Recent content by BlueBill

It's been awhile since I've posted but I'm still working on this project. Question of the day. I have a dedicated RS232/422/485 port, I also have a secondary RS232 or ZigBee port. I'm planning on making it ZigBee only (no external connector or MAX232). This would reduce costs and simplify the...

It's not really a breadboard-able sort of project. All the ICs are surface mount, the largest is a 100pin TQFP. I'm doing everything I can to keep the component count as low as possible. Sometimes things go slowly as I see an improvement or tweak that makes me rethink a particular section...

Hopefully I'll have the BOM in a week or two, PCB layout will start at that point. All the major ICs have already been listed in the thread, missing just the voltage regulators. The type of relays and their specs are either 2A or 5A just a matter of choosing one or the other.

It's got a name, the iQBee. It's been awhile but incase anyone is still following this thread. I've got the MPU (PIC18F97J60) with Ethernet, 1 RS485/422/232, 1 RS232 or ZigBee, 3 relays, 3 IR jacks (multiuse, IR in/out, iButton or GIPO shown below) and either four or six GPIO channels, possible...

The schematic is coming along swimmingly. The 18F97J60 is well suited for the task. I'll layout the PCB to allow a second minimized no PS to be stacked for 6 relay extender via I2C I've also got a smaller cheap & cheerful device I call a Moth The Moth 24F08KA101 XBee S2P (ZigBee) RS232 port...

Ok Professor Chaos :) Yes, I'm building it and currently trying to drive the cost down, may change the serial ports and drop in an 8 bit MCU to make this much more approachable to the programmers. The USB has to go but I'll keep the SD card (2Gb max) a single RS232-485 and an RS232 port OR...

Twas a busy thread, something I said? Anyways a small snag but nothing major. The PNY chip on the 32MX695 uses some UART pins so I had to consider an alternative. I've chosen the ENC28J60 (10Mb Ethernet IC from Microchip) to replace the 10/100 Ethernet PNY. The rub is that I can't see it being...

The peripherals often have much better documentation than the controllers. Also easy enough to use port sniffers to figure out the protocol. I'm building one piece of the puzzle at a time, starting with what IMHO is an integral part of any HA / HVAC system, the I/O controller. You've got to...

I've added a trickle charged RTCC IC (no batteries to change ever) and the POE (Sparkfun variation) to the list. Also added I2C expansion to the mix. Product description. 32MX695F512L (80MHz, 512k, 128k) 10/100 Ethernet Two DE9 RS232/422/485 serial ports can be split for up to four RS232...

Nice little device, affordable too. What's the blue box in the bottom photo called?

I'm concerned the LQFP is not going to be possible to hand solder so I'll probably only offer the device in assembled form. That said there is little need to avoid the 100pin TQFP 32MX. So with all those extra pins the addition of the following two items would not be difficult, remember adding...

On the particular 32MX the SPI port shares the same pins as one of the serial ports, and the RTS/CTS pins are muxed with another ports RX/TX (actually a good thing). I agree about storage being handed off to an external device so the SD card went bye bye. As for the ports, that's the tough one...

I'm just in the process of contacting Steven Goodwin (Minerva) and see if I can get his take on this on these forums. The HydrA (NAC) will have a USB port although it's purpose is a little vague at the moment, it's there like early HDTVs used to advertise HD ready. As for what's inside the NAC...

I'm listening, what specs would you like to change? And yes Kickstarter is a definite possibility. Remember HydrA is just a node, it's also simple and cheap. Possibly less than a half dozen ICs on a PCB that could be also sold in kit form (64pin TQFP is by far the largest IC and this can be hand...

BaaMoo well I'm pretty sure it's not taken :) Lets give it a working name, HydrA (HA get it) it's not set in stone but is better than "device". I'll hold back on the cloud for now.