Hi all; I am also working on something similar and would be interested in setting a standard so devices could be inter-changed. My idea was to not use one type of physical bus but many with "routers" between them so that the most appropriate topology is used where it should. Can we talk about this off the pic list and kick some ideas about? Please email me direct. Lee McLaren -----Original Message----- From: Ake Hedman To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU Date: Saturday, 11 July 1998 7:02 Subject: Re: PIC net Hi, I am also building a system to control some equipment in our house/office. I decided against the mains communication primarally beacuse of the problems with differnt phases and pricing and decided to go for 1-wire from Dallas Semiconductor. Cheap and rather easy to implement. Also to have a node where only switching, sensing of one/or to channels, temperature measurement can be implemented at a minimal cost without any type of controler at the node. By deciding on the 1-wire and wanting the nodes to be low cost I ended up with a master/slave concept where a PC is the heart of the system. This machine monitors all devices and take actions on certain sensor inputs. Also it implements a net interface so I can build a user i/f in the form of a web application. Thus its possible to check tempeartures at different locations, change the boiler temperature etc etc by just clicking around some web pages. Its also very easy to make changes in this user i/f when one needs to add/move a node in the system. At the moment I am working on a solution that makes it possibel to use a PIC as a slave device on the 1-wire bus without having to use any extra circits like the Dual port Ram Dallas have for this purpose. My though is to use my own private addresses in the same way as the series 192.168..... is used on the Internet. The Pic is the ideal device for this in my opinion. You put up many low priced self contained nodes and are able to control almost everything. It would been nice if we ( and others with the same goals ) could share ideas. -----Original Message----- From: pic microcontroller discussion list [mailto:PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU]On Behalf Of T_BoNe Sent: Friday, July 10, 1998 2:22 AM To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU Subject: PIC net hello folks! I'm designing a house monitor/controller and need to put the master controller in comunication with slaves displays (both pic'ed). The master will be a "black box" with only I/O's and one port to communicate with the remote display(s). I'm thinking in use the mains to make conections easier and more portable. Any sugestions on how to interface, schematics and what protocol will be highly appreciate! thanks! Silvio B. ssj@unorpnet.com.br ICQ:2221034