Re: Searching for a easy communication home automation system

["Florent Clairambault" <Florent@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Search this forum using "Insteon 50Hz". There were several messages from
> someone in India who was experimenting with Insteon in a closed laboratory
> system. I do not recall the details but think he had problems because of
> the
> 50Hz.

That's pretty annoying
>
> Here are some Zigbee links...
> http://www.crestron.com/press_room/press_releases/show_release.asp?press_release_id=1225
> http://www.control4.com/
> http://www.zigbee.org/en/markets/success_stories.asp
>
> The early USB controller for Z-Wave was actually a serial device with an
> FTDI USB->Serial converter. You might tap into the communications stream
> between the FTDI chip and controller to reverse engineer the protocol and
> then dump the converter chip and make a serial connection.

There are some serial controllers :
http://store.homeseer.com/store/HomeSeer-Z-Troller-Z-Wave-Primary-Controller-PC-Interface-Serial-P214C66.aspx

I would prefer to use direct serial connection. But as I ask in my next
topic : Will I be able to  send the right commands, is it as simple as the
Insteon's 2414S controller ?

Florent
> "Florent Clairambault" <Florent@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>>Thank you for your answer
>>
>>> As I noted in my response to your email, I don't think Insteon is
>>> available
>>> yet for 230V/50Hz so you will likely need to concentrate on other
>>> systems.
>>
>>We could use it with a 230V to 120V converter. It's a school school
>>project,
>>so if we can't use it our home, it's not really a problem. And Insteon is
>>supposed to come in Europe, at the end of 2007 / beginning of 2008.
>>
>>> Unless things have changed, Zensys wants a lot of money for their Z-Wave
>>> SDK. I'm not a fan of Z-Wave but there may be others here who can help.
>>
>>Yes, it's too expansive. But as I said, it's a school project, we won't
>>sell
>>it, so we don't really care about copyrights. If we can find a serial
>>controller and a way to use it, that would be great.
>>
>>> There are Zigbee home automation devices but there are also some patent
>>> suits filed by Lutron against both Control4 (Zigbee based) and Leviton
>>> (Z-Wave based). You probably should avoid both until the lawsuits play
>>> out.
>>
>>I could'nt find any of them. Can you give me a website where to find them
>>?
>>We are not really interested by ZigBee, but our school has a license, some
>>chips and lots of projects have already been made on it (but few were
>>really
>>working).
>>
>>> Have you considered C-Bus. It's an RS485 based system with some wireless
>>> (RF) subsystems. It is available for 230V/50Hz and 120V/60Hz systems and
>>> has
>>> a serial interface available. It's more costly than the others.
>>
>>I have a bad feeling about C-Bus. I think it's too high level protocol.
>>That
>>means that it will be more expansive. A very simple protocol might be
>>better
>>for this project.
>>
>>Florent
>>
>>> "Florent Clairambault" <Florent@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>
>>>>Hi,
>>>>
>>>>    We are a student team of an ingineering school. We would like to
>>>> build
>>>> a
>>>>home automation system controlled by GSM. We know how to use and program
>>>>the
>>>>GSM chip.
>>>>
>>>>    We don't want to use X.10 as it really looks crappy (the main
>>>> problem
>>>> is
>>>>no error detection and no retransmission). But we are pretty interested
>>>>by
>>>>Insteon and Z-Wave.
>>>>
>>>>    Do you know any system on which one we could easily use a serial
>>>>connection to use it ? We are pretty interested by Insteon and the 2414S
>>>>controller ( http://www.smarthome.com/2414s.html ) but we don't know we
>>>>would be able to communicate with it. Z-Wave also seems good, but we
>>>>don't
>>>>have any idea on how to communicate with a Z-Wave serial controller.
>>>>
>>>>    Our school can help us to use ZigBee, but it seems that there isn't
>>>> any
>>>>ZigBee product for home automation. And it seems to me it's too high
>>>>level
>>>>protocol (compared to the Z-Wave & Insteon protocols which seem really
>>>>easy
>>>>to implement and low cost chip).
>>>>
>>>>So if we have any clue, we are really intered.
>>>>
>>>>Florent Clairambault
>>>>
>>>>Florent (at) Clairambault <DOT> fr
>>>>
>>>
>>
>