Small development environment

Can someone help me line out what I would need to set up a small development environment while my new home is being built.

I am writing an app for the iPad and will be integrating my sonos for audio.

I would like at a minimum to hook up a DLT keypad, and put a couple lightbulbs on a dimmer.

Is there someone out there who can help identify what I need for a little testbed?

 

Basically, you'll need a Power Supply, or an output unit with a power supply built in, and other than that, you can have pretty much whatever you want.

From other posts you've made, I'm assuming you'll want to talk to the test network via a PC, so you'll need either a USB PCI, or a CNI for that. (I noticed you've said your PC does not have serial ports in another thread, so a normal PCI wont be of any use to you).

There are a few other threads on this forum with photos of other people's test rigs, including one from the USA, that might give you a better idea of what you're aiming for.

So best bet would be use the search tool on this forum to find some examples, and then download the training manuals from the CIS site so that you have a solid understanding of the basics required for a network. Things like how to wire things together, network voltage, burdens, clock, etc, etc etc.

Best of luck

 

Thanks Darpa.

Is anyone aware of any simulators for the cbus stuff? Perhaps this would get me off the ground faster (and safer) as a testbed? Something like that may be in the toolkit I suppose, I'm installing windows XP onto a parallels image for testing on my mac.

 

Nothing that I'm aware of regarding simulating an entire network, although PICED does have the ability to run and simulate logic for limited amounts of time if that helps you at all?

Also, here's a link to the thread I was mentioning before about another guy in the US who built a test rig:
http://www.cbusforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4988