Baytech-inc
| Projects | |
|---|---|
| Participants | Axello, Meridion, Voidz0r, Wizzup |
| Skills | Electronics, scripting, RS-232 |
| Status | Active |
| 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.
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.
| RJ-45 | Colour | Pin | DE-9 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | blue | TX | 2 |
| 5 | blue/white | RX | 3 |
| 7 | brown/white | GND | 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
Implementation
Suggested is to use a Nanode (network-enabled arduino) with SoftSerial library and MAX232 (or MAX3222) chips (both have been sourced).
A (ip) whitelist could be composed to restrict access to the system (or parts of the system) to particular nodes on the network.
Some ideas about the eventual system have been worked out at Cut/ElectricityManagement.
Documentation
Proposal
- Protected ports
- HTTP (simple protocol), GET/1/1 (Bar 1, Port 1)
- Groups. Each port by default has its own group, but they can be part of larger groups.
- Permissions per group, port... [Don't touch, etc]
- Presets
