My new PC motherboard comes with an I2C pin header. I would think this connector would have remarkable extensivity in the HA world since it is widely used to monitor the "health" of the PC by reporting fan RPM, power supply voltages, case and CPU temperatures, etc.
Has anyone out there done something like this already? My preliminary Google search has so far come up blank. There was some discussion of it in the past:
Phillips has a lot of appnotes that look a lot like things that would be HA adaptable at:
I2C/SMBus - [82] - - A/D and D/A converters - [1] - - I²C bus buffers - [9] - - I²C bus controllers - [3] - - I²C bus repeaters/hubs/extenders - [9] - - I²C DIP switch - [4] - - I²C general purpose I/O - [16] - - I²C LED display control - [10] - - I²C multiplexers/switches - [9] - - I²C serial EEPROM/RAM - [10] - - I²C temperature/voltage monitors - [7] - - I²C voltage level translators - [4] - -
OK - never mind! I narrowed down the search and discovered that Mike Baptiste answered this question, previously posed here in 2000/11/14:
"I'd stick with RS-485. Much easier to use/design in, lots of silicon available, including ESD hardened chips, long distances (up to 4000'), and much higher speeds than you'll ever see in I2C."
-- Bobby G.