Hi 007!
RV-C is one of many ways for two electronic "boxes" to talk to each other.
Kinda like two people can either speak, write or do sign language to communicate. And if speak, they can agree to speak in English, Spanish or French.
Once two "box" companies agree to either create a new custom language that few people either have used before, or to use a language that is common (like choosing to speak in English vs. jibberish). RV-C is the "English" of those two.
It's an established and documented way to communicate common RV tasks.
Like "Extend the Awning".
RV-C communication is over data wires in the RV.
Typically, those wires are built into the wiring harness of the RV from manufacturer. Once the wiring is there, then each module (box) can be plugged into it. Once plugged in and energized, then two (or more) boxes can then communicate to each other.
In older technology vehicles, the communications is typically done by individual wires from switches to modules. Lots of wires for all the tasks.
Then in newer vehicles, digital communications have been used, but the language used may not have been publicly documented (the "Jibberish") which makes it difficult for a third person to understand what the other two are speaking of.
So the newest vehicles, that use RV-C, use a language that is documented so third party modules can relatively easily be built that can join the conversation.
So, in my case (as example), my 2002 was NOT built with RV-C (sigh...) so I will have to "ease drop" on the conversations of the modules by watching electrical voltage changes (what voltage is the grey water tank sensor and does that mean 80% full?). To invoke actions, I will have to put relays in existing circuits (turn on the coach LED lights) as example.
For vehicles equipped with silverleaf / Rozie, (newest technology vehicles), then I build a CAN module that my computer knows how to talk to, and the CAN module is then plugged into the existing RV-C network, and the CAN module then speaks in RV-C language to tell the existing awning module "please extend the awning". And listens to the data traffic to know "I just heard that the grey water tank is at 80% full". CAN is "Controller Area Network", which is kinda like "lets communicate via speaking".
My software knows how to talk to many different languages (protocols), and many different ways to communicate (serial, USB, ethernet etc). It knows how to listen to sensors, how to turn on types of relays, how to talk digitally to electronic modules etc.
Once my computer has the data (80% grey water level) it can present it, do calculations on it, or trigger things to turn on or off based on rules that are set within the software. Like, "turn the water pump relay off if the grey water tank is over 95%"
All of this is much easier to do if the vehicle supports RV-C and I can just leverage existing modules, with existing wiring, with existing documented ways to communicate than retrofitting custom ways to do same. But, it is possible
It is also possible to add RV-C / CAN wiring to a vehicle which would then support newer modules. Not easy to do for a complete deployment, but also possible.
I will be putting in an ethernet network in my RV (now done), WiFi communication network (done), a ZWave wireless network (done) and use my software to trigger commercially available modules that can turn on / off devices (like the fresh water pump). I will add a security system that can listen for switch states to know things like the baggage doors are open. The security system (Elk M1 Gold) will then tell my software [Mod Edit] that a particular door is open. The software can then display graphically that door state, or invoke things to happen on that event "don't allow the slide to open if the baggage door on that side is open".
Linear Mode
