[NCLUG] Experiences with x10 home automation system?

[Sean Reifschneider]

On Sun, Jun 16, 2002 at 08:44:43AM -0600, Marcio Luis Teixeira wrote:
>while not in use, because the manual says it consumes 170 watts when in 
>standby mode (and a whopping 940 watts while printing!). However, I would 

X10 stuff worked fine for me under Linux, but I got this X10 in-the-wall
light-switch to run said halogen from Radio Shack, and it just kind of
freaked out after a few weeks.  I never got around to pulling it back out
until just a few weeks ago, and I just went back to a regular switch.

>Have any of you guys have had any experience with these x10 devices? They seem 
>almost too good to be true and *plus* there seems to be Linux drivers written 
>for it. Does anyone have any experiences with these gadgets? Are their any 
>gotchas to watch out for?

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.

>I think these devices might also be awesome for remotely rebooting computers 

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!

>-- does anyone know if these controllers provide clean enough power for doing 
>so? It seems like they are primarily build for lamps, TVs and other low-tech 
>appliances.

They're just switches -- relays.  They don't "provide power" they "switch
power".

Sean
-- 
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 Don't they generally involve a moose and an antenna?
Sean Reifschneider, Inimitably Superfluous <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com - Linux Consulting since 1995. Qmail, KRUD, Firewalls, Python