Baytech-inc

Projects
Participants	Axello, Meridion, Voidz0r, Wizzup
Skills	Electronics, scripting, RS-232
Status	Finished
Niche	Electronics
Purpose	Infrastructure

There are three Baytech RPC28A powerbars which can be used for fun and infrastructure projects. Each RPC contains 21 IEC 'C13' connectors, the same as you can find on the end of a standard computer cable. We can either hack one RPC to use 'kroonsteentjes', or get some C14 connectors or cables.

Implementation

Code is written in Python: http://github.com/MerlijnWajer/powerbars

A web interface currently runs on http://powerbar.ti/ or http://powerbar.ti:5000/

See the README at the github repository for the API description and general design documentation. It's installed on replicator in /home/techinc/powerbars

Quick fixes

If it becomes unresponsive you can kill the python server and restart it with:

python2 /home/techinc/powerbars/server.py &

Proposal

Hardware wise:

• Cubieboard
• Cables that fit the powerbar sockets.

Software wise:

• [TODO] Protected ports
• [DONE] HTTP (simple protocol), GET/1/1 (Bar 1, Port 1)
• [DONE] Groups. Each port by default has its own group, but they can be part of larger groups.
• [DONE] Presets
• Permissions per group, port... [Don't touch, etc]

UI

Currently the webapp thingy looks like a remote and doesn't efficiently use horizontal screen real estate. We could:

• Make the column wider and float:left the forms
• Use an imagemap to present the bottons on a floorplan
• Perhaps both with a toggle button or by using media queries to determine if the viewport is wide enough for the image map

Old page

Arduino and python code to interface with the thingamagic on github

Unfortunately, the RJ-45 is totally incompatible with the standard blue Cisco cable. So, in the absence of spare DE-9 connectors, I have been trying to make a working serial cable out of junk parts: not handy.

In the end, when you know which wires to connect, it is very easy to make a cable to connect a DE-9 serial plug to the RJ-45 on the powerbar. The schematic is below

We can either use standard long ethernet wires with a DE-9 to RJ45 socket, which is handy if we would have an infrastructure with a patchpanel, or a dedicated RJ-45 to DE-9 cable. I made the latter. This cable has no RTS/CTS or DTR/DCD control, as that didn't seem to work.

Cable layout (using TIA568A wiring)

RJ-45	Colour	Pin	DE-9	Cisco RJ-45
4	blue	TX	2	3
5	blue/white	RX	3	6
7	brown/white	GND	5	5

There is the problem of the initial user + password on the baytechs we got from the Coloclue. There is a separate page to Reset Baytech to Defaults.

Settings for the serial port are 9600 8N1

Documentation

• Quick Start
• BayTech_RPC3_Manual