IoT is all about wireless connections these days. The main challenge is that providing sufficient security becomes a challenge becausse you need some computing power for secure encryptions – which easily drive cost and size. Myself I prefer to use secure wireless links to cover distances between buildings and floors, while I use more classic wired networks locally.
To enable this I need two new components to my Home Automation system:
This is a basic PLC module to provide 3 x External RS-X networks. I will create a all-in-one with these integrated later, but we can stick to the PLC backbone for now. Isolating everything will drive cost and size, but I want these 3 connections isolated because they will support long distance wiring exposing the entire system for lightning or pulses from other quipment. I will only get 3 networks on each card, but I can stack loads of cards if I need to.
The second component is an Active RS-X Switch. This will bridge between an isolated network to a short distance non-isolated with 12V power added. With 4 connectors we can connect 4 devices or add passive switches to create entire sub-networks. We can also add another Active Switch by chaining these up to create larger networks.
The main advavtage is that we add power locally and don’t attempt to send DC power over any distance. Power is best transported as AC. We also create barriers where a lightning strike or other spikes will only have limited impact while we still can add low cost sensors in numbers. I created sensors and passive switch earlier that I will make upgrade revisions of.