How I got hooked on X10

[nybuck]

Alright -

Time for a new discussion... How we got hooked on X10...  Since it's my post, me first:

In the 1980's I worked for a wedding videographer.  We turned on/off our room lights with X10 remote modules from Radio Shack.  Since I liked them, I got a WS-467 switch for my room (in my parents' house), and a desktop remote.  What a setup!  I could dim my lights from my bedside, which was super high tech as a single male in the 80's...   

What was your hook?

Let us know!

[Knightrider]

I already had a sonic light controller from the shack (squeeze a bulb that blew air into a whistle, the receiver was like a clapper). Wanted to upgrade to something better.

Lost a finger in a table saw, and mom and pop gave me a pity present.

Feb 13, 1988

Since then, it's become an uncontrolled addiction.

[nybuck]

Very nice, Knightrider.  I remember the sonic remote unit.  I think I sold them when I worked at Radio Shack in the 80's. 
The big sellers back then were the "Rabbit", and the "Wireless Rabbit".  They were basically the video senders of X10 today.  The wired unit had some speaker wire from sender to receiver.  They had a built-in IR remote sender, just like the modern ones.  I wonder what band they operated on?  Maybe 49 MHz!

The IR pyramid was also for sale back then...

My first appliance remote was tall and fat, with 4 buttons across.  The top row of 4 was ON, and 4 buttons across below them was "OFF".  It took a 9v battery, and had a metal belt clip.  Somewhere in this mess, I probably have my original units..... 

[Knightrider]

still got my mini timer with the slider switch.

[bitman]

In my home studio I have 6 small audio mixers at each of the "play stations" for musician mixed headphone mixes while tracking. When overdubbing, I had to make sure unused headphone mixers were not blaring away in the tracking room into the mic we were overdubbing into. It can get crowded and I was always running back and forth.

I got on google looking for some kind of remote power thing if that was even available at all..........


Now if I can x10 it, I will, even if I shouldn't, I'll try to.

Where's that crazy cat of mine?.............

[JeffVolp]

still got my mini timer with the slider switch.

The one with the blue electroluminescent readout?  That ran our last house for years until the CM11A was introduced.  We then used it as just a digital clock until I discovered it was a serious signal sucker.

Jeff

[Dan Lawrence]

I got hooked on X10 by a good friend who was already a X10 user in the middle 1980's.  My first interface was a CP290 and the software was a DOS version.  When Windows 311 came around, I got Windows software that was custom made and you could use your own icons for modules.  When Windows 95 was released, I got Active Home software and the CM11 serial interface, kept that through Windows 98.  When I got Windows XP Home in 2005, my motherboard at the time was one that played the "vanishing act" with COM ports, where Active Home couldn't find the CM11 and suddenly could see it, so I got Active Home Pro and the C15A USB interface, which 5 years later I still have.

[HA Dave]

My story is one I have told many times. When I built my Home Theater I was looking for a little "wow factor" and the motorized screens were a tad too pricey. From searching the Home Theater Sites I learned many [home] Theater owners used X10 to control the lighting.

I ordered a starter pack (RCA kit with 3 each switches, Appliance, and Lamp modules) and a PalmPad. I told my wife that would be all the automation parts I would EVER need. Shortly after the package arrived I ordered a TM751.

After (a couple more X10 orders) the Theater was completed and I found more uses for automation...and placed more orders at X10.com... and added security and cameras as well. I even won a bunch of X10 stuff in a YouTube Video contest.

Then in the fall of 2006 I came to the forum looking for new ideas and ways to use Home Automation. There I discovered BVC (called BXVC back in those days). That was all it took. I was hooked on the voice control from day one. I have yet to run out of things to automate or ways to use automation.

[nybuck]

Dave -

I love your statement:  "I told my wife that would be all the automation parts I would EVER need."

It reminds me of when I bought my first tractor...  Now, 5 tractors later......   

...And when I got back into X10, I was just buying a Floodcam... Now, 5 cameras and dozens of modules later......   

Anyway, I wonder what that RCA pack cost you back then... I just picked one up on Ebay shipped for $11!  (And it cost the seller $7 to ship it!)   

[pconroy]

Another CP290 and DOS user from the 80's.
I've still got that disk somewhere too.

[nybuck]

Another CP290 and DOS user from the 80's.
I've still got that disk somewhere too.

How would you run the disk?

The newer computers don't even have 3.5" drives any more!

[pconroy]

I don't throw everything away...    I still have a floppy drive...
Now - the odds of the motherboard having a *controller* are rare...   



I grabbed my old Powerlinc Serial and walked down to the HTPC the other day.
All ready to plug it in -- when, sure enuff...

I put a mobo in that machine with no serial ports!     

[nybuck]

I like to use the older PC for the camera monitoring/DVR (haven't gotten bitten by the HA bug yet)

It does lead to complications...  and makes me wonder...  I keep old parts laying around as well.  I had no idea how many different types/sizes of internal card ports there were out there!  I tried to replace a video card, and had a hard time finding a computer it would fit in!   

....and forget a parallel printer!  But we digress..... 

[pconroy]

They're always tinkering with the bus - and the video cards seem to bear the brunt of the change. ISA, EISA, AGP (in several flavors), PCI, PCI-e all in several flavors and I'm sure I missed a couple.

[Dan Lawrence]

Another CP290 and DOS user from the 80's.
I've still got that disk somewhere too.

How would you run the disk?

The newer computers don't even have 3.5" drives any more!

You can get a 3.5 drive that pugs into a USB port on the PC.