News this morning from our forums that Clipsal are going to open up access to their C-Bus protocol. This is the news many custom installers and DIYers have been waiting for as it should seemuch easier integration of C-Bus prducts with other systems. Interestingly this comes very soon after the announcement that Philips have aquired Dynalite. The future of lighting control is definatley going to be interesting…
Starting in the next week or two, the initial set of protocol documents will be published and made available. These documents include: A guide for developers to use the C-Bus Serial Interface device – A description of the different ways to interface a device to C-Bus – Over 15 detailed serial protocol descriptions covering the following C-Bus Applications (with more to come):
- Lighting, Switching and Electrical Load Control
- Security
- Trigger Control (including Scene Triggering and Indicator Control)
- Enable Control
- Temperature Broadcast
- Ventilation
- Access Control
- Clocks and Timekeeping
- Telephony
- Air Conditioning
- Irrigation Control
- Measurement and analogue input
- Pool, Spa, Pond and Fountain Control
- Device Error Reporting
Later in 2009, additional protocol documents will be added to the published list. This will include Multi-Room Audio Control, and several others still in development.
To aid equipment and product developers, Clipsal will also later this year make available the 5000SM/2 – a small matchbox sized module that can be easily added to equipment to build in a C-Bus Interface. This product has been available for some time to C-Bus Enabled partners – it will now become generally available. A development kit, drawings, dimensions, and so on will also be made generally available.
The existing C-Bus Enabled program will continue – providing a point of contact for equipment developers, support. If desired by an equipment manufacturer, a product can also be tested for conformance under the C-Bus Enabled program – giving customers confidence of a quality product that is endorsed by Clipsal. C-Bus Enabled partners will also be able to purchase customised 5000SM2’s or C-Bus micro controllers which will give their product direct support in the C-Bus Toolkit software.
Current software drivers for WindowsTM and Linux operating systems will continue to be provided for free download, as will the fully-featured C-Gate software driver.
Ron Ghezzi, C-Bus Product Offer Manager said “We are very excited about the opening up and publication of C-Bus serial protocols, which will make integration by an already thriving community of developers even easier.”
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Read the Forum Post : Clipsal Press Release : CBus.com [Thanks 2sc]
I wonder will this lead to cheaper modules and switches ? Or am I mis-interpreting the impact ?
They are releasing the application protocol – that is the information that you see coming out from their Serial/USB/Ethernet interfaces. This is a managed way to access the native C-Bus protocol that runs on the pink wire. So as such the ‘on the wire’ protocol is still proprietory and not available for other manufactures to release devices that plug into C-Bus.
K
Has this actually been published yet? If so, what is the URL?