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#52089 Netduino Go Future

Posted by mcinnes01 on 11 August 2013 - 02:41 PM in Netduino Go

Hi Chris,

 

What needs to happen to get things like SD shields that use SPI and things like serial wifi modules to work with the shield base? Are these planned for the next release?

 

Are there going to be any interfaces for AGENT to work with GO!?

 

Cheers,

 

Andy




#52106 Netduino Go Future

Posted by mcinnes01 on 12 August 2013 - 09:45 PM in Netduino Go

Maybe a bluetooth module would inject the much needed interest back in to the netduino Go! project, by allowing it to piggyback off the energy that has been put in to Agent? It would drive interest both ways from people who have an Agent watch wanting to control hardware and people who control hardware wanting another interface device by using the Agent smart watch. I understand secret labs are working hard to make sure they deliver their more commercial product, Agent, for Christmas to all of us backers. Does this mean once the watch is up and the production line running, some energy will go back in to the Go! line? I really hope so, I can't wait to do something useful with my Go! :)

 

Andy




#52128 Netduino Go Future

Posted by mcinnes01 on 13 August 2013 - 06:59 PM in Netduino Go

Cheers Mark!

 

It looks interesting, but sadly this will take the spi up on the shield base which I use for other things and with the lack of multi shield support this doesn't leave much scope ;)

 

#Subtext# I was also trying to provoke some interest from Chris and maybe a response?

 

#Off Topic# How was Manchester mini maker faire and where did you hear about it? I missed hearing about it till too late :(

 

Andy




#52130 N+2 communication with WebApi

Posted by mcinnes01 on 13 August 2013 - 07:21 PM in Project Showcase

I would love to see your code including the web api? Are you using signalR to update your page?




#52328 New book: Netduino Home Automation Projects

Posted by mcinnes01 on 24 August 2013 - 08:21 PM in General Discussion

Ordered! Can't wait I am just starting a major home automation project so this could be useful, although my spark is quoting £11K for the infrastructure I want putting in place :o




#52329 Netduino Go Future

Posted by mcinnes01 on 24 August 2013 - 08:41 PM in Netduino Go

Is there any road map for go! bus 1.5 to be available in some form that will allow things like the ethernet module and multi shield base support, to come out before Christmas this year?

 

I'm fully automating my house in the next month and it would be great to have Go! as the core, using either ethernet or wifi on a shield base (serial), plus multiple shield bases for extra SPI, Serial etc etc and maybe since the plus 2 has it....the long waited 1-Wire support?

 

Andy




#52368 High power multiplexing help

Posted by mcinnes01 on 26 August 2013 - 03:59 PM in General Discussion

Hi,

 

I am just in the process of rewiring my house using a radial system or in fact 2 seperate radial systems (one for the basement/ground floor and one for the first floor/loft). By radial system I mean each socket and light goes back to the distribution board.

 

The idea is that I can control each socket or light separately and so each of these will terminate on its own solid state 25 amp relay that will be din rail mounted in the distribution board. Each light switch will run on a low power system using cat5 cabling and so all the switching will be done using solid state relays. This not only allows me to manually control the lights using manual switches, a 24v din mounted power supply and CAT5 cable to the relays. But it also allows me to centralised control that I can interface with via the netduino. The reason for this is that you must ensure that there is a switchable light per room and it acts as a backup in case I have a software or electronics issues, most importantly this also avoids the Mrs getting annoyed if she can't switch the light on etc. ;)

 

What I am trying to do is create some din rail mounted modules that will provide the switching control for the relays. Each module will use CAT5 connections to connect it back to a central module that will house the netduino and will split the SPI which will be used to multiplex the control logic and distribute the switching voltage from the 24v 3.2A 85W din mounted power supply.

 

Each module will switch 8x 25amp relays using 24v, will have 8 LEDs to indicate what is on, will contain a 74HC595 shift register, a 74HC245N CMOS and a ULN2803 transitor array, plus some resistors or resitor array.

 

The relays have approximately a 2.5v 30ma voltage and current drop respectively.

 

The 4 twisted pairs in the CAT5 will carry the 3 connections for the SPI, 1 connection to return QH from the 595s so they can be daisy chained, common Gnd, 3.3v and 24v.

