At present, all the sockets / lighting / garage doors / blinds and basically anything that can react to a contact relay or dimming circuit is handled by custom designed PCB's built from the ground up using PIC controllers. Very cheap to make and totally customisable, relitive to the 'off the shelf' kit.
Its first pass, and at the moment its driven by a single back end database which uses rs232 to drive all the modules via a custom app.
This database is then front ended with a pretty web front end which will be designed to run on PDA's and the growing numbers of internet tablets, including the likes of the Ipad. Everything runs through the database, giving unlimited multi-user / multi-interface opurtunities.
The goal was total integration, so temperature inputs will be present in the rooms, ventilation system, solar heating and outside along with sunlight sensors and trending patterns to run the heating / ventilation / blinds / smart glass at the optimum setting to keep the house comfortable at minimal cost.
All power circuits will be categorised for purpose and monitored for current drain, and this is turn can be used with home / away settings to reduce power consumption in unoccupied rooms. Each socket can be switched to UPS for resilience, or off for safety, as required.
Input boards take care of light switches, heating controls etc and can be simple contact switches or smarter capacitive touch screen glass with vibration feedback, which we've also custom built.
Bit masked cctv replaces pir's in wide coverage areas to ensure auto lighting isnt triggered falsely and improve accuracy.
Multimedia is on the agenda, but most of the hdmi matrix / Cat 5/6 baluns I was looking at were only hdmi 1.3, and 3D has pushed us up to 1.4, so might need a rethink there. Storage isnt an issue as I'm a data storage consultant by trade, and media will likely be delivered via Windows Media Center as I've known it for years and it goes from strength to strength.
So, automation, but with integration and efficiency as the key goal, but at a very affordable price.... (to me anyway
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The First 20 Audis:
2001 D2 4.2 QS Silver, 1997 D2 S8 Silver, 1999 D2 4.2 Silver, 2002 D2 S8 Dolphin Grey,
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2005 B7 S4 Blue, 2006 D3 3.0 Tdi Black, 1999 D2 4.2 Silver, 2003 D3 4.2 LPG Crystal Blue,
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2007 4.2 Tdi Q7, 2006 S4 Cab Silver, 2010 RS6 Saloon Black
, 2007 TT Roadster,
2010 A8 D4 4.2 Silver, 2006 C6 A6 2.7 Tdi Quattro, 2000 D2 4.2 QS/S8 Ming Blue (again), 2008 Q7 4.2 Black,
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Everything Else
1989 Subaru Justy, 1986 Vauxhall Cartlton 2.0 GL, 1985 Vauxhall Carlton 2.2 CDi, 1987 Ford Sierra XR4x4, 1983 Vauxhall Senator, 1985 Vauxhall Senator 3.0i, 1997 Polo Saloon, 1997 Peugeot 306 1.9 TDi, Ford Sierra Sapphire 2000E, 1990 Subaru Justy, 2000 Subaru Impreza, 2000 Subaru Impreza RB5, 1993 Range Rover LSE, 2005 VW Bora, 2003 Skoda Superb, 2003 VW Passat V6 4 Motion, 1996 Peugeot 106, 2000 Range Rover 4.0, 2019 Tesla Model 3 Performance