ahp and cm15a review

[david3336]

I have been using the ahp and cm15a for about 3 months now I have 5 light switch modules and 7 other modules and 2 hawkeyes2 sensors in my house I run 12 timers and 15 macros I also have smart macro plugin and voice commander made by Bill. I how ever did have to send one cm15a back to x10 after a week of use, it just stopped working all together I am still waiting for my money to be returned to my account. I have read alot of bad reviews on this x10 setup but I bought it anyway and I am here to say I must be one of the lucky ones I have had no trouble with the system other than one bad unit. It took me a few day to learn how to program it so it would all work like i needed it to. In this time I found this forum to be my biggest help alot of reading but i found a fix to any problem i thought i had to find out i was the biggest problem the system had lol. I had one room that I could not control from my remote or computer so a ran a wire from a plug in a working room and installed a plug in the room that would not work and then i powered my cm15a up to that plug. now everything works great. I am living in a older house that the ele. service was upgraded by putting in a breaker box and powering the old fuse box from the breaker box. I thought I would have had alot of problems with x10 due to the way the house was wired but i did not. So what i would like to say to others here is that x10 is nice to have and it can make your dream house come to life but it is not without cost and some trouble. x10 is not for anyone that thinks you can just take it out the box and it just program its self it does take some time and effort but in the long run it is worth it where else could i get this kind of control for less than $400.00 dollars.so if you really want a x10 house just take your time and do one thing at a time and it will work for you.I also would like to say in my 15 years of working on house I have learned nothing always works as you thought is would and you get some good and bad in all thing. If i buy a bad car i don't stop using cars and walk everywhere lol.don't get me wrong x10 may not be for everyone but I like it. thanks to everyone at x10 and this forum for making my house come to life and thanks to Bill for the voice commander great plugin keep up all the good work everyone!!!!!

[KDR]

Welcome to the comunity david3336. Great review and 100% on the money.

[Tuicemen]

david3336   Welcome a board!
Good first post!
As KDR stated:

Great review and 100% on the money.

[Puck]

Welcome to the board David3336.   

[ssteig]

I too am quite new as I just got my active home pro package for xmas. I love the optimism in the previous review and I completely agree on two points: 1 this was not as easy as I read in the advertisements 2. The web site forums are extremely helpful and have saved me from sending the entire package back to X10 twice.. It is quite incredible to me that in this day in time with consistent quality being the expected by all consumers that the cm15a is still so fraught with bugs, problems, work-a-roundââ,¬â,,¢s, and flat out bad hardware.
I started very simply to establish a firm understanding of the software and hardware as well as the new vocabulary into which I willingly thrust myself. I am just trying to turn on and off common lights with timers. Through all the forums I have read it is hard to determine if the problems I have are bad hardware, software, user-error or just something with which I must learn to live.

[HA Dave]

Welcome to the X10 Community david3336 and ssteig.

[immyfish]

I've done my share of X10 bashing (desrvedly so) on this board, but I have to say that, when this stuff works - it is a lot of fun and really cool!  I am really happy with the On Alert plug in so far (12 hours into it)! So far I have 3 door/window sensors registered, a security MD, a couple remotes, and a chime module.  Being able to avtivate macros off of the security modules is really great!  And although the AHP is buggy and frought with issues, it is a wonderful concept, and can be very powerful.  I am happy, at least for the moment, with my X10 stuff!