X10 Community Forum

💬General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Dave4720 on April 26, 2010, 03:01:50 PM

Title: House To House X10 Control
Post by: Dave4720 on April 26, 2010, 03:01:50 PM
I have two houses in two different zip codes.  Can I send X10 commands from one house to the other and control things in one house from the other house?
Title: Re: House To House X10 Control
Post by: JeffVolp on April 26, 2010, 03:09:46 PM

I don't know why that made me chuckle because I suppose you are serious.  Some people have trouble controlling things inside their own house, let alone a house across town or perhaps even further away.  That would take one heck of a XTB!

Kidding aside, X10 used to offer a telephone controller.  You could call it up and issue commands through the touchtone keypad.  I believe that has been discontinued, but there may still be some kicking around in inventories.

I don't use the CM15A myself, but I believe it has some ability for control by the Internet.  Perhaps someone else here can expand on that feature.

Jeff
Title: Re: House To House X10 Control
Post by: Deemar on April 26, 2010, 03:40:58 PM
Not sure if this is exactly what you're looking for but if you've got a computer and transponder in each house then you can do it. From one house, SSH into the computer at the other house. Run command line arguments to the second machine which is hooked to the X10 network and it'll issue commands to turn things on/off. I do it from my phone all the time.
Title: Re: House To House X10 Control
Post by: HA Dave on April 26, 2010, 03:49:19 PM
I don't know why that made me chuckle because I suppose you are serious. 

Reminds of of the old story of the:..   
Man that when to the American Airline counter at the Columbus Ohio Airport. He asked the lady behind the counter if she could fly him to Chicago... and his luggage to Miami.
She replied: no sir we can't do that.
He said: Good... you did last time accidentally.. and I was hoping things had changed.

There are some apps....  logmein (https://secure.logmein.com/US/home.aspx) (the free version) is popular (so I've read) you can search for it here. Also the creator of Melloware is a member here at the forum. That is the [famous] remote X10 control that uses an iphone or ipod (http://forums.x10.com/index.php?topic=16616.msg91571#msg91571).
Title: Re: House To House X10 Control
Post by: Brian H on April 26, 2010, 03:54:49 PM
The Touchtone Responder may work for you.
I believe the X10Pro version PHC06 is still in some vendors inventory.
A Goggle search found a few vendors. If yo go that route check the prices as I saw a varied price from vendors.
Title: Re: House To House X10 Control
Post by: Tuicemen on April 26, 2010, 04:30:27 PM
I have two houses in two different zip codes.  Can I send X10 commands from one house to the other and control things in one house from the other house?

The simple answer is YES.

How you wish to do this is up to you!
If you just want to do simple tasks a telephone responder will work.
If you want more complicated stuff a computer running 24/7 will be needed at the home you wish to receive the commands.
There are many applications that can do this.
You can do it over the internet, do it with voice control or touch tones over the phone lines.
 >!
Title: Re: House To House X10 Control
Post by: Brandt on April 26, 2010, 05:55:36 PM
If you are running a remote AHP server in the remote house, the simplest thing you could do is configure RDP rdesktop on your windows machines.

There are also other alternatives, such as VNC, or simple webapps too...
Title: Re: House To House X10 Control
Post by: Dave4720 on April 26, 2010, 06:54:07 PM
Sorry guys for the kidding.  I was just in a fun poking mood as this weekend went SO well with the progress I made with the XTBM and Jeff V’s help.  ;D

The two houses I have are next to each other, and yes, they have two different zip codes.  (Hey, the boundary line has to be somewhere!)  They share the same power pole and work quite well together with the XTB-IIR.

You guys are great because you offered some really good advice.  Jeff V - I’m surprised you didn’t recognize me.   ;)

XTMB Rocks!
XTB-IIR Rocks!
V572 Transceiver rocks.

Bending over now to receive spanking for pulling X10 communities’ leg.
Title: Re: House To House X10 Control
Post by: JeffVolp on April 26, 2010, 08:05:26 PM
Jeff V - I'm surprised you didn't recognize me.   ;)

The different zip codes threw me.  We have two zip codes here, and they pretty much cut the city in half.  The zip codes are handled by two different post offices.  In this part of town the division seems to run along I-15.  I wouldn't think two adjacent houses would be in different zip codes unless a roadway ran between them.

FYI - I have received emails from hundreds of people looking to improve the operation of their X10 systems.  A number have had detached buildings or separate houses they wanted to control.

Jeff