There exists a range of products based on an open wireless communications standard called Zigbee.
In particular there is a hardware device called Xbee which can be used to interface with devices such as thermocouples and switches to name but a few.
The next stage is to buy some XBees and develop a sensor network.
Just to recap, the reason for the seemingly strange excursion into wireless technologies is to find solutions for two reasons. The first and immediate one is to find an affordable method of automatically collecting data such as outside temperature etc. The second is to explore the feasibility of implementing controls for heating and lighting.
Happily, since the last blog, the outlook is optimistic! There exists a substantial community who are producing systems for just these purposes.
Interestingly the community comprises mostly of non commercial members producing standards based, open source solutions with cost a key objective.
More later.......
