The big plan

After some days of works, I have finally ended the big plan of connections. I thought it would be a mess, which is the case when you plug everything physically with all the wires, but the plan is clear enough :

Well, there are many things that can be noted about it :

The front panel

I wanted to have as few components as possible inside the front panel, so that I will be able to design a small case. Finally, there is :

• the touch screen
• the temperature sensor, which should be out of the case to sense the ambiant temperature
• the monitor board, because the wire to the screen is very small and I can't extend it
• the monitor conrol board, with the infrared receptor accessible from outside (see below)
• the VGA plug, because the wire to the board is very short (or maybe I will try to extend it if it can't fit inside the case)

The monitor power management

As you can see, I have decided to have the monitor board always powered. Instead, I will turn off the screen backlight when I want it asleep. The reason is that the monitor board takes some time to initiate when turned on, and it displays a big blue "VGA" indication. This way, the board is always ready and the LCD screen actually displays something, but you can't see it. When you touch the panel, the backlight will be back on which is immediate.

The monitor control board

You may be asking why the monitor board is inside the front panel ? Actually, it's not really required, but in case there is a power loss (which happens quite often when there is a thunderstorm), the monitor needs to be reconfigured to display the correct resolution, so I have to include the control board and have the infrared LED visible from outside. Or maybe I will let the board behind and put a wire between it and the LED, to save space in the panel.

The music

I have decided to buy standard desktop speakers for the bathroom, and fix them at the ceiling. The point is, I don't expect them to work forever, especially because of the humidity. That means I have to be able to replace them easily, so I will add a power outlet and an audio plug at the ceiling, and plug the speakers from here. The day they die, I can replace them with new ones and just plug them. The plan is not really true about it : I will have the relay power the outlet itself, so that the speaker cable doesn't need to be customized.

Actually, this idea is obsolete as I have a new one which suits much better, I will talk about it in the next post !

The power

I will need many power outlets for the various boards. Fortunately, there are power cables inside the back wall of the toilets, used for an outlet in my son's room. I just have to open a hole and shunt the cables.

The network cable (not represented) will be a bit trickier because the main router is quite far, but I have meters of Ethernet cable left, and the up floor is not set up so I can join everything together (same for the stove cable !)

Feel free to ask any question if something is not clear !