6 replies to this topic

[Jarrod Sinclair]

Anyone seen the new power-line communication shield from sparkfun? Based on the Schematic it is 5v but most of the chips on there are 3.3v and on all the 5v leads the have current limiting resitors. So do you think it would be feasible to swap out those 3 of 4 resitors (might not even need to with those values) to see if it would work with a Netduino?

Of course this brings up another question, which is why not use x10 since not only could you connect to another Netduino but other x10 devices as well. Well I haven't figured out which I like better at this point. Anyone else have idea?

[Mario Vernari]

Hello Jarrod. I'm a bit suspicious about these kind of communication. Years ago we tried to build a module like this, based on a SGS (now ST) chip. It worked pretty well, in theory...in practice, you must place the communicating modules far away from "signal sinks" such as big appliances, power filters, etc. Moreover, our lab was a two floor building, each one having its own power meter. Well, we noticed that the power meter was a perfect shield for the signal! All were good reasons to abandon the project due to unreliability (our customers would have garbaged it as soon!). So, probably is now better than 15 years ago, but I wouldn't expect great results. Especially nowadays having facilities for the wifi or similar. I don't know hot to answer you about the X10...maybe is it copyrighted? Cheers

[Moskus]

X10 is an industry standard, so you should be able to implement it.
http://en.wikipedia....ustry_standard)

[monewwq1]

Personally, I would choose X10 over PLC. --- EDIT: wow! that makes a LOT of sense. Not really.

[Moskus]

The company I work for started out creating automated lighting control systems using powerline carrier technology (PLC). This was back in the 1980's. I know from much discussion about this technology that it is prone to interference and issues with communication. It is not fun to work with. But like Mario said, perhaps it is better now than it was then. Although, I do not see current lighting controls manufacturers using PLC at all anymore. It has been replaced by either low-voltage (24vdc, etc.) control wiring, or wireless technology.

Personally, I would choose X10 over PLC.

X10 is mainly using PLC technology. An RF standard is available but the PLC version is the most used, and still very much in use. I use it, but I also use devices communicating over 433 MHz RF, using hardware from RFXCOM.

[monewwq1]

X10 is mainly using PLC technology. An RF standard is available but the PLC version is the most used, and still very much in use. I use it, but I also use devices communicating over 433 MHz RF, using hardware from RFXCOM.

Oops! For some reason, I keep mixing up X10 and Zigbee. Don't ask me why because I have no idea why. I guess Z's and X's cause confusion.

So, when I said that personally I would choose X10 over PLC, what I really meant was I would choose a newer communication protocol over PLC or X10 which are dated technologies even though they're still very much in use. We could also say that DOS is still very much in use, but would you really want to write new software for DOS? Well, maybe you would, but I wouldn't.

[Moskus]

Oops! For some reason, I keep mixing up X10 and Zigbee. Don't ask me why because I have no idea why. I guess Z's and X's cause confusion.

So, when I said that personally I would choose X10 over PLC, what I really meant was I would choose a newer communication protocol over PLC or X10 which are dated technologies even though they're still very much in use. We could also say that DOS is still very much in use, but would you really want to write new software for DOS? Well, maybe you would, but I wouldn't.

Yeah, PLC have some issues. But when it's working (like in my house) it is great. The only thing is that it's a little slow. The main advantage is that it's cheap.

And it's not like wireless technology is without flaws either. Z-wave and ZigBee is great, but does not always work as intended, simple things like setting up the mesh can be a pain if you have some RF noise "generators" nearby. At least with RFXCOM it's only one or two things that drops out, not the complete network (RFXCOM does not use two-way communication which simplifies things, but I cannot poll devices to get their status).


"Use whatever works" and "keep it simple" are sayings I try to live by. Yes, creating a DOS-application now seems a little "out there", but I still make Console applications relatively often when I just want to do something, especially other than spending my time making a UI that I don't need.