X10 RF-centric Solution Improves Reliability
I was plagued with erratic X10 powerline behavior even with a well-located dryer coupler/repeater, a boosterlinc, and nearly a dozen filters. Symptoms included CM11a lockups, many missed signals, the usual suspects... Running around the house with the ESM1 signal analyzer was a nightly occurrence.
I enjoyed the access to the variety of inexpensive modules and Linux software, but for useful (e.g. family-friendly) applications I needed to get the reliability up considerably.
I faced another set of expensive upgrades (wired in repeater, even more filters) with questionable return-on-investment. What I coveted was a next-generation of X10-style home automation with all the customizability and low-price, but RF based. SmartHomeInsteon looked appealing but further reading indicated that it might not be a drop-in replacement and could cause interference of its own. Z-wave wasn't accessible to MisterHouse (yet) and was a new investment from the ground-up.
Then it hit me that perhaps I did not need to wait for a next generation system, I had the right pieces already.
I built an RF based X10 system using these parts:
* I retired the lock-up prone CM11A and replaced it with the CM17A (Firecracker kit).
* I put a TM751 transceiver as the appliance controller for appliance I wanted to control.
* I set each TM751 to different house codes, and used the attached socket for the appliance.
* I programmed MisterHouse to use the CM17A instead of the CM11A.
Effectively, I've turned my existing X10 system in an RF rather than powerline system.
Notes:
* It is possible to use a single TM751 and have it redistribute the signal via the powerline. However as my goal was to virtually eliminate powerline traffic, I needed to have one for each appliance. The TM751 is nearly as cheap as appliance modules, so I went for one for appliance. Of course, I am limited now by the number of housecodes (I think? surely there's a clever way around that!) For my needs, the click they make (as most unmodified appliance modules do) was desirable.
* Please send me an email to newsaccount.h at gmail.com if this worked out for you!
Using my X10RcxSignalAnalyzer, I was able to show that reliability of my X10 system now approaches 100% up from a dismal 60%-90%.
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