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[bkenobi]

I have an old Mini Controller (MC460 I believe) that I keep in the shop to turn on the house lights remotely.  It's nice not having to walk in the dark out there...it's spooky.   

I have a similar need in my kitchen where I only have 2 wall switches but would like to control 4 consecutive lights.  I considered replacing one of the companion 3-way switches with a XPT and 4 switch plate, but I have other lights that I'd like access too and I'm not positive I'd have the wires I need (haven't checked).  So, I thought about just installing a mini controller until I realized some of the lights are above unit code 8.  The only option I see is the Maxi Controller or the Inseon ControLinc.  While it would be nice to have Insteon capability, I'm not there now and it's not available anyway.  Does anyone have experience with the SC503 to say that it's at least as good as the old school Mini Controller?

[JeffVolp]

I have been using Maxi Controllers since the original Sears "Command Console" came out in the 80's.  It has much more capability than the Mini Controller, and I recommend that any X10 system have at least one.

The major difference between the two controllers is that the Maxi Controller requires two button presses to issue a complete command.  The first selects one of 16 unit codes, and the second tells that X10 device what to do.  That is actually an advantage because you can select multiple X10 devices, and then issue a single command so all of those devices respond simultaneously.

Jeff