I'm starting the development of an OSS 'Building Management System' project.
Building Management Systems (BMS) or Building Energy Management Systems
(BEMS) have the function of optimising the comfort of the users of a
building while minimising energy consumption, running costs and CO2
emissions. Traditionally these things are astonishingly expensive, and
mostly available to corporates, but I aim to produce some generic
software components which can be customised to drive more or less any
well documented hardware, which should put BMS functionality in reach of
community buildings and the domestic sector.
One of the key elements of a BMS user interface is some sort of timer,
and it occurs to me that Chandler would make a great OSS front end for
this, as calendar items such as room use could be scheduled, and any
special control instructions embedded in the text describing the event.
In addition you get all the benefits of a synchronising calendar which
would enable a booking clerk to take bookings on a laptop at home, then
sync to the machine in the hall, community centre or whatever. As a user
interface, Chandler would blow away a 4 channel DIN rail time switch.
This obviously requires some changes to Chandler. I haven't had a chance
to look at the source yet, but before I start to hack around in there, I
wonder what guidance there might be on the cleanest way to do this,
particularly with a view to minimising the amount of work that might
have to be done integrating my changes into future versions of Chandler.
Does chandler contain a tidy API for software 'plugins' ? If so, where
is the best description of the functionality this offers ? And is this
plugin API reasonably future proof ?
If there isn't an API / tidy interface we can get at, would it be
possible to submit our code changes for integration into the mainstream
chandler source ? I think Chandler has a bright future as a controller
of objects in the physical world as well as a calendar / scheduling app.
I assume it would be sensible to work on the Chandler 2 source rather
than Chandler 1.x now unless there is an interface for plugins which
enables the development of add ons in Chandler 1 that should be portable
to Chandler 2 ?
If I put chandler 2 on a win XP box, will it conflict my install of
Chandler 1.0.3 which I'm currently using heavily on a day to day
basis ?
Many thanks, J/.
--
John Beardmore,MSc EDM (Open),B.A. Chem (Oxon),CMIOSH,CEnv,AIEMA,MEI
Managing Director, T4 Sustainability Limited.
http://www.T4sLtd.co.uk/Energy Audit, Carbon Management, Design Advice, Sustainable Energy
Consultancy and Installation, Carbon Trust Standard Registered Assessor
Phone: 0845 4561332 Mobile: 07785 563116 Skype: t4sustainability
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