How suitable is DMX/RDM for architectural lighting/home automation applications

[gerrysweeney]

Hi,
I am new to this forum and have a couple of newbe questions, I hope thats ok

1. Where can I get the the E1.20 standard specification document? I have had a look on rdmprotocol.org and while I found some useful overview presentations I could not find the actual specification document, or any reference to it.

2. I have been thinking about developing an architectural digital lighting system for both domestic and commercial applications, this is quite different from stage, show or event lighting as it needs to support local control (aka switches or terminals in each area). I have already settled on signalling based on EIA-485 which is a natural choice for the application. Because I need to handle device discovery and request-response bi-directional data to poll the switched/terminals/sensors I am wondering how well DMX512 and RDM E1.20 are suited to my application, I would rather adopt an open standard than invent something proprietary. Looking through RDM.h it does not appear at first glance there is any specific support/consideration for this type of application. My question therefore is two-fold. Are there any such implementations already? Can anyone with good experience with implementing these protocols give me their initial thoughts/opinion.

Any thoughts/suggestions much appreciated.

Thanks,

Gerry