X10 Community Forum
🔌General Home Automation => Automating Your House => Topic started by: callagga on January 31, 2014, 04:29:53 PM
-
Does X10 actually support Australian voltages - would it satisfy what I'm after as detailed below?
Ability to write your own program to control remote 240 switches (e.g. turning on/off power to a device someone in the house). So would be after something that:
* cater for 240V outlets across more than 1 circuit in the home (so wireless may be better for connectivity I guess?)
* there is a support programming library that comes with it (java, .net, perhaps a scripting language) that makes it easy to code to the devices.
* would need to be control'ed form a Windows box running the software/code you wrote (i.e. as other input data would be coming to the windows box, so your code would make decisions on when to switch on/off from this)
What brands/options would exist is Australia for this?
-
The European versions of X10 equipment run on 220V, so I imagine it would work for you. I don't know how your power system works, so someone else with knowledge on that would have to say whether you'd need a phase coupler or not (I'm assuming not since 240V would be hooking up to both 120V mains already).
ActiveHome Pro works on Windows boxes and the European version (Marmitek has a free version of AHP that should work for you out of the box). There is a SDK for AHP that will allow you to script pretty much anything you can imagine. There are also some projects out there that might add some capabilities that you would want without you having to code (PCC is one http://www.tuicemen.com/pccompanion/pccompanion.html).
-
We have some forum members that are from Australia here.
You may want to do a web search for X10 in Australia.
This is one vendor I found in my favorites list.
They use to do X10 but also now do Insteon. They still have X10 devices pages on their web sites.
http://www.envioustechnology.com.au/
http://www.envioustechnology.com.au/products/product-list.php?CID=100
-
I'm just coming across "C-Bus" now...is this a newer/more robust approach I should look into first? In my case I really want to have my remote switch communicate wirelessly, & again have some way of controlling this myself within my program/code running on a PC/device...
-
C-Bus from my understanding is a wired system. Using 36 volt over a cat5 cable for communication.
It sounds like a step backwards to me.
As mentioned the SDK will allow you to create your own program.
It works for all x10 PC interfaces and is free ;)
-
C-Bus has both wireless and wired.
C-Bus is about 10 years old but Clipsal (parent) has been around for about 80 years. Schneider Electric bought them 10 years ago. C-Bus is available worldwide.
C-Bus is costly so an installation as large as you envision would be a major investment. Still, I would suggest looking at C-Bus in depth to get an idea of the possibilities - their system can do all that you wish. Unfortunately, most of their web pages are filled with polished marketing hype with a dearth of technical information.
-
thanks I see what you mean - I'm looking into Z-wave too as this may be a closer fit potentially
-
There are many of us who have been using HA in Aust for a number of years.
I started off using x10 when it was sold by Bunnings.
I was ok - we are lucky that the x10 products sold downunder are based on EU standards and so they seem to be a bit more reliable. it also could be that the power line supply may be a bit cleaner as there are less people using HA.
I recently moved onto Insteon products as they are very reliable and reasonably priced and supported by most HA software.
http://www.envioustechnology.com.au/
z wave is also available by a bit more expensive.
I would stay away from C-bus as it is not really DIY and very expensive to install.