Darren (M3)

"Scottish Hydro-Electric have started a trial of Broadband internet access via power lines. Just plug the modem into any power point in your house, with no need for additional lines into the house, and reasonably priced too. Details are a bit scketchy right now but interesting to see how the trial goes."

MarkO

They've been harping on about doing this for years....

druddle

I did a project about this in college for my HND 7 yrs ago. Mains signal conductioning it was called.

Involves mux'ing a signal, then putting on the mains circuit at a higher frequency than the electricity, then demux'ing it to pick the right signal off. We had a kettle boiled and lights on and off around the room with it

There was also a man in the States we spoke to that had written this in software and controlled his whole house from a PC. He could even dial into his PC from work and put the telly on, lights on, cooker, anything really so thatit was all done when he got home !!

[Edited by druddle - 8/27/2002 4:26:56 PM]

GaryK

yep all old hat, norweb were trialling this years ago but it never came to much, as to home automation check out http://www.comfort.org.uk/ they do a whole range of stuff which works on mains born signalling.

Gary

dsmith

The X10 type signals (described by druddle) as used by home controllers such as comfort, homevision and ocelot is well established and different to broadband.

If you follow the sorts of problems even a "simple" protocol has with mains and "noisy" devices the thought of trying to get a reliable broadband service is daunting.

Deano

(Who is currently programming his comfort alarm )