Re: Suggestions for X10/Automation Widgets

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dave Houston, Robert Green and Dan Lanciani wrote:

> >> A quick hack might be to get the remote to send IR
> >> format X10 as RF.  Then you could tweak my IR input code
> >> to handle the RF as well.
> >
> >:-)  Sure I could, after a brain and hand transplant!!!!!!  I can wire
> >telephones, assemble PC's and maybe replace a blown capacitor on a
> >motherboard, but that's where my technical abilities stop.  I was hoping
to
> >entice Jeff into adding this feature to his Widget design.
>
> It's a simple matter to have the universal remotes send RF at the same
time
> as they send *any* IR. It just takes removing a diode. Batteries won't
last
> quite as long.

Diode snipping is something I can do.  A dozen eunuched X-10 modules can
swear to that.  Batteries are NiMH and are swapped out for fresh charged
long before they are dead.  This sounds like a promising avenue, but IR
limits me to line of sight.  I'd have to put an IR receiver in every room of
the house to match X-10's RF convenience and I don't like making that trade.
Dan's escape code technique is looking more and more attractive since most
people press the ALL LIGHTS OUT button by accident.  Removing it or making
it a two-key process wouldn't be much of a hardship.

> The IR and RF protocols are totally different. A better idea might be to
> assign some AV unit that uses the NEC IR protocol to one of the device
keys
> and then, choosing codes that don't conflict with existing X-10 RF codes,
> use them to add preambles. They typically send IR codes with most if not
all
> key presses. You could use the NEC IR codes to switch housecodes and then
> use the X-10 buttons as you do now. The protocols are identical except for
> the shortcut repeat methods used by some but not all IR devices.  The
> µPD6121 datasheet - X-10 used it in the old rectangular keychain remote -
> explains the protocol.
>
>      www.cpcares.com/pdf/UPD6121G-001.PDF(1)

Is this what you are talking about re: shortcuts?

"Thus if the key is pressed during the initial 36 ms, one transmission is
performed. If a key is kept
pressed for 108 ms or longer, only leader codes are consecutively
transmitted until the key is released."

It appears they do that to save transmission current via what they call the
"One-shot Command Transmission Mode."  I'm betting it makes decoding much
more complicated.

> But the fatal drawback to all of these schemes are that they pretty much
> have to be in the firmware of the target receiver or transceiver.

I thought there would be more people using the X-10 remotes to make an
all-housecode scheme more attractive a commodity than it's been.  Anyone
serious about X-10 has long since eaten up a second housecode.  Sixteen
units isn't enough, especially after the first 8 are gone and the typical RF
and Mini controllers get clunky to use.  The schemes to operate a
multi-housecode home via RF remote aren't cheap or easy.  :-(  At least not
for the electronically-challenged, like me.

--
Bobby G.