Re: CM11A gets 'stuck' (and fix)

[Neil Cherry <njc@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 21 Sep 2006 11:13:26 GMT, Dave Houston wrote:
> My memory was OK (at least on this point).
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/comp.home.automation/browse_frm/thread/de9c28091660fa48/c60b8b6dd1cd223a?lnk=st&q=&rnum=1&hl=en#c60b8b6dd1cd223a
>
> You had posted earlier detailing the symptoms and expressing your
> frustrations. I alluded to your earlier post in the above thread.

Your memory is very good, I remember that thread (to some extent). The
laser printer problem differs slightly in the the dip appears to be
much 'stronger' (the overall voltage is lower), it's a single pulse
that lasts a bit longer and doesn't continuously 'flash' the lights
over a short time interval. The previously mentioned brownouts were
pretty nasty. The cause was loose crimps on the mains cable. I called
the power company to repair the problem.

The previous fix (a reset switch and/or a power watchdog) won't work
as this CM11A is now dieing, probably a blown PIC port. Looks like I
have another candidate for a hack. Unplugging it worked for a short
period of time but now it can't send any X10. It receives fine, just
no longer sends. I'm now going to work on the Insteon code. Bruce
Perens found out how to read and write with libusb (an open source
library for talking to the USB interface). It's supposed to be
portable to Unix, Mac and Windows.

On a side note, the cost of the Insteon dev kit has gone up to $199
(US). I'm going to have to bug Insteon to release Open Source
compatible documentation. I'm not sure how I'm going to accomplish
this. They've doubled the cost of their kit and are not providing
anything extra to the Open Source community. The software they provide
is all Windows based. I can see this putting a damper on things.

--
Linux Home Automation         Neil Cherry       ncherry@xxxxxxxxxxx
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