[usjaz]

Interesting. I did a little reading of referenced HW and SW.

I think the MicroLan interface is definitely very interesting idea!

As for DIY linksys type wireless router, it is a cute little wireless platform. Unique features of this platform are Linux support, wireless connectivity, small embedded footprint and low cost, which are all great. However, battery backup is not included, so power failure must be dealt accordingly.

The 1-wire Reef controller software and 1-wire devices for this project are very generic and can be connected to any Linux supported computing device equipped with serial and USB. I would actually do the majority of the development work on a regular PC, where you have the luxuary of monitor/keyboard/disk space/tools.

When you get it working and tested on the PC, then cross compile for WRT... In another word, support both PC and WRT platform at the same time.

The relay you quoted only supports 60w switching, which is probably too low for lights/chiller/heater. Auxilary high wattage relays needs to be chained to it to be useful.

Alternatively, use I/O switch like DS2406 driving external relay would be a much better choice.

Other readily available 1-w parts:

1-wire temp precision sensor DS18S20

DS-2190 for lights dimming

DS2480B Serial->1wire converter for network reliability.


As far as software goes, you can write a daemon that does continueous monitoring and/or periodic evaluation. Or glue things together with cron as you suggested, but a single daemon that starts at every boot would be much more easy to debug and manage, and better reliability. It just has to be designed to deal with power failure. Cron job is nothing more than just periodic activation, which can be easily achieved with a daemon.

My background is in Linux embedded computing platform (everything from kernel/driver to userapps to web). I'm interested in your project and in contributing to it down the line.