Comments on: Jon’s HTPC: Home Automation (the best for last)

By: Techory.com - Regular Ramblings About Technology » Jon’s HTPC: DVD Catalog & A Quick Note on Audio

Fri, 02 Dec 2005 01:46:42 +0000

[...] . Hereâ€™s a screenshot) http://www.snapfiles.com/screenshots/godfather.htm Next Chapter> Home Automation (the best for last) Oct 31, 2005 @ 7:00 [...]

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 23:16:14 +0000

By the way, my website is

http://www.dynamichomeconcepts.com

Tim

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 23:15:05 +0000

There are tons of great NEW X10 items available on eBay, not just used, and the pricing is MUCH better than SmartHome. The posting is in error in saying that eBay is only for used.

Also, you can easily beat a lot of the prices on basic X10 items that SmartHome offers. Check my website and compare to them!

Happy X-10!

Tim

By: Frian Biddelke

Frian Biddelke — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 07:32:59 +0000

The future is now. Wowza, those are some neato gizmos.

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 21:36:29 +0000

I should have mentioned the one big drawback of X10. Itâ€™s slow. Different commands are different lengths, but generally each command takes about half a second to issue and be received. Plus, X10 can only send one command through the power lines at a time. So, if you have 8 lights that you want to turn off it will take at least 4 seconds to happen. Dim commands are slightly slower, so if you want to dim them off instead of turn them off it will take a bit longer. There are ways to speed things up. Thatâ€™s why I have two computer interfaces. Previously the motion sensors would see someone, send the command through the power lines to the computer, the computer would then issue the proper commands through the power lines to the appropriate appliance. In the above scenario two commands were sent through the power lines. The second computer interface I have is a RF interface for the motion sensors. With the current setup, the motion senor sees someone and sends an RF command directly to the computer, and then the computer issues the proper command through the power lines. This way there is only one command going through the power line and the speed is doubled. You can also use some creative scripting to make things speed up more as well. Speed is really the only negative I can think of with the X10, and like I mentioned, there are ways to help this out. If you need lightning fast home automation there are newer technologies out there to accomplish this (Z Wave comes to mind), however plan on spending a lot more on components, and the newer technologies arenâ€™t as heavily supported and X10. I might eventually upgrade to Z Wave, but Iâ€™d probably do it one component at a time over a few years. For now, X10 works just fine for me.

By: Techory.com - Regular Ramblings About Technology » Jon’s HTPC

Techory.com - Regular Ramblings About Technology » Jon’s HTPC — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 14:01:10 +0000

[...] 220;Tivo” – 10/29 Games – 10/30 DVD Catalog & A Quick Note on Audio – 10/31 Home Automation (the best for last) – 11/1 Wrap-up Negatives & Positi [...]