should decide as this other
> option would
> reduce the cost for large installations.

My guess is that a Rabbit for each 8-channel controller would be the
easiest
to code for, given the fact that's it's probably faster/more powerful than
a
PIC, and has more memory.  What is the cost overhead of a Rabbit, was it
US$35 ?

James H




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Automated Home UK
http://www.automatedhome.co.uk
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