ZigBee SmartEnergy 2.0 is up for comments again. This is a complete revamp of SmartEnergy and has little resemblance to ZigBee SmartEnergy 1.1. SE 2.0 rides on top of ZigBee IP, which is IPV6 based 6lowpan and a few other IETF protocols for routing, network formation etc.

It's easy to understand why many think that TCP/IP (not to mention an XML schema model) is a bit bloated for the inexpensive radios normally used in 802.15.4 networks. The fact that many 802.15.4 products are battery operated compounds the problem.

San Ramon, Calif. – July 15, 2011 – The ZigBee® Alliance, a global ecosystem of organizations creating wireless solutions for use in energy management, residential, commercial and consumer applications, today announced a revised Smart Energy version 2.0 standard is available for public review and comment.

The revised draft 0.7 document includes progress made by the Smart Energy Working Group on a variety of topics identified during the last ballot. The draft now enters the next 30-day ballot period and simultaneously, the Alliance will collect comments from various key external stakeholders and the public at large.

“The ZigBee Alliance is committed to shepherding Smart Energy 2 through the various development milestones as efficiently and effectively as possible, while living up to its obligation to ensure an open and transparent process of standards development,” said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. “Continuing to involve the greater Smart Grid community is a promise we made because we know that gathering public input will ensure that Smart Energy 2 is a robust industry standard developed with the highest levels of participation and industry cooperation.”

Public comments on the Smart Energy 2.0 Public Application Profile are accepted through online submission and all documents can be found at www.ZigBee.org/SmartEnergy. All comments must be received by August 15, 2011. The Alliance will announce future public comment periods based on the successful completion of development milestones.

See full press release from the ZigBee Alliance

ZigBee SmartEnergy 2.0 Draft is available for public comments.

Has ZigBee gone too far with the internet of things? I know NIST has basically mandated TCP/IP for the smart grid -- but does my thermostat really need to provide a web page? Me thinks the Consumer Electronics folks will have a difficult time swallowing this...

SAN RAMON, Calif., April 30 /PRNewswire/ -- The ZigBee® Alliance, a global ecosystem of companies creating wireless solutions for use in energy management, residential, commercial and consumer electronics applications, today announced it has made the draft 0.7 document of ZigBee Smart Energy™ version 2.0 available for public download and comment. This draft is being provided in conjunction with the Alliance's previously announced commitment to collect public comments on the standard in addition to the input from the broad stakeholder community already actively engaged in its development. The release of the draft 0.7 document has been accelerated to meet the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) standards review timeline.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/draft-zigbee-smart-energy-20-standard-now-available-for-public-comment-92533864.html

Time will tell.

Here are 2 OpenSource software tools that you should take a look at:

1. A productivity tool for anyone:  Task Coach

Task Coach is a simple open source todo manager to manage personal tasks and to-do lists. It grew out of Frank's frustration that well-known task managers, such as those provided with Outlook or Lotus Notes, do not provide facilities for composite tasks. Often, tasks and other things to-do consist of several activities. Task Coach is designed to deal with composite tasks.

I attempted to use Task Coach a year or so ago and quit using it mostly due to my own lack of discipline.  I'm going to give it another go and see if it can help me keep focused on the job.

2. An IDE for Python developers:  SPE.  download w/ SVN

I'm not a fan of IDE's (Integrated Development Environments), I mean I have a half dozen embedded compilers in my office each with their own slightly different IDE.  Some of these are good IDE's, for instance the CCS PIC compiler/toolset is surprisingly very good -- especially when compared to the (admittedly free) toolset from microchip.  I won't even mention the bloated monstrosity called Eclipse... oops too late.

In any case, I'm tired of learning a new IDE every time I switch to a new project.  I guess I'm a dinosaur or old dog not willing to learn new tricks... preferring Xemacs, bash  and makefiles.  But SPE caught my attention, and like TaskCoach above, I'm going to do my best to learn this new trick.

SPE is the one-stop-shop for Python development.  It has hooks to help with wxPython and wxGlade, two tools that someday, with enough perseverance will let me create the GUI test environments that I want but haven't been able to get off the ground.  SPE also integrates PyFilling, Winpdb and PyChecker.  It comes with full source and actually runs directly from the Python source files when checked-out from SVN.

Wiki for pinouts for cables and connectors.

As unbelievable as it is, after a year or more of looking around, rfidguy bought a fun little car.





That's Lori standing by my 2005 MINI Cooper S. Purchased on ebay... that's a story in itself.

Last weekend we drove it to a MINI Club event at Fontanna Village in the Smokey mountains. The event, "MINIs Slay the Sleeping Dragon" was great fun -- 11 miles, 318 turns.




Here's 37 MINIs parked at the bottom of Fontanna Dam.




Lori and Damon

Now where the heck is that dBm to mW chart? I saw it laying somewhere on this $%^@# desk.

Oh, here it is.

More companies are providing Development Platforms for ZigBee. The ZigBee Alliance validates and certifies these hardware platforms and calls them "ZigBee-compliant Platforms" (ZCP).

Going forward, I see ZigBee being a great way to implement active RFID tags. ZigBee defines 3 types of devices:

• ZC - Zigbee Coordinator: initiates network formation, the RFID interrogator (reader).
  
• ZR - Zigbee Router: participates in multi-hop routing, could be used to extend RFID read range.
  
• ZED - Zigbee End Device: low cost/low power, the active RFID tag.

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Look here for list of ZigBee Chips and Modules.