Re: XTB, reliablity, etc.

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

<craft.brian@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

<stuff snipped>

> I understand what it does. It just doesn't help much for wired devices
> that send x10. It only helps for things you plug in, which are RF
> transponders and PC/microcontrollers. So, to actually use the XTB, you
> will end up moving all of the user inputs to RF so they can be relayed
> through a transponder to the XTB.

In my case, I distributed some Maxicontrollers around the house and fed them
into (4)XTB's, as well as a CM11A and some TM751's.   Most of the time, we
use minicontrollers in the room where lights are located.  Even unboosted,
they managed to control the local lights just fine.  I rarely need to
control a device outside a room that I am actually in except at bedtime or
when I am entering or leaving the house.

The XTB comes to play in the bedroom or at the front door (two places I have
XTB/Maxi combos) where I can push an ALL OFF with the certainty that every
light in the house will go out.  I know that commands from CM11A are going
to get through since that's attached to an XTB (along with a Maxicontroller
and a TM751 via a 3-way extension cord).  I also like the ability to be able
to flash every light in the house simultaneously, and the XTB makes that
possible as well.

No, it's not perfect, but it's light years ahead of where I was before.
Ideally, every X-10 transmitter would be hooked in through an XTB but that's
not practical either spacewise or moneywise for me.   I completely
understand your frustration.  If Jeff were not constrained by physics I
would like the XTB to be a plug in the size of one of the old single unit
surge protectors (or better yet, a little device you clip on transmitter's
powerline like a ferrite bead), however, he is limited by a number of
constraints and so they are not cheap and not small.  But having four of
them is very much "good enough."  The big problem of not all units
responding to the nightly "lights out" has been solved elegantly by the XTB.

I have even been thinking of pulling a series of outlets for nothing but
plug-in controllers that would feed into some centralized, rack mounted
XTB's.  I would probably have to cut the standard power plugs from such
controllers and use connectors that would make it impossible to plug the
Hoover vac into the XTB, but the big issue there is the limitation on how
many watts of load can be plugged into each XTB.  Right now I am using three
controllers apiece (and in one case, four) and the total load shown on my
Kill-o-watt meter was way below what I believe to be the XTB's 15W plug-in
device limit.  Jeff will hopefully correct me if I am wrong.

As for glowing testimonials, I really do find myself saying "Thank you Jeff"
when I hit the ALL OFF button at my bedside and I hear the satisfying click
of *every* appliance module actually obeying the command.  It certainly
wasn't that way BEFORE the XTB arrived on the scene.

That reminds me of another way in which X-10 is really rather elegant.  The
ALL OFF command affects all modules virtually instantaneously, without any
queuing issues, acknowledgment problems or network propagation delays.  As
long as X-10 keeps doing that one thing so well, it will be at work in my
house.

--
Bobby G.