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[tom j 2]

This is the third time I have had to return
one of these units. Starting to think that
the VCR Commander and Commander 2 are just
junk. This is why I hate Chinese
electronics!! The Chinese make absolutely
the worst electronics and for the matter the
worst consumer goods in the world. To x10
credit most of the stuff I’ve purchased has
been pretty much reliable and some things
like the wireless cameras have really been
impressive. As a matter of fact even with my
disdain for Chinese manufactured goods I
would recommend x10 cameras for home
security, the picture is clear and sharp,
but what good are the cameras if the VCR
Commanders fail on you. Shame on you x10 for
producing something with such poor quality
and reliability.

TCJ

[grant]

I've got three floodcams and a vcrII, The
floodcams work well to about 80 ft. but this
piece of junk they call the Vcr commander II
only works out to about 20ft, when it feels
like working at all. The vcrII is a really
good idea but I am absolutely dissatisfied
with it.  My wife calls it the 'polish
security system'  Don't worry she's from
Polish heritage herself.

[Kenneth Herring]

VCR Commanders ARE a pain to program, but I
have one that's been working quite well for
about a year, now. I have not tested the
maximum receiving range of it, but it's
supposed to be as sensitive as the
transceivers and, besides, it's the other
devices that are transmitting the 300MHz
wireless command signal, anyway. What
effects my system is our aluminum siding and
the wire mesh in the plaster ceilings. I'm
living in a Faraday Cage!

[grant]

I have absolute line of sight to all my
floodcams(3) and the only one that trips the
vcrII is the one that is only 20 ft. away, I
have a remote and I have properly 'tripped'
each camera with this remote (I could never
get them to set by the normal ways i.e.
waving hands,walking in front of the
floodcams,etc.)And I have properly set up the
vcrII to record.I know these products are
cheaper than most and might not last as long
as more expensive products, but I wish they
would at least do what the manufacturer said
they would do.

[steinie]

I have found, that when I program the
Record and Stop functions, I 'pulse' the
buttons on my remote rather then holding
them down. Seems to trigger the VCR better.
The commander may be sending multiable
pulses to the VCR.....? It's just the way I
use the remote, I can't just press the
buton once.

[james haughton]

I have spent countless hourstrying to program
the Commander II to no avail. I've tried
different distances, new batteries, different
vcr's but still nothing for "rec" and "stop"
As far as I know the motion sensor is programmed.

[randy]

does x10 plan on fixing the comander
problem . im reading before i buy and im not
to sure right now.

[steinie]

The only thing I don't like is the fact
that you can't stop the VCR. The Commander
will stop the VCR after 5 Min. But YOU or
AHP can't stop it.!
A better VCR Commander -
Find a remote replacement that works GOOD
with your VCR. Get two Universal Modules.
Wire one across the Record button and the
Other across the Stop button. That's it!!!!

[al]

I can stop my VCR with the remote after the
commander turns it on.  The commander only
sends one record command and you can turn it
off at any time.

[MikeM]

I have to agree.  I thought I could cobble
together a security system, but was wrong.
I bought the anaconda security camera and
the ActiveHome with iWitness plug-in
software.  It took me over 5 hours to
install the software and get my PC to
recognize the X10 hardware.  None of the
drivers were "signed" (this is a bad sign,
as it means they were not tested by
Microsoft).  After I managed to get my PC
Camera and X10 sensors to all talk to each
other, the ActiveHome sofware caused
the "blue screen of death" PC crash.  I had
go boot into safe mode and manually extract
those crap drivers, and their registry
entries to get my machine to boot again. (I
don't recommend this proceedure for the
inexperienced)

So I returned everything except the camera
and got the VCR commander 2.  Should be
easier, right?  Well....no.   After 5 hours
of trying to get the VCR commander
to "learn" (I think it has a disability),
and then trying to place the emitter on my
VCR so that it works, I gave up.

Total time wasted on my security system,
about 12 hours. (I'm a degreed electronics
engineer....)  I think even if I got all
this junk working, it wouldn't be reliable
enough to trust with anyones security.

So back in the box and back to UPS it all
goes.

I am able to use the X10 keychain and
module to turn on and off my Christmas tree
lights,   Seems reliable enough for that.

[dv]

Grant,

I also have the problem of not having the vcr
commander ii to recognized the vcr record and
stop functions.

After messing with it for days, I finally
figure it out that the emitter line diode
inside the little plastic case was broken.
Once this was solder back and the vcr
commander ii have recognized the function to
record and stop the vcr after 5 minutes.

Hope this will help you Grant.

[jaames]

I too had problems trying to get a stop
command working on the Commander II and
finally got it working.
1. I unplugged the Commander and took
batteries out.
2. Take batteries out of Eagle Eye Sensor.
3. Put batteries back into sensor.
4. Pressed "Play" till light came on solid
and then pushed "home" button on sensor.
Light should go out on Commander at same
time.
5. Press "rec" on Commander till on solid.
6. Press and release "rec" button on
Commander.
7. At this point I don't wait for the light
to stop blinking . Using the VCR remote I
keep repeatedly press the "rec" button on
vcr remote. I hold the reomote close to the
back and move in and out and up and down
and keep pressing till the light goes solid
( I now know "rec" is in memory.).
8. I now push "stop" on commander and using
the same procedure I keep hitting
the "stop" button and light blinks and goes
out.
9. I then plug in emmitter line into VCR
Commander.
10. I wait about 2 minutes and pass my hand
in front of sensor and light on Commander
should blink and record should start. If it
doesn't start then wave hand in front of
sensor again. I belive it was 3rd or 4th
time that Commander picked up code from
sensor. The record should start on VCR.
Press stop on VCR Commander and recording
should stop. I found that you have to keep
your finger on "stop" button for about 2
seconds before it will stop.

I think the trick is to keep pressing the
buttons on the VCR remote. Keeping your
finger down on the remote button didn't
work for me.

[grant]

Thanks DV for the info.  The vcr II works
just fine with a remote, it just does not
want to pick up the floodcam signal for some
reason and like I said the cameras work
pretty good out to about 75 ft., its just
this P.O.S vcrII.  Will a signal repeater
help?  Maybe I should wait for the Vcr III in
hopes it will actually work and do at least
half of what the ads say.