Print

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

[paul mayfield]

Well this is the third time that the system
failed and didn't get me up on time for
work! I have been late 3 times and this time
it was 3 hours before my normal time up! I
had to take a vaction day! My old CM11 never
failed me! I have been on the CM15A for
nearly a year now and if I dont re-download
weekly it fails. Guess I need to buy an
alarm clock as this system is NOT RELIABLE.
I would gladly go back to the old system if
it would work under XP! Is X-10 happy with
this, I would have thought by now that they
would have offered a REPAIRED interface that
would work, look at all of the problems that
so many have had. I have been expecting an
interface that had the hardware problems
available by now (it has been nearly a year
since I purchased this unit)! What should I
do? Join the others and jump ship? Gee just
fix this thing and you might stay in
business!! I am a die hard and am waiting!
OK X-10 Pro do something!!!

[roger1818]

Paul:  Do you have one of the original
CM15As?  They are known to be unreliable.
If so I would request a replacement.

Having said that, I wouldn’t rely on X10
(regardless of the controller) for anything
that is important (such as waking up) since
there are many things that could go wrong
that would prevent the command from working
properly.  I know you say you used a CM11A
for years without a problem, but in my
mind, you were lucky.  That is not to say
that your CM15A doesn’t have problems (it
probably does), but I would get an alarm
clock regardless of  what controller you
are using.

[SteveRF]

Paul,
I have to side with Roger.  I have a diag
CM15A that has been very reliable but I would
NEVER trust it to be my alarm clock, control
my A/C system or any critical home system.
I bet there were a few X10 guys that shook
their heads and smiled when they saw that
post...  In reality though, my CM15A trips a
chime at 7am and again at 5pm every day
without fail and has for months and months.
If you have to reset it every week, you may
consider asking for a replacement.
SteveRF

[paul mayfield]

Test, can't seem to submit a message.

[paul mayfield]

Part 1

I think I purchased the unit Nov 2004. The
advertisement say "never come home to a dark
house", gee I don't know how many times my
unit has failed, it runs along flawlessly
then suddenly quits (and what I mean by
quits is that the macros and timers quit,
the unit will respond from the PC as well as
remotes and the funny thing is the activity
log still shows the macros triggering). I
was just hoping at some point x-10 would
admit there was a hardware flaw, correct it
and start selling reliable units). I do have
alarm clocks just hate those annoying
buzzers, it is so much better to have lights
gradually come on over a time period and
then have the main ones at 100% when I have
to get up, I do this over a 15 minute period
as I did with the CM11A. My computer is on a
UPS and I have a standby generator that
kicks in after a 40 sec outage. In reality X-
10 advertises that this thing should be able
to turn on your coffee pot and such (and it
did everything it was supposed to reliably
with the CM11, I only went to the new unit
because of the problems with XP which I now
have running on my machines. If the CM15A
was as reliable as the CM11 I would be very
happy.

[paul mayfield]

Part 2

By the way I have been using these systems
since they came out, used to run it from the
C-64 computer interface, lets see I think
that was a CP-290 or something, still have
two of the interfaces but no computers left.
I have a repeater and phase coupler and
overall the devices are reliable (actually
had my first major failure during a storm
last thursday, 4 lamp modules failed and one
actually BLEW UP, it is smoked popped,
sparked, flash of light and a tripped
breaker, never in all of my years have I
seen that happen!). I have the analyzer and
all of the appropriate filters installed to
ensure reliabilty. There were some recent
(within the year) problems that I had to
iron out, got a new microwave and that was
killing the signal, filter fixed that as a
few of the UPS systems that I have
operating, it seems that some of the new
tech items tend to interfere with the
signal. All said if the controller were as
reliable as the CM11 this would be a great
system and I would recommend it to my
friends and colleagues. I am dissapointed
that X-10 doesn't keep us posted on where
they stand with the problems that they know
about. Is there going to be a AM15B (that is
reliable)? AHP how about letting us know
where we stand?

[paul mayfield]

Well I guess I figured that out, if the
message is to long it just won't post. And I
see I errored, meant to type is there going
to be a CM15B!

[roger1818]

Paul:  You are correct and older CM15As
(pre March 2005) will lock up after
somewhere between every 2 hours and every 2
weeks.  In March X10 created a diagnostic
unit and those seem to work much more
reliably (mine was running for 3.5 months
without a problem).  If you haven’t had
yours replaced since then, then that is
what I would do.

