A modular electrical accessory for a building has a housing for attaching to a building structure and an electrical backplane mounted in the housing. The electrical backplane is configured to be electrically wired to an electrical circuit associated with the building. A user-replaceable electrical accessory module is removably connectable by a user to an electrical bus and a control bus of the modular electrical accessory. The electrical bus enables transfer of electrical power between a connected user-replaceable electrical accessory module and the electrical backplane, while the control bus enables control signals to be communicated between a connected user-replaceable electrical accessory module and the electrical backplane for controlling delivery of electrical power to an electrical device based on the control signals

A technique for controlling a target device via a virtual interface, the method including receiving a control input from a virtual interface, determining a control signal based on the control input for an operation to be performed by a first device that is configured to be controlled wirelessly, and transmitting the control signal to the first device to cause the first device to perform the operation.

A technique for controlling a target device via a virtual interface, the method including receiving a control input from a virtual interface, determining a control signal based on the control input for an operation to be performed by a first device that is configured to be controlled wirelessly, and transmitting the control signal to the first device to cause the first device to perform the operation.

An EtherCAT fieldbus system has an EtherCAT master and a number of EtherCAT slaves. The EtherCAT master and the number of EtherCAT slaves are coupled together by an EtherCAT fieldbus in order to exchange data. A method ascertains active EtherCAT slaves by way of the EtherCAT master; requests respective product codes of the active EtherCAT slaves by way of the master; ascertains a respective device identification of the active EtherCAT slaves from the respective product codes by way of the EtherCAT master, and switches the state of the EtherCAT fieldbus system into the operational state by way of the EtherCAT master if the respective device identification of the active EtherCAT slaves matches a specified device identification.

Slave-initiated communications over a single-wire bus are described in the present disclosure. In contrast to a conventional single-wire bus apparatus wherein communications over the single-wire bus are always initiated by a master circuit, a single-wire bus apparatus disclosed herein allows a slave circuit(s) to initiate communications over the single-wire bus. More specifically, multiple slave circuits can concurrently contend for access to the single-wire bus via current mode signaling (CMS). In response to the CMS asserted by the multiple slave circuits, a master circuit provides a number of pulse-width modulation (PWM) symbols over the single-wire bus to indicate which of the multiple slave circuits is granted access to the single-wire bus. By supporting slave-initiated communications over the single-wire bus, it is possible to improve efficiency, cost, and power consumption in an electronic device (e.g., smartphone) wherein the single-wire bus apparatus is deployed.

A polling method for server sensors, a polling system for server sensors, and a computer-readable memory medium. The polling method includes: when a BMC is activated, acquiring attribute information of sensors (S101); classifying the sensors according to polling cycles in the attribute information (S102); adding the sensors with the same polling cycle into a same preset data structure (S103); and polling the sensors in the preset data structure using a thread (S104). According to the method, the problem of low polling efficiency caused by polling sensors with different cycles using a single thread may be solved, and each sensor may be polled independently while minimizing influences between polling of the sensors.

A polling method for server sensors, a polling system for server sensors, and a computer-readable memory medium. The polling method includes: when a BMC is activated, acquiring attribute information of sensors (S101); classifying the sensors according to polling cycles in the attribute information (S102); adding the sensors with the same polling cycle into a same preset data structure (S103); and polling the sensors in the preset data structure using a thread (S104). According to the method, the problem of low polling efficiency caused by polling sensors with different cycles using a single thread may be solved, and each sensor may be polled independently while minimizing influences between polling of the sensors.

A multi-protocol bus circuit is provided. The multi-protocol bus circuit includes multiple master circuits each configured to communicate a respective master bus command(s) via a respective one of multiple master buses based on a respective one of multiple master bus protocols, and a slave circuit(s) configured to communicate a slave bus command(s) via a slave bus based on a slave bus protocol that is different from any of the master bus protocols. To enable bidirectional bus communications between the master circuits and the slave circuit(s), the multi-protocol bus circuit further includes a multi-protocol bridge circuit configured to perform a bidirectional conversion between the slave bus protocol and each of the master bus protocols. As a result, it is possible to support bidirectional bus communications based on heterogeneous bus protocols with minimal impact on cost and/or footprint.

An automation network with network subscribers is provided, in which the network subscribers are interconnected via a data line network. At least one network subscriber is configured as a master subscriber, which is adapted to send telegrams via the data line network. At least one network subscriber is configured as a network distributor, which is adapted to route telegrams. The network distributor has a plurality of input/output ports, and is connected to the master subscriber via a first input/output and data line network. The master subscriber is configured to use a telegram element to indicate that the telegram is enabled for processing by the network subscribers. In addition, the network distributor is configured to process a telegram received via the first input/output port when the telegram element indicates enablement of processing of the telegram by the network subscribers.

An automation network with network subscribers is provided, in which the network subscribers are interconnected via a data line network. At least one network subscriber is configured as a master subscriber, which is adapted to send telegrams via the data line network. At least one network subscriber is configured as a network distributor, which is adapted to route telegrams. The network distributor has a plurality of input/output ports, and is connected to the master subscriber via a first input/output and data line network. The master subscriber is configured to use a telegram element to indicate that the telegram is enabled for processing by the network subscribers. In addition, the network distributor is configured to process a telegram received via the first input/output port when the telegram element indicates enablement of processing of the telegram by the network subscribers.