Tell me more ×
Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for electronics and electrical engineering professionals, students, and enthusiasts. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 5 down vote favorite
2

I'm a web developer / system admin and I have a client project with a project that is just beyond me. In a nutshell, we need to the following capabilities:

  • Track the status of hundreds of Passive Infrared Sensors
  • Track the status of hundreds of lights (not sure yet whether it will be a simple BOOL value or a percentage / brightness value)
  • Trigger any of the lights individually or in groups from a main console and eventually from mobile apps
  • Log all of the state changes for the motion sensors and lights
  • Generate reports and pattern analysis based off the logs

The programming involved will be cake. I understand how that works.. but where do I even start in controlling lights and tracking that many streams of external input? What hardware and software should I be looking at? Can I build this on top of a linux server for easier access from a mobile device?

Thanks for the guidance, guys. I really appreciate it.

share|improve this question
How often will you be querying these lights and sensors? (ie 100 times per second? slower? faster?). – Jon L Jun 6 '11 at 15:47
5  
It sounds like you need some sort of data concentrator that then communicates to your computer in a way the computer can understand. I'm sure you don't want to run ethernet cables to every sensor and light, so you need some simpler hardware to communicate with all those endpoints, then have it be the single point of contact to your main computer system. That could be via USB or ethernet, for example. To make a solid recommendation I need to know more about what the interface to these sensors and lights look like, if there is any currently at all, the physical distance, etc. – Olin Lathrop Jun 6 '11 at 16:04
1  
You mention the brightness value of the lights. Does this mean we're talking dimmers? Hundreds of them? – stevenvh Jun 6 '11 at 16:07

4 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

There are several companies who provide turn-key solutions for this kind of application when it's wireless and internet connected. Some, from hardware to web APIs.

http://www.iobridge.com/

http://www.pachube.com/

http://arrayent.com/

They may be a good place to start.

share|improve this answer
up vote 4 down vote

I think you'll want to look into DMX and RDM. Those are more output protocols for lighting and theatre systems. With RDM, one could do sensors.... but. I never used it, but perhaps Open Sound System would work.

share|improve this answer
up vote 0 down vote

Maybe using 1-wire technology might be of some use

http://www.maxim-ic.com/datasheet/index.mvp/id/3818

I have worked on projects were i gathered data from several thermometers just from running a 2 core cable +5v and -5volt and the data was sent passivly to and back of the micro controller.

http://www.maxim-ic.com/products/1-wire/

I have not seen a 1-wire light sensor - but a temp-ic could pick up heat emmited from lights to knwo if they are on or not?

You will need a 1-wire standalone switch to drive hundreds of ic's and an interface like arduino to gather data and send it to serial so it can be decoded.

share|improve this answer
@ppumpkin - Please don't add a signature ('T') to your posts. Your signature is displayed at the bottom right: it links to your profile and even features a glowing pumpkin! – Kevin Vermeer Jun 7 '11 at 21:09
@Kevin Sorry- that was not a signature - just did not delete the whole sentence I wanted to write. Apologies. Will keep it cleaner. – ppumkin Jun 8 '11 at 8:07
up vote 0 down vote

Is there any reason you're looking to develop a custom solution rather than looking at existing commercial solutions to this problem? There are many, many existing solutions in this space which vary widely in cost, complexity, and capability. The more popular solutions for home and smaller installations include Z-Wave, Insteon, and ZigBee; (ZigBee is the system that I am most familiar with). There are other solutions available for larger commercial installations.

As with most questions of this nature, a useful answer will depend upon your actual requirements. Are the PIR sensors already in place? Does the customer already have an automation/lighting solution in place?

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.