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Home automation gadgets for free 139

Posted by Hemos from the come-and-get-it dept.
mamadrum writes "Firecracker is giving (today only) away a starter kit of PC controlled home automation relays and software. It uses a wireless connection between the PC serial port and an outlet, then modulates control signals on the house AC wiring. Seems to be an example of "give away the razors and charge for the blades" since you only get one relay. Still, adding relays is cheaper than opening up my walls to put in 10baseT. Old tech but decent price. "It's 5.90 for the shipping. Anyone played with this before?
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Home automation gadgets free

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  • Windows-only but code for many platforms is on its say. One thing to note to everyone that this is not the full kit for home control. Just a sampler with a neat RF (via RS232) xmitter. The protocol is published but this RF unit actually sends the bits across RF just as they would go across your AC wireing. You don't write "A1 ON" out your RS232 port and get the module "A1" turned on. One has to code to the timing of the raw X10 protocol. They don't even use Rx/Tx for this either, it uses 2 RS232 control lines (CTS/DTR IIRC).
    This is a great deal for play or to increase your current X10 module base. Maybe we just need a Java version of the software....
  • If you really want to get hardcore automation stuff take a look at Lonworks. [lonworks.com] This is one of the places where the big boys go to automate entire office buildings. Neat stuff. There are all kinds of media that this can run on, from twisted pair to fence wire in New Zealand.
  • It's good to see X10 doing something to build an established user base before Micros~1 kicks into gear and tries to dominate this industry

    it's funny i was just reading about m$~oft's early attempts to get into multimedia set-top box's back in the early 90's (94 to be precise) last week. It was in an old wired article [wired.com] [2.09-Sep1994]. (wired's cool its all online even from back in '94). here's a summary of what the boss at http://www.microware.com (Microware President Ken Kaplan ) thought at the time...

    I don't know what other people think, but I just don't think Microsoft's gonna be a player. I just think it's too late. We've been working on this for two, three years. We've got real product. By the time they figure out how to put Windows on a set-top box, we'll have a couple of million boxes out there and working.

    wonder if it still holds?

  • Re:FYI (Score:2)

    by tgd ( 2822 )
    Ack, forgot to mention something. This unit is almost certainly not compatible with any of the linux software, because the older two units did not have serial pass-through on them. I have a CP290 unit which works, and was the predecessor to this one. The protocols changed between the CP290 and the one before that, so it probably happened this time, if not at least to support how ever its doing the "passthrough"

  • Re:FYI (Score:1)

    by mattdm ( 1931 )
    there linux software (see other comments) which is specifically written for FireCracker, which is what this kit is....

    --

  • ..are pretty simple. I wrote a Macintosh app to control that kind of stuff to fill time in highschool CS; took me all of an hour to get the controller communications part working.

    (ah, highschool CS, how I miss those days; Macintoshes and resedit made it Sooo easy to write login spoofs, and then there was the time I replaced all the lab's system's default window drawing/updating functions with oval-frames..)
  • If you're looking for OS/2 software to run X-10 based devices, then check out http://home.att.net/~ASchw/ [att.net], home of the House/2 and House/290 applications. Based on other comments, I gather that the FireCracker Link Module is not compatible with this software.

    And speaking of the CM11A and discounts, it appears that they are offering their ActiveHome [x10.com] kit for $50 (normally $130).

    --
    Timur Tabi
    Remove "nospam_" from email address

  • My question is (and I have no experience with home automation kits) whether there is any advantage to getting multiple kits? Can you make use of the relays that come with other kits to set up a very cheap system, or is there a limitation of some sort?

    Tom Byrum
  • If you've already given them an email address, install procmail and filter their junk...

    If you haven't already given them an address, create a hotmail or yahoo or whatever address. They're free, and you can just abandon the account once you've got your product.
  • I'd add two more problems to the list:

    3) Your neighbor can control your stuff if you're hanging off the same transformer on the pole. Happens all the time in apartments, and I lived in a house once that was wired that way. I've never had a neighbor with X10 units, but I had a friend who did.

    4) No set levels for dim and bright

    #4 confused me when I first got it. The modules keep TWO states, on/off and brightness. So a 20% dim followed by an OFF then an ON won't turn the unit to full brightness, only to 20%. Changes are relative too, so two requests to set the brightness to 20 in a row end up at 40% not 20%. This means to make sure a light is at a preset level you have to send an OFF, then a command to turn the unit down the max amount -- even if its not all the way up -- then a brighten to the correct level followed by an ON.

    Once you've got it figured out its not that tough, and the Windows software seems to do it automatically, but if you're using heyu or something you need to take that into account yourself.
  • Firecracker control drives can be found at: http://mlug.missouri.edu/~tymm/ [missouri.edu]

  • ...see subject...

    nmarshall
    #include "standard_disclaimer.h"
    R.U. SIRIUS: THE ONLY POSSIBLE RESPONSE
  • See, this scares me a bit. I have so many problems/crashes/concerns on my non-networked PC at home. I couldn't imagine have a house that is networked as such.

