RE: Any tips for X10 lighting?

["Mark Harrison" <Mark.Harrison@xxxxxxx>]

Tim,

The first thing you should be aware of is that X-10 is a bit limited -
if you have the money, then a "real" system will be
"better" (more
reliable, more functional), albeit harder to integrate.

In terms of the states, the calcs are correct, but not as bad as you
might be thinking, because you can "block" groups of lights and
dim them
down together, rather than having to take them one by one. But still,
several seconds to build a state.

Regards,

Mark Harrison
Head of Systems, eKingfisher

-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Raynor [mailto:tim@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 2 December 2001 19:48
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] Any tips for X10 lighting?



I have been investigating whole house lighting systems (I'm currently
doing
a barn conversion) and was wondering about basing a solution on X10 LD11
DIN
rail units controlled by HomeVision.  Each lighting circuit would be
controlled primarily by a hard wired 240V momentary push switch.
Additional
low voltage switches would be wired back to HomeVision inputs and would
in
turn trigger X10 signals to set lighting "scenes".  Looking
through the
archives there appear to be a few issues:

- In Mark's wiring guide on AutomatedHome.co.uk (which I've found
extremely
useful - thanks Mark), he mentions, "When wires run too close to one
another, some weird behaviour can occur. It seems it does not happen if
the
length of the wiring is less than about 10 meters. Above that, X-10
recommends separating the wires".... is the 10m limit for the switch
cables
back to the LD11, the wiring circuit itself or any mains wiring around
the
house?  How far apart should the wires be placed to cure the problem?

- I've read that I should avoid low voltage lighting due to the
electronic
transformers.  I was therefore going to use 240V spots.  Are there any
other
devices that should be avoided?  Are other makes of dimmer likely to
cause
any problems e.g. if I were to install a Futronix system alongside X10?

- If I get a problem device, what is the best way of curing the problem,
other than unplugging it?  I have the option of 3 phase mains (it's
already
there) and was wondering whether I should install the lighting circuit
on a
different phase to
everything else.  The downside to this I guess, is that I couldn't use
X10
on the other phases without some form of X10 bridge?  BTW - does anyone
know
whether 3 phase is more expensive to run than single phase?

- Has anyone tried setting up complex lighting scenes using X10?  My
back of
an envelope calculation came to nearly 2 seconds per dimming command.
Therefore to setup a lighting scene with 4 lighting circuits could take
7-8
seconds?  Does this work in practice and how does it look?

- How reliable is X10 likely to be?  I am presuming that once setup OK,
the
hard wired light switches will be pretty much 100% reliable?

Sorry for so many questions.... I'm new to this game.

Many thanks,

Tim




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