sxnahm@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Nahm) (11/17/83)
I've sent this message to h19-people with no one replying, so perhaps someone listening hear can help. I just looked at Heath's RS232 controlled BSR X-10 controller. (The X-10 system let's you turn lights and appliances on and off through your house's AC wiring. The Heath module let's you do this through your computer.) As built, it's a send-only system. What a waste, since for a little extra effort, it could easily have *received* commands from other controllers, and passed them on to your computer. Thus, you could use the 16 digit key-pad of any regular X-10 controller as a very portable input device (the X-10 system includes a remote ultrasonic unit). I looked at the schematic of the Heath module (model GD-1530), and it appears that a modification to tap the data coming over the line might be easy. My question: has any one done this? Thanks, Steve Nahm
MCMANIS%USC-ECLC%sri-nic@sri-unix.UUCP (11/17/83)
From: Chuck McManis <MCMANIS%USC-ECLC@sri-nic> Steve, I recently became aware of some research into this area of communication in the form of a Local Area Network based on the house wiring. It was developed by GE and has been labeled "Homenet." Information is available from GE by writing to: Industry Standards Staff General Electric Co. Fairfield, CT 06431 Ask for "Homenet: A local control net for the home." This spec seems to run at 1K Bps and allow burst messages between anything attached to the power line, it has provisions for collision detection and access management and it some what more sophisticated than the on/off codes the BSR sends. How interesting if you home computer could FTP what was for dinner from the microwave. --Chuck -------