Re: XTB, reliablity, etc.

["Jeff Volp" <JeffVolp@xxxxxxx>]

<craft.brian@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1165912326.844197.256220@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Tell me how, with ten minutes and a meter, you would have discovered
> that an IBM transceiver (from a retailer recommended on this group)
> locks up when sent dim commands from certain remotes? Or that
> installing an RF repeater because of signal range problems would futz
> the x10 RF remote on the PC? Or that some modules dim continuously? And
> why? Or that every night around 9pm the unit you just installed turns
> on mysteriously. That'd be quite a trick to find in 10 minutes, unless
> you were prescient enough to know when the erroneous signal would
> arrive.
>
> That's a subset of the issues I've had with just a few x10 devices, in
> a fairly small house. If you lurk on here for any amount of time you
> will see many others. cm11a lockups,  transceiver collisions, and
> so-forth. You would find those in 10 minutes with a meter, too?

The dim problem was easy to identify and solve.  I can still recall that
time X10 stopped working after I held the dim button down.  That was back in
the era when we had to re-boot Windows several times a day, so I did the
obvious - reboot the RF transceiver.  When the pattern repeated, the fix was
just as obvious - don't hold the button down.

We learn things on a daily basis.  Things to do and not to do.  We wait for
the mixer to stop before pulling the paddles out of the bowl.  Some of us
found out what happens if we don't.

The more complicated things become, the more potential problems.  A CM11A
X10 system is vastly more complicated than a plug-in wall timer, but most of
you expect it to work the same.  Actually, it works better because those
dang wall timers would crap out after a couple of years.  That's why we went
with X10 in the first place - those old brown BSR modules from Sears and
that old timer with the blue readout.  It just worked SO much better than
those old mechanical timers.  Most X10 systems today have evolved way beyond
a clock timer and a few plug-in wall modules.

The CM11A was not a perfect system, but many of us learned how to use it.
And coming from Windows, the fix was easy any time it stopped working.  The
beta CM14A was significantly more reliable.  And the Ocelot runs months and
months without a glitch.  The best automation system is one you don't even
think about.  That's how X10 works for us.

I agree with you that X10 isn't perfect.  But it isn't all that difficult to
troubleshoot problems, especially if you have a signal level meter.  Once
you get decent signal levels throughout your house, you will find problems
are few and far between.

Jeff