X10 Community Forum
🔌General Home Automation => Automating Your House => Topic started by: Orac on May 21, 2010, 11:56:47 AM
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Hi,
I bought an Insteon KeyPadLinc and Insteon I/O module to control my garage door. It works great but I hated the price. I then discovered X10 and bought the $80 deal which includes the CM15A, software and a bunch of modules. Great fun, I have been driving my wife crazy with lights randomly switching on and off..lol
Anyway, my KeyPadLinc has a bunch of unused buttons with status lights as I only needed 2 of the 8 for my garage. I thought it would be cool to use the status lights to show the on/off status of some of my lights. I gave the buttons the same X10 address as an X10 module and it works horribly. The KeyPadLinc misses about 50% of the X10 commands. I put an X10 AM486 (appliance module) in the same socket as the KeyPadLinc and the X10 module works 100%. I put the CM15A in the socket next to the KeyPadLinc and it still is only 50% good.
Just to let you know, Insteon stuff seems to work well when talking to other Insteon stuff but don't buy it to work with X10. By the way it does transmit X10 commands OK.
Andy
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I put an X10 AM486 (appliance module) in the same socket as the KeyPadLinc and the X10 module works 100%. I put the CM15A in the socket next to the KeyPadLinc and it still is only 50% good.
Just to let you know, Insteon stuff seems to work well when talking to other Insteon stuff but don't buy it to work with X10. By the way it does transmit X10 commands OK.
Andy
You are right, that is pretty bad. The KeypadLinc may a receiver sensitivity problem...call SmartHome and exchange(?).
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Also since it is a two way device and probably has AGC. A marginal signal or power line noise may effect it more than a appliance module.
It also has to be able to accept the 120KHz X10 signal and the 131.65KHz Insteon signal.
I can't tell if mine are less X10 sensitive as I have an XTB-IIR repeater that blasts a signal back on my power line. Lowest point in the house is 1.2 Volts.
Is it a KeypadLinc Relay or Dimmer type?
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Hi Dave,
Maybe I got a bad one. However, it works fine for the Insteon to control my garage door and show its status. Using it for X10 was an afterthought. Not enough of a problem for me to want to send it back to SmartHome for a replacement.
Hi Brian,
It is a dimmer switch but I have the load line disconnected and I use it only as a controller where pushing a button opens/closes my garage door and a display device where the LED behind another button shows the open/close status of the door.
I posted the information just to warn people in case they are thinking of buying an Insteon KeyPadLinc (at $70+) just as an X10 on/off status display. As far as I know there is no X10 module to do this.
Andy
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Andy,
I am renovating my kitchen and was going to use the Keypadlinc to set
scenes / trigger macros, etc.
You said that the keypadlinc is an ok transmitter, is it not 100% in your application?
Brian
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Hi Brian,
First let me say that this is my experience with one KeyPadLinc. It may be I have a bad unit or a noisy power line.
If using all Insteon devices I have no problem; it has worked 100% for me so far in the Insteon to Insteon mode.
As an X10 transmitter I have not had a problem. If you set one of the buttons with an X10 address then pressing the button will send an X10 ON or X10 OFF which can be used to trigger a macro on a CM15A or just turn on/off an X10 module.
The problem I have had is using the lights behind every button as a display of the status of X10 devices, for example to show if an upstairs lamp has been left on. For me this did not work. The CM15A would send the X10 ON command and the X10 appliance would turn on. However, the light in the KeyPadLinc module with the same X10 address would only come on about 50% of the time.
I hope that explains the problem I saw.
Best of luck with your new kitchen.
Andy