I know that many people here have X10 systems in their homes. I was wondering, for those of you set up for it, what the best way was to control it via your computer.

I still have the "firecracker" device that came with my starter kit about four years ago. I stopped using it because all the software was was a digital representation of the physical remote that came with the system. The actual remote was probably easier to use.

Ideally, I'd like some kind of software that will use the firecracker instead of having to go buy more hardware. Ideally, I'd like something that will respond to keyboard commands so I can program Girder states for the number buttons on my Remote Wonder.

*edit*
upon searching everywhere I could think of, scratch the firecracker thing. So, I guess I'm down to looking for the whole package. X10's Active Home doesn't really appeal to me. Is there anything else out there?

*edit edit*
Just so I can get all that I've found into this post, I'll just add that I'm currently browsing Smarthome's catalog. However, I don't think I'm up to spending over $200 for a piece of software that will turn my lights on and off. Also, most of the products they list have nothing to do with X10 at all (though I got there through the X10 link), like D-Link wireless networking products.

But, if I want to go through them, it's nice to know that they have the latest hardware available

I suppose the other option would be a program from Sourceforge or some similar freeware. I'd still need to know what hardware to use to controll it.

There are freeware programs all over the place that interface with the CM17a "firecracker" and/or the CM11a. Home-Automation.org has a fairly good list of them. I've only ever used Heyu, and that was quite some time ago. Anyway, there's all sorts of good stuff, I'm sure you'll find what you need there.

Wow, thanks, that page looks great! It appears the CM11a is the most popular device to use, so I may try to pick that up somewhere if I can get it seperately from the Activehome software, or the combo if I can find it cheap.

Heyu looks good, and I might try running a small PC somewhere in my house to do this stuff. I set my dad up with the LCD controller from Smarthome, but that was around $380. It's really nice, but he has the money to do that, I don't

For a total overkill, have a look at misterhouse. All-singing, all-dancing, and in Perl.

I am currently using heyu, but my own stuff is almost ready to go live. And the CM11A is definitely the way to go, the firecracker stinks.

When looking at the X10 gadgets, remember that the original one-way protocol is totally braindamaged (only *relative* dims etc.).

Some of the newer modules are two-way and support "extended" commands (absolute levels, status queries etc.)

I have a couple of devices here that required computer control of their power leads: my (flakey) ADSL modem, and the external AMP for my office empeg.

The empeg remote AMP lead is used to directly drive a solid-state relay I picked up for CND$5 in Toronto, so that one was very easy.

The ADSL modem, when it goes flakey, requires a power-cycle to restore sanity. So my everything-server (web,ssh,dns,dhcp,ftp,nfs,smb,...) now runs a very simple shell script from /etc/crontab, which tries to ping the upstream gateway at my ISP. If the ping fails, it toggles a bit on the parallel (printer) port, the output of which is directly wired again to another of those $5 solid-state relay modules, which in turn is directly wired into the power leads of the modem's PSU. I installed this in late December, and the connection here has been SO MUCH more reliable than before!

Every now and then I think about making up a box with AC outlets, 8 solid state relays, and a single control cable with a DB-25 connector on the end for plugging into the server. I could then plug into this the various other computers and networking gear in the vicinity, allowing me to remotely fire-up an offline server (or an Empeg!) from a remote location on demand.

Someday..

You know that there are commercially available remote control power strips, right?

Do they cost less than CDN$5 per outlet?

Cheers

Probably not, but you also don't have to spend hours constructing it or programming controls.

No, instead I'd have to spend hours getting it to work with Linux, and more hours working to pay for it.

Yeah, those web interfaces and RS-232 connections are near impossible to deal with under Linux....

Thanks, I'll take a look at that program too. Though it's a little clumsy looking for my tastes, and I'm only using X10 to control lighting. I also don't need all the other stuff that's going on with it. What's that stuff about "Comics Pictures"??

I definitely agree that the two-way modules that can light with preset dims and such are the way to go, but sadly, that costs a heck of a lot of dough. My system is made up mostly of the sale lamp modules X10 had for a while of the left-over stock of RCA units. I think they were like $6 a piece. The regular ones are $12!

Does anyone know a cheap place to get this stuff? All I know about is x10.com and smarterhome.com

Oh, by the way, I bought an Activehome kit off of ebay for around $30. So there's a CM11a headed my way right now. Can't wait for it to get here

On a related note, how robust are the X10 modules these days? I got some stuff a while back and it all broke within a few months. Maybe it was just the RF receiver, but still, it shouldn't break under normal use and it happened to several other people I know, too.

As far as I can tell, it's luck. All totalled I've owned about 16 modules over the past 4 years. That's about 11 lamp modules, 2 wall switches, 2 outdoor lighting modules, and one RF receiver. Two lamp modules died completely for no apparent reason after a month or two. Aside from that I've had good luck. We did have to replace one wall switch in my parent's house, which may have been due to a serious power surge, but there are pretty big issues with the power on my parents' street.

Anyway, I love the stuff. You can buy modules from higher-quality companies, but it's been more cost-effective for me to buy everything as cheap as possible and simply replace the bad units. All of mine are X10 and RCA brand.

What would higher-quality companies be?

ACT and their A10 stuff is much higher quality build but it is way more expensive.

I assume it still has the "what security?" problem, though.

Yup. However if don't use any of the RF X10 gear then you can fit a X10 filter onto the incoming mains supply. That should stop people in the neighbouring house playing around with your lights.

Okay, so I finally got the CM11a in last night. I am very tired.

I was up until 6AM. I re-coded every module and switch in my house, including the outdoor modules in the middle of the rain. I entered all the modules and macros I wanted into the Activehome software. I set up all the time information. I did all this work on it and it seemed to work fine. Now it keeps freezing up my computer. All of a sudden the connection program to the module will crash, I'll close it down, then try to load it again and the machine will more or less freeze. I think it's having issues with the COM port, but I'm not sure.

It's too bad, because the functionality of the program was actually pretty nice. The problems with it seem to be in the quality and (obviously) stability. The program feels like it's 16-bit. It just has that look to it. I feel like I'm stuck in Windows 3.11.

So, I'm back to either figuring out how to run this program in a stable manner, or finding other software. I've looked at Heyu, but that's only for Linux. I tried installing Misterhouse, but after attempting to get that installed and having to install Perl and all that, it wasn't worth it.

So, any ideas? I have a Girder plugin that lets me controll the CM11a, but then I loose all the macros and timers. ARRGHH! Why does X10 have to make such crappy stuff??

You using the software on the CD or downloaded from the x10 site?

CD, then from the site, so I tried both. The one on the CD was pretty bad.

And it appears that It is indeed a 16-bit application, and I think Win2K doesn't like that. When I try to open it, looking at the process activity, everything seems to load under something called "NTVDM.EXE", including "wowexec.eve", which its properties state is a "Windows Win16 Application Launcher."

Anyway, again, this isn't working

And it appears that It is indeed a 16-bit application, and I think Win2K doesn't like that.

Try setting the program up in Win2K using the "Run in Separate Memory Space" option.

That will frequently cure 16-bit problems like that. The downside is that the program will take much longer to load when you start it up -- 10 or 15 seconds.

tanstaafl.

I'll try that. How exactly do I do it?

I've got more information about what is happening. I tried loading only the communication software for the module, and not the full Activehome software. While doing so I watched the list of processes. It appears that first a bunch of applications are loaded under one process name, then the actual communication software is loaded as its own process, then starts taking 100% of the CPU. After a while I'm able to highlight the process and end it, but it takes about a minute and a half. Why the heck is this simple little program overtaxing the processor so much?