{"id":1266,"date":"2013-01-25T12:42:35","date_gmt":"2013-01-25T12:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/designerds.co.uk\/wp\/?page_id=1266"},"modified":"2024-01-18T16:49:05","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T16:49:05","slug":"simple-and-elegant","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/designerds.co.uk\/live\/portfolio\/simple-and-elegant\/","title":{"rendered":"Simple and Elegant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/3814diag1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-1042\" title=\"3814diag1\" alt=\"\" src=\"\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/3814diag1-1024x685.jpg\" width=\"1024\" height=\"685\" srcset=\"https:\/\/designerds.co.uk\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/3814diag1-1024x685.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/designerds.co.uk\/live\/wp-content\/uploads\/3814diag1-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The brief here was for a simple controller of washroom lights and fans. It had to be small, low-cost, and fit in an off-the-shelf housing.<\/p>\n<p>The module is controlled via a 2-wire power&amp;data bus, carrying command, status and config data. Rather than use a standardized bus such as CAN or 1-wire, we designed a bespoke bus to suit this application whilst keeping component and wiring costs to an absolute minimum.<\/p>\n<p>We used an Atmel ATMega8 micro to bit-bash the serial data interface, handle the bus protocol, provide error detection and fail-safe operation, and control the relays. And we used good old-fashioned relays, with low power latching actuators, for switching the loads. I know that solid-state switching is popular, however mechanical relays are low-cost, reliable, and remarkably tolerant of abuse.<\/p>\n<p>We finished it off with a beautiful little PCB design, with the low-voltage surface mount parts clustered under the relays to keep size down, and some nicely sculpted power planes for the high-current mains connections.<\/p>\n<p>If it all sounds pretty simple, it is. In fact I would go as far as describing it as elegant.<\/p>\n<p>Ben Mack, January 2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; The brief here was for a simple controller of washroom lights and fans. It had to be small, low-cost, and fit in an off-the-shelf housing. The module is controlled via a 2-wire power&amp;data bus, carrying command, status and config data. Rather than use a standardized bus such as CAN or 1-wire, we designed a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":942,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"page-full.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/designerds.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1266"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/designerds.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/designerds.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/designerds.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/designerds.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1266"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/designerds.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1654,"href":"https:\/\/designerds.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1266\/revisions\/1654"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/designerds.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/designerds.co.uk\/live\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}