Control HV but not using a PC or X10

[ian.bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Hi all

I have spent a lot of time on the phone with Wifey this morning as we had
in excess of thirty power cuts yesterday afternoon and evening. The main
problem was the manual boost to the central heating was not available and
it was cold. Wifey does not entertain playing with the really basic
central heating controller. It is one of those twice a day jobs and no
other options.

Current control is via the HV web interface on the server or RF remote
control which sends X10 signals which HV acts on. This latter X10 way is a
little hit and miss as the RF receiver has to be in the kitchen to cover
the house but sometimes (no rhyme or reason) HV goes blind on that
kitchen/lounge circuit. This blindness lasts days or sometimes a couple of
weeks and then its OK for a while again.

Anyway, the power cuts (1 minute down in every three minutes) played havoc
with the network infrastructure. The HV web interface software had a
problem talking on the allocated port (server on a UPS but HV obviously
not), additionally the router did not come up properly after the last
power cut so the wireless network was not working. X10 blindness also
started after the power cuts :-(( Seems that if it could go wrong it did.
Not a problem to sort out when I am there but Wifey was not too impressed
this time although it could have been worse.

The solution to all this.............
We have seen this before with other power cuts so a while ago I started
building a controller to interface onto the current home automation. This
is trundling along nicely at the moment but I am now getting to the 'how
to talk to HV stage'. The controller works by sending Ethernet messages
which can be internally defined hence supporting xAP, xPL or any other
flavour that meets the basic requirements.

So, the question is, how do I get the Ethernet message into HV so it can
be acted on. Requirements like no PC in there to fail probably mean that
it will be a custom hardware solution. I am happy to build an Ethernet box
which can accept the average UDP packet containing xAP, xPL etc. translate
this into something and squirt it to HV over serial.

Does anyone have any thoughts on doing this or any suggestions on a better
way? I have not looked into comms with HV over serial other than I know it
can be done as the HV software does it.

As a last thought, does anyone know how to use an MSS100 as a serial to
Ethernet solution so I can share access to HV between the PC software and
my controller. The PC side should not be a problem there are many drivers
etc. to help. But, what about using it from an embedded platform?

Thanks

Ian


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