RE: xPL/xAP an alternative to C-Bu$ ?

["Ian Lowe" <ian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ignoring Mark McCBus for a moment... ;)

Yes, there's no reason at all why we can't mix and match environments -
Clipsal make lovely switches, but even with an open budget I'd still
flinch at the pricing.

Dynalite's kit looked (imo) just as pretty but not quite as
arm-amputation expensive.

And given how reliable X-10 can be when people are using DIN mounted
LD11s rather than the plugin modules, adding in actual proper status
reporting using Frank's Probe system...

I'd say that a homebrew system that looks the mutt's nuts, is as
reliable as a proper install, and gives you some change back is entirely
possible.

Without digging into implementation right now, there are a few ways in
xPL of getting commands from mundane switches into the control domain
right now, even easier if we look at Dynalite's RS485 kit...

On the actual mains side, again Dynalite, or LD11s, yeah... I can see
definite possibilities.

Add in Frank's probe, some smart xPLHal style glue, and that's one
pretty sexy system.

I guess the problem for me with C-Bus is just the scaling of the whole
thing... yeah, you buy a Porsche, but you don't buy twenty of them - and
I can't help but see C-Bus' costs as leading to you choosing to only
enable bits of the house, rather than the whole thing.

Ian.