RE: Progress on the xAP to C-Bus gateway - MY FEEDBACK

[michael.furlong]

Kevin

first I hope you got my feedback

second can you quantify the sort of feed back you received?
Was it just a lack of interest (which may be due to the limited
audience) or was it down to the cost?

Being blunt if someone can afford to install cbus then the cost of the
interface isnt a major extra expenditure.

I am still very interested in your development be it rs232 or ethernet
and I feel it could have a lot of potential as a commercial or semi
commercial offering.

cheers
Mick

-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Hawkins [mailto:<a
href="/group/xap_automation/post?postID=ayOm1IP3CrRtUcKqVc0jc11O-8bNpmfppoU8G5_WRsriYIhzFkvHElhQ7P6r36SWWH8gtZLegvnuezmzjHc8Ohc_">lists@u...</a>]
Sent: 07 June 2003 15:28
To: <a
href="/group/xap_automation/post?postID=A44dBXv6clg6UAzYEht_wbumCfqPn2PsGZtpjohxtyykbNEbF_ecMnKYsRSUbBPAPsyR8e9cvrjJ6HfBw-HlzN9-BfdA">xap_automation@xxxxxxx</a>
Subject: RE: [xap_automation] Progress on the xAP to C-Bus gateway -
MY
FEEDBACK


Well - the response to this has been a little underwhelming - so I
don't think I'm going to approach this quite the way I had intended
before.
It just doesn't warrant the time and effort. Had a couple of feedbacks
that
said if the cost was above £50 it wasn't worth the hardware route -
actually
I discounted these but it does show what some people expect for their
money.
I hope the general low level of response is because no-one has got
their
C-Bus stuff yet so I'm guessing it will pick up later.
What I hope to do now is release the Win32 application and to look
at the possibility of incorporating a plugin personality into the
Rocket xAP
board when such tools become available to third party developers.
Alongside that I am going to look at just what I can achieve with a
few interesting products I have routed out on the PIC side - PIC is
far more
comfortable to be than having to learn C for the Rabbit. I have four
things
I'm looking into currently although one is a non starter I believe. If
any
of these come off then I should be able to provide a fairly cost
effective
Ethernet connected controller for xAP to C-Bus. If none of them come
off
then I'll probably just offer the RS232 connectivity - which could be
plugged directly into a Rocket xAP serial board for example to bridge
without a PC to Ethernet. Just ups the cost a little.

Kevin

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kevin Hawkins [mailto:<a
href="/group/xap_automation/post?postID=ayOm1IP3CrRtUcKqVc0jc11O-8bNpmfppoU8G5_WRsriYIhzFkvHElhQ7P6r36SWWH8gtZLegvnuezmzjHc8Ohc_">lists@u...</a>]
> Sent: 05 June 2003 13:55
> To: <a
href="/group/xap_automation/post?postID=A44dBXv6clg6UAzYEht_wbumCfqPn2PsGZtpjohxtyykbNEbF_ecMnKYsRSUbBPAPsyR8e9cvrjJ6HfBw-HlzN9-BfdA">xap_automation@xxxxxxx</a>
> Subject: RE: [xap_automation] Progress on the xAP to C-Bus
gateway - MY
> FEEDBACK
>
> Hi Mark
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: mark_harrison_uk2 [mailto:<a
href="/group/xap_automation/post?postID=pZolxhidoKQn78JilxvFu1xr34BoXcKSfJhzOz0tbpBoEEkk4weggl0pgQCZm0WCJ5QmYofwSR5oNo7mtA">mph@a...</a>]
> > Sent: 05 June 2003 10:15
> > To: <a
href="/group/xap_automation/post?postID=A44dBXv6clg6UAzYEht_wbumCfqPn2PsGZtpjohxtyykbNEbF_ecMnKYsRSUbBPAPsyR8e9cvrjJ6HfBw-HlzN9-BfdA">xap_automation@xxxxxxx</a>
> > Subject: [xap_automation] Progress on the xAP to C-Bus
gateway -
> MY
> > FEEDBACK
> >
> > --- In <a
href="/group/xap_automation/post?postID=A44dBXv6clg6UAzYEht_wbumCfqPn2PsGZtpjohxtyykbNEbF_ecMnKYsRSUbBPAPsyR8e9cvrjJ6HfBw-HlzN9-BfdA">xap_automation@xxxxxxx</a>,
"Kevin Hawkins"
> <lists@u...>
> > wrote:
> >
> > I don't have any C-Bus kit at the moment, but post-UKHA2003
it's
> > certainly on the shortlist (against Polaron) for lighting
control.
>
> I know nothing about Polaron but the people that have it seem
very
> happy
>
> > The thing I dislike about C-Bus is the in-wall controllers,
so I'd
> > definitely want to xAP-control it.
>
> They are not aimed at HA enthusiasts certainly - their
functionality is
> limited - however I think for one of the 'city living' type
installs
> they
> are probably very suitable really - 5 scenes is more than enough
I
> would
> think in practice - but timer / logic functions may need more
than
> Clispals
> timer offers.
> >
> > My preference for controllers, best first is:
> >
> > - Personality for the Rocket board
>
> I would like this too as essentially my hardware is the same as
this
> board -
> an unnecessary duplication if we both make one. However there is
work
> to be
> done in getting the product to a stage where a third party can
write a
> plug
> in or personality that can be imported to the product. A
developers
> toolkit
> perhaps. As there are issues in source code availability for the
> product and
> NDA issues on C-Bus it will take a little working through to get
this -
> but
> P and I are talking and hope to have a solution. I am about to
order a
> Rabbit board and to teach myself C (again)
>
> > - Embedded RS232
> > - Windows application
> > - Linux application
> >
> > I don't have any need at the moment for a non-xAP version,
but I
> can
> > see how it would be useful as a debugging / installation
tool (if
> I
> > go the PC-application route.)
>
> Several people have asked for this - just a simple ON OF DIM
STATUS
> protocol
> not dissimilar to X10 I guess - I'll see
> >
> > I'd rather see a xAP - xPL bridge than a separate xPL
connector
> for C-
> > Bus to xPL. I think that there's going to a be a lot of
effort
> spent
> > by people building connectors for both protocols unless a
bridge
> > comes into use soon.
>
> One of the very neat things in xAP that dovetails very nicely
with the
> way
> the C-Bus gateway works is the UID. This allows xAP switches to
control
> C-Bus loads with absolutely minimal overhead (and has reverse
> benefits).
> Through a gateway this will be awkward as a UID can't be
generated for
> xPL
> source messages* and the addressing construct of xPL
source/target
> addresses
> is truncated to the extent that it can't support multiple
hardware
> endpoints
> within one xPL device. It will need awkward name value pairs
within an
> xPL
> message body.
>
> * When I say can't be generated it would be possible to fabricate
UID's
> for
> xPL sources but the lack in xPL of the hardware sub ID - the last
two
> digits
> of the UID and the content after a : in the longform address is
> irrecoverable I think.
>
> K
>
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Mark
> >
> >
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