 

What I need a little help with is as follows:

  • Am I missing any connections on the 74HC245Ns, there is a direction pin (pin 1) and a QE pin (pin 19). I am not sure what to do with these?
  • Can you see any errors in the circuit or see any problems that it might face, and can you offer any solutions if so?
  • As I will have a fair few of these boards and each will have 8 small 3mm leds 30ma 2.5v, would I be better moving the leds to the 24v side of the circuit and if so what will I have to change? Would I need any extra resistors, diodes, caps etc?
  • The resistors I haven't even calculated and this is something I am terrible at, if I leave the LEDs where they are now what resistors would I need? I was thinking of using a resisor array from my inspiration for the circuit (see below). However linked to the previous question what if I moved the LEDs up to the 24v circuit so they aren't running off the netduinos power? Posted Image
  • Would the circuit benefit from any caps to level things out and if so what size and where?
  • Final question do I need any additional protection diodes for the netduino or chips?

Here is a fritzing (see Din Mount Relay_bb.jpg) of what I was thinking for the Din Modules and there is also the netduino shield which distributes the 24v and SPI (see Din Shield_bb), any help moving the LEDs to the 24v side would be much appreciated!

 

As a key:

Red = 24v

Black = 3.3v (from netduino)

Green = Common Gnd

Orange = Returned QH

White = MOSI

Purple = SCLK

Yellow = SS

 

Andy

Attached Thumbnails

  • Din Mount Relay_bb.jpg
  • Din Shield_bb.jpg



#52372 Netduino Go Future

Posted by mcinnes01 on 26 August 2013 - 05:22 PM in Netduino Go

Hi Chris,

 

Thanks for the reply, does that mean we are likely to see perhaps an ethernet module this side of christmas which if I remeber correctly uses the STM32? Is there any update on how your testing is going in terms GoBus 1.5 running happily on the STM32?

 

Cheers,

 

Andy




#52379 Home Automation

Posted by mcinnes01 on 26 August 2013 - 10:29 PM in General Discussion

Ok so a little time has passed but there have been some major advances in my home automation project...

 

Since my last posts I have played a little with mqtt in various flavours including mosquitto and rsmb...

 

I have also been on a Windows Azure and Web Services course...

 

And employed an electrician to start work at the end of september...

 

After reviewing many different technologies for home automation, as well as getting an estimate for the cost of my rewire I have made some key decisions...

 

Taking a lot of inspiration from super house  I have decided to go for a wired approach, using cat5e to carry pretty much all signals and low voltage around my house. Not only is cat5e relative cheap ~£36 for 305m, it provides shielding, twisted pairs and can carry low voltages happily upto the POE standard of 48v, which covers me for just about every eventuality.

 

Another key decision is that I have taking a radial wiring approach, otherwise known by "node-zero" or "star" wiring. Basically this means having a central point where all wiring comes back to, or in my case 2 points where all wiring comes back to. As my house is over 4 floors (basement, ground floor, first floor and attic) I am having 2 node-zeros; one in the attic and the other in the basement. What this means is the maximum run is only between 2 floors.

 

Essentially the idea is that everything has its own circuit which goes back to a distribution board; located in either the attic or basement. The wiring side of things is a little different than a convensional house; other than a standard consumer board with some RCDs etc, there is very little that reprisents a typical wiring system. From the consumer board 2 circuits (an 80amp for the basement and ground floor and 65amp for the first floor and attic) will come out going to 2 distribution boards. Here this supply will be split up in to functional circuits such as light for each floor, sockets for each floor, boiler, shower, cooker, garden from the relvant distribution board.

 

Each circuit then splits down to granularise the control, so the circuits will all have an RCD, but each component (socket, light etc) will have in most case a relay. And this is where my next decision comes in to play, I have decided to go for a complete home brew approach rather than paying the extortionate prices charged by HAL supplies which invoke some benefits and serveral contstraints each. Not only does price play a key role, but the ability to interface and control things the way I want. One downside to my home brew route is that this technology is untested and has not gurantees or support.

