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JV Digital Engineering's XTBR Plug-In X10 Repeater: What A Beautiful Thing

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Convastor:
Many moons ago, X10 worked fine throughout the Convastor household.  A mere 1318 sqtf + basement: Not all that challenging.  But, over the years, as more and more electronic devices were added, X10 became increasingly unreliable.  I'd added one-or-another passive phase coupler to the distribution panel years ago.  Seemed to help a little.  Wasn't a night & day improvement.  A few years ago I bought a SmartHome BoosterLinc repeater.  It helped--when it wasn't off in the weeds.  When it lost its tiny little mind it would make things worse  B:(  (I got in the habit of leaving it unplugged except when I set timers up [had to use two to reach everything] for an occupied residence simulation when we were away.)

Finally, a few days ago, ordered a JV Digital Engineering XTBR X10 Repeater.  Ho-ly smokes!  The thing is nothing short of terrific.  Every X10 device in the house is now reached from every controller in the house.  I even hit an appliance module out in the µBarn, 75 feet from the house and over 100 wire-feet from the distribution panel, using a controller on one of the worst circuits in the house.

Caveats: What worked for me may or may not work for you.  In my case, my suspicion was my problems were probably mostly signal suckers--things that reduce the power of X10 signals, rather than interference generators that were burying the X10 signals in noise.  (This roaring success suggests I may have been right.)  And remember: I already had a phase coupler installed.

Now that X10 is again reliable for us, my plans are to probably acquire a Raspberry Pi Zero W and cm15a, and run PiX10Hub.

brobin:
You're preaching to the choir my friend! All of Jeff's products are designed without compromise and without them X10 would have been gone from my home years ago.

the other steve:
What he said!  First rate stuff.

(I sang)...

Steve

Brian H:
Jeff's X10 products are great.
My XTB-IIR and XTBM have both been a great addition to my house.
His after sales support and troubleshooting tutorials is excellent also.

dave w:

--- Quote from: Brian H on January 12, 2019, 06:13:47 AM ---Jeff's X10 products are great.
My XTB-IIR and XTBM have both been a great addition to my house.
His after sales support and troubleshooting tutorials is excellent also.

--- End quote ---
Echo multiple times over, with many exclamation marks!

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