Today's class discussion was about the project proposal. A general review of the expectations was given with some pointers on dos and don'ts.
I began doing background research on my proposed project today. I have a good handle on the embedded portion of the project but needed to understand the web and phone app part of the project. It appears the Android SDK is available at no cost and uses Java via Eclipse as its basic development system. The i phone SDK had a fee and used a C type programming language. I suppose either would work for this project, but I am leaning towards the Android, partly because my family has Android based phones allowing for a low cost development platform without having to buy an i phone.
The general idea of a remote control thermostat is already out in the market place as web based systems. I did not find anything that had historical trending available and all phone apps were either in development or used a web based (HTTP) interface customized for the smaller phone screen. It seem this may still be a viable project, although not as cutting edge as I had hoped.
The possibility of using a serial to Ethernet bridge was also considered in place of a PC computer with a web interface. Unfortunately I have not found anything that allows the Android to access this type of interface (driver). I'll keep looking, but I believe it may not exist. This would not be the end of the project, but it does make the overall project less desirable in terms of an actual consumer product. The idea of an embedded web portal on the thermostat is still the most desirable, but probably out of the scope of this project.
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