Re: EIB Instabus

["David Buckley" <db@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "Ian Lowe" <ian@w...> wrote:

Guys, guys, guys - hold it.

If you want to build your own devices that will co-exist on an EIB
network, yes, you need to be a member of all the right clubs and you
need to go through a certification process to ensure that your
device will happily co-exist with other stuff.

If, on the other hand, you just want to talk to devices on EIB, then
you dont need all that stuff, you just need to be "connected" to
the
EIB bus, which you do through a thing called a BCU, a Bus Coupler
Unit.  EIB data then comes in and out on an RS232 interface.

There is, however, a massive BUT in that statement - its not normal
RS232, you have to waggle the control lines with very tight timing.
But it can be done.  Its easiest to do it from a dedicated micro,
but if you can make a PC serial port sufficiently reponsive, you can
do it from that.

There is at least one linux implementations of EIB interfacing, see
http://freshmeat.net/projects/eib/

Also http://www.hto.fh-deggendorf.de/komm/englisch/elinux.html
which
may be the same or different??

Both under GPL.  So how much more open do you need?

Oh yes, documentation.  What you want is EIBA Handbook part 3, two
inches (double sided print) of EIB protocol in excruciating detail.

It was (prior to KNX, so dont know if its still there, but it looks
like it is) electronically available (no subscription, no money, no
club to join) from
http://www.eiba.com/downloads/downloads.nsf/system%20specifications?
OpenPage

Other interesting stuff:  Georg Luber, EIB zealot, appears to have
done it from a Palm  device, see http://www.georg-luber.de/palm_e.htm

All of georg's site is worth looking at.

And as for IP - EIBNet/IP.

But I'm sceptical as to whether IP will ever be a core control
protocol, as its just so much more component heavy, software heavy,
and (as a system) just less reliable than either the RS485 based
system, or data over power, as both EIB and CBus use.  I may be
wrong (and it certainly wouldnt be the first time!) but if folks
are "resistent" to CBus and EIB pricing, I cant see that ethernet
will be cheaper.