Ok I've looked at the CT*AMEE spec (2007) is that the thread?
Moderator feel free to post this in a new or appropriate thread and I'll be happy to work from there.
Looks good, here's my 2c for what it's worth. (remember a new broom sweeps clean) my comments in red.
.: features :.
hardware
Intel Xscale processor (667 Mhz) how much Flash & RAM on the chip?
2 USB ports (supporting mass storage, serial port hubs, etc.) I'm so not sold on USB as it's short range and a nearby PC would be required, also writing USB host driver software is painful at best, that said it's cheap enough to add a USB B connector.
2 serial ports (DCE) RS232DCR, DTR would be handy for X10 Firefly support
10/100 ethernet interface
16 onboard inputs (digital or analog, 10 bit) IMHO I'd drop some of the I/O in favor of a smaller form factor and a more modular design
8 onboard digital outputs see above comment, maybe 4 generic I/O would be enough but tell me what you'd hook up and lets see.
V.92 modem, with CID support I'd drop this in favor of an external modem on one of the RS232 ports. It also would need to be certified with the phone companies, plus cost.
1-wire interface yes, but this can easily be part of the GPIO I/O ports
Bluetooth 2.1 interface (great for RFID!) drop, cost and an external RS232 unless you want the excitement of writing a USB Bluetooth stack...
ZigBee IEEE 802.15.4-2003 interface yes, in the battle between ZigBee & Z-Wave I'd go with ZigBee and to avoid hassle of the ZigBee stack $$$$ and use the cheap & cheerful XBee S2 $20 or XBee SP2 $30
RS485 interface (supporting AlphaNet, ADInet, Elk, and more coming soon) I was planning on using a single MAX3111E RS232,485,422 all on a single IC
1 IR zone (RX,TX) using stereo jacks (zones can be expanded using SECU16) I'd use a separate small processor to keep the timing (and add the 1wire stuff) for IR three blaster outputs and a single IR in TSOP1138 onboard
Unit can be clustered for high availability, or to monitor remote locations (IPSEC)
Fits in a standard 14" structured wiring can packaging is important, is this case common & cheap? Hammond & PacTek make nice inexpensive plain plastic cases.
12 VDC (with battery terminals)
software ahh the tricky part, but sounds right to me. (I'm a hardware engineer after-all)
Linux based firmware
Cepstral TTS engine
CT*flex scripting/rule engine
Web based interface (with AJAX and SSL support)
Native ZigBee, Insteon, UPB, Z-wave, Insteon support, X10 (using serial/USB interfaces, except for ZigBee)
major features
2 modes: 'home' and 'advanced'. You can either use the rule wizard to generate very powerful rules quickly without having to know or learn a new language, or you can use the advanced CT*flex scripting engine. CT*flex supports serial and IP based communications, advanced math and ASCII string processing and much more.
No client software is required
Because the firmware is Linux based (2.6 kernel), you can create your own drivers, or modify the existing ones.
Food for thought. Linux home server "plugs" are becoming cheaper and more common every year. Example PogoPlug, Synology, QNAP, GuruPlug would take a major chunk out of the hardware / software design and could act as the core of the system (with almost unlimited storage and processing power compared to the above design. A simpler non Linux but still open source with autonomy AMEE would drive the cost and complexity down.
