Any experience with x10 home automation...?

Does anyone use the x10 system of door alarms, light control units, &controllers? Looks like a useful, expandable system.

I have known people who used it. Its neat to play with but not the most robust system. It transmits signals to each reciver over the power lines and causes some interference with other devices as well as being susecptable to interference its self. There are better systems out there (search for home automation).

Also on a site note, Yahoo and X10 started the whole internet browser popup ad game which put them on a never do business with list of my own with other spammers/telemarketers.

teacher:

I have a flood cam over my garage and front driveway, I have it attached to an old vcr recorder and an old TV that are inside of my garage. The unit records when some body walks up on my property.

Hi,

Yes, I have used it for about 10 years, with marginal results. Initially set it up with PC control to turn outside lights on/off automatically. I also started adding X10 outlets in the home to turn Christmas lights on/off (to avoid running all over the house each evening during the holidays.

I've found that I tend to have at least one outlet/switch go bad each year. I usually just replace it with a regular outlet.

Also, since the main controller plugs into a regular outlet, it (the signal) goes to only one side of your home circuit breaker box. I had to buy two special components that look like breakers and plug into your breaker box (taking up two precious breaker spots -- one on each trunk with a wire between them) and allow the signals to pass to the other side out the home wiring bus.

Most homes today have GFCI outlets or breakers for circuits that have a component on the home exterior (porch lights). I found that the GFCI device doesn't reliably pass the signal.


So, if you try it, I suggest to start out small and see how it works for you, as it tends to get expensive -- $10 - $15 per outlet/switch, plus the controller / breaker startup cost. Also, the PC software that I used to use was very basic. May have improved in last ten years.

There is something else coming down the pike that may effect it. I read that the FCC is supporting BPL - Broadband over power lines ( Read this if interested -- http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2007/05/24/100/?nc=1 )

This will permit power line to also carry computer broadband service.

I don't know the details, but I would think it would have a significant potential to conflict with X10 signals. I know it is purported to cause significant interference to the radio spectrum in general (especially amateur bands).

Good luck

Michael

IMO

X10 = Junk

It can work. Best not used for serious or critical apps because very few manufacturers use the "feedback" capability (so you know what you asked for actually got done). Most pros will suggest hard-wiring when possible.

That said, I've used a X-10 photocontroller to turn on/off the outside lights around the house and a couple inside for more than 20 years, and I've never had to replace a single one of the units. OTOH, the modules I install in the wall (light and outlet switches) seem to go bad pretty often. I have mostly replaced them with regular switches/outlets after the second failure in each location. Oddly, some locations never seem to fail, and if anything it's the ones with a real light load (like one 60W bulb) that seem to fail the most (???). Some brands of X-10 stuff are better than others, they aren't all the same, even though they may look the same.

Also use the IR controller and the modular units you plug into outlets in my HT room for lights etc. Control with my regular HT IR remote. That is fine, you can see if the signal got through. I wouldn't trust these if I couldn't.

And I have some of the X-10 alarm units. They have been very reliable, not one has gone bad in over 20 years too. But this is a backup alarm now, I feed each sensor a 9V battery every couple years so it's not a big expense. I have the sensors in areas that aren't quite so critical and would have been expensive to hard-wire.

I have got some stuff from X10.com. It's true, they're a spam machine. And it's always big spam. But the stuff I got from them (PC interface, controllers etc.) all work fine for what it is. Price and service were fine too.

Hope this helps. If you are serious, pay the bigger $$ and use the X-10 stuff with feedback if appropriate for the job, it's a totally different quality league than what most people think of as X-10. I would not trust the regular stuff to run my home while I was away, say. With the feedback X-10, you could check/run your house over the web fairly reliably. I'm assuming this bidirectional X-10 stuff is still available, haven't bought any new stuff for quite a few years...

Every one of my five x-10 cameras failed after a few days.

Four of five light switch modules burned out after a few weeks. The fifth switch hung on for about two months before dying.

Does anyone want to buy a used X-10 remote?

I think that might still work.

Thanks for the tips -- I'll look for another system...

Teacher

More unflattering information about X10 including their bankruptcy filing 2 years ago....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X10_Wireless_Technology

For the first 3 years of my marriage, my wife tolerated my obsession with X10. As an idea, it seems so - so - elegant. 256 addresses, dimmable modules, home automation at its easiest.

However, there are times where X10 simply fails to work. I don't mean the lights don't turn off, I mean they turn on by themselves. Or they don't dim. Or something else happens. Worse is when a module that worked on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday fails to work on Saturday and Sunday, but works again on Monday. No matter where you put it in the house.

Then there's the hours I spent trying to figure out WHY we could no longer turn on the lights in any room other than the bedroom (turned out to be a surge suppressor in an outlet strip was blocking the signals).

But I tried. I programmed macros, I uploaded routines, I had scores of the modules all over the house.

It was one evening when my wife and I were sitting in the living room doing the taxes - a stressful period for anyone - and the lights gradually began to dim. My "evening" program had kicked in at 9:30, and that's when I was told that the "damn X10 stuff is leaving this house RIGHT NOW!" I spent quite a few hours removing and replacing X-10 outlets and switches, pulling specialty modules and the like. I sold it all as a lot on eBay to some guy in France. I tried to explain they would not work in France, but he was insistent, and I took his money and never heard from him again.

That was over 9 years ago, X10 stuff has been banned from the house ever since.