🖥️ActiveHome Pro > Wish List
Ethernet enabled switch/module
liderbug:
I've been all over the net and can't find a anything. Powerline ethernet - exists (various mfg.). Very small Linux computers - exists (IE gumstix). But from what I can tell nobody has ever tried to meld the 2 together. So instead of unit F3 it would be 192.168.15.3. And by using Linux (gumstix) you could use an onboard program, crontab, etc. And it should solve the X10 signal problems. (like I have all the time). The ethernet wouldn't need 200mbs. Have I missed a product?
Thanks
Dan Lawrence:
Nope!!! Very few folks here use Linux.
Noam:
--- Quote from: Dan Lawrence on October 02, 2011, 10:24:21 PM ---Nope!!! Very few folks here use Linux.
--- End quote ---
I don't think the use of Linux vs. Non-Linux is a factor here.
The way I read it, the OP is asking if, as an alternative to X10's PLC and RF protocols, there exists a (non-X10 based) Home Automation system out there that uses standard IP over Ethernet (wired or wireless) for control of the modules.
It is a great idea, given the problems that have crept into the PLC-based protocols in more recent years from noise electrical devices. More and more homes these days have IP networks in them, so this type of system would be a natural extension of that.
I would have to imagine it would get expensive, though. Each module would require a certain amount of computing power to be able to co-exist happily on an IP network, with other Home Automation devices (as well as non-automation devices like computers, smartphones, cameras, DVRs, Blu-Ray players, etc). Lost signals might be an issue if the bandwidth is being used by a streaming movie, for example, over the home's wireless network.
It is certainly an interesting idea, but I can see lots of hurdles to get past first. Most homes don't have Ethernet wiring close enough to every outlet or wall switch, which would mean wireless would be the primary signal means. Many homes have too many "dead spots" for this type of system to work reliably.
Once you have to run new wires to each device you want to control, there are existing hard-wired automation systems out there that are already established.
Just my two cents.
dhouston:
--- Quote from: liderbug on October 02, 2011, 09:17:59 PM ---I've been all over the net and can't find a anything. Powerline ethernet - exists (various mfg.). ... Have I missed a product?
--- End quote ---
As I recently posted elsewhere on the forum, HomePlug Command & Control (which uses a subset of the ethernet over powerline methodology) was approved a few years ago and a company (Yitran) was selected to provide the chips. But nothing much seems to have happened since then.
* https://www.homeplug.org/tech/homeplug_cc1/
* http://www.yitran.com/index.aspx?id=3375
Noam:
I have to apologize. I mis-read the original post, and I see where the OP was suggesting using Ethernet-over-Powerline to talk to the modules using IP, without the need to run additional wires. That's a very clever idea.
However, isn't Ethernet-over-Powerline vulnerable to the same (or different) noise and phase-coupling issues that we run into with X10?
Even if the signal distribution issues can be worked out, I still don't see how giving each device a miniature Ethernet host is going to be able to be an affordable system. The gumstix board is listed at about $100 (in large quantities).
There are a number of SDK-built programs out there (X10 commander is the one that comes to mind immediately) that give you a web server running on the PC with the CM15A or CM19A attached. There is a simple URL string that is used to pass commands through to the powerline, and you can write whatever interface you want to address those links.
I built myself a very simple interface with a dozen or so pairs of "on / off" buttons. It loads nicely on my Droid, and gives me "palmpad-like" control from anywhere I can access my web server. I am not passing it through my firewall right now, but I suppose I could.
What I haven't yet seen is someone take one of these one-board computers (like the gumstix, or even a sheevaplug), or maybe an Arduino, and interface it with the CM15A. It is true that X10 didn't share the protocols for storing programming in the CM15A, but the SDK allows anyone to write software to use it in real time.
Why not create a small plug-in controller for it, with a built-in webserver, and allow web-based control from anywhere?
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