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[medic5678]

i want to walk in a room, and have the appliance 3 way module turn on and stay on until i leave the room.  i've just started toying with the equipment now, and i have a 3 prong appliance module hooked to a lamp (i use compact flourescent bulbs, so the socket rocket is out).  so, let's say i have an active eye sensor set up to see me at my desk, and i sit at my desk for a few hours.   so the light stays on because motion is continually detected.. 

one question is whether using the sensor this way wouldn't eat through the batteries pretty quickly, because there is constant motion detected? 

i've noticed that the computer doesn't need to be on or any sort of macro used...  the active eye is set on a house/unit code, and anything that's set to that code turns on when the sensor is triggered.   if i trigger the sensor, i hear the transciever click, the module clicks and then it stays on until there is no activity.   

so then anything that is set to the house/unit code is triggered when the sensor is triggered, and that's that?  what if i want to use the sensor to trigger a macro?  i installed the sensor in ahp, but when i go to create a macro, it's not there.  i do see that a macro trigger is set to a unit code, so i'm assuming that triggering the sensor set on unit code 1 would trigger a macro set on unit code 1.  if this is the case, why does ahp allow you to install sensors in rooms, if nothing can be done with them directly? 

i am also assuming that a sensor is just a one way send.  if it triggers, it sends an rf signal to the transciever.   the transciever doesn't send anything back to the sensor. 

thanks in advance for someone taking time to explain this to me. .

[dave w]

Some help:

1. Constant triggering will impact battery life, but not as much as you might think. Also, I have attached D cell battery holders to some "high traffic" area motion sensors.
http://forums.x10.com/index.php?topic=21969.0

2. Yes, that's that.

3. If you trigger a macro from motion sensor, you would want (typically) the MS house code / unit code set to something other than the target lamp controller, so the macro would have direct control of the light, not the MS.
 
4. Yes sensor is one way.

Best way to figure some of this out is to simply play with it.

[medic5678]

it seems this is the sequence of events:  a sensor set to a house/unit (let's say A1) is triggered.  this is broadcast from the MS16A  to the TM-751, which in turn (1)sends out a powerline signal to anything on A1 and (2) transmits the event to the CM19A.   the CM19A inputs  through the bus to the computer and AHP then runs the macro, because A1 was triggered by SOMETHING (not necessarily a sensor).. it then sends signals through the CM19A to the TM-751 as the macro dictates, and the TM751 generates powerline signals to the equipment. 

so it wouldn't at all matter that you had set up the MS16A in AHP.  if you did or didn't, it wouldn't make the slightest bit of any difference.  it's totally unnecessary.  the AHP program has no way of knowing WHICH particular sensor was triggered. it only knows that A1 was triggered by something. 

this is easily remedied by giving a sensor a particular house/unit code, so that it's the only thing on that code.  if you've got a CM19A, you're limited to only 16 unit codes because it has only one house code.   

this means if you're going to have an elaborate system and be able to know which sensor is triggered... you'll need a CM15A as a practical matter unless you want to have several CM15K's (which are actually CM19A's coupled with TM751's).   i may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but somehow i was under the impression that AHP knew it had sensors and could see them individually.  that is clearly not the case according to my observations.  AHP has no idea at all that there are sensors in the system.  please correct me if i'm wrong. .

[medic5678]

further testing indicates that this isn't right (what i wrote above) because if i take a sensor far away enough (actually a few rooms)... it still triggers the tm-751 but never triggers the macro.  i've got two motion detectors set to A1, an ms 14a and an ms16a.   if either of these is in the same room, activation triggers both the powerline response and then the macro.  if i place them far away enough, the macro isn't triggered, but the power line works fine.  this tells me that the cm19a doesn't rely on the tm751 to see the sensor. 

ok, it's going to take some serious playing around with this .  it's apparent that i'm going to need to enhance the antenna on the CM19A.

[dave w]

this tells me that the cm19a doesn't rely on the tm751 to see the sensor. 

ok, it's going to take some serious playing around with this .  it's apparent that i'm going to need to enhance the antenna on the CM19A.

Correct, the CM19A is strickly RF. It receives the sensors RF transmission directly and inputs to AHP over the USB bus.  It has no connection to the power line and it and AHP is totally ignorant of PLC commands put on the power line by any wired controllers such as the Power Flash (AKA Burglar Alarm Interface), the Mini Timer, Mini and Maxi controller, XPT wall switch, etc.

X10 is bringing back the CM15A which receives and transmits both RF and PLC commands, which eliminates the Rube Goldberg system of using the CM19A in conjunction with TM751.

[medic5678]

i'm really surprised at how useless the antenna on the cm19A is.  fortunately, i found this hack:  http://marc.merlins.org/perso/linux/post_2011-07-24_Hacking-an-external-antenna-onto-an-X10-CM19a_-and-adding-misterhouse-support.html      if i get the sensor even 25 feet from the cm19A, it doesn't work.  time to open this puppy up and play .

i'll be ready to perform a similar operation on the cm15a when i finally get one.  

even though this stuff is kind of marginal as it is purchased, it's actually a lot of fun to play with and modify.  nothing like a sense of adventure, especially since there is so much help from the community of users .  in the long run, this is gonna be awesome .

[medic5678]

well, i got my antenna in the works.  making a 1/4 ground wave ground plane antenna.  still need a couple of parts.   by the time this is over, i'll have about $30 in parts in the whole thing.   when you consider my gas driving to pick this up and what several hours of my time are worth in medicine... it would be a bargain if i had just been able to buy one for $100.  better yet, if x10 had enough sense to market a unit with a good antenna for $10 more, then this whole fiasco would have been unnecessary.

but it is what it is .