X10 Community Forum
🔌General Home Automation => Automating Your House => Automated Home Showcase => Topic started by: zach1234 on June 22, 2008, 10:07:40 PM
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I have.... Vacation House
Vanguard
AHP +All Plugins Volume License
1 Fake Sentinel
4 Ninjas
4 Slim line switches
2 Quad processors 8 cam on each
2 Vista Machines (beta 2)
2 XP machines for x10 "stuff" AKA (x10 server)
4 AHP Interfaces
1 x10 Night watch Camera
2 Palm pad remotes
Over 150 Lamp and light switch Modules
16 Appliance modules
4 BIG domes for Ninjas
16 Cameras wired to quad + additional 4 for web demos
BVC sometimes
Wireless Speakers
Wireless Mics
8 Touch Pads (tablet Laptops On walls connected to a X10 server running AHP)
1 Mini Timer (JUST ZAPPED BY LIGHTNING)
1 plug in controller
3 Alarm systems Protector Plus
5 Motion sensors outside control for lights and alert chime
16 Indoor Alarm Motion sensors
23 Door/ Window Sensors
What I do is this (on every installation) Basic system.
AHP with all plug INS With Interface
Cameras made by Swann connected to a DVR and then to the Va11a
One computer that runs Window XP Pro
Phase coupler
16 lamps and 16 appliances
Alarm system with 2 years monitoring threw me.
Telephone Control (if no answering machine)
I Install and configure macros like ... Leave, leave longer, Welcome Home
I have Universal AHP files saved, I have a Basic, Advanced, Pro, Advanced Pro
The higher in the list the more modules and macros in the AHP file.
I have a slim line switch by all doors that leave the house with the leave/ welcome macros.
If you where going to eat at Mickey D's you would hit Leave that would turn off all lights and arm the alarm
If you where going to leave for longer than 4 hours you would hit leave longer, that would turn all lights off and lower the temp in the house and enable Security mode and arm the alarm.
When you hit welcome home it turns on lights (if dark) and then will raise temp (if it was lowered) and remind you the alarm NEEDS to be disarmed.
There are also sensors threw out the house, if none are triggered (like door window, motion) it will assume no one is home and send off an alert message saying “anyone here if so hit on a light” if no lights are triggered it will start the leave longer macro.
STAY TUNED MORE TO COME!!!
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Hey Zach - better check on your Vista Beta-2's - the pre-release OS's expire in about a week.
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Have all ready!!!!!!!!! >*< >*<
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I'm looking at becoming an instalelr and am looking forward to hearing more about your experiences.
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Have you done allot of installs Zach1234?
I have noticed that lot of pro installers of home automation stay away from X10 do to its reliability.
I Install industrial robots for a living and do allot of phone support and service calls for things that go wrong and programming questions. Takes allot of time!!! So with something like X10 and all the "work around" that we use to make it work seems like the after install support would be high and costly.
I'm guessing the people who want someone else to install it won't understand all the work around and modification?
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Have you done allot of installs Zach1234?
I have noticed that lot of pro installers of home automation stay away from X10 do to its reliability.
I Install industrial robots for a living and do allot of phone support and service calls for things that go wrong and programming questions. Takes allot of time!!! So with something like X10 and all the "work around" that we use to make it work seems like the after install support would be high and costly.
I'm guessing the people who want someone else to install it won't understand all the work around and modification?
I have don't 6 or 7. I did one at the neighbors, they report back to me and tell me the errors basically me with the AM/Pm switch up. I do alarm system installations with included monitoring free for 2 years. I have had false alarms caused by a hamster but not a doberman. I do the whole install, the homeowner never see the AHP software, if they need a time changed I will do the re-programing for free for 5 years then its .50 a timer or macro. I have done 3 service calls (at the same house) on a Control 4 system basically the son would play with settings he didn't know what they would do.
I don't do work around. I use the RF repeater and KNOWN x10 products that WORK Right out of the box. I had one house that had NO Problems, really a 70,000 sq foot house with no phase couplers LOADS of floesent light bulbs and tons or Plasmas even in the Bathrooms (come in handy I guess, not everyone takes the advantage of having the wireless internet (I do) ) they had ethernet jacks next to the thrown. They had no problem getting a signal from a motion sensor 300 feet away to the cm15a and a VCR commander. One house had a ethernet jack outside in the shed. I only have been doing the installs for 3 weeks. I do the designing and then I call out a electrician and I do the wiring work. I know allot of people at x10 so I get tech support right away and the fastest way.
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WOW three weeks and you have done all that. Been busy
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"I use the RF repeater and KNOWN x10 products that WORK Right out of the box."