    It reminds me of Bill Gates' house. I was told it is almost fully automated running on WinNT. I hear that it has periods of non-functioning. Granted that is WinNT, but still, I would hate to have my dishwasher or shower crash..
    -Clump

  • Bah. (Score:1)

    by Shiska ( 131 )
    Windows-Only control software. ... I wonder if the protocol is simple.
    ----------------- ------------ ---- --- - - - -
  • The software for this thing is compatible with Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT. Not that I blame them or anything, but I imagine that until a Linux version is available, this hardware will have little practical use to some people here. At least, to me it's not worth the six dollars...

  • The gadgets are cool and all, but the computer interface is just a little widget that plugs into your serial port (really tiny) and the software it comes with (You download it actually) is a Win95 app that looks like the remote the package comes with and you can program it like the real remote. Very limited, but a good way to start getting into automation at a cheap price.
  • These (I think) are partially supported under linux, but the automagic turning on & off is not quite there yet. (You could write a cron script, but the point is to have them turn on & off with the computer off).
  • My coworker told me about this deal weeks ago. I gave in and got one. I was expecting it to take a long time to process my order, but to my surprise I received it in only a few days. It is fun to play with, so I think I got my $5 worth.

    The little remote works well, and you can download the Windows software from their web site. The software worked fine for me, but I had to put it in "Compatibility Mode."

    I'd definately like to see a Linux version of the software that I could run from cron. I could have it turn on my Lava Lamp automatically! I don't do alot with serial port programming, but I can't imagine this would take much effort.
  • Larry Wall gave a talk about his house at the Silicon Valley LUG. I believe that this is the
    technology that his house is running on, which would imply that linux and perl drivers are available. If not from the company.
  • There are many X10 control proggies despite what other people have been posting. You can control your house with a Linux box. See freshmeat [freshmeat.net].

  • I bought one of these sets during the ZDNet offer a few weeks ago. Here's what you get:

    • The serial computer interface: a pass-through DB9 module, about 1"x.75"x.5". Has no noticable effect on the pen pad I have connected to that port, although I have yet to use both at the same time.
    • 1 transciever/appliance module: 3"x3"x1", plugs into a 2-prong polarized outlet. It serves two purposes: First, it receives the signals from whatever remote you're using, and relays it into your electrical system. Second, it acts as a remotely-switchable outlet for any appliance you plug into it. You must plug this in, even if you don't used its switched outlet. there's a button on the module to override it.
    • 1 Lamp module: 3"x3"x1", plugs into a polarized outlet. Doesn't act as a transciever, but does allow you to switch and dim a lamp plugged into it. You can override this module by switching the lamp off and back on.
    • 1 Remote control: 3"x4"x.75", allows you to switch appliances on or off, or adjust lights, individually.
    • The Firecracker software: Win95/98/NT program to be downloaded from X-10's web site. (No source, before you ask.) Simulates a remote control. In fact, the default interface looks exactly like the aforementioned remote. Also lets you print a label strip for the (physical) remote, but doesn't do much else. Most importantly, no timer or macro functions.
    • A ton of e-mail. X-10 [x10.com] sends me ads daily, which would be annoying if I didn't just filter it into its own folder. If you're interested in using their other home automation products, these ads have some huge (50-75%) markdowns from their normal prices. Other than their own ads, I don't think my spam level has gone up since I ordered, but I'm not certain.

    My experiences: I've only used the computer interface for pure novelty value. But then, I live in an apartment where I can walk to any appliance in the apartment almost as quick as I can load the program. Also, most of the electrical stuff in my apartment is either stuff I don't want to switch at the socket, or lighting from convenient wall switches. For the most part, I only really use the handheld remote and a lamp dimmer which is currently hooked up to a lamp in a hard-to-reach corner. I like the kit for that, but don't think I would have spent any more than the $6 S&H that I did.

    On the other hand, my dad is more heavily into the X-10 stuff. At his house, he's replaced several wall switches for ceiling lights with X-10 wall switches. He has a more advanced controller package and software (again, Windows-only) which does have timer functions, macros, etc. Although the software allows him to program the controller, the controller itself operates independently of the computer and will continue timer functions, etc. wehn the computer is off. He used to use the old mechanical timed switches to make the house look occupied on vactions; now he uses this Firecracker stuff.

    Warning: The special $6 Firecracker deal may be only for new customers. My dad, who had bought their stuff before, ordered a set. He just got his credit card bill, and had been charged $20. I don't know if this was a clerical error, or whether the that's the price for existing customers. Still, that's less than he'd pay for an extra lamp module and appliance module.

