On Tue, 17 Jul 2007 13:18, you wrote: > On Tue, 17 Jul 2007, Andrew Errington wrote: > > Ha ha. Good luck. > > Somehow I'm not feeling encouraged. > > > Perhaps what you really want is an ethernet enabled mains switch. > > A bank of those would be nice. Amongst other things I have a washing > machine where the clock is dying and the replacement will cost lots. > > > After all, you do have Cat5e everywhere in your house, don't you? > > The wife keeps whinging about tripping over it, the duct tape on the > floor and the holes.
I installed mine under the floor, and put faceplates on the walls in the rooms where I wanted sockets. All wired back to a patch panel in the hot water cupboard. > > Another alternative is the Dallas one-wire bus. There are 'switch' > > nodes that you could connect (via optoisolators, natch) to a mains > > relay (or modified Arlec doodad). > > Sigh! The PHB's of the world keep saying how marvelous the hardware > types are with their reusable components...the hardware guys are so > way ahead of software etc. etc. > > They haven't actually gone to hardware catalogue on the web and tried > to find a component that will a) match an electrical & mechanical > spec, b) has a known price c) is in stock. I find that Maxim have a chip for pretty much anything you might want to do. Go to www.maxim-ic.com and have a look. You can get free samples there too- I suggest the one-wire thermometer DS18B20 or DS18S20, because it's interesting, and the one-wire switch, DS2413, because it's what you want. Build an interface (DS9097, buy or build, Google is your friend) and have a play. Actually, I've just noticed the DS28EA00, a combined temperature sensor and programmable I/O. Ooh, shiny! > It all just seems to be way harder than it should be. It's so like the Man. Here's some inspiration for you: http://www.bwired.nl/ http://www.awe.com/ha/ Have fun. Andrew
