Re: Quantech Appcon kit - UK

["Dave Saville" <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 08:18:41 -0500, Robert Green wrote:

>"Dave Saville" <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>news:qnirqrrmrrbet.itpm641.pminews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Some years back an outfit called Quantech, based up Durham, UK way, made a
>> control system called Appgen.  Ran over alarm cable in star configuration.
>> Controller was serial connected to a PC. Was featured in the PC mags at
>the
>> time.
>>
>> I bought into this and my heating and extras system has worked flawlessly
>for
>> nine years.
>>
>> Now the main control board has failed. Quantech are no longer in business
>and
>> trouble shooting a dead board without a schematic is difficult to say the
>least
>> :-)
>
>It's where I would start, though.  Look for burn marks, blown caps, leaky
>caps.  What did the board cost to begin with?  I ask because I am
>contemplating doing a similar thing and want to know if I should just factor
>in the cost of buying my own spares, even for $$$ units.
>

ISTR it was about 50GBP for the controller about nine years ago.

<snip>

>Tell us more about the sensors and other devices you have hooked to your
>network.  It sounds like the Dallas 1 Wire components might make suitable
>replacement sensors if you're determined to reuse your existing code.

There are temp sensors, Open/Close sensors and mains switching up to a couple
of hundred watts - Fine for central heating pumps etc. I have one of the
open/close boards in front of me and apart from resistors etc it has two chips
a ST93C46CB1 94E440 & a PIC16C54C 9919HAJ whatever they do :-)

<snip>
>
>What type of loads are you switching and what do you use keypads for?   It
>will help determine what type of replacements would be suitable.

As above - couple of hundred watts at most. Keypad is to give commands to the
system from living area - Change heating levels etc. One of the tricks I got it
to do which the wife loved was as the PC is also our answer machine she could
type a code on the keypad and it would play back the messages over its sound
system. I also use text to voice so the system responded with voice to commands
and status readouts.

>
>> What ever happens I want to retain the control software that I wrote
>myself. It
>> is extremely flexible and other bits of software on the PC hook into it.
>
>I'd say this is a very unrealistic expectation given that it's not likely
>you'll find a replacement board.  What language is it written in?  What are
>functions are tied into the system?  Porting isn't that difficult for some
>languages.
>

It's C - it has hooks that feed data both ways to other programmes. For example
a CGI script can query variables in the program on the fly and say put the
current temperature on a web page. There are functions that depend on it being
dark or not. I run a perl script that calculates sunrise/sunset and pumps the
two times into the control system. So the garage door sensor will turn the
lights on if it is dark but not in the daytime. I am sure it would work with a
different system. As long as *something* can read temperatures and switch
states and turn mains on and off then the control logic should be fine.

I have an electronics clued up friend and he has gotten the board power supply
sorted that had been giving problems, but sadly it looks as though something
else is broken as polling the RS232 interface does not even give an echo! Ho
Hum.


--

Regards

Dave Saville

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