Would people buy this?

[cholin]

Im working on a project with no name for now (need a name!) and basically its a USB board (really small one) that you pop into your computer and it can control / read 18 inputs or outputs.  Now, you might go "so... theres a million of those out there" and there is, but they tend to be expensive!  Starting at 50 bucks for a decent one that you know wont blow up.  Now, heres the creative part, although its been done before, Im writing a web server for it!

You plug in the USB thing and click "Activate" in the software, the message box fills up with "Device found!" and starts listening for a connection.  You can now connect to your computer anywhere in the world to control your house!  This has been done before for sure, but prices with a board and the software are absolutely deadly!  Who can pay 200 bucks for a measly board that you can use via your wireless laptop!

The way I figure it, I can build some prototype boards for about 5 dollars for the first 6 or so, and after that the cost goes up to around 10 - 15.  I can sell these things in different board forms from beginner to advanced function wise and bundle the software, so with a nice hunk of profit to me, people still get a great board for under 50 bucks that can do anything they want!

Heres what Ive got on the software so far:

[TravistyOJ]

At that price Id definately snag one.

[MikeQ]

Products that do this already exist and are fairly cheap.  The first one that comes to mind is Home Domination.  It runs about $30 and interfaces with a bunch of different home automation devices (like X-10) that are also cheap.  It allows you to control your A/C, lights, whatever you can plug into electricity basically.

Also, in the near future you will see 802.11 light switches, plugs, etc that will allow you to have wireless control of your house from your pc.  I'm sure these systems will also have web access to a control panel.

[cholin]

The Home Domination is software only and it runs at 30 bucks USD.  This would come with web software and the board for just a bit more...  and X10 modules are really quite pricey!  The MyHouseOnline software from X10 is *only* 69.99, regular 169.99!

Now tell me about it

Wireless light switches will need to be replaced with your old switches and will definately cost more than the 5 dollar regular 3-way light switches that you use with my board...  Ive seen some wireless light switches and they run at about 60 bucks canadian each for a decent one that actually functions as a switch and works wirelessly, but then you need a controller and some software.....

Its a great price, I looked into it for sure

There's a difference though, X10's plug into your socket, mine are controlled from a board so theyre not wireless... its fine for most applications since you only have to run a simple set of stereo wires or something thinner such as 2 wires out of an ethernet cable...

It would be amazing for arcacde machines though....  and general purpose ideas.  Controlling your AC is a snap with these, and it works well in cars too.

[cholin]

Another 45 bucks...  but the description is exactly what my thing is...

USBmicro U401 USB Interface - $45.95
 

A fully assembled and tested USB interface device in a "SimmStick" format.  This can be used to get information from temperature sensors or other sensors, or control other devices.  The voltage of the pins is +-5V, so additional circuitry is required to control other devices (connecting higher voltages will damage the U401 and the computer), however 1-Wire devices such as the DS18S20, DS18B20 and DS1822 temperature sensors can be attached directly.

[MikeQ]

The Home Domination is software only and it runs at 30 bucks USD.  This would come with web software and the board for just a bit more...  and X10 modules are really quite pricey!  The MyHouseOnline software from X10 is *only* 69.99, regular 169.99!

Now tell me about it

Wireless light switches will need to be replaced with your old switches and will definately cost more than the 5 dollar regular 3-way light switches that you use with my board...  Ive seen some wireless light switches and they run at about 60 bucks canadian each for a decent one that actually functions as a switch and works wirelessly, but then you need a controller and some software.....

Its a great price, I looked into it for sure

There's a difference though, X10's plug into your socket, mine are controlled from a board so theyre not wireless... its fine for most applications since you only have to run a simple set of stereo wires or something thinner such as 2 wires out of an ethernet cable...

It would be amazing for arcacde machines though....  and general purpose ideas.  Controlling your AC is a snap with these, and it works well in cars too.

How exactly will you control a normal 3 way light switch from your board?  I'm going to have to have a wire running from my switch to your board?

[Tahnok]

Wait, I'm confused. What exactly does your board do? Does it act as a switch or does it act as a reader (or both)? Kind of reminds me of a little board I was playing with back before halloween, the Parrallax Prop-1 controller. It's fairly cheap, but requires a little bit of programming knowledge.

If you could make something similar, I would definitely be interested. How many of these things could be hooked-up at once?

[rdagger]

I think what you want to build is called a USB I/O relay.  I actually was considering building one for another project, because they are expensive to buy.  Would you use HID or a custom driver?  What controller are you going to use Cypress, Atmel or PIC?

[cholin]

How exactly will you control a normal 3 way light switch from your board?  I'm going to have to have a wire running from my switch to your board?

You bet you are!  Seriously, its not that bad... the wires inside an ethernet cable are so small you can run them practically anywhere without them being seen...

Wait, I'm confused. What exactly does your board do? Does it act as a switch or does it act as a reader (or both)?

