Re: X10 lamp modules

[Nigel Orr <nigel.orr@xxxxxxx>]

At 12:03 07/02/00 -0000, you wrote:

>You're probably right. It's quite a scary number though when you start
>adding up how much all the X10 modules add up to in even a small house
>(like mine).=20

Agreed, but I suspect it's probably a relatively small number when you're
building a new house and most of the cheques probably have a couple of
extra 0's on the end, right Mark? ;-)

>None of the UK X10 stuff I've seen so far is particularly aesthetically
>pleasing, nor compact. The radio remote does the job, but it's not
>attractive.

Agreed, if they are going to charge that much for the things, they could at
least have had MK do the aesthetics...

>My alternative was to stick with the existing light switches.

Go hard-wired!  Build yer own!  Oh, you want it within a year... oh
well...=
=20

>module is controlled by a PIC controller or other programmable device.

Some are PICs, IIRC, but most probably date from a while before that and
are distinctly unprogrammable.

>How hard can it be to change the code on that so the lamp powers up
>softly rather than banging on to 100%?

Easy, but someone has to do it, and that might mean the modules would cost
50p more, and an accountant somewhere probably has a graph that shows
projected profits might fall due to such a bold change, so the engineer who
suggested it returned whimpering to their cubicle... just guessing!  There
are 101 things that could have been done to make X10 'nifty' but folk are
buying it, so why bother?  Of course, if it had stayed in the UK, it would
all have been different.

The X10 devices would have been reliable, they would have lots of neat
features, and would cost about =A3100 and be the size of a small=
briefcase...

>various reasons - X10 modules crashing (senders and receivers)
requiring
>a power cycle to fix them.

Just plug them into another module, so it can power cycle the first one :)
Or have a large circuit breaker supplying the whole house, with a big red
button labelled 'reboot' :)

Nigel


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