Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Helpful Hints]

Helpful Hints: I am really troubled and
confused by such diversity of performance
claims.  I have never seen such diversity
for one product!  My experience certainly
has been less than satisfactory with the
manufacturer and the product.  In fact quite
disappointing in that the CM15A couldn’t
support my existing configuration and with a
slight expansion it has become a real
burden.   Maybe some of the more successful
users or X10 Pro can offer some
suggestions.  Here is my configuration:
PC P4 2.4GHz  1GB RAM  XP Pro SP2
AHP/CM15A  (04J44  P10792E  ROM w/keyed
power plug  then 05C10  P10792M ROM w/non-
keyed power plug) started with AHP Version
3.175 and updated every time with the latest
including iWitness Beta and  beyond  current
version 3.186.  Never had a problem with
updating and having AHP come up and run.
Never did the “popular 8 step battery
removal reset”.  Just had a lot of bugs (50+
reported to X10) and the poor RF range.  X10
system is comprised of 30 Modules, 20
Macros, 6 Timers,  6 Motion Sensors, 20 RF
remotes.  Both the first and second units
were never sufficiently reliable to run
unattended.  Corrective action was required
daily.  I am running a real application not
a test or experiment and so the "rate of
product fix" is very troublesome.  I need to
get this fixed ASAP or find an alternative
that works. The wife is very unhappy.

[tcassio]

H.H,
My way of thinking is this.  Most X10 users
have a considerable amount of money
invested in X10 equipment aside from the
CM15A. You mention that you have

"X10  system is comprised of 30 Modules,
20  Macros, 6 Timers,  6 Motion Sensors, 20
RF  remotes"  as many others do also.

I to have alot of X10 stuff.  The CM15A is
only worth $50 and in my case another $50
for the Smartmacros pkg.

My solution was to spend another $100 on a
unit that works so I could use all the
other X10 equipment that I have and have
peice of mind.

Unfortunatly, I purchased the CM15A as part
of the $150 package they were selling, and
the will not refund my money without me
pulling out all of my wall switches and
sending back all that came with the pkg.
Very smart marketing on X10's part.  There
for I have to eat the $100 on equipment and
software that does not work reliably or as
advertised.

I hope others adopt this solution, and pass
along the word about all the short commings
of the CM15A to others, and maybe X10's
bottom line will be affected as that seems
all they understand.

T.

[carmine pacifico]

I all fairness, other than  the CM15a and
AHP, other products are working Ok, for the
price. I purchased the CM15a stand alone,
just in case I had to return; smart macros
came with 2 motion detectors, either way
there is no loss, the 2 motion are worth
$50, it is a cleaver marketing and it
works. If you add all the usable product in
the “Ultimate system” your loss if you
choose not to return it is less than $50,
X10 will take AHP kits back regardless on
how long you had it.
By now many people are aware of AHP and
CM15a defects, if X10 wants to stay in
business they need to fix it; their patent
has expired long ago, so any one can make
X10 product. The 1132CU + V572AB is a great
working combination, but it’s still short
of an RF transmitter, so I can see why so
many people are willing to wait and suffer,
the true alternative is very costly.
Lowest cost AHP+CM15a equivalent: 1132CU +
V572a + Home Control Assistant Plus(user
friendly PC software) + All house Code
Transmitter(I am not sure if one exist).
I agree with X10 pro, let’s keep this forum
more friendly, I do not believe that some
people are deliberating choose to insult
others, email it’s a wonderful technology,
but it’s very impersonal, does not convey
feelings, and can be easily misunderstood.
Let’s not forget that the moderator of this
forum “X10 Pro” is a person that must
follow company guide lines, it would be
nice if he could tell us the truth, but I
am sure it’s not up to him.

[martin]

Carmine,

Excellent recap, thanks!

