Power Line Communication modem

Hey floks!

I was reading an article and I found that we can communicate using power (AC electricity) lines. It got my attention and I futher dig into it. Read different articles and in this article http://www.edn.com/design/wireless-networking/4408140/Narrowband-Powerline-Communication-Applications-and-Challenges-Part-I I found that we can achieve speed matching to broadband services. When I started looking into PLC (Power Line Communication) modem they are pretty much costly. So here lies my question can we build our own PLC modem using Raspberry Pi or Arduino Kit or any other helpfull module like mbed. Smart meters are also communicating over PLC.

I hope it will get your attention as it got mine.

Regards,

Zohaib

Top Replies

Former Member over 12 years ago in reply to colecago +1

You can get ethernet over power line units pretty cheap. No need to reinvent the wheel unless you want to.

colecago over 12 years ago

I don't know the capability of doing the broadband level of communication, it would ideally require tools that Ben probably doesn't have (like spectrum analysers and such) as its basically getting into the radio communications realm, except over a wire and not over the air.

One thing that would be do-able, would be making your own X10 modem which is a lot easier. I've seen app notes for microcontrollers about the X10 protocol. Basically it sends data on the zero crossing so you are limited by the AC line frequency.
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Former Member over 12 years ago in reply to colecago

You can get ethernet over power line units pretty cheap. No need to reinvent the wheel unless you want to.
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Former Member over 12 years ago in reply to Former Member

Can you provide me the name of some cheap power line units so that I can take a look on those ?
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joecr over 12 years ago in reply to Former Member

http://tinyurl.com/lyyyb9k might help.
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colecago over 12 years ago

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=a9_sc_1?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aethernet+powerline&keywords=ethernet+powerline&ie=UTF8&qid=1371777288
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Former Member over 12 years ago in reply to colecago

Why shouldn't I buy CY8CPLC20 (cypress) unit having cost 9$; make my own coupling circuit and use it as PLC unit instead of buying a unit of 60$?
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michaelkellett over 12 years ago in reply to Former Member

The ready made Ethernet PL adaptors are much faster than the Cypress chip. (it only does 2400 bps according to the data sheet). You won't save any money by using the Cypress chip (unless you build a lot of adaptors) and you will need to take great care when coupling to dangerous mains voltages.

MK
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