X10 has never publicly admitted what was
wrong with the older units (I don’t think
they know).  I suspect the problem is poor
quality filtering capacitors as someone
else on this forum got their CM15A working
more reliably by adding decoupling caps on
two of the ICs (I am shocked that there
weren’t any) and on both sides of the
voltage regulator.

BTW, it wouldn’t be a CM15B as the A is not
a version number but to indicate that it is
a North America module (an E is used for
European modules).  Personally I don’t
think you would see a change in module
number if X10 were to release a fixed
version.

Having said all of this, I still say that I
wouldn’t want to rely on it for anything
important.  Earlier this week I had a
problem where one of my remotes was stuck
in a drawer and started transmitting
continuous E1-OFFs.  It took me a bit to
figure out why my controllers suddenly
stopped working.  In this case the timers
actually continued to work, but there are
many things that could cause them to not
work.

[paul mayfield]

OK AHP, what do I need to do to get a
replacement? Let me know! I sure would like
a reliable unit!

[roger1818]

If you can get X10 Pro's attention
(ahpsupport@x10.com) that would be your
best bet.  Otherwise you can call customer
support and explain your problem.  They
should mail out a replacement free of
charge but you might have to jump through
more hoops to get there.

[JM]

I have just purchased an CM15A and it
locked up by the third day!
The x-10 remote I bought at the same time
has now stopped transmitting and I find the
software to be LOADED with problems and
bugs. (such as software crashes when I hit
the “Help” button, etc)
I bought 2 x-10 switches but then switched
to Smarthome's Togglelinc switches.
They are more money, but WELL worth it!
There is NO comparison.
Built much, much better and look like they
are from this decade, not the 1970s.
Since I have been having so much trouble
with the CM15, I think I'll dump it and go
with the Smarthome PowerLinc 1132CU USB
interface as well.
I'm very impressed with Smarthome's quality
products and the modern up-to-day styling
of their products! Highly recommended.
www.smarthome.com.

X-10: You started the product line, why
can't you create a reliable, modern-looking
product? You’re more concerned about making
sales then having a reliable product.
For shame...

[dave w]

JM
As owner of both CM15A and Smarthomes
1132CUP I can say the Smarthome Manager Plus
software, has it's own set of problems. USB
communicatins errors preventing monitoring
of X10 activity, "sequences" that do not
execute, program icons that change for no
reason, all of which is acknowledged by
Smarthome. Oh I might add, empty customer
support promises or non response. FWIW

[scott]

Paul (and anyone else experiencing these
problems), go to Windows Update while the
CM15A is connected to your computer and get
the driver there.  X-10 supplied this in one
of their updates, but if you didn't install
that specific update or have had to reinstall
since then, you're running on the original
driver.

I have an original CM15A and had problems
exactly like yours, so the controller just
sat while I waited for a driver update (I was
pretty sure even then that this was the
problem, as it was always people who had
disconnected their CM15A's from their
computers that had these problems).

Scott

[Decline to state]

Smarthome's Manager Plus software has a
couple of issues, but nothing like AHP.
(For instance, if you transmit commands back-
to-back for 30 seconds without a break,
WHILE connected to a computer [it doesn't
need to be once you download your timers and
macros], WHILE running the SMP software, the
software gets confused as to whether the
interface is still connected.)  "Sequences"
(basically a macro you can call from another
macro) don't send the old-fashioned DIM
commands, but there's a work-around that
does.

NEVER have I had my 1132 just lock up.
NEVER has my 1132 not sent a command on
time.  NEVER has my SMP software given me a
popup ad.  (Sorry, that last one refers to
a "feature", not a bug.)

Tom

[dave w]

Tom
Yes the X10 product has hardware problems,
the smarthome product does not...as long as
it is not connected to the software. But the
Smarthome product does not live up to the
Smarthome marketing claims. If one has a
problem in a macro, but can not troubleshoot
the problem because the software can't
follow the activity, that is a problem as
frustrating as X10's problems. Same with the
sequence comment. Sequences do not
issue "old fashion" DIM commands...but SMPs
% DIM command doesn't work either, so again
the software does not / can not perform as
Smarthome has claimed. If one uses SMP for
rudimentary timing functions, it works fine.
Sorta like AHP.