Re: X-10 Mister House Motion sensor problems

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Marc F Hult" <MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

> ><stuff snipped>
> >
>   The X-10 stuff is quick enough if you position the
> >sensor and transceiver close to each other and close to the load.
>
> In my experience, X-10 is almost never quick enough if the system needs to
> dim instead of toggle ON-OFF. And if you get up at 3AM , who wants the
> lights to go on suddenly at 100% bright?

That's an easy one.  Just get a two-way wall switch or module.  They'll
remember the state last dimmed to and without any of the flash problems.

But that's not and ideal solution.  I'm working on a more elegant one for my
Mom and Dad who need more than a dimmed bulb hallway bulb.  I am looking at
installing LED or similar "carpet lights" that you see in theaters and
airplanes.  It's clear that in low light, with dark adapted-eyes, a series
of small lamps illuminating the pathway is the proper way to go.  Those on
one unit code, the regular lights on another and a way to tell when it's
dark or light and it's done.  It's not a challenge for X-10 because there's
no dimming involved.  They come on when they sense motion, they go off after
a while or when the bed sensor says "back in bed."

I'm probably going to end up using Christmas lights because I love COTS
solutions and there's nothing cheaper or that requires less labor.
Concealing them artfully will be the only issue.

> Methinks you want this to work so badly that you don't see how badly it
> usually works ...

One could turn that statement right around and say "methinks you want this
NOT to work so badly that you don't see how well it CAN work."  (-:

It just takes a little effort.  It's not brain surgery.  I've solved the
problems that could be solved by reading here and doing research through
Google. I've worked around the rest.  Now the XTB will allow me to eliminate
a lot of compromises and really embrace a centralized controller.  No matter
what I tried before, the CM11A and the TW523 could not reach every corner of
the house.  Now they can.  That's a big, big change in the whole design of
my system.

It's a good time for it, too, because the mini-ITC PCs have proven
themselves to be very capable and reliable.  They'll make better controllers
for far less $ than many of the hardwired panels out there.

The XTB has made the formerly inaccessible design path of a powerful central
controller open to me again and really has reclaimed the value of my X-10
system.  That's going to save me a ton of money and let me "wait it out"
until one of the new protocols (or something even newer) prevails.

--
Bobby G.