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[dhouston]

It's been a loooong time since I played with this and my memory these days isn't as good as I remember it being but I think you can accomplish this with one of the original X10-capable Smarthome LampLink 2000STW lamp modules. You can find the instruction manual at...
cache-m2.smarthome.com/manuals/2000STW_web.pdf
Page 9, under Understanding the Local Control and Load Detect Feature says...

Move the switch on the lamp wall  to the “ON” position. The lamp will turn on and LampLinc will transmit its primary house/unit code plus “ON”.

and...

Move the switch on the lamp wall to the “OFF” position.  The lamp will turn off and LampLinc will transmit its primary house/unit code plus “OFF”.

If you have all of the lamps on X10 lamp modules with same address as the 2000STW in the switched outlet, turning the switch ON should send a PLC signal to turn all of the lamps ON and turning it OFF should send a PLC signal to turn all of the lamps OFF.

There's one complication if you turn things off remotely, the wall switch is still ON. To again turn the lamps ON...

Move the switch on the lamp wall  to the “OFF” position and then back to the “ON” position.  The lamp will turn on and LampLinc will transmit its primary house/unit code plus “ON”.

I think you'll need one of the lamps (or maybe a small nightlight) plugged into the 2000STW.

This may not work as it was intended to sense when a lamp plugged into the 2000STW was switched rather than when the power to the 2000STW itself was switched.

[dhouston]

My misspelling of LampLinc led me to this...
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/popshields/lamplink-control-any-outlet-with-your-existing-wal
It doesn't appear that it ever got off the ground.

[JeffVolp]

Gee, if this is something that more people need, a simple mod to the XTBR firmware could do it.  It transmits P_Status_ON whenever it powers up after being off for a few seconds.  But the firmware could easily be changed to transmit another command, like P1_ON.  Or a macro could also be used to change the existing power-up transmission into anything else.

Jeff

[Noam]

After re-reading your last post I see what your looking for is a module that sends a x10 command when power is applied.

To plug in a small wall wart on the outlet that is switched and when the power is turned on, it sends a "all on" to a few lamps.

There isn't a current module that is designed to do that.

I have a power outage / restoration macro that does this with a PowerFlash plugged into a *regular* outlet - but it only works one-way (it triggers when power comes on, but can't do anything when power goes off). I put a short jumper across the two terminals, and set it to send a momentary on. When power is applied, it does (but it won't work for the "off" function when leaving the room).

[Noam]

Gee, if this is something that more people need, a simple mod to the XTBR firmware could do it.  It transmits P_Status_ON whenever it powers up after being off for a few seconds.  But the firmware could easily be changed to transmit another command, like P1_ON.  Or a macro could also be used to change the existing power-up transmission into anything else.

Jeff

Jeff -
I think it would be helpful for the XTBR firmware to have a "power restored" command ability. Even better would be the ability to customize it (change the code, add a delay - since the CM15A needs a few seconds to boot up after power comes back on). This is something I struggled with for years, and finally have a "close enough" solution using a PowerFlash module. The only downside is that very short outages (2-3 seconds, perhaps) don't trigger it, as the internal capacitors don't discharge fast enough. I tried to build a circuit that triggered after a very brief outage (half a second to one second), *and* had a few second delay after power-up before triggering the Powerflash, but I could never get it to work. Of course, that was before I started delving into Arduino. I could probably do what I wanted now with a few lines of Arduino code - but I never bothered to revisit it.

[bkenobi]

The other alternative to remembering states would be to use a setup where the controller knew the power state and was still live with the power off.  IOW, install a UPS and put the X10 controller behind it.  The UPS knows the state of power and sends it to a PC so it knows that it should shut off.  If you used that signal to trigger whatever commands you needed, you could have a robust system.  I have this setup and it works well (I don't actually restore lights, I just use a UPS to keep my controller from resetting for short outages).

[DavidinCT]

It's been a loooong time since I played with this and my memory these days isn't as good as I remember it being but I think you can accomplish this with one of the original X10-capable Smarthome LampLink 2000STW lamp modules. You can find the instruction manual at...

Interesting... a 2000STW is cheap enough (under $15 on ebay) to give it a "test" to see if I can get it to work.

