Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.
I was thinking of using X10 to automate lighting in my home. I’m new to the idea and X10 was the first option I found. Pros are that its cheap and easy to setup. It uses your existing power lines to communicate to the nodes. Cons are that its slower than other alternatives, and its prone to false events.
Joe Zimmermansays:
You should really check out other solutions before you dive into an X10 solution. X10 if done right can work almost 100%, but if you set it up and don’t track down the bugs it’ll just make your wife/girlfriend/etc mad as heck when it doesn’t work right.
There are a ton of other solutions that work better than x10 that are way easier than the DMX this guy used. Have a look at the homeseer forums, or http://www.cocoontech.com/
zwave, insteon, upb, x10 etc..
I use a mix of x10 (not x10 brand, but x10 made by smarthome) and zwave. I have very little complaints.
The quality of the smarthome switches have always been a factor in my house, add some cheap’o x10 brand light switches and you’ll regret it.
Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.
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I was thinking of using X10 to automate lighting in my home. I’m new to the idea and X10 was the first option I found. Pros are that its cheap and easy to setup. It uses your existing power lines to communicate to the nodes. Cons are that its slower than other alternatives, and its prone to false events.
You should really check out other solutions before you dive into an X10 solution. X10 if done right can work almost 100%, but if you set it up and don’t track down the bugs it’ll just make your wife/girlfriend/etc mad as heck when it doesn’t work right.
There are a ton of other solutions that work better than x10 that are way easier than the DMX this guy used. Have a look at the homeseer forums, or http://www.cocoontech.com/
zwave, insteon, upb, x10 etc..
I use a mix of x10 (not x10 brand, but x10 made by smarthome) and zwave. I have very little complaints.
The quality of the smarthome switches have always been a factor in my house, add some cheap’o x10 brand light switches and you’ll regret it.