Anyone have any home automation products (X10 etc)?

Mazeroth

I was looking to get some home automation for our house including some security features. Just curious if anyone has any and what you think of them? X10 has some cool looking stuff but is it junk for what you pay?

Thanks.

bobman1235

We use them at work, and I've used a few of them at home. They work pretty well. There have certainly been some issues, but nothing major. Most X10 signaling is done over the power lines in your house, so if you have multi-phase wiring for any reason you have to make sure everything is on the same phase. We've also had the software get confused on us a few times. But overall pretty positive experience.

nspindel

Don't use X10. Use UPB. X10 has a lot of problems that are fixed with UPB. Same concept - uses the powerline so no extra wires to run. I use Simply Automated. Check out http://www.smarthomeusa.com/ShopByManufacturer/Simply-Automated/

nspindel

Also, if your house has 2 phase wiring, get the phase coupler. Then you don't need to worry about the devices being on the same phase.

dkg999

I have a Sig P220. It makes anyone who is on my property who shouldn't be there automatically step high and quick until they are out of range

mmadden28

I have a bunch. I mainly got some X10 outlets to control my window candles, and some outdoor Christmas lights. I also wanted to setup some fancy automated dimming and such. I went with the X10 wall outlets for the most part, which replaced my regular outlets.

The software is a pain in the butt, kept crashing (on several systems) but once tweaked just right things were working. But not always. Sometimes all the lights would come on (as requested) , sometimes not. I spent countless hours tuning and figuring it out.
I haven't had the unit plugged in for months (thus no signals going to the x10 recievers), and some of my window candles or my outdoor flood lights still come on at random.
Pain the rear if you ask me.

I thought the remote controls would be cool to-but what good is a remote if you have to be within 10' of the transiever for it to work. My freakin garage door opener works from about 120' away. I tried several X10 remotes (with fresh batteries)

One of the things I wanted to do was to setup some of my lights to come on dim when I walked into a room (via X10 motion detectors), such as in the garage entry or my office. I wanted it to come on at 40%. Well it has to start at 100% and slowly dim down to 40%. It won't turn on at 40% or start low and turn up. Needless to say this is quite annoying when you're walking around at night and are suddenly blinded.

Anyway, I suspect that some of my issues are related to either noisy AC lines, or perhaps the phase issue. And I am not sure if its even possible, but perhaps one of my neighbors has an X10 setup and some of his signals are bleeding to my house??? It might explain the random on and off behaviors. I know that I had less problems when I plugged the transievr directly into the wall and not a surge suppressor.

I spent about $300 and got the best deal I could-but you have to search each and every facet of thier web pages and search and search, and put the packages together in just the right combination to get the best deal. It won't be automatic. I always found that practice fishy on thier part.

I am getting by with the setup (although I gave up on installing everything-just wasn't worth the time), but I am far from satisifed. The only thing I rely on it for now is to turn my window candles, outdoor Christmans lights and blow-up thingeys on and off.
I had troubles getting the windows candles to work since they are very low wattage (7w?), they are not enough to allow the X10 to turn on. I had to plug in a supplemental night light to allow for enough of a draw to allwo them to turn on.
Also, when off they are not truly off (unless you do a mod). The X10 devices are setup to allow you to manually turn them on by simply repeatedly turing the light on and off and back on again. Its monitoring current flow or something. That feature is all well and good, but the juice is sitll flowing somewhat. I saw this when I was using those little flicker flame candles (big in the 70s-80s), well when the X10 was 'off', half of the candle woudl still be slightly flickering. I had to switch to higher wattage incandescant bulbs.
Oh and don't use any dimmers on floresents. Of course I am repplacing more and more of y bulbs, so I will have less and less ability to even use my X10s for dimming.

I didn't research or play with any other types or brands. But If I ever get the urge to try again, I will certainly look somewhere other than X10.

disneyjoe7

Well like Mmaden28 above I many of X-10 plug ins during the holidays with Christmas lights, trees, and the such.

I plan on using a burglar alarm interface to send a on code to 2 X-10 light switches and a X-10 outlet outside to control landscape lighting and other outside house lighting.

I had someone just yesterday ask about controlling an AC system for a condo he owns which he uses on the fly. I sent him a DSC alarm control info on a phone voice control thermostat control which is X-10 based. Given him the complete control of the AC via the phone so the place isn't 90+ when he gets there.

If hardwired I like Leviton switches, I like X-10 just feel theres a lot of crap out there also. The low end of X-10 didn't help its image any given this stuff been around for 20 years or so.

nspindel

For thermostats I'm using proliphix. tcp/ip based, they're amazing, they too work perfectly. These stories of x10 dissatisfaction are rampant. Definitely check out UPB!!!

disneyjoe7

nspindel wrote: »

For thermostats I'm using proliphix. tcp/ip based, they're amazing, they too work perfectly. These stories of x10 dissatisfaction are rampant. Definitely check out UPB!!!

IP is cool but he wished it to be phone controlled, not pc controlled.

nspindel

I control them through my pda from the road if I wish. The nice thing about them being IP based is that all the setback programming is done through a web browser, rather than clunky push-button programming on the thermostat itself.

treitz3

Just a thought......If you tie your security system to existing electrical wires throughout the house, wouldn't the security system be disabled if a burglar was to cut your power?

Mazeroth

treitz3 wrote: »

Just a thought......If you tie your security system to existing electrical wires throughout the house, wouldn't the security system be disabled if a burglar was to cut your power?

That would be a very ambitious burglar, if you ask me!

Thanks for all the replies so far. I haven't had time to read them yet but plan to once I get home from work.

madmax

I bought a whole box of the stuff but never got around to installing. Seems pretty cool though.
madmax

disneyjoe7

treitz3 wrote: »

Just a thought......If you tie your security system to existing electrical wires throughout the house, wouldn't the security system be disabled if a burglar was to cut your power?

House power is 120vac where alarm power is 12vdc today (could be 6vdc if really old). A wall power pack drops 120vac to 16.5vac where the panel will regulate that to 12vdc, where a small gel lead acid battery is used for backup. The X-10 signal is sent over the wall power pack to the other X-10 devices.

disneyjoe7

Mazeroth wrote: »

That would be a very ambitious burglar, if you ask me!

Thanks for all the replies so far. I haven't had time to read them yet but plan to once I get home from work.

I say what people don't know about people don't what.


But to answer you reply... I seen or heard everything, so cutting AC power heard it been done. Even had a bucket truck painted like the local power company to go up a pole.

WilliamM2

I have a wireless X-10 security system. It doesn't use the house wiring at all, except for powering the security lights that flash when it is set off. So far no problems with it in 8 years of use. Buy the extra large horn sirens though, the ones that come with the kit are not very loud.

Haven't tried the home automation products, although some can be added to the alarm system.

mmadden28

I always thought the X-10 signals rode on the 60 Hz sine? no?

disneyjoe7

They do. Its a 120khz signal 1ms in length on the peak of the wave.