Re: Quantech Appcon kit - UK

[nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston)]

"Dave Saville" <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

[snip]

>Third. Go ethernet with new kit. I know you can get ethernet temp sensors but
>what about mains switching or keypad entry that is not silly money? Is there
>anything I can plug into a linux box that can read an IR control and thus send
>commands if I can't get a keypad?
>
>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
>would just replace the bit that polls the controller. Would that rule out X10?
>I get the impression that one downloads control info into a specific X10
>controller and then turn the PC off. Of course that would mean junking the
>entire kit I have and starting again.

It really depends a lot on the types of existing sensors. Are they 0-5V,
4-20mA, other...

I would take a hard look at something like the picoFlash from JK Micro.

     http://www.jkmicro.com/products/picoflash.html
     http://www.jkmicro.com/products/expansionboards/pico-io.html

It's not capable of running Linux but I don't think you need that at this
level - embedded DOS is reliable. You can talk to this over Ethernet from
your Linux system.

For more money you can get embedded PCs that can run Linux. Take a look at
Technologic Systems. You can probably find European systems that are
similar.

     http://www.embeddedarm.com/epc/prod_SBC.htm#x86

While you can control X-10 directly from your PC, I would not invest much in
X-10. Insteon is a newer PLC system that looks to be far more reliable.
While it's not available for 220V there are plans for that.