 

To combat this issue I am building a fallback in; there is a requirement in the UK to have a controlable light in each room, and so I am going to keep controls on the walls that are "dumb" controls. Rather than carrying 240v these will however be cat5e carrying 24v, this will have the ability to override my control boards should any software or electronic issues arrise. Some benefits of my approach include using wired control, this removes issues related to wireless and other signals over power. Also using cat5 provides a nice shielded delivery method. Also having my intelligence centrallised (be it centralised to 2 locations) means that I have 2 points of failure, which may sound bad, but is certainly less invasive when distributed intelligence goes wrong and you have to start ripping up floor board or plaster. I will easily be able to replace and identify any broken hardware and my hardware is cheaper as less intelligence (netduinos) are needed. Also having the manual, logic free, electronic overides will provide a failsafe.

 

My control boards are going to be din mounted using something like Cambden Boss enclosures and  will use a din mounted 24v supply and cat5e to connect the control boards to a centralise netduino module. See my other post for more details.

 

I have decided to go for mqtt as my message protocol as inspired by Mike. The Azure and web services course I went on last week gave me some great inspiration for having a service oriented architecture and using queues.

 

I have also built a low power server that runs flat out at around 36 Watts and is completely solid state with no fans or moving parts. This is running server 2012 datacentre core edition, which I am enjoying a steep learning curve on how to configure my first domain and Hyper-V environment. I plan to run several virtual servers on this to create my own Azure like distributed environment, all be it without the ability to automatically scale out across more VMs.

 

Over the coming months I plan to share my project exploits and actively welcome anyones input, ideas, opinions and support. Once I get my server up and running I plan to get mqtt running. I am still to find any detailed information on how to host mqtt and would appreciate any guidance on how to do this or configure the Hyper-V role on server 2012 datecentre core edition.

 

Thanks again,

 

Andy




#52381 Help bypass switch with reverse current protection

Posted by mcinnes01 on 26 August 2013 - 11:48 PM in General Discussion

Hi,

 

I am trying to find a way to manually override the control of some relays.

 

The netduino uses mux to control 24v which switches the coil voltage of some relays. I want to manually control the relays in case something goes wrong on my control board or with my software.

 

The manual switches will carry 24v from the same supply that switches the relays on my control boards. Things that I am unsure about include, if the switch is closed supplying 24v to the the relay coil, but the control board is not is closed, how can I ensure current from the switch doesn't travel backward in to the control board mux circuit?

 

I guess this would be an easy answer with something like diode right? Any help on which one and where would be much appreciated?

 

Finally, what would happen in the switch was close supplying 24v and the control board was supplying 24v to the relay? Would this be fine as it is the same source or could this create some form of over voltage/over current?

 

Could this be resolved with a transistor and if so how would I wire it in.

 

Basically the ciruit has a common ground and the 24v is common to both the ULN2802 which will be used to switch the relay coil and to the switch which will directly supply the same 24v?

 

There is one final consideration, the relays have a 2.5v voltage drop and a 30ma current drop. How would I handle this in terms of resistors and the 2 possible sources of current (ULN2803 or Switch)?

 

I would also like a status LED to show which relays are on again 2.5v voltage drop, 30ma current drop.

 

Many thanks,

 

Andy




#52383 Help bypass switch with reverse current protection

Posted by mcinnes01 on 27 August 2013 - 02:17 AM in General Discussion

Hi Chuck

 

Thanks for the reply, I should elaborate a little further, the switches are the standard wall plates you have in your house to switch the lights on/off. My lights are going to be physically switched with a relay, this will be done using the netduino and my own boards, but I want a manual overide using the standard wall switch. This will have the same 24v power supply that the neduino uses to switch the relay.

 

This will allow me to overide what ever the netduino is doing in terms of switching on the lights, so when the wall switch is in the off position, the netduino is in control, but when I switch the wall switch on this will overide the netduino and turn the lights on.

 

Do you have any thoughts and sorry for not being clearer :)

 

Thanks again,

 

Andy




#52509 Call for Secret Labs to Kick Start Go! Bus

Posted by mcinnes01 on 02 September 2013 - 10:46 PM in General Discussion

Hi,

 

I have been a happy user of Secret Labs products for many years, I have enjoyed the fantastic, friendly and helpful community and Secret Labs energy and commitment to improve their products.

 

Now I feel it is the communities chance to help Secret Labs...

