Re: No more X10 at Radio Shack?

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Jeff Volp" <JeffVolp@xxxxxxx> wrote in message news:vbkbh.119991

<stuff snipped>

> The folks who can't do that are the ones most
> likely to walk into the local Radio Shack and pick up that gee wiz
> automation kit consisting of a controller and a few plug-in modules.  Then
> they plug it in as shown on the box, and it doesn't work.  So they either
> take it back to the store or rant here and elsewhere that X10 is junk.

I think the failure mode was even more insidious than that.  People got an
Activehome kit with a couple of modules.  Maybe they bought a few more
appliance and lamp modules at the same time.  Or maybe one of those X10.com
nearly free starter kits.  Everything probably ran fine for a while since
the fewer X-10 transmitters, the less overall signal sucking.  Also, in the
beginning, people are likely to keep all the stuff close together as they
deploy it.  Now the original stuff's out of warranty and they want to add
more.

They buy a floodlight module, or try to control a CF on the porch or
something else happens that makes them realize the more units they own, the
worse the overall performance of the system.  Of course, now it's too late
to return the original kit so they write letters to Sears, IBM, Ratshack and
whomever else sold these kits to complain and eventually, the big players
drop out.  X-10 simply does not "scale up" well, partly because each new
device added tends to degrade the system performance.  End users have no way
of knowing that when they "buy into" the system but they are always unhappy
about it when they hear they have to get an electrician to install a bridge
and or a repeater.

--
Bobby G.