Specifications

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controllogicwaswrittenbylastyear'steam.Changesandadditionswillbemadetothecontrollogicas
necessary.
ControlofInsteonDevices
Ionisanopen‐sourcelibrarywithaUSBdriverfortheInsteonPowerLincControllerV2(PLC).UsingIon,
theservercansendcommandstothePLC,whichthentransmitsviatheInsteonnetwork.Theserver
usesanotherprogramcalledIonBridgetopollthePLCwitheventhandlers.Additionally,IonBridge
allowsapplicationstocontrolInsteondevicesbyusingcommandservers.Alltheneededsoftwarefor
Insteonnetworkcontrolhasbeenwrittenbythepreviousteam.
ControlofNetworkManagedThermostat
Thecontrolserveralsocontrolsthenetwork‐managedthermostat.Thereisexistingcodefromlastyear
thatinterfacestheserverwiththecustom‐designedthermostat.CommandsaresentusingTCPsockets
requestingdatafromthethermostatorgivingitinstructions.Theinterfacesoftwareisalreadywritten
fortheexistingdesign.Forthepurchasedcommunicatingther mostat, however,wewillneedtowrite
similarsoftwaretoperformthesamefunctions.Theserverwillcontainthesc hedulingdataandthe
sameinformationastheLCDonthethermostat.
TheonlysoftwaredevelopmentneededfortheHomeControlServeristheintegrationoftheoff‐the‐
shelfcommunicatingthermostatwiththecontrolsystem.Thiswillbenoeasytask,butwillbecomea
requirementaswedevelopthetwothermostatdesignsinparallel.
LightingControlSubsystem
ThelightinginourhomeautomationsystemiscontrolledbyInsteondevices,asnotedinFigure1.
Insteonutilizesadual‐meshnetworktocommunicatewithdevicesinthehome,makingitveryeffective
andreliable.Signalsaresentoverthehome'spowerlinesandthroughradiotransmission,givingsignals
multiplepathsandincreasingreliability. Thedevicescaneitherplugintoanoutlet,providingaremote‐
controlledoutletforlamps/appliances,ortheycanbeinstalleddirectlyinalight'scircuit,providinga
remote‐controlledrelay.Switchesanddimmerscanbeusedthroughoutthesubsystemtoreplace
existingwallswitches.Eachdevicehasafactory‐loadedIDnumbersotheHomeControlServercan
targetitspecifically.Withtheavailabilityofoutletcontrolsaswellasin‐linerelays,thissystemwill
provetobequiteversatileanduseful.
TheservercancommunicatewiththeInsteondevicesthroughthePowerLincControllerV2(PLC),which
communicatesdirectlywiththeHomeControlServerviaUSB.ThePLCprovidestheinterfacefromthe
Insteongeartotheserver.Itistheoriginofthedual‐meshnetworkusedinthehouse.OtherInsteon
devicesincluderelays,lampplugs,applianceplugs,keypadcontrollers,andRFsignalenhancers.
TheRFSignaLincsignalenhancersreceiveradiosignalsfromthePLCandstrengthenthesignalto
devicesconnectedtotheACpowerlines.Thisisespeciallyimportantsuetothehighquantityofnoise
thatexistsonahomeACpowersystem.
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