 

I would like to propose that Secret Labs start a Kick Starter campaign to help fund the development of the Go! Bus protocol which is holding back many avid netduino users and the exciting new products Secret Labs have on backlog. The community have all been waiting patiently for ethernet, SD and the Gadgeteer hub for sometime and it seems focus has shifted and the forums have gone a little quiet.

 

I would like to know the viability to allow the community to "give a little to get a little", by funding Secret Labs so they can employ some additional resources to either work on the Go! Bus protocol, or work on the AGENT smart watch, freeing up other resource to work on Go! Bus.

 

I would love to start getting some use out of my N Go! and would love to see the netduino forums that bustling hive of community interest they were previously.

 

What are your thoughts on this?

 

Many thanks,

 

Andy




#52554 Call for Secret Labs to Kick Start Go! Bus

Posted by mcinnes01 on 04 September 2013 - 09:11 PM in General Discussion

Hi Chris,

 

I completely understand the economics behind open source aren't quite as straight forward as standard commercial products and this is why I believe the community could dig in and help out...

 

Whilst Go! Bus may equally benefit from community input from some of the more advanced users I thought there may be a way some of us other users could help out. Whilst throwing money at a problem doesn't always fix it, I was interested in both the community's and Secret Labs opinion on how we could inject some help in to realising the Go! Bus dream. As Go! Bus is Secret Labs brain child its very difficult for people to necessarily contribute on a community platform and this is where my thought of the community and possibly potential hardware vendors helping fund this endeavour.

 

Hardware vendors can benefit from using Go! Bus once it is available to facilitate their own commercial products and ultimately this drives interest back in to the Netduino community. I completely understand that you can't invest more than the returns from sales of the Go! line in to developing it further, but without the new toys like ethernet etc I'm sure you would agree that Go! sales have slumped from the initial level of interest and this catch 22 situation of needing interested to drive sales, to fund development, to create interest, to drive sales.

 

This is where a possible funding scheme like kick starter could help Go!, Netduino and Open source hardware in general...

 

Kick Starter could be used to break the the vicious cycle and could enable Secret Labs to get an extra person working on the Go! line.

 

I guess if you could think in terms of what resources could benefit Go! and what would be required financially or otherwise, the community could work something out?

 

I would be happy to donate in this way, and you can either take the approach you did with AGENT, offering ethernet modules etc, or simply allow people to donate for Go! Bus 1.5 to become a reality sooner :)

 

Andy




#52555 Call for Secret Labs to Kick Start Go! Bus

Posted by mcinnes01 on 04 September 2013 - 09:20 PM in General Discussion

@Juzzer you seem a pretty smart guy looking at your own STM board and your port of NETMF, I would love to see what you could develop for the Go! Maybe a Wifi Module or 1-Wire module or something all together previously unimagined?

 

@Chris if people like Juzzer were able to spend a little time how could they get involved with physically developing the Go! bus protocol?

 

Andy




#52559 Home Automation

Posted by mcinnes01 on 04 September 2013 - 10:25 PM in General Discussion

Hi Mike,

 

What would you recommend in terms of hosting MQTT? I have played on my laptop with RSMB and Mosquitto. I ideally want to have MQTT running on my home server so I can access it from any of my home automation devices as this will be the central point where all messages are handled.

 

Many thanks,

 

Andy




#52600 Call for Secret Labs to Kick Start Go! Bus

Posted by mcinnes01 on 05 September 2013 - 09:43 PM in General Discussion

I would as ever still love to see 1-wire, maybe even a can-bus module? And perhaps a wifi module?

 

Although I feel a chicken and egg argument coming on....

 

Which **should** come first Go! Bus 1.5 or new modules?

 

If you develop a module you would have to write your own firmware which would be a port around Go! bus 1.0. Then what happens when the generic firmware comes out for the STMs with 1.5?

 

Chris if funding is not a route, but developing modules is, can users have an update on where Go Bus 1.5 is.

 

It would be helpful to see:

- An up to date feature set

- Current status of the features

- Current issues

- A detailed definition of the architecture and how the various functions that are complete work and how you expect or propose the outstanding features to fit in.

 

Are SL happy to share this level of detail and perhaps the code for users to contribute/test?

