home automation

Because fuses can literally explode. In the thread back then I had explained that such a scheme would be unlikely to pass agency scrutiny, at least for med and aero. For obvious reasons they have an interest that if something goes kaputt it does so with the least amount of kablouie, smoke and debris flying about.

Fastrak, designed by TI under contract from a little company called MFS Network Technologies. I worked for them, then! Was an interesting little system to get working.

Especially fun was the problem with pickup trucks. Read beam would hit tailgate, reflect to back window, and then pick up the tag of the vehicle BEHIND the truck, which would get double billed...

We considered bar codes, but they are too easily obscured by dirt or altered by the customer to be reliable.

Charlie

Nope, Lockheed Martin IMS based out of New Jersey. All the highest executives had Italian names, for some reason...

And yes, I worked for them too on the So. Cal toll roads. My specialty was the license plate capture systems.

Charlie

Really?

Whine, whine, whine ;-) ...Jim Thompson

Aha! So you're the one who can help me detect a sign beside the road saying, "PHOTO" ?:-) ...Jim Thompson

Where did I say it wasn't? I said they had a lot of manufacturing and engineering in Florida. The media has reported for years about the Orlando plant's involvement with the design & testing of the early hardware on Florida toll roads, and people who worked in ocala claimed to have made some of the circuit boards for the transponders.

I still use their Credit Union, which was handy when they had a branch at their Ocala facility that was about two blocks from Microdyne.

They leased a 40,000 Sq. Ft building from us in Ocala to expand their engineering department for several years, until they consolidated their Ocala PCB with one in Texas and moved out.

Tell that to manufacturing, which uses millions of PLCs.

It would be a lot easier for me to just stuff a case with random boards and drives and tell them that it works 'because I assembled it', then deny the possibility of anything going wrong like you do. Unfortunately, I can't stoop to your level of bragging, and condemning the work of others.

They system Bob Villa installed worked when the home owner took possession. How is it his fault that it had problems? The homeowner got it, and the installation for free. As always, you are quick to condemn the work of others without knowing the details. The homeowner was a pain in the ass about demanding it work, but refusing to work with the manufacturer to let them troubleshoot the problems.

If I had to do this, I would use a hacked fonera or a similar gadget from ubiquiti networks instead of a dedicated PC. These gadgets run small versions of linux which means that you can even have your web server running on them. Communication with the outside is achieved through the serial port which is almost omnipresent on these boards even if not directly advertised. Power consumption is minimal. Also, if you plug them off unexpectedly (or there is a power outage) they survive better than conventional PCs.

For the sensors, something that directly talks I2C might be the least cumbersome solution. You can even attach them directly to a (properly configured: ie. drivers,etc) PIO on those mini-pcs.

Pere

Followed by grandma...

Why go so hairy? Get a cheap cellphone account. Run it at the cabin always on its charger. Need heat? Call the number and enter some kind of code... most of these phones actually talk USB. ...Jim Thompson

Seen the aftermath. Many times.

Well, when was the last time you witnessed a TUEV or UL test as the design engineer? Or a DO-160 agency test for aero? I've got the next one going in before Christmas (hopefully).

Different PLC. I meant powerline communications, which the thread topic kind of hints :-)

Got a link that shows that the homeowner didn't allow the mfg to diagnose and fix?

I could tell you some horror stories (per PM) about companies trying to fix stuff. It's not HA-related but can make your toe nails curl.

Me too! This was a factory (actually an extruder), where the shop gorillas had replaced 10A or 20A fuses in a 240V circuit with 32 V automotive fuses. They were the bayonet-type holders - shove the fuse in lengthwise against spring pressure, and twist to lock.

It literally blew the cap about half-way across the shop, about 75' or

Cheers! Rich

That would be a pretty poor piece of software on the computation machine. It should be rather easy to avoid double-billing even in crawling traffic. The vehicle behind would have to be able to do MACH-something to cross the bridge twice and whip back in line for a third run.

Ok, an SR71 Blackbird could maybe do it but you'd have to make the fuel to run it :-)

True, barcodes are a non-starter for this sort of application.

That was 15 or 20 years ago. It was discussed on several news programs at the time along with interviews with both parties. I'm not going to dig for it.

Actually, I was the hardware guy, doing the optical and electronics to get the data to the capture board. Someone else got to do the software to do any recognition...

In these cases, they just had someone look at it, and read the plates!

Charlie

Interesting. On the road I worked on, LM IMS was purely a 'virtual' shop. Almost all the employees were contractors, and the actual work was done by subcontractors. They didn't build anything themselves, but pretty much used COTS equipment for everything. Might have been different for Florida, but in California, they used other folks equipment.

Charlie