X10 Community Forum
🔌General Home Automation => Automating Your House => Topic started by: LittleLarry on August 26, 2008, 03:46:31 AM
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Just wondering what people think. I like this place called The Home Automation store because it doesn't have so many pop-ups and ugly flashy junk, but x10.com's free shipping and combo deals seem good to, but x10's prices on single (non-combo) devices seems overpriced compared to the Home Automation store. Any suggestions?
How is it that The Home Automation store is able to sell individual items so much lower?
Anyone have any issues with website security for either of those 2 sites? From looking at x10.com's website, it would look like you would get spam, spyware installed, etc. Just seems wrong.
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Unless you sign up for the Newsletter; I don't think X10 will send spam to you.
I do get a friendly reminder that my last purchase Bonus Points are about to expire; but that is it.
A scan sometimes shows tracking cookies after visiting X10 but this seems to be a common thing from many vendors I visit. So X10 is not unique in that respect.
You can find varied prices by vendor on many X10 items. One thing is double check the vendors warranty policy. I believe X0 requires the dealer to handle such things. Most are good but some are not.
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Just wondering what people think. I like this place called The Home Automation store because it doesn't have so many pop-ups and ugly flashy junk, but x10.com's free shipping and combo deals seem good to, but x10's prices on single (non-combo) devices seems overpriced compared to the Home Automation store. Any suggestions?
If you are buying single units, then automation vendors and eBay is probably less expensive than X10.com. However X10's "four-for-one" and "five-for-one" deals are hard to beat for Palm Pads, motion detectors, Socket Rockets, etc. X10 also has some "Starter Pack" deals that are really good also. X10 tosses in some units that most people will not use (aka "Heavy Duty Appliance Module") but you still are saving money if you can use the other items.
AFAIK the only way to find out about the "really good" package deals is to be on their email list.
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Thanks. I decided to try a small starter pack for $39. 3 lm465's, 1 transciever, and 1 hr12a. I then added a 4 pack of the credit card remotes for an additional $19. Hopefully they send me the new softstart ml465's.
I didn't want to start out with many in case I don't like them or have too many issues. Not sure how good the electrical wiring is in the house and I have many UPS's and air purifiers, and other noisemakers in the house.
Do those items affect how x10 devices work in other levels of the house?
For instance, if I have UPS's in the bottom level of a 3 level split house, would the top levels have issues communicating to items in those rooms?
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.............For instance, if I have UPS's in the bottom level of a 3 level split house, would the top levels have issues communicating to items in those rooms?
Floors and or levels don't have so much to do with things as does circuits. Read How-To: Map Your Electrical Circuits (http://www.x10community.com/forums/index.php?topic=11117.msg63562#msg63562) An EXCELLENT post written by Puck
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As Dave said best to map your home. If the third floor modules are on separate circuits and have to go to the breaker box and back to get to the addressed item. There could be signal problems. I know my APC BX1000 UPS sucked up all kinds of X10 signals until I added a X10 filter to its AC Input.
Also if the controller is on one phase of the homes split phase wiring and the addressed module is on the other. The signals may have problems getting there.
We have some good troubleshooting threads here, but my bookmarks are home. So at present I can't direct you to them. ???
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As Dave said best to map your home. If the third floor modules are on separate circuits and have to go to the breaker box and back to get to the addressed item. There could be signal problems. I know my APC BX1000 UPS sucked up all kinds of X10 signals until I added a X10 filter to its AC Input.
Also if the controller is on one phase of the homes split phase wiring and the addressed module is on the other. The signals may have problems getting there.
We have some good troubleshooting threads here, but my bookmarks are home. So at present I can't direct you to them. ???
Thank You Brian H.[/color] I didn't realize how overly brief my responce had been until I saw your post. Stick with us LittleLarry and you too will have a solid Home Automation setup.
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You know this is kind of related to another thread I started, perhaps I should have posted it here instead:
http://www.x10community.com/forums/index.php?topic=16328.0
But this x10 filter you have plugged into the UPS, do you have a link for it, and does it just plug into the wall, and then you plug your UPS into it, or did you have to modify your UPS?
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My Smarthome filter plugs into the wall outlet and has a filtered outlet on the bottom where the UPS is connected. On the front is a pass through outlet that is unfiltered and is where I have my interface connected. Don't have a link right now but may edit later when I get home.