Re: CM-11A Versus CM-15A

[David White <whitedavidp@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Charles Sullivan wrote:
> The calendar in the CM11A is just a 366 day counter.  For non-leap years
> the ActiveHome software programs only 365 days, so on the 366th day (Jan
> 1st), nothing works.  The counter will roll over to 0 the next day and
> things will start working again on Jan 2nd, although a day off. The day
> of the week, an independent 7 day counter, will continue to operate
> correctly. So if you are doing the same things on the same days of the
> week every week, you probably won't notice much amiss until the date when
> Daylight Time starts.

Interesting. I only noticed that stuff didn't work on the new year so I
have gotten into the habit of re-setting the whole shebang on new year's
day. I have never waited to see if things stated working again on the
2nd. Maybe I will this year just for grins.

>
> The CM11A clock is always internally set to run on Standard Time, else
> you wouldn't be able to run it disconnected from the computer all year.
> There are no one-hour "jumps" in the times of Dawn/Dusk when measured on
> Standard Time.  The ActiveHome software adjusts the programmed fixed
> timers by an hour during periods of Daylight Time.  However since the US
> Congress changed the dates of Daylight time in 2007, it's not clear that
> ActiveHome can correctly use the new dates even when manually entered.

Yes, the "jumps" I mean are not caused by the CM11A but by how it is
programmed by ActiveHome. On the statistics dialog one can see the
"jump" in the times used for dawn/dusk at daylight savings. I haven't
checked in detail but it did seem like ActiveHome was doing about the
right thing with the DST. I recall having to do changes to Windows and
it seemed like ActiveHome "saw" those changes. I will have to
double-check though. In my case "close" is ok.

> A lot of people are happy with the newer CM15A and ActiveHome Pro
> software, but I found the firmware and/or software had more bugs than
> fleas on a hound dog, and the more X-10 fiddled with it, the worse it
> seemed to get.  I gave it up as a lost cause a year or two ago, but
> that's just me.

That's what I was afraid of. I'd rather stick with the devil known than
spend more and get something even worse.

>
> If you run Linux, Unix, or Max OS X, you can use the free Heyu software
> (http://www.heyu.org) with your CM11A.  It solves both problems you
> mentioned above.
>

As a Windows guy, I can't use this. But I did look at it and it seems
interesting. Thanks for your comments and time.