 

There are a fair few people with STM discovery boards, I guess testing can be done for Go! bus 1.5 with an N Go! + STM discovery right?

 

Thanks again and I hope we can spark some community interest back in to Go! :)

 

Andy




#52601 Complete Home Automation from Multiple Devices

Posted by mcinnes01 on 05 September 2013 - 10:07 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

I am on the same quest as yourself currently....

 

Although I am running about 140 separate runs of cat5e.

 

Some will have wall plates (phone, ethernet) some go to devices, sensors, valves, switches, etc.

 

This all goes back to a patch panel so I can route and change the use as and when I want.

 

Also worth thinking about POE.

 

As I have recently learnt from Mario, SPI is not good over long distances and I have had flakey experiences with it in the past. Noise is a real issue.

 

This is true with i2c but to less of an extent and there are ways of reducing noise and its effects.

 

Something to perhaps ponder, to reduce the effects of resistance you will probably want to step your signal up to say 24v. This in itself creates noise and other complications, but solves the issue of running over long distances.

 

I will share what I learn from Mario and perhaps you can share your ideas?

 

Andy




#52619 A virtual hack night

Posted by mcinnes01 on 06 September 2013 - 10:37 PM in General Discussion

count me in!




#52620 Complete Home Automation from Multiple Devices

Posted by mcinnes01 on 06 September 2013 - 10:45 PM in Netduino Plus 2 (and Netduino Plus 1)

I am having 2 central locations, 1 in the loft and 1 in the cellar to avoid having to create a riser and to reduce cable runs. I will have a gigabit link between the 2 and am installing a 96 port patch panel in each to allow me to route things ad-hoc.

 

Each light will go back to these 2 points where I will have a distribution board. Relays will perform the switching all located centrally on the 2 distribution boards. This makes maintenance easy and reduces the number of points of failure. In house having a single or couple of points of failure is desirable as it means you don't have to start ripping up walls and floor boards.

 

Although CAT5 is going in, I may in most cases just use it for the the shielded twisted pairs. As there are 4 pairs you can send data and power down the same cable without creating too much noise. Also if you change your mind you can convert them to standard cat5 cables.

 

Check out some of my active threads for ideas.

 

Andy




#52621 Home Automation

Posted by mcinnes01 on 06 September 2013 - 10:47 PM in General Discussion

Cool thanks Mike, I will give it a whirl. Just getting to grips with server 2012 and hyper V.




#52675 Ethernet Module Update

Posted by mcinnes01 on 09 September 2013 - 09:21 PM in Netduino Go

I often see books on amazon with a similar status? Still if 6 months is a realistic time scale for Go! Bus 1.5 it at least gives us a date to look forward to :)




#53190 N+2 communication with WebApi

Posted by mcinnes01 on 14 October 2013 - 12:47 PM in Project Showcase

Hi the link to the netduino code is broken?



#54127 Raspberry Pi and dot Net MicroFramework

Posted by mcinnes01 on 17 November 2013 - 02:58 PM in General Discussion

I use VS2012 with no issue, you can get the 4.3 SDK from the downloads area.

 

Multiple versions of VS, .NET and the SDK should run happily together on the same PC. Just remember to target the correct version in your project.

 

hth

 

Andy




#54136 Shield Base Firmware (beta 7)

Posted by mcinnes01 on 17 November 2013 - 10:27 PM in Netduino Go

Wow I can't believe I've only just found this thread and I'm surprised its so quiet on here :(

 

Good work Chris! Its nice to see work is happening on Go! Bus still :) 

 

I have been mad busy rewiring my house for hopefully what will be a netduino controlled system eventually (lots of work to go with what will be about 80 relays to control)

 

I will definitely have a play when I get a chance.

 

Can I ask for a little (or fairly detailed if you can) update on Go! Bus 2.0?

 

In notice there are some alpha features on there now, perhaps you could tell us where things like:

 

Where the SPI transport is up to

Support for multiple SBs

The generic firmware for STMs and the ability to flash from the N Go!

When the next release is due

 

Many thanks and keep up the great work

 

Andy




#54162 Home Automation

Posted by mcinnes01 on 19 November 2013 - 03:45 AM in General Discussion

I have posted an update on my blog...





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