The board is just a chip with a few terminal strips and some extra crap.  The chip is programmed to read ports or write them, depending on what the software tells the chip to do.  If you want terminals 1-5 to be inputs, 6-8 to be analog inputs, and 9-18 to be digital outputs, then so be it!  You just tell the software what you want, it sets up your chip, and youre done.

How many of these things could be hooked-up at once?

Well, according to USB specs, 127.  Thing is, I dont think the software would be able to respond to more than one board because as soon as a board is plugged in with the vendor number and product number, it will set off a signal.  I could set it to check if a board's already plugged in and verify it against a serial number, but that would mean each chip would need a seperate HEX file and I would constantly need to increment the serial number, therefore Id have to compile a new file for every single chip.  If youre willing to pay for the functionality, then sure why not, but otherwise, you can only really hook up one.

On the other hand, there may be a version coming out later on that will have like 30 IO pins rather than the 18 I supply now.  Those will be in the future and only if this origional project turns out well.

Would you use HID or a custom driver?

HID because its already there and it works.  Why would I write a driver for something as simple as IO controlling...  I think the HID is really cool because of the way it works like this.

What controller are you going to use Cypress, Atmel or PIC?

Well, Im using the PIC controller for sure because im more comfortable with them and I think they're better.  I got a few sample ones that Ill be using at first (I have 6 of the 18 pin IO, and 3 of the 30 pin IO) but I wont end up using the ones that can supply like 30 IO for a long time.  The first 6 boards will be *really* cheap to build though for me, so that's good!  I bought some parts today, enough to make maybe 10 boards... just to see how this will work out.  Ill try to sell these off on a cheap protoboard or something, or just offer it in a kit form to save on costs and make some money to buy more parts

[MikeQ]

How exactly will you control a normal 3 way light switch from your board?  I'm going to have to have a wire running from my switch to your board?

You bet you are!  Seriously, its not that bad... the wires inside an ethernet cable are so small you can run them practically anywhere without them being seen...

I still don't see how ethernet wires are going to switch a normal wall switch.  Ethernet wires can't carry 120v and a normal wall switch doesn't have a relay to be switched with +5 usb.  Also, if I want to automate my house, I'm not going to want to have Ethernet wires running all over the place.  I'll stick with X10, RadioRF or any of the other professional solutions not matter what the cost.

The ability to switch outputs on a USB card is a tiny part of the entire Home Automation system.  Having a cheap solution to do this really isn't a product.  You need to provide all the other components too.


Something else to think about too.  If your device is to be used for Home Automation purposes, it will need to adhere to the National Electric Code.  It should probably be U.L. listed as well and you'll want to carry a nice chunk of Liability insurance so when your device burns a house down, your insurance will cover the lawsuit.

[cholin]

Or say that its for switching small signals and whatever people use it for is up to them...

Yeah, I agree that it should be wireless, but in order to set up a whole RF system, its going to be quite a b*tch to do, and the price would skyrocket!  Alot of people are doing home renovations and the like, so it would definately be ideal for them!

The perfect system IMO would be one where you use existing wall switches, hook up an RF module to them, and you can wirelessly control your board to control the modules via remote control or aa keychain remote.  Thing is, thats not gonna happen for my price range...

[cholin]

Update:  Looked into wireless, out of budget.  Looked into ethernet, definately out of budget.  Looked into wireless ethernet, got a sweet idea for a future project; but nonetheless -- out of budget.

Anyways, I burned 10 chips last night with custom firmware, 1 into a USB-NES controller, and 1 other one into some sample USB control firmware that origionally inspired this...

Loaded up the software, tested it out, looks great!  So few parts its actually amazing!  I got so excited to see the LED turn green one way and then red the other way!!!  Could this be the next LED-WIZ?  Probably not due to the limited I/O but sure for smaller panels!

Keep in mind that this can control pretty much anything, input; output; or analog.  Im going to make a custom board for me specifically that is controlled via remote control and the winLIRC software..... so anythings possible!

[cholin]

OH!  FORGOT TO MENTION ONE HUGE FEATURE!!!!

All settings are saved in EEPROM!  That means, you set up the software once and you can close it and plug the board into another computer and all the settings will be retained!!!

Just rememberred that right now, tested it out and it works wonderfully.

[rdagger]

Would you use HID or a custom driver?

HID because its already there and it works.  Why would I write a driver for something as simple as IO controlling...  I think the HID is really cool because of the way it works like this.

I don't have much experience with USB and HID descriptors, but it seems like HID would work great for reading inputs, but not great for controlling relays.  From a software programming perspective you could easily read the HID inputs using DirectInput, but how would you programmatically control a relay?   Besides force-feedback how can your software turn relays on and off?

[cholin]

If I read this about 30 seconds ago, I could have taken a picture for you.  I just hooked 13 LEDs up to the breadboarded circuit and controlled all 13 of them by the software.

It just works.  The HID is more than DirectInput, its the connection itself, and the way the USB device sends and receives its commands.  I can still send out a custom command like "LEDSON" or something, and read in the data from the device.

DirectInput is just a way of controlling it, mine uses custom software where I send the actual byte directly to the device.