Agreeing with thatoneguy here, MANY MANY people have bought X10 devices over the years. These people have ALREADY invested in automation.

Building a device to do automation, and having interested parties that have X10 equipment sitting around, could be "reinvigorated" by something like this.

I have done many "hacks" to HVAC equiptment and controllers over my career, so I have a pretty good grasp on the interworkings.

90% of it is "24v logic". A relay. ON/OFF.

So building a controllable relay driver is the first part to get done. In my opinion.

Accessing the controller via Ethernet over power, WiFi, X10 is the "heart".

There is a chip that I am looking at for another project that you may be interested in.

It is a TI chip.. 12.95 (qty-1) from mouser. It has on board 8051 processor, ZigBee/wifi..4uS wake time, 1 uA sleep (0r.4uA ext int. sleep) Here: you read it :
http://focus.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/cc2531.pdf

here is a link to the mouser page:
http://www.mouser.com/Search/Produc...irtualkey59500000virtualkey595-CC2531F256RHAT

For the price... Thats a lot of options. An antenna, and a power supply...you get the point

 

DOC = Department of Commerce ??

 

Relays I'm planning on 6 on the main board. It would be trivial to add an RS485 relay board so you could locate it where you need it rather than a box with a million wires going in and out of it.

Ethernet over power and Wifi bridges are in the $50 - $80 range and can be added by the user if needed.

Yes X10 can connect via RS232 (CM-11A, Firecracker) I'm adding the handshaking CTS,RTS lines via ST232 drivers.
The Firecracker uses the RTS & DTR lines only, I may have to add an additional line driver for a port or two to do CTS/RTS

The serial port arrangement as of today looks like this. (The MIPs chip has six UARTs)
1 RS485
1 RS485 or RS422 (Aprilaire 8870 uses RS422)*
3 RS232 with CTS/RTS (might add DTR/DSR jumpers else just short the pins
1 internal TTL level UART (XBee, ZigBee, PCB header)

*the MAX3160 is just too expensive @ $17 but is not off the table.

That TI ZigBee IC looks pretty neat I'll look for an assembled module like the XBee that can be plugged into the PCB.

DOC = Department of Communications. Forgot they got rid of that in 1995

XBee Pro

X10 Firecracker

 

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 options might be analog 0-3.3V, opto coupled or generic, and a RJ4 for I2C expansion such as a relay board. Notable features are trickle charged RTCC and 2x 128kB EEPROM plus option for LM75 (temperature). An 2x8 IDC connector can be used to stack another iQBee on top of a master unit, the same plug can be also used as a HW SPI or standard LCD) connector.

Typical IR Jack, the IROUT is a PWM output on the PIC for hardware IR modulation. iButtons / IR Blasters & TSOP1138 IR demodulators can be connected with minimal hardware, the jumper & diode allow for high current devices such as relays if desired.

 

Sounds like a good start!

Will the connector be addressable so it can be used for more controllers as well as LCD, etc?

A few cheap bus controller ICs on each board could handle that, downside would be that it complicates all of the expansion boards by a bit.

 

Wow. Is this your final year project? I didn't think you were that old.

John

 

It sounds like a nice project. I'd be willing to help with electronics design if you want.

 

Actually it's the next kit that may or may not be sold as a kit but pre-assembled. The first one will be setup as my furnace / AC controller with remote thermostat.

Sure I'm always open to any help that's offered. I'm a little stuck on what to offer for generic I/O (six pins)

 

Sure I'm always open to any help that's offered. I'm a little stuck on what to offer for generic I/O (six pins)

You could offer relays to drive lights and equipment.