I didn’t read the whole thread but Mini and Domino are essentially the same things…both are little boards running NETMF and they are freakin; easy to use.
You can make the sensor nodes with the Fez Mini/Domino/Panda. It all depends on how “small” you want your sensors to be.
And yes, you need an XBee module for every sensor node + 1 additional XBee module for the “master” node. Master node being the device (Cobra for example) that receives the data from the sensor nodes.
The whole concept you’ve talked about is wireless sensors. Unless you know what wireless sensors you are going to buy (ie pre-made) then you’re likely to have to build them yourself.
Here’s how I would see a wireless sensor home automation system panning out.
Fez Cobra as the “user interface” device. That sits “centrally” in the home, on the kitchen bench or something. It needs to have an xbee connected.
Fez Panda (only since it’s the cheapest Fez; you could build your own with USBizi chips if oyu wanted to) as a wireless sensor node. You have as many of these as you need. Each one has whatever sensors you need, for instance temperature, humidity, IR movement detector etc. Each one has xbee to report back to the Cobra.
Importantly, as someone else said, you still have to figure out how to power the remote sensors. That in itself can be a challenge, and is why I question the wireless decision. If you moved back to wired sensors, then you could collapse the requirements back to a simple remote sensor, no Fez controlling it, and no xbee.
now I ask myself a hard question… Should we be helping design someone’s uni project???
@ Brett to clear your doubts :D… my project is not the hardware part its the software with C# to code all the idea the lab should have the hardware, but as they had an old one(crossbow NETFM 2.0) we decided to buy some new parts, thats why i needed some help because i didn’t know how all these FEZ work and what is for my needs
i found this one on sparkfun. anyone tested on domino? or any other suggestions (cheaper) ? i want this to be able to send Commands to the board to do tasks. For example send sms OPEN LIGHTS and board gets the order and opens lights etc.
If the plan is to use the USB host on a FEZ you might be out of luck. Then you probably have to write your own driver if you can get hold of the protocoll specifications.
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z-Wave[/url]
There is an open SDK being developed, I’ve gotten it to work with a PC, but not with NETMF.
[url]OpenZWave · GitHub
These are the controllers that they recommend. I’m using the Aeon ZStick (USB stick).
[url]OpenZWave · GitHub
As you can see there are some RS232 interfaces on the list. Those should be easy to interface with FEZ, but… the SDK relies heavily on C++ underneath the .NET code.
Usage as i said on this thread: check humidity , temprature, use the RF and the plug for lights, pir motion maybe i add a camera to detect movement (with the motion sensor and capture image) and the Cellular shield for the sms control from mobile. The ethernet is to connect the board to pc and make a database with all the data…and a site to monitor them etc.
how do you see those parts?all compatible? is anything missing?..if all these work…later ill add more stuff to the board.
Watch out with the wireless power sockets…If they don’t use a common protocol (read common encoder/decoder chip) you end up with a non working solution.
the lab should have the hardware, but as they had an old one(crossbow NETFM 2.0) we decided to buy some new parts, thats why i needed some help because i didn’t know how all these FEZ work and what is for my needs 
