house light controller

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Mon Mar 15, 2010 11:12 am

I had an old X-10 system in my house for years where I could control the lights from a beside console and also program the lights to randomly come on and off. Well, my controller died a few months ago and these basic little timers suck. No remote control and random on/off.

Anyone have a system they like? I know there are some controlled by the PC, but I'd rather not leave that running all day while I'm not home. Anyone have any suggestions for a lighting controller?

Carl Fisher · **Posted:** Mon Mar 15, 2010 1:49 pm

I think we've got a spare X10 controller (bedside alarm/controller) if you decide against an upgrade...

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:34 pm

Carl Fisher wrote:

I think we've got a spare X10 controller (bedside alarm/controller) if you decide against an upgrade...

That could work. How much you want for it? Does this have the separate coding for each controller? Do you have a model number for it so I can look it up?

Thanks Carl!

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Mon Mar 15, 2010 3:48 pm

If you do decide to upgrade, the best thing going now seems to be Insteon. You can do what you want without a PC, but if you do put a PC in the loop then you can get cool iPhone control while away, etc.

--Donnie

clinehall · **Posted:** Mon Mar 15, 2010 4:18 pm

You know, I struggle with having light bulbs in all my lights. You guys are sick.

Dustin Fredrickson · **Posted:** Mon Mar 15, 2010 6:03 pm

RodneyWright wrote:

Carl Fisher wrote:

I think we've got a spare X10 controller (bedside alarm/controller) if you decide against an upgrade...

That could work. How much you want for it? Does this have the separate coding for each controller? Do you have a model number for it so I can look it up?

Thanks Carl!

Rodney, I have a ton of X10 stuff sitting in a box too - my new house doesn't like X10 very much so haven't "wired" the place up. Do you need just a transmitter (i.e. switch unit of some sort), or the receiver unit?

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Mon Mar 15, 2010 7:40 pm

Dustin Fredrickson wrote:

RodneyWright wrote:

Carl Fisher wrote:

I think we've got a spare X10 controller (bedside alarm/controller) if you decide against an upgrade...

That could work. How much you want for it? Does this have the separate coding for each controller? Do you have a model number for it so I can look it up?

Thanks Carl!

Rodney, I have a ton of X10 stuff sitting in a box too - my new house doesn't like X10 very much so haven't "wired" the place up. Do you need just a transmitter (i.e. switch unit of some sort), or the receiver unit?

Why would you have issues using the X10? just shoots the code over the house wire to the receiver and bingo/bango, light on or off. I have receivers for lights, but I'm interested in what you have. I really need a programmable transmitter that I can setup for each light.

Let me know what you have and what you're asking. I'll consider buying yours and Carl's just to have some spares. Let me know what you guys want for the stuff you have.

Thanks!!

Dustin Fredrickson · **Posted:** Mon Mar 15, 2010 9:42 pm

RodneyWright wrote:

Dustin Fredrickson wrote:

RodneyWright wrote:

Carl Fisher wrote:

I think we've got a spare X10 controller (bedside alarm/controller) if you decide against an upgrade...

That could work. How much you want for it? Does this have the separate coding for each controller? Do you have a model number for it so I can look it up?

Thanks Carl!

Rodney, I have a ton of X10 stuff sitting in a box too - my new house doesn't like X10 very much so haven't "wired" the place up. Do you need just a transmitter (i.e. switch unit of some sort), or the receiver unit?

Why would you have issues using the X10? just shoots the code over the house wire to the receiver and bingo/bango, light on or off. I have receivers for lights, but I'm interested in what you have. I really need a programmable transmitter that I can setup for each light.

Let me know what you have and what you're asking. I'll consider buying yours and Carl's just to have some spares. Let me know what you guys want for the stuff you have.

Thanks!!

My "new" 25 year old house has 2 separate 200AMP fuse panels - which isn't very conducive to "signals over power-line" types of communication - just too much loss or overall noise to be effective. I do use X10 still, but only within our den (same circuit) - 'cause you know, if you've got a remote for the TV, you might as well have one for the lamps too

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

I've been struggling with X10 for several years also. In some spots of the house it works great and in others it's flaky and seems to have seasonal fluctuations in how well it works. For some reason x10 works perfect on all my X-mas lights.

