Pronto and X-10 (was UK Home Automation - Site Updates)

["Timothy Morris" <timmorris@xxxxxxx>]

Mark,

If it is the .ccf I am thinking of then it will require some tweaking.

I have looked at two from ProntoEdit. One sent out very small brighten
increments, so that it would take 56 steps (taking over 30 seconds to go
through the whole range) to brighten a UK Wall Dimmer, the other did it in
about 6. Through experimentation I have found that the wall switch dimmer
takes 14 steps from fully dimmed to fully on (rather than the X-10 standard
of 22!) It may of course be that the software is sending too long a code,
but I doubt it.

I found this out by generating dim and brighten commands through the PC
interface using Homeation2000. This is a piece of software which while not
up to Homevision standards wipes the floor with the software that comes
with
the PC interface. It has a few bugs, but nothing serious that can't be
worked around. A demo can be downloaded from www.homeation.com. I'm trying
to get the author to generate a more generic piece of software which will
work better in the UK. I would urge anyone who wants to be able to use
logical macros without going to the expense of Homevision, to download the
demo, and post their opinions here. If I can go back to him with the
promise
of a ready made market, I might have a bit more clout. It retails for
around
$130.

I have now tweaked the IR codes within the .ccf so that:

1. Pressing dim and brighten now generates the correct length of code for
22
steps (so that it is in sync with the software). Previously the software
was
thinking that it had received a whole dim command, but the light had only
received what X-10 calls one dim command. Each X-10 dim command is in fact
made up of four IR dim codes with a small inter-code gap. This means that
the switch actually has a higher resolution than the X-10 protocol, but it
is not practical to use it in this fashion. Because it takes time for the
signal to be transmitted to the dimmer, AND it is easy to saturate the
power
line by not having a large enough gap between transmitted codes, it is
necessary to bundle these codes up. The X-10 spec takes this into account.

2. Increased the inter code gap. X-10 takes a while (talking in terms of
microseconds here) to get through the powerline and all the .ccfs I tried
without exception didn't leave enough space between each code. As a result
the entire system was getting overloaded and some commands weren't getting
through. (Homeation2000 has a communications monitor, so you can see what
codes are being sent and recevied, which was very useful during the
de-bugging process). Now when you hold in the dim or brighten button it
works correctly wiht built in auto repeat.

3. Added All Lights On, and All Lights Off.

Although I am new to X-10, I have done quite a lot of fiddling with the
internal code structure within the Pronto, and have read both of Barry
Gordon's documents on how to decode the octets that the Pronto uses. Thanks
must go to Philips for giving us the opportunity to go in and
"hack" the IR
codes. This is what makes the Pronto so powerful a beast

As most of the time I use Homeation to set scenes, the .ccf I have is not
really "fit for public consumption". If you ask nicely I will
work on one
that is.

Nice to know about the Din rail modules. If only I had enough space in the
walls to hide them!

Tim.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark McCall [mailto:mark@xxxxxxx]
> Sent: 13 May 1999 09:22
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: [ukha_d] Re: UK Home Automation - Site Updates
>
>
> > I also use a Pronto. You need the IR543 IR to X10 module.
>
> Correct Tim...I'm using the IR543.  There's a picture of it on my site
> here...
> http://www.ukha.demon.co.uk/review-irc.html
>
> > Pre-Set Dim
> > Extended Codes
> > (If only we had devices in the UK that could take advantage
> of these last
> > two)
>
<snip>


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