Re: Displays round the house - architecture...

["ianwbird" <Ian@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Guys 

I don't want to throw a damper on the whole thing but aren't the 
potential requirements getting a little lofty. 

I assume a VFD can be addressed in much the same way as an LCD 
display. If so something like the plans I have where the unit has an 
address and displays data sent to it would be good. Add a keypad for 
good measure. All this other stuf like TCPIP and temp reading, light 
levels etc. are potentially making the whole thing very complicated 
and harder to develop. I am a great fan of KISS after some bad 
experiences of my own. Also, cheap chips can be used for the tasks 
individually but as they become able to do greater things their cost 
goes up along with the development cost. 

I think if we aspire to all these lofty goals the net result is that 
nothing will ever get developed. 

Other units could be developed to do things like your temperature 
sensing etc. Collect all this info in a PC app and co-ordinate from 
there. 

Just some thoughts.......... 

Ian B 

p.s. depending on how you are wiring RS485 may take 2 pairs + the 
common ground in cat5. This is because it is daisychain not star so 
you need a to and from the device. 

> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: PatrickLidstone [mailto:patrickl@t...]
> Sent: 12 August 2002 16:46
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: [ukha_d] Re: Displays round the house - architecture...
> 
> 
> Some random thoughts:
> An alternative approach is to let each *display* take the decision
> about what to display locally - transmit message text(s) and 
triggers 
> to all devices. (Note that it is the trigger event, not the trigger
> criteria that is transmitted to a display). I can see a number of 
> advantages in this approach:
> 
> -  There is no cental controller to fail; it is a distributed
> architecture
> -  Triggers can be generated from *any* network connected device,
> possibly including other display units (perhaps with keypads?)
> -  Complex conditional logic can be applied (not necessarily 
excluded 
> with your original design, depends on what the output server does)
> -  Local control and centralised control can be achieved 
> simultaneously using the same infrastructure with a minimum of 
> additional work.
> 
> Configuration information for each display is read from server(s) 
at 
> boot time. This server could also cache recent events so that a 
> display shows current information immediately on re-boot.
> 
> I think this architecture extends beyond just displays to provide 
> (one possible) foundation for an HA network protocol. I could 
ramble 
> on, but I'd wager that a detailed discussion is probably outside 
the 
> interests of the majority of the list. 
> 
> Patrick
> 
> 
> 
> 
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