[Helpful Hints]

Tcassio and Carmine are right on.  Its been
a nice having some objective discourse and
technical information exchange although it
could be better we take what is.  We must
also take care to respect our fellow persons
yet remember to hold them accountable for
their actions since they exercise free
will.  One can’t justify harm to someone due
to duress from others.  We all have a free
will and are not robots.

Tcassio, I believe you have very
articulately outlined their scam.  Others
should be grateful to you for your insight
and courage.

Carmine,  I agree that X10 modules have been
quite satisfactory but their Applications
such as AHP, MultiView, XrayVision,
Firecracker, etc. (look at the X10 forums)
have many bugs that are known and not fixed
for quite some time now.  From my experience
their support has been abysmal yet somewhat
improved for AHP because of this forum.   I
believe that X10 does not deliver quality
software.  I did a bit of research the
SmartHome Manager was released March, 2004,
seven months later was their last update and
the users I have inquired with say it is
solid.   AHP/CM15A was released in August
2004, and about 8 months later what have
we?  So although I would like to see the
product reach a level of reliability and
performance as advertised I don’t see any
previous patterns to support that.  I agree
lets move on to what works for each of us.

Wonder how long this thread stays up.

[dave w]

X10 Pro
On 4/24/05 "Observer" said he replaced his
CM15A with a 1132CUP and "Life is good".

If "Observer/Helpful Hints/One Who is
Watching"  is all the same person, then
there is a hidden agenda and it is not to
help other forum members or discuss issues.
In my opinion "Observer/Helpful Hints/One
Who is Watching"  credibility is now zip,
zero.

[Helpful Hints]

Dave W:  I sincerly urge you to be sure of
your information before you start making
assumtions and declarations.

[tcassio]

Dave W.,
Respectfully, I don't know what other
peoples agenda is in this forum, I cannot
speak for them.  I to have switched to the
1132 CU and life is good.  However in the
past 7 weeks I have spent about $700 on X10
equipment and am happy with it, with the
exceoption if the CM15A and the
AHP/Smartmacros software.  Even though I am
using the 1132CU, I have paid for a CM15A
and the software mentioned above and this
entitles me to have a working product, to
voice my opinion about said product, and to
seek technical support for said product.  I
am aware that there are some people having
success  with there product, and thats
great.  I also see that there are alot of
people who are having severe problems (me
included) with it.  What I have a problem
with is the way X10 is dealing with thoes
having problems.  I have received a
replacement CM15A (not diagnostic unit) and
it was worse than the original one.  I have
posted several problems here and only a few
(it seems the easy problems) recieved
answers.  I applaud X10 Pro for the
difficult job he has, but how come I and
others have never been offered a diagnostic
unit, if this unit seems to work so well.
If I were in his position I would want to
make as many people happy as possible.
Especially thoes who spend money. X10
offered to refund my money for the Package
I purchased, but that means I would have to
remove 8 wall switches from the wall to get
my money back, how sleezy is that.  Well I
guess I am not going away since I am forced
to keep the CM15A, so they might as well be
prepared to make me happy.
Respectfully,
Tony Cassio

[carmine pacifico]

Out all people in this forum I am curious
on how many are actually measuring the PLC
signals; a phase coupler is a must , but I
have noticed many peoples are purchasing
signal booster( or repeater) , filters; do
you actually purchase and hope for the
best ? or use meter or Scope to find the
source of the problem first.
I know for experience that if motion
detectors are never triggered to close to
one another, and dim/bright sequence are
avoided the CM15a works reasonably well; by
reading other posts, the peoples that are
having good luck, are using motion
detection very sparingly and probably no
fancy dimming sequences.
On a PLC system they are many source of
noises; every body is familiar with some
TV’s, UPS etc requiring filters; I used to
use a scope, lately I use a low cost X10
signal meter from Elk products; while back
I started to have some signal loss on some
circuits, I though my old panel mounted
phase coupler/blocker was failing, it
turned out to be my new white LED night
light, their capacitive power supply
actually attenuate the signal by more than
50%, few of these night light and my X10
signal was less than 100mv in some
circuits. In my case only one UPS caused
signal losses (not longer in use), TV and
other UPS and computers are fine.

