Re: Idratek

[Chris Hunter <cjhunter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dave -

>My attempts at short answers ...

Many thanks, great answer ... some good & convincing points ...

I remember seeing Idratek at Hatfield, at the ukha show, and 'was
impressed, 'though I wasn't up to speed, and they were mostly too
pre-occupied to talk much ...  but now I have downloaded & read (phew
!)
all the stuff on the Idratek web-site, I have to say I am very impressed
... the philosophy, the approach, the attention to detail, the
objectives, they all seem spot-on.   I even quite like the MFPs, now I
more fully understand what they are - and perhaps with some end-pieces,
to square-off the sides, provide a hand-rest & maybe some space for
labels, they would look very pretty, too !

I think I'm won over - thanks !

'issues for me now are:

USB & Firewire & DVI do not get a mention, 'though I guess they
must
have them in-mind;

while it's clear why they've gone with Windows, it makes me very uneasy
- my experience of 'NT & 'XP in a networked environment is not good at
all - Reflex would be absolutely necessary;

adding a 'PC into our 'Mac network, for Cortex, would be OK - essential
indeed, I guess, to be able to keep-up with things as the Idratek world
develops;

nevertheless, I'd quite like to use our 'Macs as drivers, for their
robustness & their helpful & consistent user-interface - so I'd
need
access to protocol & data-stream information ... although, thinking
about it, a better way might be to have a special module, to be hooked
onto an Idranet spur, to act as a translator for (eg) Applescript;

either-way, I'd like to understand the protocols & data-streams, to
understand how it works - both for trouble-shooting & for efficient
administrator & user programming;

our hi-fi has an RS232 socket - presumably I could run a lead from it to
one of the two Idratek RS232 units & be able to send & receive the
ASCII
codes of the hi-fi's protocol;

'suspect I might need to add opto-isolation to digital I/O for some
situations;

'wonder if Linux comes into the story somewhere ?

As I said, Idratek caught my eye at the Hatfield ukha show ... and now
I've seen the light - I think I'm a convert !

magic !

Chris



David Gumbrell wrote:

>On 2/3/06, Chris Hunter <cjhunter@xxxxxxx> wrote:

>Yes, thanks ... I found that under (I think) the software category ...
but I found it too often confusing (probably the way things were said
more thananything else ) and it stopped rather too short on the detail
... if I'm about to set-out with Idratek, I need to know more about how
it works, how it's wired, how it's programmed, how easy it is to adjust
things as time goes on, how robust it is, how failure strategies have &
should be handled ... etc ...


If you can, I'd visit one of their sites so that you can have the stuff
demo'd.   There's a  lot of functionality in there, and you would also
see how it's set up and configured.   If you discuss your requirements
they can give you a lot of advice or even install it.

My attempts at short answers:

1. Control cabling is free topology twisted pair.   This means that you
don't need to home-run each connection back to your node-0.   I
typically do a home run from the ceiling sensors and then short drops
from there to wall plates.   You need two pairs minimum, three if you
want the audio-bus.   Most people use Cat-5, I use the C-Bus Cat5, for
it's mains-rated insulation.   Mains cabling is up to you - you can keep
a fairly traditional wiring system and use the onboard relays, or star
wire loads back to a DIN enclosure and use the DIN relay modules.

2. How it works - that's rather open ended !   They have a proprietary
high-resilience data protocol on one of the pairs in the LV (Cat-5)
cabling.   The various modules can send and receive packets on this
cabling ... Reflex packets.   There is also an analogue audio bus on the
third pair, which can be driven / received at audio modules, so you can
use the MFPs as intercoms, baby monitors etc.   The Cortex program can
inject audio & receive audio via the PCA module.   This means that you
can have spoken menus & speech recognition.   Functionality can be
defined in three layers --- PC-less Reflex mode, and in Cortex via the
pre-canned functions and via user-created macros (which are built as
lists of built-in action-steps).   There is another layer that I can't
talk about.

The Reflex functionality is mostly used as backup ... to have a
functioning system even if the PC crashes or is offline for some reason.
Reflex packets are sent by sensors in response to triggers (eg: PIR
detect, switch press / release or temp' threshold crossing).   Received
Reflex packets actuate stuff, like relay closures, and can include timed
functions and other stuff.   However, it's a bit cleverer than just
trigger-->packet-->actuate.   The trigger can cause a sequence of
Reflex
packets to be sent out, and the list can include packets addressed back
to the originator to execute various commands.   These packets can
include rewriting parts of the list, or changing the entry point.   So
you can write little programs that whizz round doing stuff.   However, I
expect that most people would set up fairly simple fallback Reflex
functions (ie: keep light switches working, keep boiler control going,
etc) and define most of the functionality in Cortex.

In Cortex, there are a lot of pre-defined functions.   If you look at my
blog, or this picture :

http://www.gumbrell.com/archives/home_automation/landing/landing-light-behaviour.gif

you can see a whole bunch of standardised behaviours for the light.
Depending on what sensors you have, some bits may be greyed-out.   Other
objects have similar behaviour dialogs.   In my experience, if you find
you want to do something more complicated, and can't see how, an e-mail
usually results in either an explanation or a Cortex update to add a new
feature to achieve it.

3. Adjustments are made through modifying the behaviours or tweaking
thresholds or whatever - basically 'depends on how you configured the
functionality - all through the GUI.   I think all the sensors have both
activity lists & graphs of activity available to help you understand
what is going on.   They also have simulate buttons so that you can test
the functionality you have defined.   The Cortex floor plan is animated,
so you can watch your simulation work through.   You can watch the
non-simulated stuff too, like the other half coming upstairs to tell you
to get on with something else ...

4. Robustness: if you give Cortex a dedicated PC and don't fill it up
with crap it's going to be pretty good.   I keep mine on a UPS to avoid
any mains' glitches.   You can create an automatic watchdog that will
fallback to Reflex if the PC stops controlling the network.   You can
also have a backup PC with automatic Cortex fail-over, but I have not
tried this.   There are very occasional software glitches.   In my
experience these occur when I am messing about with stuff, experimenting
or trying to set-up weird schemes.   I think I have had a fallback to
Reflex twice in two years.   A restart of the network or the Cortex
software usually clears them up, sometimes a reboot.   I don't recall
having a significant problem that could not be rapidly fixed.   The only
slightly irritating problem I have at the moment is restarting via
remote desktop (for which I have a workaround).   Cortex can be set to
automatically update itself also.

5. Failure strategies - as mentioned above, backup PC and / or basic
Reflex program + UPS for the PC and Idranet.   Obviously a full power
failure means you have nothing to control, but partials may occur if,
for example, you have a split load CU with an RCD.

OK, so much for the short answer !

Here's a really short answer - if you are planning a new build, get
Idratek to advise on modules, wiring etc and get them to commission it
to your specification.   You can then go up the learning curve at your
own pace.

Since I'm doing a gradual refit I'm doing the learning curve as I fit
stuff.   I cannot stress enough how excellent the support I have had has
been.

I hope that helps.

Gumby