Thanks ! (BTW, I remember you from about 5-7 years ago when I was really heavy into X10 with touch panels around my house etc)

My misspelling of LampLinc led me to this...
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/popshields/lamplink-control-any-outlet-with-your-existing-wal
It doesn't appear that it ever got off the ground.

Dam, that would fit the bill exactly...  It's EXACTLY what I am looking to do.

[dhouston]

Dam, that would fit the bill exactly...  It's EXACTLY what I am looking to do.

They also have a Facebook page but it doesn't show much activity.
https://www.facebook.com/lamplink/

[JeffVolp]

I think it would be helpful for the XTBR firmware to have a "power restored" command ability.

That is actually what the P_Status_ON transmission was intended to indicate.

Jeff

[dhouston]

Interesting... a 2000STW is cheap enough (under $15 on ebay) to give it a "test" to see if I can get it to work.

Don't waste the $15. I sent Igor down to the catacombs and he returned with one of my 2000STW lamp modules. I plugged it into a powerstrip with switched outlets alongside my ESM1 X10 meter. There's no PLC signal except for when the lamp plugged into the module is turned ON. Obviously, my memory was mistaken.

For X10 your best bet is Jeff's XTBR with modified firmware but I wonder if it can provide an OFF when powered down.

However, if you want to go with Voice Control & WiFi, the dirt-cheap Sonoff (& Slampher) devices available from Itead now support Alexa, Google Home, and Google Nest.
https://www.itead.cc/smart-home.html
PS: If Jeff could squeeze an ESP8266 into his XTBR, it would be even better.

[JeffVolp]

For X10 your best bet is Jeff's XTBR with modified firmware but I wonder if it can provide an OFF when powered down.

No, it just transmits when powered up.  It needs AC to keep the electrolytic charged during transmission and the 60Hz zero crossings for timing. 

PS: If Jeff could squeeze an ESP8266 into his XTBR, it would be even better.

Sorry, that isn't going to happen.  It uses the PIC16F1823.  With over 4000 products shipped, I'm not doing any new development.

Jeff

[dhouston]

Sorry, that isn't going to happen.  It uses the PIC16F1823.  With over 4000 products shipped, I'm not doing any new development.

All I'm suggesting is adding something like the ESP-01S...
http://www.electrodragon.com/product/esp-01-esp8266-wifi-module/
to any of your devices that have 2 surplus pins for TX/RX serial connection. This would add WiFi capability without much added cost. There are numerous free programming languages available. Scroll to the bottom of...
http://esp8266.net/
for a list.

You could likely do in a couple of weeks what Authinx hasn't managed in a couple of years.

[JeffVolp]

All I'm suggesting is adding something like the ESP-01S...
http://www.electrodragon.com/product/esp-01-esp8266-wifi-module/
to any of your devices that have 2 surplus pins for TX/RX serial connection. This would add WiFi capability without much added cost.

That is kind of interesting in that the XTBR is built on the XTB-232 or XTB-523 PCBs with the serial I/O components unpopulated.  Those use the TX and RX pins on the PIC.  Looking at the PCB, there is room to fit that .6" by 1" module into the area now used by the serial I/O components.  Hmm...

Unfortunately I'm pretty much saturated from now through April, but it is something worth considering when things lighten up next summer.

Jeff

[dhouston]

That is kind of interesting in that the XTBR is built on the XTB-232 or XTB-523 PCBs with the serial I/O components unpopulated.  Those use the TX and RX pins on the PIC.  Looking at the PCB, there is room to fit that .6" by 1" module into the area now used by the serial I/O components.  Hmm...

If it uses the same CM11A protocol as your XTB-232 it would be fairly simple to create (or adapt) full-featured software for Arduino & RaspberryPi to interface with it via WiFi.

[JeffVolp]

If it uses the same CM11A protocol as your XTB-232 it would be fairly simple to create (or adapt) full-featured software for Arduino & RaspberryPi to interface with it via WiFi.

If that module could emulate the CM11A serial link, it would be relatively simple to replace the XTB-232 serial interface with that module on a revised PCB.  A kludged up development PCB is a near-term possibility.

Jeff