[OpenTRV-dev] RF protocol

[Stuart Poulton]

On 20/03/13 10:36, Mike Stirling wrote:
> Starting this separate thread in response to Jack's post flagging up the two RFM12-based products, as I think we need to start giving the protocol some serious thought:
>
> Summary of current status:
>
> * We are planning on using RFM22B/23B (which are basically the same apart from output power) rather than RFM12B. The primary reason for this is their ability to operate down to 1.8 V. They are also a significantly more capable radio, e.g. they can speak the FHT OOK protocol with a fairly minor software trick and no horrible hacks.
> * I have an ATMEGA328 + RFM23B based sensor board close to being ready that can do temperature, light and pulse count/interval timing (for utility meters). Aiming for sub £10, and Stuart has some nice plastics for anyone wanting a finished unit. Target lifetime off a pair of AA alkalines is 5+ years.
>
> As I have mentioned before, I want to develop a properly documented, open protocol for home automation/sensor projects that could be handled by both RFM2xB and RFM12B (maybe others). Security is a key requirement for me, and I have already done some work on doing AES256 on an AVR to determine feasibility - it seems ok. Simplicity is also important - if a full implementation will fit in a 16K 8-bit MCU then I would be happy.
>
> Stuart: I lost the link to that Arduino RFM22 library that looked like it might be along the right lines - please can you repost it?
>
> We already discussed using binary name/value pairs for the payload. Philip suggested BSON for the format, but it suffers from some deficiencies, e.g. no native support for fixed-point decimal, important for embedded use - we'd need a workaround to specify the position of the decimal point. I had in mind a binary name field that would encode (separately) the quantity being measured and the unit. This would enable applications to "discover" packet contents, given a suitable global registry and a sufficiently open way of registering new quantity and unit IDs.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Mike
>

Here's the arduino RFM22 lib http://www.open.com.au/mikem/arduino/RF22/

One thing I'd like to see as a first step is to have examples that work 
with existing wireless sensors such as the jeenodes ones.

Stuart