I’ve been dying to post something, but didn’t want to until i had something to demo, but after talking to Techmad Ed in a Facebook home automation group, he offered to send me one of his prototypes to make homegenie compatible with it.
here are the photos of it…
You can view his site here, more info very soon when i have my hg install working!
David
Very interesting both from the RS485 and Domoticz point of view. Both being utilised here.
Interested to know a little more about what platform this piece of hardware is being utilised on. I assume its some form of embedded C# which, if I’m reading this properly, the developer is willing to open source. If that’s the case what’s stopping his opposition from cloning it.
A lot of new Kiskstarter funded Raspberry Pi based HA projects out there at the moment. If the developer has their product pitched at the correct price point there’s every chance they will succeed but the trick here I reckon is to make them as modular as possible.
obviously Domoticz has been used but that’s not relevant here! I’m looking to provide compatibility with homegenie.
i believe the embedded code is in c / c++ as that runs in the two xmega processors.
hg will talk to this using the mysensors api
ps I’ve sent the creator of this a link to this thread too
Has there been any discussion on a price point
Hello,
David, many thanks for posting those pictures. I hope you manage to make something cool with HG (which by the way I love the UI).
I’m more than happy to answer any questions in this thread, so please fire ahead as much as you want.
Really good questions, I hope I can answer them properly:
CODE: The code on the Xmega is in C (using CodeVision) and yes eventually the source code if required or demanded by popularity will be released. Right now, in this beta phase, releasing it would probably create instability on the hardware with the potential consequences on the physical world. My target is to create a pleasant, trouble free and stable experience, when that is done, then I don’t mind if someone else wants to destroy it.
CLONING: I’m not too worried about that as my priority here is not financial. The idea of machinon has really come out after a few years of tinkering with things and spending more time getting basic stuff done that the project I wanted. Yes, I know it is a bit industrial… but I like industrial grade things, and every invention takes a bit of its inventor personality 
Honestly, don’t care about cloning, and believe it would be bloody hard work!
Some stuff already here:
@David_Wallis , the permissions for nginx are driving me nuts! and I haven’t found a different way of doing it https://github.com/EdddieN/machinon/blob/master/documentation/rpi_setup.md but I have no other way to have php make the config files and push them to the UART of the Pi without giving rights… The wonders of open source: HELP!
KICKSTARTER: Good point, I love to, just I’m not there yet. I followed a few campaigns and really dislike to wait half a year to get whet I backed up. If I do it, I want to make sure things are shipped in 2 months. If there’s enough interest I will definitely do it, and yes at a manufacturing cost. Just need enough pull from it.
Why? I really like what Red Hat does with CentOS and I use a lot of open source software so it is time for me to do something too if I know how to do it.
MODULAR: Yes, the market is full of modular things. I do not thing it needs another one. I think this is clear when you see machinon (attached picture of my end goal look alike)
PRICE: I’m negotiating with a few EA companies… volume is critical. I think the sweet spot is around the 300 units which obviously I cannot fund myself. So showing interest and sharing it is critical for its price to go down as much as possible. Perhaps the community should dictate the price? Obvioulsy being a bit sensible… but it is another way that would help me negotiate with EAs
Hope I have answered the questions, please keep them coming.
Ah! Also toying with the idea of Node-Red, anyone experience enough and with track record?
I’ve played with node red but nothing serious in a while. Not sure regarding the node red and php, i could attempt to recreate but creating ui’s in hg isn’t for me lol
ill have a play with the node red and php once I’m back up and running
Trying to get a bit of momentum… I’m pretty bad at this marketing / social sharing but feel free to share, update, ask questions here too: https://twitter.com/machinon_pi
Ok, a few people asked about cost (other communities too). This is where I am so far: https://shoutout.wix.com/so/9MIuI9Ht if you can help with anything… please do
I’ve been selling my house, so had to tidy the office - bench psu and prototype boards, sensors cables etc looked more like a bomb making factory!
Now the sold sign is up the boxes are back out of the loft and I’m intentending to carry on… digital inputs were working fine… hadnt played with counters / freq, CT’s or the display as yet.
Very impressed with the kit though!
