Re: Re: A Question about X10.

[Doogie Brodie <ukhad@xxxxxxx>]

Marcus Warrington wrote:
> I've just finished having the house rewired.. and just as the
electrician
> finishes I "discover" x10. Non of my light switches have
neutrals.. they all
> switch on the live (which I'm told is the norm?), so I'd assumed I
was
> stuck,
> but are you saying I could actually have a way around this. Would the
switch

Yep, two main options without major rewiring and having normally 
switched lights.... LW10U or a minor rewire and embedding an LD11 
somewhere.... somewhere that access was available to change fuses would
be required though.

> need replacing with a momentary type, or can it still be a rocker. Do
the

You'd need a momentary

> LD11's support dimming are are they simply on/off. Can they be used
with
> the "modern" energy saving bulbs ?

They support the extended dim, so off dims to zero, and on dims from 
zero up to last dim setting. Not a clue about energy saving bulbs... 
aren't they all a bit iffy with any dimmer.....?

> Having said all that, I sort of get the impression that x10 isn't
the
> panacia I initially thought it was. Am I correct in assuming that
there
> can be significant delays and interferance ?

Yes and no...... generally X10 works. I wouldn't use it to control a 
life support machine.... but for general home lighting and appliances, 
it does the job.

Delays are generally only a problem when you're involving PC based 
processing.... eg my kitchen has an X10 wireless PIR and an LW10U in it.
I walk into the kitchen, the PIR goes, sends the signal to the receiver
which says M3 ON. I could have this directly switching the LW10U, by 
programming it to respond to M3. What I do instead, is have the PC pick
up M3 ON as a command to fire a macro, it looks at the current time and
wether I've said I've gone to bed or not, it then sends a dim to X% 
command to the LW10U depending on what it decides. In this scenario, it
can take a second or two for the light to come on properly, sometimes 
its almost instant... depends exactly when the PIR picks me up and 
depends whether the PC is busy thinking about anything else at the same
time.

As for interference..... I've heard of people using a lot of the RF 
based stuff having clashes with signals if several PIRs go off at the 
same time etc, but it is generally reliable. If you are getting 
interferance from a neighbour using X10, you can get a filter fitted at
your fuse box.


-- 
Doogie



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