Development Progress

We now have the Driver board boxed with its own supply. This will be installed in the lounge shortly to control the projector screen area which includes screen, curtains and LED lighting. This will be the first board connected to a long network wire and some temporary wiring will be added to get the network back to the development PC.

The Driver board installation will have some local buttons for control, these have been scripted using the user defined scripting and allow operation of the screen, curtains and lights.

Previously device interaction was either through the network via messages sent from a PC (or other controller) or through buttons local to the device whose function was programmed as part of the item being controlled (for example, a button to increase the LED level).
To provide unlimited flexibility the programmed control will provided through a user scriptable approach rather than the current hard coded approach. In this way the user can specify how the button are used to control device items. As an example, a button could be used to cause the projector screen to lower and turn the LED lighting to a set colour, followed by a message to another device to turn the amp on and dim the main lights.
Scripting has been fully implemented and is gradually being added to the boards as firmware builds progress.

The bootloader for the comms board is complete and undergoing testing. The bootloader interacts with all board interfaces and so can operate in the HA network, allowing FW updates to be downloaded without removing the device.

The set of prototype boards have been produced and are currently being coded. The firmware for each is approximately 80% complete and a bootloader for in field updating is in progress. Specification can be found here.

The bootloader will enable the devices to be installed and tested/updated in-situ. This will allow the devices to be constantly used and help iron out any quirks.

A PC test suite is progressing as board functions are added. Details coming soon.

Future plans include  creating a tablet control app and possibly a touchscreen embed-in-wall device.