Most ridiculous thing you have given an IP address to?

HMCTech · January 18, 2009

Ours has to be when we got a phone call from a guy telling us he was coming in to network the windows in the new building we are having built. We thought this must have been a prank call, but sure enough when we went over to the building all the window frames had a NIC and cables had been run in the inner wall.

So after a few months of laughing about about it we finally say them in action and each window has an IP address on a subnet and a central server bolted to the wall in our comms room. The Co2 sensors detect Co2 and opens the windows if it goes over a certain amount. A certain temperature opens the windows, and due to the position of the sun the windows darken.

All we can think of is this is such an unneccessary waste of money.

webman · January 18, 2009

That's pretty cool. Hopefully that doesn't pose a security threat - eg. automatically opening when the school is closed (especially if they're at ground level). Other networkable things we have include serial ports and POS terminals which are part of our cashless catering system.

If projectors had had this capability by default in the last 5 years, it would have saved thousands of hours of lamp life in being able to shut them down remotely.

I think ethernet-enabling remote-controllable devices is a good idea. It means you can put things almost anywhere (with cat5e/6 being quite flexible with PoE capabilities) and have the potential to manage them from a central console/location as desired. Home-automation systems like X10 already do this. Ethernet has already replaced traditional/proprietary cabling systems in things such as CCTV and telephony, so it's only right that other peripherals are now taking advantage of the technology where possible.

Edited January 18, 2009 by webman

6Foot2 · January 18, 2009

We also have our POS Tills networked.

A little while ago there was talk of giving each of the Lesson Change/Fire Alarm bells individual IP addresses. The theory was that we could have differing bell rings on various parts of the campus and this pattern could be repeated across the weeks [We have a 10 day timetable week: Week A: 5 days Monday - Friday then Week B same again: 5 days Monday - Friday]

It was dropped as a bad idea: Perhaps to save the sanity of the school timtetabler!

kmount · January 18, 2009

Giving a bell an IP gives a whole new meaning to the term ping.

HMCTech · January 18, 2009

I could potentially open all the windows in the building sitting at home, but they dont open wide enough to be of any real risk of someone getting in. The management software does allow you to set school times so that the windows stay closed during holidays, sunday and evenings.

SimpleSi · January 18, 2009

The Co2 sensors detect Co2 and opens the windows if it goes over a certain amount. A certain temperature opens the windows, and due to the position of the sun the windows darken.

I can see Dos_Box upgrading his training suite wireless window setup to this

All we can think of is this is such an unneccessary waste of money.

Well, I imagine someone's done it to save on air-conditioning/heating costs and they probably got a grant to try it out as well

regards

Simon

HMCTech · January 18, 2009

I can see Dos_Box upgrading his training suite wireless window setup to this

Well, I imagine someone's done it to save on air-conditioning/heating costs and they probably got a grant to try it out as well

regards
Simon

Every room is air conditioned for the summer aswell as having heated flooring during the winter. And its a public school so no grants.

dhicks · January 18, 2009

All we can think of is this is such an unneccessary waste of money.

Is everything built on top of TCP/IP/HTTP these days, does no one remember how to design networks from the ground up? It must be relatively processor-intensive to create an IP-addressable device just for driving a window.

--

David Hicks

webman · January 18, 2009

Is everything built on top of TCP/IP/HTTP these days, does no one remember how to design networks from the ground up? It must be relatively processor-intensive to create an IP-addressable device just for driving a window.

With cheaper embedded hardware and software being more widely available, is it any wonder manufacturers choose to use commercial off-the-shelf components instead of developing a proprietary method of doing something? With all the added R&D/support overhead, I personally can't blame them.

dhicks · January 19, 2009

With cheaper embedded hardware and software being more widely available, is it any wonder manufacturers choose to use commercial off-the-shelf components instead of developing a proprietary method of doing something? With all the added R&D/support overhead, I personally can't blame them.

That's the thing - there are off-the-shelf components (window openers, door openers, etc) that operate on other protocols (X10, LonWorks, etc) that I'd have thought would be more appropriate to operate a window. LonWorks window openers have been around for at least a decade, someone will have had to develop that IP-addressable window opener quite recently. The main point that I'd wonder about would be the power consumption of a system running a TCP/IP stack - I'm guessing it'd be more power-hungry than something running a simpler protocol more specifically designed for automation tasks.

I guess having an IP-addressable device means you can potentially stick one anywhere you like on a random network, but doing a whole room of them might be better suited to different devices.