New x10 Wi-Fi unit

[dave w]

 

[racerfern]

I hear splashes of water.

[timlight10]

Any updates on this Wi Fi module?

[dave w]

By the time X10 gets this out of China, 2.4gHz WiFi will be obsolete, and the development process will start over. 

[Tuicemen]

I continue to nag the owner for updates so I haven't forgotten about this. There just isn't any thing to report, ironing out the connection bug was expected to be something that would take a while.
I'll post a update as soon as I hear, and hopefully that is before 2.4 GHZ is obsolete.

[dave w]

This is becoming as elusive as the pot 'o gold at the end of the rainbow. In theory a WiFi gateway will stimulate sale of more, bread and butter, control modules. So one would think Authentix would be pushing hard.

[Tuicemen]

They are! They just don't wish the rep of x10WTI.
They want this to be rock solid and currently the connection issue makes the quality not up to par.
The owner hopes everyone understands and apologizes for the continued delay.

[dhouston]

This thread started nearly 3 years ago. The longer this takes the greater the risk that they lose their market. As it is, their market is mostly just us geezers with a long-term investment in X10 devices.

It's obvious that direct WiFi control of lights and appliances is the wave of the future. There are WiFi coffee makers, WiFi crockpots, WiFi plug modules, and TP-Link's $20 hubless WiFi LED light bulb makes more sense than an X10 switch or lamp module that relies on flaky (to most people) PLC control.

The latest Raspberry Pi 3 costs $35 and has built-in WiFi and things like the $5 Onion Omega and $9 Omega Plus (both with similar computing power to the RPi3 and built-in WiFi) almost guarantee that apps will appear that allow them to control the new WiFi enabled lights and appliances as well as interfacing with existing X10 controllers via USB, serial and RF links. The RPi3 and Omega Plus have microSD slots so they can store schedules, macros, etc. locally, meaning there's no need for cloud links although optional links are certainly possible.

[JeffVolp]

It's obvious that direct WiFi control of lights and appliances is the wave of the future. There are WiFi coffee makers, WiFi crockpots, WiFi plug modules, and TP-Link's $20 WiFi LED light bulb makes more sense than an X10 switch or lamp module that relies on flaky (to most people) PLC control.

I recently watched a movie where a couple was moving into a new home where everything would be automated.  The husband was enthused by being able to lock or unlock the front door from his cellphone.  And recently I saw an advertisement bragging about the ability to control the car HVAC from a cellphone.  Wouldn't it be easier and less of a distraction to just reach over and turn the knob?

Jeff

[JeffVolp]

They want this to be rock solid and currently the connection issue makes the quality not up to par.

That can take a lot of work.  I spent a lot of time trying to make the simple RS232 interface on the XTB-232 as robust as possible.  I hit it with power glitches, X10 collisions, and noise bursts.  I could never get it to 100% because the PC program would lock up.  ActiveHome Pro was the worst, but even HCI could lose communication, and had to reconnect with the XTB-232 that was just sitting there waiting.  Sometimes HCA would reconnect by itself after a short interval, but ActiveHome Pro would have to be closed and re-started.

Jeff

[dhouston]

Wouldn't it be easier and less of a distraction to just reach over and turn the knob?

Obviously, you're a stuck-in-the-mud X10 geezer. 

The latest generation were all born with smartphones in their hands.

[bkenobi]

I can start my new truck from my phone.  It's far easier and more secure to turn on the phone, open the app, wait for connection, select "ON", wait for the start, insert the key, turn to run position.  I don't understand how people just insert the key and turn.  Crazy!

[dhouston]

I really haven't seen connection problems with WiFi. Once configured with the router's SSID & password, everything seems to connect rather quickly and seamlessly as they power-up.

I shut everything down at night and my SSID is not broadcast but everything connects smoothly when I start my day or start their day. That's 1 SmarTV, 2 Macs, 3 W10, 3 W7, 1 Dell laser printer, 1 RPi3, a 6TB HDD, plus a handful of ESP8266 modules in development projects. And, I expect Santa to bring me an Onion Omega Plus at year-end.

I did have one cheap Android tablet that would not connect to the hidden SSID. I solved that by giving it away.

[dave w]

Wouldn't it be easier and less of a distraction to just reach over and turn the knob?
Jeff

No Jeff, this needed feature provides the ability to lower the cars temperature while furiously thumbing out texts. Your eyes never have to leave the phone screen. 
(Actually I wonder if it isn't aimed at cars that can be remote started by a smartphone app(?)

[bkenobi]

My truck can send txt if I pay for the feature. It can call someone hands free (space recognition) but speach to text is extra for some reason.