Hmmm...I used to be pretty good about keeping everyone updated on the development status. Not sure what happened there, but I thought it would be good to let everyone know what's going on with the project.

So I got my ZCL architecture down now and it works in my little test bed that I had set up. Only the general clusters have been implemented so far, but (at least in my test setup) I can toggle lights on and off and move the levels correctly.

Now, I'm integrating the ZCL into the main stack and bringing back my test simulator again. Yep, re-awakening the giant. I thought I would be through with that thing and just run everything on real hardware, but it turns out that it's going to be useful once again. Basically, it's just so much faster to debug the stack in my PC environment than on real hardware, and catching bad pointers is much easier. The main goal is to confirm that the ZCL gets integrated into the stack correctly and that it behaves like I expect it too. I'm also going to write some code to automatically test the formatting of the ZCL frames. 

Once I can confirm the ZCL is behaving properly, then I need to tie up a lot of loose ends on the ZDO and implement binding and group tables. The current goal is to try and hit a March release, either mid-month or at the end. There are some things that will probably slow me down, such as servicing the part-time job, and of course taking care of my taxes (a major pain in the sphinx, esp since I probably won't be getting a tax return in California, even though I am entitled to one). That's why I'm trying to give myself a bit of wiggle room for the next release.

However I'm hoping that the next release will be a major one and people will actually be able to use the stack on real hardware (targeting Atmel Raven boards for now) and communicate using Zigbee Home Automation compliant frames (sans security). I should have some simple example apps like a simple light switch, dimmer switch, and on/off/dimmable light.

I don't want to give the wrong impression though. I'm not a huge home automation enthusiast, but the HA profile and devices are the easiest to implement for the first stage. The real goal will hopefully be to try and implement more interesting things like patient monitoring, energy savings, or basically devices that have more of a social meaning to them. 

Wish me luck!

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Good luck
written by yzf600, February 18, 2009

Sounds like you are gonna finish before I get my zigbee module hardware ready. I would race you, but hardware is the last thing you want to rush to get done.

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written by Akiba, February 18, 2009

Ha ha ha. No need to rush. The stack will probably never be complete and the next release will still be unfinished. I'm hoping to get it ready for compliance testing around mid-year, but I'm not sure if I can hit that goal. Good luck with the hardware!

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