[NCLUG] Experiences with x10 home automation system?
Marcio Luis Teixeira
marciot at holly.colostate.edu
Sun Jun 16 17:09:05 MDT 2002
On Sunday 16 June 2002 09:38 pm, Sean Reifschneider wrote:
> I got this thing that looks like a serial gender-bender or something --
> really small. It transmits the stuff to the base via wireless. No
> promises, but I'll see if I can find them and remember to bring them to
> Hacking Society this week if you're coming.
Ah, the so called FireCracker -- I saw those while looking around online.
Looked pretty cool. In every publicity shot I these had blue flames coming
out the back, which made it look like a fig newton with an ion propulsion
engine.
Yeah, I'll be at hacking society, so if you remember, please bring in the fig
newton.
> Well, the problem with that is making sure that you have a machine that
> will do power-on when power is applied. Many current motherboards will do
> the right thing, but recently I've noticed that some of our machines
> running RedHat 7.2 will hang in the kernel boot if there's no keyboard
> plugged in. Feh!
Doh! You're right. Now that you mention it, I remember I've got one of those
motherboards/power supplies that do not come on when you apply power.
I hadn't thought of it. Thanks for mentioning it. That rules out using a x10
for the computer. I'll have to check the printer too before spending any
money with x10 modules for it (though I'm pretty certain it uses an old
fashioned switch).
> They're just switches -- relays. They don't "provide power" they "switch
> power".
I didn't mean "provide" power in the sense of "generate". What I was getting
at was that they could play tricks with solid-state switching and pass
inadequate power for computers (perhaps half-wave or something). That's
certainly probable for the x10 lamp modules that support dimming control. I
don't think that would agree too well with your average computer.
The appliance modules sound as if they might use relays, but none of the specs
on the x10 site make sense to me. To cite an example, I couldn't figure out
why the appliance modules are rated at 15 amps but only 500 watts, while the
SR227 wall-mount outlet is also rated at 15 amps but 1800 watts. They both
operate at 110V, and can carry the same amperage, so why does the wattage
differ? As far as I know, P = IV still holds in this part of the universe and
both should be able to handle 1650 watts.
Marcio Luis Teixeira
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