One thing I'll mention, X10 seems to become less reliable with more AC-DC power adapters and fluorescent lights on the circuits. I have one tested case where an X10 module would not work at all on the same outlet as a Thinkpad power brick, but fine on the same circuit but the other side of the room. So a lot of modern power adapters appear to kill the X10 signals.

I have a few Insteon components (the in-wall relay switches) on my X10 which kinda mostly work. If a 100% Insteon network is reliable with fluorescents and power bricks I would be tempted to spend the money to convert, the X10 flakiness is getting on my nerves.

Donnie Barnes · **Posted:** Tue Mar 16, 2010 7:36 am

The place I'm using Insteon isn't typical in having those kinds of loads, so I really can't say if it's better or not. I've got a feeling it is since it's technology is a good bit newer than X10, though.

--Donnie

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Tue Mar 16, 2010 9:58 am

MikeWhitney wrote:

I've been struggling with X10 for several years also. In some spots of the house it works great and in others it's flaky and seems to have seasonal fluctuations in how well it works. For some reason x10 works perfect on all my X-mas lights.

One thing I'll mention, X10 seems to become less reliable with more AC-DC power adapters and fluorescent lights on the circuits. I have one tested case where an X10 module would not work at all on the same outlet as a Thinkpad power brick, but fine on the same circuit but the other side of the room. So a lot of modern power adapters appear to kill the X10 signals.

I have a few Insteon components (the in-wall relay switches) on my X10 which kinda mostly work. If a 100% Insteon network is reliable with fluorescents and power bricks I would be tempted to spend the money to convert, the X10 flakiness is getting on my nerves.

Funny you should mention that. I've had the same issues in respect to flakiness, but never thought about the adapters. I know in the winter months I've always had issues w/ the controller. I've also found that if you have a light on an extension cord w/ the module and the cord is wrapped around itself, it will effectively kill the signal.

I'll look into the Insteon stuff and see what they have to offer. Is this all on line or are there any local dealers?

Michael Westerfield · **Posted:** Tue Mar 16, 2010 10:19 am

As Mike mentioned, anything you add such as AC/DC adapters are going to potentially distort the waveform coming into your house. Also, based on how close you are to the transformer and how "soft" it is will determine the total harmonic distortion. Since X10 works (I think) but transmitting a high frequency wave ontop of the carrier wave (60Hz signal) I could see were items that distort the carrier would impact how well the x10 device works.

Carl Fisher · **Posted:** Thu Mar 18, 2010 7:39 pm

MikeWhitney wrote:

I've been struggling with X10 for several years also. In some spots of the house it works great and in others it's flaky and seems to have seasonal fluctuations in how well it works. For some reason x10 works perfect on all my X-mas lights.

One thing I'll mention, X10 seems to become less reliable with more AC-DC power adapters and fluorescent lights on the circuits. I have one tested case where an X10 module would not work at all on the same outlet as a Thinkpad power brick, but fine on the same circuit but the other side of the room. So a lot of modern power adapters appear to kill the X10 signals.

I have a few Insteon components (the in-wall relay switches) on my X10 which kinda mostly work. If a 100% Insteon network is reliable with fluorescents and power bricks I would be tempted to spend the money to convert, the X10 flakiness is getting on my nerves.

IIRC Insteon uses a radio signal in addition to an X10-compatible powerline signal to increase the chances the message makes it to the intended target. But if it's too far for the radio to reach then it wouldn't help. But there are a lot of sources for X10 interference, including noise from sources like TV and electronics, to signal loss from UPSes and other BFC-type devices. Here's a good article on it:

http://www.smarthome.com/solution18.html

Hope that helps.

Carl Fisher · **Posted:** Thu Mar 18, 2010 7:50 pm

RodneyWright wrote:

Carl Fisher wrote:

I think we've got a spare X10 controller (bedside alarm/controller) if you decide against an upgrade...

That could work. How much you want for it? Does this have the separate coding for each controller? Do you have a model number for it so I can look it up?

Thanks Carl!

Hey, sorry, I've been out of town. Yeah, it's got buttons for the different controllers. It's an old Radio Shack version of this thing, which sound like what you had. I dunno, ten bucks?

RodneyWright · **Posted:** Fri Mar 19, 2010 8:37 am

Carl Fisher wrote:

Hey, sorry, I've been out of town. Yeah, it's got buttons for the different controllers. It's an old Radio Shack version of this thing, which sound like what you had. I dunno, ten bucks?[/quote]

Sold..... Are you coming to the 1st event? I can pick it up there.

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