Re: [Development] Lights, an Idea any comments

["Dr John Tankard" <john@xxxxxxx>]

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

Keith's the man for this, but we are talking, opto, triac some caps,
a coil, fuse holder, protection relay, pcb, perhaps a veriac. I would
say 10 to 15 quid per channel, with one pic for every 8 channels the
cnotroler would be about 40 quid including the rabbit, Keith what do
you think ?

>
> > 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?

No, I was thinking that the rabbit would do the local control, I dont
think failure of the rabbit is a issue. If it did fail, it is a
replaceable module which just plugs into the motherboard.

>
> > 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 ?

Yep, but we still need the pic its controling the triac's the rabbit
is doing the high level stuff.


John





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