Re: Starting over

[Pat <pat@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 14 Jul 2012 10:20:45 -0700 (PDT), dlh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

>On Saturday, July 14, 2012 11:46:50 AM UTC-4, Pat wrote:
>> I also used a CP290 for years and still have two of them in a drawer.
>> Like you, I purchased two as insurance.  I also bought two 1132CU's,
>> but lost one to a lightning strike a few years ago.  The other one is
>> still working, but when it goes, I will be stuck with a lot of useless
>> software.  I currently use the "plus" software to download a schedule
>> into the 1132CU, but have my own software that talks to it for live
>> commands.  I never did figure out the protocol for downloading
>> schedules, but I can send it things like A1 On, A2 Dim, etc.
>>
>> Pat
>
>I have no idea whether these odes work with the 1132CU but...
>     http://www.madreporite.com/insteon/commands.htm
>
>X10 has discontinued the TW523/PSC05 (and probably the PL513/PSC04 but I haven't seen any notice), and RR501 and have modified the TM751 (removing the relay). They have also discontinued the CM15A but swear they'll have a replacement by year's end. I suspect they are merely using up whatever inventory they have and then will disappear.
>
>Smarthome has discontinued X10 support in their modules/switches so that's just another indication that X10 is no longer relevant.
>
>Insteon would be my recommendation were it not for the frequent design changes they've made, obsoleting several less than 5 year old controllers, etc.
>
>UPB is somewhat pricey although comparable to Insteon prices but does use the powerline and it has been stable since its introduction. It's from PCS who offered upscale X10 devices for many years. They use very high amplitude (40V) pulses with their position relative to ZC determining what bits are set in the message. I haven't seen much about it but this group being on its deathbed is likely the reason for that.
>     http://pulseworx.com/
>
>IMO Z-Wave has a fundamental flaw. Because of its mesh networking design, the modules have limited RF range. But there is (or was when introduced) a limit on the number of hops a message could make before dying of old age. There were instances where you ran out of hops before running out of real estate. They may have addressed this - I am not current. There was also a problem wen a module failed. It destroyed the mesh routing but could not be removed since it was incommunicado, requiring a total reprogramming of the entire network. Again, that may have been addressed. My evaluation was back shortly after introduction.
>
>There are some ZigBee and Bluetooth approaches but none seem to have gained much traction.

I didn't see anything about 1132CU commands on the madrepoite site,
but there are a lot of other interesting things there.  I bookmarked
it for later reference.

The pulseworx stuff looks interesting, too.

Thanks,
Pat