X10 Community Forum
💬General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Brian H on April 09, 2019, 06:15:10 AM
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Saw this today on the Smarthome forums. Ceasing operations. Not sure how may here are using it.
https://www.stringify.com/stringifyshuttingdown/
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I use it. Way ahead of its time (IMO). There are others trying to emulate, but they blazed the trail.
Comcast bought it - presumably for its IP - then put it down. Classic acquisition behavior.
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...which is why I prefer to have my automation control local...
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I expect to see others shut down! Hell who here would be surprised if X10 closes it's door ONCE AGAIN. The transformation of automation is a very good thing. But there (sadly) will be casualties.
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I'm not sure how X10 keeps it doors open now. X10 was and could have remained the HA leader but never spent a dime on improving and keeping their products up-to-date except for adding the slightly improved Pro line (which was really just a rebrand of the Leviton spec'd products). But for the fact that I have a ton of X10 stuff and know how to keep it working I'd move on. I doubt that they have any new users buying in or even aware of X10.
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For the last few weeks. About once a week now. X10 has started sending me an email with some specials running right now.
This week it was a coupon. That didn't interest me.
Maybe they are falling on poor sales.
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If they have a sale (someone bought something), I'd be shocked. The general trend seems to be WiFi and not PLC. Understandable considering everyone already has a home network which makes it very simple to hook up whereas PLC is not all that easy...well...anywhere. It's hard as a apartment dweller (impossible in my dorm years ago). It's difficult with modern phone charges (and everything else in the house too obviously). It's not something people are familiar with. Oh, and it costs many times more than an easy alternative.
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The X10 WiFi HUB is currently out of stock. https://www.x10.com/wm100.html
Provide them with your email and they will let you know when they are available.
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Trying to drive demand?
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That crossed my mind too, like when MS wasn't able to keep up with demand for the Win phone. We will see.
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I suspect if there is no demand they may drop it, the app developer hasn't lived up to their expectations and the factory handed over control of the protocol to them. ::) :'
There is realy no reason for them to continue to sell these if they have recouped their investment.
Originally this was created to test the Wi-Fi waters they have learned a lot from this venture, time to create a more powerful Hub device using things they learned.
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The general trend seems to be WiFi and not PLC. Understandable considering everyone already has a home network which makes it very simple to hook up whereas PLC is not all that easy...well...anywhere.
I'm still not sold on WiFi as a suitable alternative. You are right: It is convenient and the barrier to entry is lower, and this could be the most important factor for many. But if everything has to talk to a WiFi access point to stay networked, you still have a single point of failure (not even considering any mandatory Internet server connectivity). At least when there is PLC noise, it is usually limited to individual branch circuits. And since every device has to implement its own TCP/IP stack and DHCP client with WiFi, there is more complexity required and more power consumed for very simple functionality and more things to go wrong.
I wonder how Insteon users are getting on these days. It was supposed to be the answer to everything that was wrong with X10 PLC, but it was conceived before WiFi was practical to integrate. Early adopters had to deal with high prices and buggy firmware, but those days are mostly behind them. There were still PLC signal issues no matter how sophisticated the algorithm. They now implement "dual mesh technology" in many devices, but it seems like an admission of defeat to bolster a more sophisticated X10-like PLC with a less sophisticated Z-Wave-like safety net. The business seems to be going okay, but AFAIK, it still has only a single major backer.
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Wifi seems ok for accessories that feed into an automation system IMO. I'm thinking of weather sensors (light, rain, wind, temp), low fidelity toggle sensors (gate, door, driveway), maybe motion? I don't like devices being wifi unless they have a control at the device in case of network issues (local or cloud). I think my perfect setup would probably be a mesh RF network with sufficient tech to avoid collisions, noise, etc. Having a hub that communicated over wifi/cat5 would be great for extending range from a remote building where no devices would bridge.
That said, zwave/zigbee/insteon (rf) all basically do this already... But, the price is much higher than wifi devices and wifi already works with the broadband people already have. I think sonoff's cheap and hackable design may be partially responsible for the boom (which is a great thing overall).
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My experience with Sonoff hasn't been good. I was using their 4 Channel Pro to operate some sliding doors but after awhile it started dropping the WiFi connection until it finally wouldn't connect anymore. I replaced it with an old Insteon EZIO8SA relay unit that I'm now using with the Smartenit Harmony G2 that gives me Alexa control for X10, Insteon & Zigbee devices. Much more reliable! If the internet is down we still have the wireless RF remote for the sliders.