Fusion Brain Digital input/output device

[JohnWPB]

Over on the MP3Car forums, a couple of the members designed a really nice little board, and had it manufactured. They called it the "Fusion Brain". This was meant for the CarPC enviorment, but I can see 1,001 uses for this in home automation as well. The software has a COM interface, can be controlled quite easily from Home Seer or any script.


From Their Site:

The Fusion Brain allows for 12 on/off outputs, 4 on/off inputs, and 10 analog sensor inputs. The free Fusion Control Centre software from the software section interacts with the board to create the possibility of animated outputs, and graphical input displays.

You can hook up volume control knobs, sliders, temperature probes, relay's, current sensors, you name it.

For $50 it is a great little piece of hardware! Similar boards to this can cost hundreds of dollars, and not have as many inputs and outputs.

At the very least, it could easily be used to control 12 strands of Christmas lights to make an automated display. You can have as many of the boards hooked to your computer that you could ever want or need. (It's USB)

Disclaimer:
This is not an advertisement, as I am in no way connected to them. It is just something that I think many Cocooners could find very useful.

Here is an image of the board, it measures 3 inches by 3 inches in size:

 

[electron]

Definitely a cool board, thanks for posting about this, I can see a lot of uses for this.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

This is a nice board. Analog inputs are also TEN BIT!!!

How hard would it be to interface something like this with HomeSeer?

 

[electron]

If the software supports COM, then it can be done with a simple vbscript.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

If the software supports COM, then it can be done with a simple vbscript.

OK, cool. I must admit I didn't read the entire thread over there for all the details. Since this is USB interface, how long of a run can you have between this card and the PC? Can you do it via Cat5e? I have never tried any expansion techniques using USB ports as all of my devices in my closet are serial. I have about a 30 to 40 ft via Cat5e cable.

Also, I'm assuming that the price includes the chips needed for operation (above pic shows an empty socket).

 

[DavidL]

If the software supports COM, then it can be done with a simple vbscript.

OK, cool. I must admit I didn't read the entire thread over there for all the details. Since this is USB interface, how long of a run can you have between this card and the PC? Can you do it via Cat5e? I have never tried any expansion techniques using USB ports as all of my devices in my closet are serial. I have about a 30 to 40 ft via Cat5e cable.

Also, I'm assuming that the price includes the chips needed for operation (above pic shows an empty socket).

USB spec is, I believe, 10 foot. You can use a USB extender cable which has some active electronics. You can likely exceed the 10 foot, but that should set a certain expectation that 100 foot will be a problem.

 

[damage]

If the software supports COM, then it can be done with a simple vbscript.

OK, cool. I must admit I didn't read the entire thread over there for all the details. Since this is USB interface, how long of a run can you have between this card and the PC? Can you do it via Cat5e? I have never tried any expansion techniques using USB ports as all of my devices in my closet are serial. I have about a 30 to 40 ft via Cat5e cable.

Also, I'm assuming that the price includes the chips needed for operation (above pic shows an empty socket).

how about a networked usb hub like this?
http://www.buy.com/prod/belkin-5-port-wire.../204652687.html

 

[ginigma]

I have a USB hub connected to a Cat5 extender cable running 50 ft with no problems.

Edit: I'm using something similar to this:
http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/searchd...?productID=7707
I'm actually using an extender with a hub at the far end (away from the PC). With one device it's fine, but once I add another USB device, I will have to add a power supply (wall wart) at the hub end.

 

[DavidL]

ginigma,
How did you wire USB and extend via Cat5? do you have a pinout? Did you wire by hand or did you find an adapter some where? Gotta link?

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Yea, USB seems to be a problem for HA integration. Man, I wish they made this with an ethernet TCP/IP interface!

 

[TonyNo]

Well, it is a reprogrammable PIC and it is open-source! :blink:

 

[JohnWPB]

Yes, the chip comes with the board, that was one of the snapshots of the device in it's early stages I guess. They just started manufacturing the board, and the first ones to ship came out just a week or so ago.

Why use the USB cable for the run? You could easily keep the board next to your server, and use Cat5 to send to where the sensors or whatever are needed. The temp sensors have been reported to work on a 200' run.

Yes the software will soon have COM interface built in, so controlling it and receiving info from it with Home Seer should be a snap. I have one here, and have just yet to start setting it up. I will post any code snippits and such when I get a chance to play with it.

 

[DavidL]

Here is an RS232 commercial version at a similar price point. www.weedertech.com
MainLobby now has drivers for the digital and analog units including full database support.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Here is an RS232 commercial version at a similar price point. www.weedertech.com

David, is that link correct?

 

[WayneW]

try http://www.weedtech.com/