I don't think there is anyone out there that isn't keen on or at least interested in home automation, and there are definitely a lot of you that would like to have the ability to see their power usage by just looking at the thermostat. There are already many electric companies deploying smart meters to the homes, in order to help the customer accurately observe its energy usage, and why not, if the homeowner really wants to make a difference, keep an eye on its own power draining trends and habits.

Digi, a company dedicated to the device networking industry in protecting the environment, has just announced its latest product, calling it the ConnectPort X2, which was developed for interfacing with ZigBee Smart Energy devices, as well as Smart Meters. Also, the ConnectPort X2 can operate as a standalone ZigBee Smart Energy HAN in areas that miss out on an Advanced Metering Infrastructure and Smart Meters.

That way, customers and even businesses can save costs of extending the infrastructure to reach areas in their home or corporate headquarters. Even better, if the X2 is used in areas that are enabled with the aforementioned services, it can ensure Broadband connectivity for a better energy management service. The ConnectPort X2 is completely certified as a ZigBee Alliance SE 1.0 Energy Service portal and packs Python scripting support for serving as a secondary gateway for a smart meter installed at home.

As you can see from the picture above and to the left, the ConnectPort X2 has a single Ethernet and needs AC power to operate, and you probably can relate to the fact that it operates at 10/100Mbps speeds. With an 8MB amount of internal RAM and 4MB of built-in flash storage, the ConnectPort X2 can be purchased for under $100.


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