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[Mellowmark]

You can always develop your own.  Use small relays and ad the two wires back to an input device like CPC or danfoss BEC control systems.

[HA Dave]

This may be due to my relatively young age....

My thought process is more or less this:
......... As to the reliability of X10, keep in mind, I'm a sysadmin and a network guy. The idea that something has wires connecting it and could be expected to lose more than 1 in 1,000,000 packets in normal operating conditions just doesn't seem acceptable.

Wow... that must be some serious Home Automation you have in mind there! I don't have an electrical fixture in my home rated for a MILLION (fail free) cycles. Heck.... I wouldn't even know where anyone would buy such a switch, relay, or device. Of course.. I realize that a million 16 bit packets of data isn't the same as million switched cycles... but this IS about HA... right.

I think maybe your imagination would be a tad more effective... if you researched your subject a bit first. Much of you "information" about X10 and the other automation protocols... is less than accurate. I really don't know what the point is your trying to make. If your actually implying that you think you can implement a automation setup via CAT5 and relays.... it really makes me wonder if your parents know your playing with the wiring.

[Brian H]

I found a spreadsheet of automation protocols and features. I don't know how accurate it is, but there are a few high end systems that communicate with CAT5 cables.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pq2S8fvu2JXEv1Ne9TIQhdA&hl=en

[Charles Sullivan]

I have not seen a list of 2-way modules. They are not too popular and I know X10 discontinued the LM14A; AM14A and AM15A. The only two way X10 module I know of is the RR501 Tranceiver. It has a appliance module type outlet and you can send it a Status request and it will answer back.

Smarthome use to make some two way X10 compatible modules also discontinued.

Their Insteon Modules can have an X10 address added to them and they will respond to a status request, but if it is a dimmer. It reports a %dim that I believe X10 chose not to support.

The Smarthome modules use the old style Preset Dim commands (functions 0x0A and 0x0B) for reporting and directly setting brightness levels.
X-10's _software_ doesn't support these commands but they can be sent and received by the CM11A and CM15A using many third party software packages.  Heyu (for Linux, Unix, and Mac OS X) supports them for the CM11A.

[Brian H]

Thanks for the added information Charles.

[HA Dave]

I found a spreadsheet of automation protocols and features. I don't know how accurate it is, but there are a few high end systems that communicate with CAT5 cables.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pq2S8fvu2JXEv1Ne9TIQhdA&hl=en

There is actually one down the street from me. It uses low voltage switches that all route back to a control room located in the attic (of this particular home). It was built in the '60s and is a very large custom home. But I have also seen the same type of setup used of a HGTV program as well so it apparently is still used.

I am not sure... but I think those systems are well suited for really large homes and NEW construction. A small gang of numerous pushbutton lowvoltage switches... is more pleasing to look at than having to mount a breaker box near a rooms entrance to handle a large volume of light/device switching (often done in commercial setups). Maybe that is what the OP is dealing with... and I misunderstood. But it would be less than common for someone that refers to themselves as "relatively young" and references "one room that's about 15x17".

Maybe it's just me. Maybe I've read too many posts that are really about Linux... and NOT Home Automation at all. Many seem to me to be anti-Microsoft, anti-corporate profit, anti-American. I read here where someone performed some UN-described test in one 15x17 foot room.... and found X10 to be unreliable. And we here at the forum (that actually USE X10) know that is not true. So maybe that jades my belief in the remainder of the posts.

I just don't think a homemade DIY "relay and CAT5" setup.... sounds like something the building inspector would be thrilled with.

[pconroy]

This may be due to my relatively young age, or that I'm really a sysadmin by trade, but I'll most likely be implementing whatever I do primarily in a scripting/interpreted language (Python or PHP). I'm not *so* worried

I forget if this was mentioned - but there's one implementation of X10 where every device is available as /dev/xxx.

In other word you write "on" to /dev/x10A1 (or something like that).
It would make scripting pretty easy.



My server in Linux but the target controller box is a Windows machine running Cygwin so I'm rolling my own.

[dave w]

1) Whatever I do needs 2-way communication.
2) Insteon seems to have a more robust communication model, as the commands are sent 3 times, ACKed, and repeated. That, in my opinion, makes the extra cost over X10 worth it.
3) I don't want to buy into a system that either I will outgrow (when I automate more or move) or which has performance that doesn't satisfy my long-term plans (no matter how elaborate they are).
4) I'm already building a bunch of custom hardware for IR control stuff, control of window shades (lanyard shades with attached stepper motors), etc. If I have to do a bit more hardware work, it's no big deal.

As to the reliability of X10, keep in mind, I'm a sysadmin and a network guy. The idea that something has wires connecting it and could be expected to lose more than 1 in 1,000,000 packets in normal operating conditions just doesn't seem acceptable.

If there were any pre-made HA hardware that was inexpensive and just used 2 wires (*not* power wires - telephone wire or 2 conductors of Cat5) I'd buy it in a second.

Based on your constraints, especially that #3, I think you will end up developing it yourself. Only systems that come close are not DIY (Lutron, etc)