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Re: TM12 question ?


  • To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
  • Subject: Re: TM12 question ?
  • From: Kevin Hawkins <tivo@xxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 05 May 2001 01:26:53 +0100
  • Delivered-to: rich@xxxxxxx
  • Delivered-to: mailing list ukha_d@xxxxxxx
  • Mailing-list: list ukha_d@xxxxxxx; contact ukha_d-owner@xxxxxxx
  • Reply-to: ukha_d@xxxxxxx

Title: Re: [ukha_d] TM12 question ?
The official line I believe is don't do this, however I would be tempted to try it - but there are three issues that could cause problems. Non I believe would cause damage to any modules though. There may be a reason for this official don't - see i) below.

   1) The TM12 has an inbuilt appliance module. This has a hardcoded address and so you will end up with two modules on this address (not in itself a problem). However these appliance modules do support active monitoring ie  you can interrogate them remotely to query their status. If you have two or more TM12's on the same housecode the 'status' result would be unpredicatable as their responses would clash or conflict.

   If you are 'in range' of more than 1 TM12 then two other problems occur. i) or ii) will get you one way or the other. You may be able to live with ii)

   i) Several TM12's may receive the same rf signals and as such they will all put their X10 data on the mains. This may well cause collisions (I don't know how adept the circuitry is in a TM12 for avoiding this). The effect of collisions is that the data can get lost or scrambled. This means that the unit you are addressing may not see the data or possibly worse still the data might get corrupted and cause another unexpected device to respond. X10 is not a resilient or well error checked protocol. If the TM12's have no collision detection built in then almost certainly they won't work and this may be why the official line is don't do it. anyone know for definate ?

   ii) If collisions are not a problem then data my well get sent  from each TM12 that is in range causing duplication of the commands. This is undesireable and in more complex 'macro' type scenarios it could be really problematic. In practice for ON / OFF control it should not pose too many problems however it will cause problems for dim and bright commands as they work by repeating a command several times to change the level of the light, this will get messed up and result in unpredictable results.
   
   I don't think you will do any harm to anything but it just may not work the way you want it to. For wall mounted RF switches you would be better siting them to communicate with just one TM12 on perhaps a different housecode. You could transpose the addressed units back with any software or hardware that supports macros. The housewide operation of a keyfob is more difficult to achieve though.

   In the States there are two solutions I have seen for this. They have an RF repeater available that simple receives the RF signal and transmits (boosts / relays) it again. I do not know of a CE approved model. I have also seen a mod published for an RF remote that caused it to send the commands out on two different housecodes, say first on A then B. You could then set your receivers up on separate housecodes and transpose one housecode if needed using a macro (but only if the other corresponding one was not received).


   Kevin

on 4/5/01 9:01 pm, geraint@xxxxxxx wrote:

Hi all,

Thinking about putting in some RF-X10 kit...

question....I noticed that the range I could experience would be
about 10metres through walls.
Could I in theory add more TM12's on the SAME housecode to give an
extended range,,,i.e a couple upstairs at either end of the house,
and likewise downstairs.

I want to use the SS13 stick on wall switch's in places where mains
feeds are going to be a pain, so this would be a perfect solution for
me, but as I said,,,can it go on the same code.

It also lets me use the remote keyfob for external lighting and
garage door motor.

I won't be using the appliance side of it on code 1, so I know I
won't have 4 or 5 appliances switching on that housecode at the same
time.

any ideas ?

regards

Geraint Williams
Award Computing Ltd


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