These folks have a LIN-like modem that provides serial communications over power lines...
Seems like a good fit for the Arduino. Using just two wires it would be possible to provide electricity and communications for a few connected boards.
Thoughts?
seems interesting, but I cant figure out what exactly I would use it for. Maybe I dont completely get it.
care to describe a potential application?
I have seen similar application. Overhead DC crane intercoms. Crane to crane and crane to offices. In this case it is low quality audio.
fkeel:
care to describe a potential application?
Here's a simple one that popped up immediately: scoring a Pinewood Derby.
At the finish line, you set up 2 photo-interrupters on each lane, wired to an Arduino. It can then both tell who came first, and how fast each was going, and relay that to the scoreboard system over a noise-tolerant 2-wire connection, instead of trying to connect all the individual sensor signals. You could also put photo-interrupters at the starting line with another Arduino, and time the whole race (+- a little for communications latency).
Or make an Arduino-based outdoor weather station with only two wires going back to the indoor PC.
It's kind of like being able to design your own Dallas "1-wire" devices, but even better, because the power/data wire can be used to supply other devices like servos and relays.
fkeel:
care to describe a potential application?
Smart outdoor lighting. We live on a few acres that border the National Forest Service. Coyotes (and now mountain lions) occasionally poach a family pet. I really don't want my dogs to be eaten. I want motion sensors and lights far enough from the house to give us an early warning (think yards instead of feet). Which means long wires. If a single pair of wires can carry both power and communications, I can use basic outdoor lighting cable, the cable only has to pass through each node once, and the whole thing becomes a network.
Halloween. Just imagine how simple setup would be for a yard display if only a single cable needs to be run through all the props and sensors?
Exactly. All the LIN bus transceivers that I found include a built-in switching voltage regulator. They're designed to work at car battery voltage; something like 11V to 18V input with tolerance for 40V spikes.
I don't know if the SIG60 chip itself has a regulator but that evaluation modem does (10V to 36V input).