Re: Insteon now or wait?

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Bill Stock" <me7@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

> My X10 setup has been going to hell in a hand-basket over the past year,
> lights not responding, sending one code and getting another (?)

<stuff snipped>

Are you using more than one housecode in your house?  It sounds like you're
having collisions.   There are lots of potential causes, but the ActiveEye
series of RF PIR motion detectors seems to head the list.  Are there any
X-10 devices that can transmit at the same time in your house?  Have you
reviewed your transformational (IF X, then Y) Cmax code for errors?  (What
joy!)  One of the most pervasive problems with CMax seems to be "dropping
through" the ladder logic so that conditionals are not properly evaluated.
It's not a fault of the system, but of people bringing expectations learned
from other programming languages to CMax.

>  it' either some code hidden somewhere I've forgotten about or a
>  wonky coupler/repeater. Either way I'm going to have to
> spend some time and $$s to get it working again.

Elsewhere you say you have an XPCR repeater.  Does the problem still occur
when you power this unit down?

> So I thought I might replace some of the X10 modules with Insteons to try
> and improve the CFL problems.

I doubt the X-10 mode of the switch will perform any better than what you've
got.  You've got demons in your house and only a meter will properly excise
them.  I'm betting you've got at least two or three completely undetected
but severe signal "sinks" going.  They can be as small as a plug in AA
battery charger and as big as a whole house AC unit.  Only a meter will tell
you the extent of their impact on your X-10 setup.  It will probably enable
you to redeploy your existing filters to items that really need them.  Not
all fluorescents or UPS's are X-10 unfriendly.

If you filter some of the massive sinks, the rest of the system improves
immediately.  Throw an XTB or two into the mix, use X-10 friendly CFL's
where you can't install series filters and I'll bet you'll see a dramatic
change.

> But the Insteons only repeat Insteon codes,
> not X10 codes. So unless I have a Translator for the Ocelot I don't see
much
> value in upgrading now.

They'll work their kinks out - eventually - but for now, you're probably
better off trying to fix what you have since it seems that you have some
serious money invested in X-10.  Give Insteon some more time to work the
kinks out and to get the redesigned switches approved and out into the
field.  In the meantime, an ESM-1 meter and Jeff's XTB will do a lot for
you.

Even with those two tools, it may take either $100 worth of filters or
finding non-interfering CFLs to clear up the issues caused by the CFLs,
depending on how many you have and how they're wired.

X-10 *should* sell X-10 friendly CFL's on their site.  I'm surprised  HA
vendors that frequent CHA have not bought an inventory of X-10 friendly
CFL's to resell.  It would be nice if someone designed a simple "button"
screw-in filter that you could put between the bulb and the socket that
would fix errant CFL bulbs, X-10 wise.  But X-10 friendly bulbs *are* out
there.  They're just not 5 for $10 at Walmart.  :-(

> I did check the Smarthome site for a translator, but
> it looks like it was never produced.

I believe it appeared briefly in beta form which could lead one to believe
the operational problems were so enormous that development ceased.
Something spooked them, although it could be as simple as a prediction that
demand would not cover manufacturing costs.

I'll leave it to Dave to describe all the potential gotchas making two
less-than-perfect protocols behave together perfectly.

--
Bobby G.