Is there better stuff than X10?

A company called Eaton Holec has developed the A10 protocol based on the X10 protocol. See

Thanks but it's Zigbee, not so good:

And only sold through installers at sky-high prices:

This market really needs some new players.

Have you looked at the Intellion powerline modem ICs?

Pretty horrible web site but interesting. However, it looks like 230V only and not sold in the US :-(

good:

prices:

No kidding.

Regards,

Michael

I've only seen patents from them. But if I have to roll my own wusing some specialty chip I'd rather do it from scratch, MSP430 or PSoC. I don't have a lot of trust in powerline comms companies anymore.

Is it the price of wireless or just being wireless that you don't like?

If it's just the price, then look at Z-Wave. It's older technology than ZigBee but it's works darn well. I've ripped out all my X10 stuff and replaced it with Z-Wave.

The thing that I really like about it is that every device acts as a repeater, so controller-to-device distance usually isn't an issue.

Here's the stuff I have:

Bob

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home.net/494/557.html

I had the same experience. Left me in an extreme state of disgust that company making those "products" would have audacity to sell them knowing how bad the quality is.

-Le Chaud Lapin-

Sorry, but RF is the rage and wired standards are out. Z-wave is the latest in wireless standards, consortia, conspiracies, IP litigation, and products. See:

List of players:

Some detail:

Chip vendor:

Light reading:

Runs on 908.42MHz in the US and 868.42MHz in EU at 9600 baud. 30 meters indoors and 100 meters outdoors. It can be bi-directional so you have some indication that the device actually responded. X10 is unidirectional. 232(?) nodes maximum per network. It is setup as a mesh networks to extend range (i.e. no central access point) with self routing and self healing routes.

I've played with some of the Leviton Vizia products and find them "good enough". That means that they do what's advertised, but I sure would like to see some more features, diagnostics, monitoring, and clues as to what's happening.

The problem is the high price, but I expect that to drop:

Affordable will have to wait.

RF in this house is going to be a nightmare. The builders wanted to be extra good and insulated all inner walls with aluminum backed fiber. Anything past a few hundred MHz doesn't get any range here.

Which means you have to have repeaters and they must be on circuits that are always powered.

Personally I don't trust the company behind it anymore. They sold timers which always failed in the same way and then refused to sell the simple plastic gear to fix them. They didn't even answer multiple inquiries. That gets rewarded with a loooong ban in this house ;-)

In this super RF-tight house that would translate into maybe 15m indoors and outdoors only if there is a window more or less directly in the path. Abover 433MHz it gets really bad.

Plus I don't want any Intermatic products.

The other thing that puzzles me: The EPA and all kinds of agencies push CFL yet most of these home automation guys don't seem to get it. They still sell dimmer modules that cannot be turned into a non-dim CFL compatible mode.

I have customers with similar houses. I have to use repeaters and bridges between sections of the house. Sometimes, I can get away with shooting through doorways. For Z-wave, the trick is just to put two switch or wall power devices back to back on the same wall. That will act as a repeater. There are also bridges between X10 and other technologies that might help.

More reading:

You are really difficult to please. Are there any other companies on your black list that I should avoid?

Z-wave technology is about 2-3 years old. The CFL recommendations are somewhat more recent. My guess(tm) is a dimmable CFL would need to have the Z-wave chip integrated. However, you're correct about the dimmer modules. They could easily have added an on/off feature in place of dimming. However, I think there are some on/off only modules available, but I'm too lazy to look.

Could be tough here. The boxes are metal and then there is another layer of aluminum-backed fiber behind them that you could only rip out by busting through the drywall. That methods has a very low WAF ;-)

I've had that: Transmitter in the office, other side in the kitchen next to it. No signal :-(

Yep, like one chip mfg that starts with "M" ...

Very few. The powers to be in that market simply don't seem to realize where the trend goes. And the liability that comes with it should uncle Leroy climb on that old ladder and screw a CFL into the socket where he technically shouldn't.

Which one? Motorola, Maxim, Microchip, Monolythic Memories, Mostek, MOS Technologies, Marvell, Marconi-Elliot, Matsushita, Mitsubishi... Yeah, I know some of these are defunct.

The 2nd one :-)

At least I am not using their stuff, seen too much grief WRT unobtanium situations.