JV Digital Engineering's XTBR Plug-In X10 Repeater: What A Beautiful Thing

Started by Convastor, January 11, 2019, 05:01:09 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Convastor

Many moons ago, X10 worked fine throughout the Convastor household.  A mere 1318 sqtf + basement: Not all that challenging.  But, over the years, as more and more electronic devices were added, X10 became increasingly unreliable.  I'd added one-or-another passive phase coupler to the distribution panel years ago.  Seemed to help a little.  Wasn't a night & day improvement.  A few years ago I bought a SmartHome BoosterLinc repeater.  It helped--when it wasn't off in the weeds.  When it lost its tiny little mind it would make things worse  B:(  (I got in the habit of leaving it unplugged except when I set timers up [had to use two to reach everything] for an occupied residence simulation when we were away.)

Finally, a few days ago, ordered a JV Digital Engineering XTBR X10 Repeater.  Ho-ly smokes!  The thing is nothing short of terrific.  Every X10 device in the house is now reached from every controller in the house.  I even hit an appliance module out in the µBarn, 75 feet from the house and over 100 wire-feet from the distribution panel, using a controller on one of the worst circuits in the house.

Caveats: What worked for me may or may not work for you.  In my case, my suspicion was my problems were probably mostly signal suckers--things that reduce the power of X10 signals, rather than interference generators that were burying the X10 signals in noise.  (This roaring success suggests I may have been right.)  And remember: I already had a phase coupler installed.

Now that X10 is again reliable for us, my plans are to probably acquire a Raspberry Pi Zero W and cm15a, and run PiX10Hub.

brobin

You're preaching to the choir my friend! All of Jeff's products are designed without compromise and without them X10 would have been gone from my home years ago.

the other steve


Brian H

Jeff's X10 products are great.
My XTB-IIR and XTBM have both been a great addition to my house.
His after sales support and troubleshooting tutorials is excellent also.

dave w

Quote from: Brian H on January 12, 2019, 06:13:47 AM
Jeff's X10 products are great.
My XTB-IIR and XTBM have both been a great addition to my house.
His after sales support and troubleshooting tutorials is excellent also.
Echo multiple times over, with many exclamation marks!
"This aftershave makes me look fat"

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk