Re: US X10 motion detectors!

["Mark Harrison (Groups)" <mph@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 2005-07-02 at 17:44 +0000, noel_pilot wrote:
> help! have just bought two of these from ebay, they arrived today and
> they appear in themselves to work fine. only thing is they dont appear
> to be sending any commands to my UK X10 devices.
>
> X10.co.uk customer support online say they should work fine! has
> anyone got any info regarding this and any advice as to how i can make
> them work??!!
>
> Yours hopefully!
>
> Noel

As Mark McCall says, US X10 radio devices transmit at 419Mhz,
European/Asian ones at 433Mhz.

You'd need to get a US Transceiver Module and then modify it for
50Hz/230v mains. (If truth be told, probably a lot more hassle than it's
worth and better just to stick with UK / European devices).

It's worth mentioning that x10.co.uk are not the manufacturer of the
motion sensors. They are a reseller who happens to have picked the
domain name "x10.co.uk".

X10 is a protocol, and the devices are made by several different people.
There _used_ to be a set of in-force patents about X10, which meant that
one particular organisation held a "licence-from-us" monopoly,
but they
expired a few years ago, which led to the prices falling dramatically,
as those who've been buying since the late 90s will confirm :-)

M.