I am interested in knowing what are the reliable products.
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"I use the RF repeater and KNOWN x10 products that WORK Right out of the box."
I am interested in knowing what are the reliable products.
FWIW
Not sure that lack of reliability was what Zach1234 was referring to.
In general, X10 makes reasonable quality, reliable, products. The biggest problem (and comprising a majority of the posts on this forum) is problems impairing system operation that X10 can't anticipate or fix, such as: electrical noise on the homes power lines (usually generated by electronics in the home) which block the X10 signal, and getting the X10 signal to adequately couple between the two power phases in a typical home. These problems are not factors of product reliability. Noise filters, signal couplers, and/or repeaters usually fix the problem. Also not reliability issues per se but areas where X10 could improve is; RF range of their remotes, motion detectors,trancievers, etc. and cameras, and their instruction manuals which IMHO lack needed detail (some are good, some don't get the job done).
But the flip side is to look at the cost. When you factor in the low cost, there is nothing that can compare. I have 90 operating modules in the house and three "bankers boxes" full of unused X10 goodies in the basement. Since 1979 I doubt I have had more than a dozen failures of modules (lightning (surge) and light bulbs burning out are X10 nemesis's). $0.02
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Thanks for the info Dave. So what I'm seeing with negative comments around the net are probably trolls. I do see that Zach1234 is using some different cameras.
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Thanks for the info Dave. So what I'm seeing with negative comments around the net are probably trolls.
Well... not sure about trolls. I think a lot of buyers simply expect X10 to be "Plug - N - Play", and in a few cases, it is. However, most of the time it is not. Because the issues of noise and coupling and typical X10 "start - up" problems are not well publicised by X10, buyers get frustrated and trash X10. Not emphasizing the negitives is understandable; GM, Ford, etc. doesn't tells us that tires can go flat causing you to hit a tree, or that you have to service the car on regular basis. However the X10.com spamvertisements make set up of automation, cameras, security, etc. sound much easier than it usually is.
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Yea most people think it works right "out of the box" cause X10 says it does. The thing I always found funny is that the things to make a reliable system work like the repeaters and couplers x10 don't even sell. But I guess that would be one good thing of having someone else install it for you. (If they know what they need)! rofl
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server)
What I do is this (on every installation) Basic system.
Alarm system with 2 years monitoring threw me.
Zack1234 How do you do your monitoring. Do you just have the phone dialer call YOU or is your company big enough to have 24 hour people on call?
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I have 500 employee's rofl.
No I just have a satelite phone so I have it just for X10 calls. ;)
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Might want to think about that. the more installs you do. You will have one heck of a phone bill rofl
You being the only one that is allot of liability!!
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My phone has rang during a wedding and a ceremony dinner. I use my Mylo to connect to my account server.
I call then back and say:
"This is you gardener, I need you name and account #."
if the person was in danger they lie about the account #.
Plus I give no guaranty's. I am just a contact.
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...Plus I give no guaranty's. I am just a contact.
That is one reason I subscribe to a monitoring service. For $8.95/month, I'm guaranteed that there will be a live person available 24/7 for emergence or questions I may have.
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well for free that what you get. You know these are just x10 alarms so there is really no other monitoring service besides x10's. Many people with x10 alarms have it call their parents neighbors, so I am just a contact in the system, is someone needs the 24/7 they can get the x10 0ne for 10 a month, I split the bill for 2 years. After that time they have to pay 20.00 a month.
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I think a system with out monitoring costs is a good selling point. I get alarm companies coming around all the time asking to set up a "free" system in my home and get you with the monitoring contract.
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...I get alarm companies coming around all the time asking to set up a "free" system in my home and get you with the monitoring contract.
This is a major pet peeve of mine. Many of the major companies hook you with their $99 dollar offers and then rob you blind over the next 3 years or more with their monitoring contracts. Furthermore their systems can't (at least not easily) be reprogrammed to be independently monitored. The $30-40 difference they charge a month adds up. $35 X 36 months is over $1200 that could be put toward a dependable professionally installed system.
If you are having a system professionally installed, ask if it can be monitored independently. Don't get locked into an overpriced monitoring contract.
For those installing their own systems and choosing to monitor them themselves, I strongly recommend you find some friends or family that live by a phone 24/7. I don't care how many bars your cell phone company says they have, you can not rely on your cell phone having a signal 24/7. If you home is broken into or catches fire, you need to know ASAP.
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Correct. I had to remove a ADT system because the guy did not want to be robed and did not want the "next" people to hook up. ;D