Re: HV to CBUS

[Kevin Hawkins <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nope - I didn't ever complete that project (or update those web pages)
. I did release the xAP version.

There are two ways of doing C-Bus from HomeVision (without a PC) .

One you use the custom lighting functionality built into HomeVision to
drive C-Bus directly via a serial port into the PCI. However HV is not
powerful enough to deal with all  the C-Bus traffic and so you have to
use a subset. It's main constraints are in speed, storage space and
serial port handling with long data. It should be able to control C-Bus
groups and track , although not synchronise its state. Using the C-Bus
public release protocol you an get simple control but it is not suitable
if you use C-Bus wireless or want more sophisticated interaction.  I had
written some macros to do fuller control using parts of the full C-Bus
protocol but got involved a little in licensing issues. This may have
cleared up now and I have a few requests to revisit this which I have
promised I will do.

The better way however is to assist HomeVision with a co-processor that
handles all the C-Bus interactions and just takes commands from
HomeVision and issues events back . This allows for full integration
into C-Bus without using a lot of resources, both in processing time and
storage. I had intended a product for this, indeed my board is already
manufactured to be able to do this,  but when I moved away from
HomeVision myself (and based on initial demand) it sort of dropped down
my priorities. I know a lot of UKHA'ers have HV and love it so if there
is now significant interest again I might look at resurrecting it.  My
board is a bit of an overkill here as it includes Ethernet, 4 serial
ports, additional I/O plus 512K RAM, 512K Flash and a web/ftp server,
and so cost wise isn't ideal. It's likely to be circa £150.  Better
would be a cut down board with just one serial port and maybe still
Ethernet that I could bring in at under half that price.  Let me
investigate what options I might have here.

Kevin

PS If you are comfortable involving a PC then the xAP C-Bus board is
available and can work with several free and commercial software
packages . To use HV and C-Bus together this way the  recommended route
is probably HomeSeer.



Frank Mc Alinden wrote:
>
> Hi Ken
>
> I dont think Kevin has enabled his Hardware to work with Homevision at
> the
> moment.....
>
> Frank
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kenneth Watt" <kwatt@xxxxxxx
> <mailto:kwatt%40funkycool.co.uk>>
> To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx <mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>>
> Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2006 3:19 AM
> Subject: RE: [ukha_d] HV to CBUS
>
> >> There is a xap to CBUS gateway in hardware - it that what you
mean ?
> >
> > Found it, it was Kevin...
> >
> > http://www.ukusa.demon.co.uk/HVCBUS.htm
> <http://www.ukusa.demon.co.uk/HVCBUS.htm>
> >
> > At the bottom of the page.
> >
> > Exactly what I'm after as I don't have to rely on a PC to do the
grunt
> > work.
> > I don't trust them for critical tasks, never have and probably
never
> will
> > and, by Kevin's writings on that page, I'd be right not to use a
PC if
> > possible. ;)
> >
> > K.
> >
>