[SteveRF]

Carmine,
I doubt hardly anyone is using scopes (for
X10 troubleshooting) and very few go as far
as getting a X10 power meter.
Interesting comment about the LED night
lights... Those items had not entered my mind
as a source of noise.. I have several aroudn
the house.  Good Point !
SteveRF

[doug]

After struggeling with my CM15a for many
weeks I put it in "The Circular File" at the
end of last year and put my CM11a back in
service.  However the CM11a did not recognize
the time change this spring so I hooked it to
the computer and reset the clock.  All dusk
and dawn timers failed, looks like there is a
software bug in that Dusk and Dawn are
interchanged!!  Looking at these forums I
found glowing reports of the 1132CU so I
downloaded the manual and found that to get
any conditionals, even weekend options, I
would have to have to purchase the "Pro"
software!!!  I also noticed that you could
set a delay between the commands, which may
be needed if you had repeaters in your system.
The CM15a "failed" by turning on modules that
were not included in the macros and I had
already determined that including delays
would fix this but had not gone through all
macros systematically to try this.  My dud
CM11a forced me to recover the CM15a and try
it again.  Though it has only been running
for about 48hrs but the problems with
unwanted modules turning on have gone away
with the latest software.  This is good, I
hope nothing else comes out of the woodwork
in the next few days (when was it fixed?).
I now have a couple of cosmetic nit picks: on
the activity monitor screen, the version
number displayed on the bottom right is
truncated; clicking on the Active Home logo
on the top of the screen indicates there is
an update available even though the system is
up to date.
I think my faith in X10 is comming back, Doug

[jimsnorton]

So, here it is 2 years later & the problems are still immense. I was 'enjoying' the bickering going on, they brought me back 2 years when I first got my CM15. Within hours of replacing my CM11 I was reinstalling it. The AHP is so bad that I couldn't get it to do the simplest things. I've used X10 stuff since they FIRST came out. Oh, they weren't called X10 then, they were "BSR" & SEARS & Radio Shack, and they all worked! It wasn't until X10 first sold the CM11 when crap started to become unreliable. The old unit CP900 (or something to that affect) was bullet proof. X10 should have begun with adding functionality to that unit. Instead they forged ahead with a new philosophy, brave, but then they failed miserably with the AHP. The CM11 had it's problems, but nothing compared the the CM15. I could go on & on, but nothing comes of it. I consider this & emails to their trouble shooting department simply a forum to vent one's frustrations.
I've vented!!!

[HA Dave]

I had bought a CM11 I guess about three years ago..... I wasn't impressed, I set it aside.

In November, I read about BXVC here on this forum. I wanted BXVC but didn't want AHP. I bit-the-bullet and bought AHP (the CM15A).

At first the AHP was a nightmare! I found the thread Project to Increase Range of the CM15A. I performed an antenna mod, and I also installed a phase coupler. It was worth it..... My CM15A/AHP is working flawlessly.

[Mavrik]

Well Dave_x10_L you are one of the few that have a working unit.

I have yet to get my CM15A and AHP software to work properly. I was forced to re-install my CM11A as well.

People, don't buy the CM15A and AHP, you WILL regret it.

[HA Dave]

Well Dave_x10_L you are one of the few that have a working unit.

Mavrik, sorry to hear (read) your having problems. I have more than a little bit of X10.... and to be honest none set-up as easy as X10 advertises it would. So I think... I understand your frustrations.

I have yet to get my CM15A and AHP software to work properly. I was forced to re-install my CM11A as well.

So .... since you re-installed your CM11A.... your obviously not new to X10. I am NOT an AHP expert, but if you describe your set-up and your problems, I am sure some of the experienced AHP users will jump in with helpful advice. I know the unit works!