X10 Community Forum
🔌General Home Automation => Original ActiveHome => Topic started by: lodtrack on December 10, 2010, 07:15:22 AM
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I was interested to see a post with the following footer.."Yesterday it worked.
Today it doesn't work.
X10 on Windows is like that"
It pretty well describes my experience with every version of Windows and Activehome(2000,95,NT,Vista,XP proSP3, and Windows 7.)
I had luck with Autom8it beta which I used for sometime and found it bullet proof and had many great addons.
Unfortunately I lost the download along the way and all I can find is the unsupported full version with no activation key.
I think my only option is to write my own program which will be tedious.
If anyone knows where I can get a working version of full Autom8it with the original 5 addons,(or the beta which worked fine) that would be great.
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I don't know where you can find it. But have you tried iHouse? www.ihousehomeautomation.com
runs programs
has a great scripting macro module
client and server video with recording
voice recognition
alarm clock
HVAC
weather
and a lot more. and its FREE!
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Thanks for the feedback, I believe you need a CM15A for this software? I only have the older CM11A serial module....Burt
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Yes, I believe you need the cm15 or cm19. Sorry.
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I was interested to see a post with the following footer.."Yesterday it worked.
Today it doesn't work.
X10 on Windows is like that"
That was the footer of Charles Sullivan (he recently passed away :'( ) Anyway, he was referring to Heyu, which runs on Linux, a free OS
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I was interested in the problems folks have had with Windows and X10 control.
I have had some old Radio Shack Plug 'n Power stuff in storage for a while and recently pulled it out because we were going on vacation and I wanted to have lights go on and off randomly. I no longer have the software that came with the Radioshack 61-2417 controller and I would doubt it would run on Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 anyway. I wrote some software in C# to control the X10 devices and have been running it on a server for nearly a month now with no issues.
I would like to know if the problems folks have had is just with the software or do you think it is a Windows issue. If you think it is a Windows issue then what kind of problems have people seen and how long before things start going bad?
I don't know if anyone can answer these questions but I would like to know in case I push this to a commercial product in the future.
I would also like to know if anyone has used the InsteOn products? I would like to play around with the product line but compared to X10 it is just way too expensive.
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Your question references a controller from the 1990's. Setting that aside (since it has drivers dated 1997 for Windows '95) Brandt is a Linux expert so may have a different take, IMHO if you are using X10 AHP / CM15A for strickly home automation, in most cases it plays nice with Windoze. Most of the Windows complaints seem to be when users incorporate X10 cameras and video. And then it seems to be driver and codec problems.
$0.02
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There are some Insteon users here including myself.
Some have used the Insteon modules in the X10 mode. Since some needs are not covered by an X10 module.
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Thanks for your replies. It makes sense now. I was wondering what was the problem with Windows controlling X10 switches as it is very simple and straight forward.
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Since my original post, I scrapped the cm11a and Active Home. I started doing some serial port programming for the cm11a but as mentioned, it was tedious going and to develop add-ons was going to be a lot of work. I purchased the CM15 and AHP. I managed to install it and some addon's on my automation server (low power SBC from Winsystems) under XP Pro. I had problems installing the software but finally got it running. AHP seems pretty stable as compared to AH. I never got it installed on my Windows 7 machine. The idea of having to wipe out the original install every time you purchase an add-on is not very good. I followed all the hints in the various forums for removing and installing but no luck with Windows 7.
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If your Radio Shack controller was an OEM of the older serial CM11A. There where problems with Active Home and XP. Older Windows versions where OK. Seemed to drop the serial communications to the CM11A. Was sometimes traced to the serial chip set used on the motherboard.
I got mine to work in the Compatibility mode fairly well, while others using the setting I chose didn't have as good an outcome.
I then tried the original revision CM15A and AHP with out much success. The later ones seemed to be more reliable.