[NCLUG] Experiences with x10 home automation system?

[Marcio Luis Teixeira]

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