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my head
hurts
lots. I tried to keep pace with Mr Gordon and this led to me leaving
a
little earlier than I would have liked.
We were
talking
about remote control and mark made a very interesting comment which
included the
following: "fillipino boys", "bugger" and "that". I didnt understand
what
he was trying to say ;-)
We had quite
a
few dicussions about the project and came up with a few
ideas:
i. second
ukha
product - 1 and 2 gang wall switches controlled by xap. Standard wall
sockets providing the same functionality as x10 just over tcp/ip and with
state
ii. Maybe
the
project doesnt need a full software control system but rather a software
API
written in various languages. Maybe the HA masses would prefer a COM
object they can embed into their VB? Or the perl geeks can have a
perl
module, or those java heads can get their hands on a jar file.
Whatever
way we produce it the important thing is that it keeps some of the complex
stuff
hidden with a nice little API for people. They could wrap objects and
other groovy data objects round it if they want to build relationships
between
devices but alternatively they could something as simple
as:
import
net.sf.ukha.xap.*;
Xap x = new
Xap();
public void
main() {
Array a = new Array();
x.scanNet(a);
x.turnOnDevice(a[4]);
}
// you get
the
idea ....
iii. We also
talked about sponsorship for the ukha project from letsautomate or laser
etc to
help cover up front costs for CE compliance etc. In return they get
guaranteed stock and the honour of being the only stockists for x number of
months or x amount of stock etc.
As to Mark
mentioning my sensor ideas I get all evangelical about this and I know ive
already spoken to Ian and Stu about it so my apologies if I am repeating
myself.
I think
there are
two major issues with nearly all HA systems currently:
a. There is
virtually no easy way to integrate the components in a controlled fashion
(thats
what makes the expensive systems a good deal if you could afford
them)
b. Most
people
implement HA by controlling devices and then adding sensing
capabilities
Im in the
very
early stages of implementing my own home brew system but Ive been thinking
about
it for quite some time and the idea of an intelligent house must indicate
you
start with setting up the house to be aware of its surroundings. I am
basing this stuff on 1-wire/ibuttons and TINI as my chosen platform because
it
all supports java ;-)
Each room
has a
number of sensor modules. A module would be made up of a small
breaboard
containing a 64kbit iButton plus n+1 1-wire sensors (light, humidity, temp
etc). Using the xml 1-wire project (on sourceforge) you can define
relationships between 1-wire devices. The idea is that each sensor
has its
own local data storage on the nvram. This is then farmed off through
an
object model into a database for historical use. The great thing is
that
even if you lose the database you can still boot strap the house using the
few
hours worth of data on the nvram buttons.
Historical
mapping of data provides trend analysis of the house status which can then
be
used with a bit of logic to define outcomes when situations occur. I
wanted to be able to dim lights in a room to different levels depending on
light
levels in different parts of the room so you get a uniform light level
across
the room.
Remote
controls
are great until you forget where you put them ;-) so why not make the
house keep track of how you do things and learn from you. It will
then
switch on devices at the right time etc. Now all I need is some bik
sensors with 1-wire interfaces, and a 1-wire hub, and some electronic
skills,
and a life etc....
Anyway Ive
started talking twaddle (again) but you catch my drift.
thanks
kieran
p/s Found
some
groovy stuff using vrml in java 3d. think I might have found the
ideal
vehicle for my systems front end. virtual movement through house and
point/click -> on devices using a mouse click
It
was a laugh. Four of us were there:
- Paul Gordon
- Kieran Broadfoot
- Martin Greenwood
- Mark Harrison
I
only stayed for about an hour, but the others all seemed to have late
passes
:-)
Kieran has some interesting ideas about sensing, and automatic
control
of what happens in the house based on what the house detects is going on,
rather than everything being remote-control-centric.
None
of us like blokes with yellow, check, shirts.
Mark
Harrison
IT Controller,
eKingfisher
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How'd it go guys?
M.
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