The Future of X10

[pomonabill221]

oooooooooooooo, ahahahaha, druel druel druel, heart rate increase, deep breathing.... random blinking and/or sequential chase patterns..... oooo ahhh 

Remember the Hollywood depiction of a computer in the 1960's (think "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea", and "Lost In Space"). Always a huge wall of blinking square lights. Uh-oh, my heart rate just shot up....

Yes I do remember "Voyage to the bottom of the sea"!  It was one of my favorites, and Lost in Space!
I remember on VttBotS.... the "reactor" lights (round port hole kind of things), looked like someone was sliding a mask behind the wall, with a light behind that because of the way the "shadows" moved.... and other older sci-fi flicks had all the blinking lights in a random pattern... makes ya laugh now!

[Knightrider]

forget "Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea".  I really like the "Fantasic Voyage" with Racquelle Welch.  That still gets my dander up.

Sorry to derail yet another topic, but X10 Repair Depot has spoken, and I thought I'd have a little fun.

[HA Dave]

.... but X10 Repair Depot has spoken.....

Yes he has. With fewer and fewer X10 devices and no plans for an interface... the future of X10 Home Automation doesn't look all that bright. I am thankful to have been here for the golden years.

[beelocks]

X10 has the design, the ability and the production tools for the CM15A - just because a factory closes that does not normally mean that tooling mysteriously disappears; if the tooling is AWOL then something much more sinister is going on.

All of that matters not a whit because X10 Depot has, indeed spoken, and thus he spake "We can make it, but you cannot afford it". He's saying the CM15A is too expensive to put into production, but an alternative is in the pipeline.

I understand that if all new tooling needs to be made then it's expensive.
I also understand that designing a new replacement, and making new tooling for that will be even more expensive - designers cost money, prototypes cost money, testing costs money, FCC licensing costs money and production costs is production costs.

I would not be at all surprised if the fabled CM15A replacement is a rebadged ( ) version of one of the older interfaces - printing a sticker and slapping it on a FireCracker should be dirt cheap as far as production costs go and should enable a retail price that X10 deem suitable to for marketing.

I'm not asking for information as to the ins and outs of X10's business model, but I would like to say that anyone who sincerely believes that designing and building a brand new product is less expensive than putting an existing design into production is fooling no-one but themselves.

Perhaps X10 Home Automation division will be taking a leaf from the books of their tablet and IP camera departments - could the new X10 controller actually be an Insteon or Zwave controller with a shiny new badge? 

Just sayin'

[dave w]

just because a factory closes that does not normally mean that tooling mysteriously disappears; if the tooling is AWOL then something much more sinister is going on.

Yeah, but we are talking China here. They play by different rules. If the government says "close the factory", they shut the doors and walk away. It has happened before. We only know what we are being spoon fed through filters, but I agree the whole picture does not bode well for the X10 revitalization that we are hoping for.

[Noam]

Whatever happened to "If you build it, [they] will come?" 

[Sammer]

Perhaps X10 Home Automation division will be taking a leaf from the books of their tablet and IP camera departments - could the new X10 controller actually be an Insteon or Zwave controller with a shiny new badge? 

Just sayin'

Maybe X10 USA should have considered subcontracting Universal Devices. They seem almost able to perform miracles with their Insteon controller and would probably find an X10 controller to be much easier to develop.

[dave w]

forget "Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea".  I really like the "Fantasic Voyage" with Racquelle Welch.  That still gets my dander up.

You just liked the part where they were ripping the anti-bodies off her wet suit. I remember that too, but I'm too old for it to get my dander up anymore. 

[dhouston]

Maybe X10 USA should have considered subcontracting Universal Devices. They seem almost able to perform miracles with their Insteon controller and would probably find an X10 controller to be much easier to develop.

I think you'll find they use a Smarthome supplied Insteon IC to work their almost miracles. And, I believe they already handle both Insteon and X-10 but at prices that would make X10 Repair Depot blanch.

[Noam]

Well, I just took another look at what's out there for interfacing an Arduino with a TW523 (which my XTB-IIR emulates).
It seems there have been a number of updates, including updates to the libraries to work with the newer versions (since 1.0) of the Arduino IDE.
I think I'll have to play with this again at home, and see where it gets me.

EDIT:
I decided to split off my Arduino sub-thread.
Here is the new thread: http://forums.x10.com/index.php?topic=27283.0

[JeffVolp]

There are also a lot of folks out there using PC (or Mac) automation programs, and interfacing through one of the serial-port X10 powerline interfaces.  That is a good application for an old laptop computer with a stable operating system because it doesn't use that much power.  Some of those programs are even free - like the X10-only version of Home Control Assistant.  And you can always use ActiveHome with the CM11A, which is still available for about $30 from that special production run a couple of years ago.

Jeff

[mike]

forget "Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea".  I really like the "Fantasic Voyage" with Racquelle Welch.  That still gets my dander up.

i think you lie:  I bet it was not "Fantastic Voyage" but simply Rachel Welch!

Tuicemen, I am illiterate on how to find stuff like polls;  if you put a simple link to it, I promise to add 1 to the vote counter.....

[Brian H]

It is a standard message where a poll was added as an option.
A search would probably find it.
Anyway it is a sticky post in the Active Home Pro General area.
http://forums.x10.com/index.php?topic=27192.0

[Tuicemen]

Mike,
As Brian stated a poll is at the start of a thread if created.
The link he posted is for what would you pay for a CM15 replacement.

Other Polls I created are not always stickies Unless I feel the threads content may be helpful to newbies or may need to be found quickly by others.

[Knightrider]

i think you lie:  I bet it was not "Fantastic Voyage" but simply Rachel Welch!

guilty as charged.