Posts made by Vodden

@ferpando
@rosskinard

Has anyone made any headway on this project?

@Mrlynx

I'm unsure if this solution would work or not. What I am working with is an IKEA Termosfar enclosure. There is very limited room inside and I think that the solution you have proposed wouldn't likely fit.

The prototype board is VERY tight mostly due to the thickness with the pin header installed. The outside dimensions are also critical, with the smallest possible prototype board just barely able to fit. I think the pictured PCB would work perfectly and I have all the parts to build it.

@rosskinard was working on a version of these boards as well but had some issues with the pinout, but I have not heard of any progress on it or if they are available. I was hoping that these ones were available so I could get these lights on dimmers.

@ferpando

Did you ever produce the board that you have pictured above for the dimmable LED's?

Did it work?

I would be interested in getting 7-10 of these for 12V LED cable lighting applications that I currently have in my home that cannot be supported by conventional Z-Wave dimmers due to the lights being fed from a 120VAC to 12VDC converter. I have made one on a prototype PCB but it is still slightly large for the enclosure and the one you pictured appears that it would fit tidily in the enclosures.

Thx

Vodden

@hek said:

And your sensors must have a way of contacting the vera/plugin or keep a connection open. Not sure how this could be achieved.

If the gateway arduino was still in place, but with a LAN connection on both the sensor and gateway side (ether Cat 5/6 or Wifi), would it work in the same manner? The relationship between the gateway and the vera does not change, only the manner in which it transmits/receives data from the sensors.

@hek said:

@Vodden

Yes, agree with @axillent on this.

What you are describing is a valid but different project. We won't be able to reuse much of the current libraries and coming hardware.

Keep hacking! People need mixes of technologies!

Cheers

I think with enough effort, there could be enough diversity within 'the project' to cover all the bases. I am lucky (or unlucky, depending on your perspective) enough to be doing renovations in the near future which will enable me to have Cat 6 running to every room in the house, which is why I am leaning toward the LAN path. Some rooms will be serviced by multiple Cat 6 runs, allowing for multiple devices. PoE doesn't require special wiring compared to regular Cat 5/Cat 6 as attested to by @axillent, but it does require a reasonably priced PoE injector or PoE switch (yikes, expensive), which I would require anyway for other aspects of my renovations, so it seems like the logical choice for me. Being able to conceal everything behind drywall, have no need for batteries, and not have random project boxes lurking about is also another big selling feature. It would be a 'medium cost' alternative with full price functionality and footprint. In the grand scheme of things I think this is still a viable alternative for me and possibly others, and as soon as I have a clue about Arduino sketch writing, I will give it a go.

@hek if the transfer protocol between sensor and gateway was changed to LAN instead of RF, would the Vera plug-in still work as-is?

I know that RF is handy for transferring data, but what about using LAN for data transfer? I have been thinking about this for some time now, and it is a bit of a side track, but I think that the option should exist to replace the 2.4GHz RF card with something like a Wiznet or USR-WIFI232 , and transfer any data to/from sensors and gateway that way. The option also exists to do this via wifi, which is also much more secure. I collaborated with MCV forum member RexBeckett to do this exact thing with another project, and I think that creating the functionality/option of using LAN for data transfer is a wise step. Another benefit to this would be to allow sensors to be powered via PoE, an option I am taking with my fan control project to be able to conceal my electronics in an electrical box inside the wall with no need for batteries and wall warts. I understand that the purpose here is to make existing equipment more secure, but I think that the extra couple dollars it would require to use Ethernet devices may be a worthwhile evolution to this project.

Thoughts?