Re: EIB versus CBUS

[Chris Hunter <cjhunter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

PS:  another nearly item, as in something they don't do that's on our
list, is respond to button-press duration - so there's no way to
distinguish between short & long, for example, or number of multiple
presses ... at the moment, anyway !

PPS: some of the don't do items could be done via (eg) the special
interface module they have, 'though it needs them to do the
programming, and ISTR Paul mentioning that Cortex 21 (maybe it was
23) having some added scripting abilities, which might or might
provide a way (I need to find out !) ...

Chris


On 7 Oct 2007, at 12:07, Chris Hunter wrote:

> Kevin -

> OK, 'have now dug into the diary & pulled out my reasoning ...
feel
> free to hit the delete button, though, 'cos even though it's a
> fraction of what was there, it ain't short !   Anyway :

>> resilience ...

> I guess, for me, anyway, robustness / resilience is not only a matter
> of the basic hardware & software, but also in capability - eg:
> presence-sensing in real situations, visitor-friendliness,
> accommodating new things, not only power-cuts & component
failures,
> all in a way that we, in particular, can handle ... if that makes
> sense !

> Why Idratek, for us, rather than C-Bus or EIB or ... ?   Well :

> It ticks nearly all of our boxes (see list appended below),
> definitely accessible to us, affordable, effective, robust /
> resilient (hardware, software, capability - eg: presence-sensing in
> real situations, visitor-friendliness - not only power-cuts &
> component failures), expandable, interfaceable, supported
> (brilliantly) ... 'sent them a long list of what we wanted to do
> (philosophical rather than specific, capability / behavioural rather
> than mechanical) & got a brilliant responses to every point, and
the
> same again when I followed-up, over & over, with umpteen detailed
> questions, with the aim of being sure it would really do what we
> wanted ... flexible (eg: can write own scripts & so can have
context
> sensitivity in the response to buttons on a module, with what the
> buttons do changing through the sequence, so can do complex things
> from simple panels - eg: four-button module as smart kitchen-timer,
> multi-function module as smart intercom / house controller ... a bit
> like the original Comfort main-panel did, 'though we aim to go much
> further) ...

> There's loads more, in the detail, but ...

> I say nearly - minor aesthetic quibbles, no general-purpose RS232
> interface (I wanted to link it to our hi-fi via ASCII strings), no
> visual feedback / no small screens (something's on its way, so live
> in anticipation) ...

> Maybe EIB & C-Bus could do all of it, but I wasn't convinced and -
> the key issue, I guess - could they do it for us (in our situation,
> with our skills & knowledge) ... and I was with Idratek.
> Of course, theory's one thing, practice might be different ... we'll
> see !

> Chris
>
> 'was going to append a list of our requirements, such the one I sent
> to Karam, but 'not sure it would play well via html, and this -
> distilled from the Idratek web-site in March 2006 while trying to
> work-out how it matched with what we were aimig for - maybe works
> better :

> IDRATEK ... two key technologies - IDRANet & Cortex ...