Re: XTB - the Future of X10 has arrived!

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"AZ Nomad" <aznomad@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
<ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<stuff snipped>

> > Jeff Volp?s XTB (X10 Transmit Buffer).
> >This is one of those ?breakthrough? products.
>
> That's like saying that you've discovered the future of the steam boiler
> powered cariage.

It's funny you should draw that parallel.  Here's a recent article about a
new kind of steam carriage that shows that *old* technology, properly
enhanced, can really be the way of the future:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4076811.stm

INSPIRATION ENGINE SPEC
Two stage turbine on single spool
Output: 300bhp at 12,000rpm (turbine speed) (225kw)
Output shaft gear ratio: 4:1 or 4.45:1 to twin output shafts
Differential: Epicyclic type with viscous couplings

"Steam-powered vehicles are not usually deemed as being parked at the
cutting edge of transport technology. Nor do they seem to be the type to
race across desert landscapes in a bid to smash land speed records in the
21st Century. But British design engineer Glynne Bowsher and his team have
almost finished building a super-fast vehicle reminiscent of the Batmobile.
And this car puts a new technological breath of life into what is regarded
as a traditional means of power." [article continues at URL above]

It goes on to talk about pollution and how steam engines could greatly
reduce it.  Aside from carriages, steam has shown remarkable progress on the
nano-technology front.  Search on "micro steam engines" in Google to find
any number of remarkable miniature steam engine stories.

So it's pretty clear that only someone with a very accurate crystal ball can
tell when a technology is *really* obsolete.  Jeff's device corrects the one
fatal flaw in X-10 - its weak signal - and elegantly fixes it.  The world of
X-10 using a controller outputting 20+ volts is a very different one from
the traditional world of the 5 volt transmitters, repeaters, boosters,
couplers and the myriad software techniques used to try to improve signal
reliability.

The XTB world has no borderline signals.  For me, it didn't require going
into the circuit breaker panel.  My unit gives me a .11 volt signal on the
*opposite* phase without coupling.  Active couplers, repeaters and boosters,
by their very nature, both give and take when used in an X-10 system.  You
gain signal strength, but it is often at the expense of losing
functionality, or worse, still, reliability.

I have no doubt that when the first batch of production XTB's hit the field,
the reports will make even *you* wonder if there ain't some life left in
that ol' X-10 dog, still.

> X10 is primitive technology from the days of the 110 baud modem.
> Maybe you can tell us about the future of the 110 baud modem while
> you're at it.

Does living in your world mean we have to abandon everything that's
"primitive" technology?    That would mean giving up the underlying 110VAC
electrical system - that sucker's over 100 years old.

Darn if you can't take a lamp from 1940 and plug it in to a wall and it will
work.  You can also plug your brand new laptop into the very same outlet and
it will work, too.  You can plug either device into a outlet almost anywhere
in the country and it will work.

You can take a basic 1980 set of X-10 modules and do a pretty good job of
automating that 66 year old lamp - or a 6 year old one.  The age of X-10's
"network topology" doesn't really have a lot to do with its effectiveness.

Standards are good things for the end user.  X-10's issues have mostly been
with continually devolving state of the home wiring "grid" - namely the
advent of CFL's and signal sucking switching power supplies.  So it seems
somewhat unjust to abandon a technology simply because of what existed (110
bps modems) when it evolved.  Would we have to give up plumbing because the
concept dates back before the Roman era?

Certainly X-10 is not the fastest protocol, but what does it really matter
in a home?  If you can't stand the fractions of seconds that it takes for
complex macros to execute, by all means go hardwire.  Most X-10 users can
live with the current speed limit, especially at 1/10 the cost of competing,
albeit more reliable, systems.  Besides, what do you need to transmit across
the powerline that needs gigabit speeds?

What I needed from X-10 and wasn't getting was reliability.  Commands would
fail to execute because of a number of problems, all basically attributable
to signal strength.  The XTB solved that problem and made X-10 a whole new
ball game.  Try it before you knock it.

BTW, what protocol are you favoring in the four or five way race to replace
X-10?  There are going to be more losers than winners 10 years from now.
The test will be when you go to sell your house with the InsteWaveUPBXXX
automation system that's gone the junkyard and they demand you rip it out
before the sale!

My guess is that 10 years from now, X-10 will still be hanging in there,
just like the national power grid.   I know the XTB has greatly increased
X-10's odds of dancing on its wannabe successor's grave.

--
Bobby G.