Re: Why cling to old X10?

[RickH <passport@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sep 13, 10:45 am, "Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1...@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> "Neil Cherry" <n...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>
> <stuff snipped>
>
> > IMnsHO,( ;-) X10 is dieing but it just hasn't realized it yet (or
> > maybe they have and are just milking it to death). They have no new or
> > improved products in relation to their HA line of products.
>
> That's not 100% true, I'm afraid, Neil.  I just ordered the X-10 Pro Macro
> Controller that seems to be a fairly new item.  It's sort of a cross between
> a CM11A and an Ocelot, and allows for complex X-10 macros with timers to be
> initiated from any IR remote.  At long last I can use the all of the unused
> buttons on my remotes to perform complex X-10 macros.  Here's the blurb from
> the manual which can be found at:
>
> http://www.smarthomeusa.com/Common/x10pro/manuals/mm-ir.pdf
>
> "Using the PRO MacroController is one of the best ways to control many X-10
> devices with just a few commands. The PRO MacroController allows you to send
> a "macro" or sequence of X-10 codes triggered by any one of three types of
> inputs:
> 1) a single X-10 code transmitted from any X-10 controller, 2) a single IR
> (infrared) code transmitted from any typical home remote controller, or 3)
> from a
> timer that has expired which was programmed into the PRO MacroController.
> With this flexibility, it is easy to create a mode or "scene", say for TV
> watching or
> dining, with just a push of a button. Another feature of the PRO
> MacroController
> is its ability to error check its own X-10 transmissions."
>
> Sounds like a pretty interesting tool to me, and oddly enough, it appears to
> come from the same people who make the Monterey powerline signal analyzer.
> (Waiting for confirmation on that, though . . .)
>
> If new gear is still coming out, particularly equipment that fills a
> previously unfilled niche, then I'd still have to say there's some life left
> in the old gal.
>
> --
> Bobby G.

There always was a small macro box for X10, I remember you would press
a "record" button to select a storage bank, go around the house
setting all your lights, then press a "stop" button to save the
recording.  Then each storage bank was mapped to an X10 address, send
"on" and it would replay all that you recorded to that bank, "off"
turned off all the devices represented in the macro.  I dont remember
the model number but it is out there, I had one in my first home
around 1989.  The only problem is that all the commands in the
recording were single-threaded.  Unlike an Insteon scene where all the
lights in the scene react simultaneously for a more dramatic effect,
and the entire scene can be dimmed brightened with the scene button,
the initial dim level of each item in the scene is preset when you
program the scene.