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[flashular]

I'd love to be be able to reduce the interval between on and off to say 5 seconds on the MS16A. Does anyone know of a board component that I can change that would allow me to do that? So far I can't seem to trace the voltage that controls the off time interval.

[steven r]

I don't know of a hardware way to do it but you might be able to accomplish what you want to do with macros. What is your specific application?

[flashular]

The application is for a haunted house, where I have props that pop on for a few seconds and turn reset for the next guest. What I ended up doing is using a PowerLinkII. I wrote a program that sends an off message 5 seconds after it receives the on message for every unit it detects. In that way I can use as many motion sensors as I like and they all take care of themselves.

Unfortunately as you say there is no way to do this through hardware, but I recall in days past a "test" mode that would do this - but I think it may have been in a faded dream or some such. If anyone might be interested in my "motion muter" program I can put up all the source code - its written in C but I'm not sure given what I've read recently if I'm allowed to expose my interpretation of the X10 format using this device. Maybe someone out there knows if its still allowed.

[spam4us]

The X10 floodlight sensor (PR511) has a short on/off that is user selectable. You can set it for 6 seconds, 30 seconds, 2, 5, 15 and 30 minutes.  It's a hardwired sensor.  Here's a link to the specs.
ftp://ftp.x10.com/pub/manuals/pr511-om.pdf

[-Bill- (of wgjohns.com)]

The application is for a haunted house, where I have props that pop on for a few seconds and turn reset for the next guest. What I ended up doing is using a PowerLinkII. I wrote a program that sends an off message 5 seconds after it receives the on message for every unit it detects. In that way I can use as many motion sensors as I like and they all take care of themselves.

Unfortunately as you say there is no way to do this through hardware, but I recall in days past a "test" mode that would do this - but I think it may have been in a faded dream or some such. If anyone might be interested in my "motion muter" program I can put up all the source code - its written in C but I'm not sure given what I've read recently if I'm allowed to expose my interpretation of the X10 format using this device. Maybe someone out there knows if its still allowed.

So far as I know, if you don't mind publicly sharing the code, X10 has no problem with you posting it.  Especially if you are using the X10 AHP SDK.  There are already many examples of using the SDK within many programming languages and as far as I know they are still openly soliciting SDK users to submit new examples.

[flashular]

I guess ignorance is bliss in this case - I have not heard of the AHP SDK. Googling it does not seem to provide any clues as where to get it so I'm guessing its something that might have to be purchased? The code I wrote reads/writes at the byte level to induce controller modules to do their thing. I basically reverse engineered the byte streams since I could not find any documentation on the format directly. I wrote an abstraction layer API that hides that from the application.

In any case, if I can get an official position on posting byte-level code I'd be more than happy to share my cookies.

[-Bill- (of wgjohns.com)]

I guess ignorance is bliss in this case - I have not heard of the AHP SDK. Googling it does not seem to provide any clues as where to get it so I'm guessing its something that might have to be purchased? The code I wrote reads/writes at the byte level to induce controller modules to do their thing. I basically reverse engineered the byte streams since I could not find any documentation on the format directly. I wrote an abstraction layer API that hides that from the application.

In any case, if I can get an official position on posting byte-level code I'd be more than happy to share my cookies.

Wow!   
Talk about hard work and dedication to a cause!      

Out of curiosity, what computer to power line interface did you use?

Anyway, the Active Home Pro SDK only supports the USB-connected CM15.

If you're interested, you can find it here: The ActiveHome Pro SDK.

[flashular]

Necessity is the Mother of desperation.

Thanks for the link! - I'm looking forward to checking out the SDK. I'm currently using a SmartHome branded PowerLinc serial interface, but I sense that the CM15 is where its at now (although I'd need a price under $100 before I'd do the jump). So the code I have operates using a serial port ( Windows CreateFile/ReadFile/WriteFile ), and would probably only be of use to someone with this box.

I'd be most interested to find out if the send/receive rates are higher using the CM15 because if I implement a 'fastest possible' dimmer ramp its pretty slow on this PLC. I'm guessing it might be at the hardware  timing level (as I understand it packets are sent near the zero crossing of the 60Hz signal, right?) even with a theoretical bandwidth as low as 9.6kbps. I have not investigated potential differences in here so perhaps someone has already done a comparison.

[-Bill- (of wgjohns.com)]

flashular,

You can usually pick up a CM15A with Active Home Pro software and all of the "add-on" software modules (like Smart MACROs, etc.) and sometimes even additional X10 modules or controllers (just to sweeten the deal) for $50.00 and get free shipping at the X10 sales website (the X10.com link at the bottom of the page)!  WARNING!  You may want to mute the audio before you go there!      

As far as I know, you are correct about the transmission rate.  What is worse, the signal is actually sent twice as a crude form of error checking!

While I know there are others out there, off the top of my head marineau did quite a lot of work comparing signal transmission times.  Ahh... found it... Topic: Speed for CM15A vs CM11A vs TM751

Someone else who is extremely knowledgeable about such things is JeffVolp.

[flashular]

Arlight, that sounds great.

I'll check out the API and wait for a deal I cannot refuse. By this time next year I'll hope to report that my haunted house is all running from a CM15A. Thanks again for all the info!