X10 Community Forum

🔌General Home Automation => Automating Your House => Topic started by: oeginc on August 26, 2010, 12:23:56 PM

Title: What do you do?
Post by: oeginc on August 26, 2010, 12:23:56 PM
Do you guys have some sort of "standard" for installing X10 devices?

Like the top floor is house code "A", entry floor house code "B", basement house code "C"?

Or do you put all motion detectors on house code "A", all lights on house code "B", etc?

Or do you just code them in the order you install them?

Just trying to find some good practice tips..
Title: Re: What do you do?
Post by: Brian H on August 26, 2010, 12:33:54 PM
Here is a thread on what some users have done.
http://forums.x10.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=racj838jjj8n77pr5fulaib204&topic=19756.0
Title: Re: What do you do?
Post by: dave w on August 26, 2010, 01:54:32 PM
oegnic

Segregation by housecode makes it a little easier to remember when you have a large number of modules. For example, using our home:

All standard house lighting is HCs A and B, house code C is for motors and transformers. House code D is all inside and outside accent lighting. House code E is for motion sensors and a miscellaneous catch all. House code F is for "virtual switches, which are unit codes that will trigger some automated event and then reset to off after the event. House code G is for "permissives" which are unit codes which must be "ON" before the system will provide automatic control. i.e "Coffee Enable" must be ON before the coffee maker will automatically brew on week day and week end schedules.
etc. etc. etc.
These examples will make no sense to you or anybody else, but the point is; segregation by house code is a good organizational tool, and will make sense only to the person doing the planning. Bear in mind, two years from now you will look at it and say "why did I do it that way?" or at least I do.
Title: Re: What do you do?
Post by: JeffVolp on August 26, 2010, 03:43:53 PM

I used one housecode for each floor, another for garage and outside lights, one for irrigation, and one for macros, indicators, and flags.  I did not use A because some modules revert back to that housecode when the battries die.

I kept my "footprint" relatively small in case any neighbors also install X10.

Jeff
Title: Re: What do you do?
Post by: Dan Lawrence on August 26, 2010, 10:32:42 PM
I just note for the record, since X10 is NOT Mass Marketed, the odds of a next door neighbor having X10 is so high you would lose money betting on it.   I've had X10 since the middle 1980s and nobody else on my street has it.
Title: Re: What do you do?
Post by: JeffVolp on August 26, 2010, 11:33:04 PM
I just note for the record, since X10 is NOT Mass Marketed, the odds of a next door neighbor having X10 is so high you would lose money betting on it.   I've had X10 since the middle 1980s and nobody else on my street has it.

It happens...  A couple of my customers tracked down unknown commands as coming in from neighbors.

Jeff
Title: Re: What do you do?
Post by: Dan Lawrence on August 27, 2010, 07:03:47 PM
That is true, but even though Radio Shack sold X10 items like lamp and appliance modules under their "Plug-n-Power" line and their stores are all over the place, you would think there would be more X10 penetration but there isn't one.  There is a Radio Shack store in the shopping center a block and a half from my house and until they dropped the "Plug-n-Power" line it was a good place to get modules fast.  I still have a couple of them in service.