    From what I understand, X-10 [x10.com] is just one supplier of these home automation gizmos. They sell several types of wall modules, switches, and controllers, as well as security equipment. They also have stuff for letting you control your computer from your TV. I know Radio Shack sells compatible gear, and I'm sure someone has written Linux controller software for some of the existing control units.

    Anyway, I may get some more of their home automation stuff in the future (a keychain remote to turn on the lights before I go in might be nice). Which is the point: this deal is just to give you a taste of their products. This new computer module seems to have more novelty value than anything else, but the remote control and switches aren't bad.

  • OOhhhh! Could I have a copy of this miracle module/ or it's sourcecode?

    (halejc@ori.net)

    Thanks!

  • Even if you can't use the computer interface, the kit does come with a handheld remote. Except for the interface itself, all the hardware is X-10 standard, so the lamp and appliance modules will work with any X-10 controller, apparently including some that do have Linux software. Besides, this interface is a brand-new gadget, and I'm sure some Linux hacker is already working on a driver.
  • When I was eight years old, my grandparents sent me, in the mail, for my birthday, this tome-like book on how to automate my home from my PC.

    At the time I didn't much care for it, because I'd rather play Defender on the IBM, but my parents still hid the book, for fear that I would break something/electrocute myself/burn down the house.

    I wonder where that book went?

  • why would your computer be off? some 'linux' people just don't get it :/

  • The problem with X10 (Score:3)

    by sean.k ( 20273 ) on Monday June 21, 1999 @10:45AM (#1840623)
    is that it's unreliable. If you live in a *new house* then you can expect everything to be fine&dandy. If you live in an *old* house or (far worse) an apartment, you can kiss your X10 reliability goodbye. As X10 uses the AC wiring to transmit signals, it's reliant on every wall socket being ultimately connected to every other wall socket via a reasonably clean power system. Many apartments and old homes have either multiple circut breakers or a bizarre power setup that doesn't work well with X10. Where I live now X10 doesn't work at all basically. That said, I've heard of farmers using X10 to control stuff out in fields from their home, so YMMV.
  • ZDNet has been pushing the X10 Firecracker unit for a while now. I purchased the $5.90 deal a few weeks ago and here's my opinion.

    Shipping - The final product arrived in a very timely manner. I was surprised at the short turn around time of less than 1 week.

    Packaging - Lots of bubble wrap. The $6 is worth it just for the finger strengthening exercise.

    HW Product quality -

    • (+) The stuff looks like it will last for a while. The miniature button on the lamp module for switching the appliance on/off was a great inclusion. The X10 modules I used to wire staging lights back in my college days didn't have this and it is definitely a good feature.
    • (-) The remote takes (4) AAA batteries. The Firecracker serial interface uses a though-port design that I use to inline with my external modem for my laptop, and when I use the software to actually control something it ends up killing my internet connection.
    SW Product quality - download and install were no problem. It's basically a Win 9x GUI front end version of the remote control. It is home control through clicking buttons AND NOT home automation with scheduled tasks or event driven interaction.

    While I'm happy with the bang for the buck ratio (!/$) I'm having trouble figuring out how to use this with any practicality given my rather basic lifestyle. If I plug a reading light in, do I really want to use a remote to turn it on or off, or hit a button on the lamp module rather than turning it on or off by the built in switch?

    What I really need is a timed power supply for my bedside lamp. When I fall asleep reading a geek book in bed, I dislike seeing it on when I get up the next morning. Has anyone implemented a direly needed solution to some home control problem with the FireCracker kit?

  • That was quick... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Be advised: It seems that they just found out what slashdot is, and what happens to any system that winds up here. :)

    Their order placement server has been slashdotted and they can't even check if an attempted order went through. It might be a good idea to order with the 800 number instead.

    For those who got an error trying to order: They said that if you got as far as the point where you enter your credit card you're probably OK. If you don't get e-mail confirmation by tonight, they said they would let me place the order again over the phone tomorrow.
  • You can have 16 different "channels" (A-P), with 16 different devices on each channel (1-16) for up to 256 different devices. The transponder/appliance module acts as device 1 on whatever channel you pick, so you can't have multiple transponders on one channel. Within the 256-device limit described above, you can use as many lamp modules, on one or multiple channels, as you want. You can have as many remotes as you want; a remote is set for a given channel, but you can switch channels fairly easily (just turn a dial with a screwdriver or paperclip). Same thing for the computer module. So, there isn't that much advantage to getting multiple kits; if you want a bunch of lamp and/or (non-transceiver) appliance modules, X10 offers much better deals.
  • That's exactly what I wound up doing. Up until now, though, I've been fortunate enough not to have to filter spam at all, so I had to spend several minutes figuring out how to set up filters in the first place.

    Beyond that, what really bugs me is that someone at X10 either (1) knows damn well that sending e-mail every day is going to annoy the vast majority of the people on their e-mail list, but just doesn't give an airborne boink because the others more than make up for it in additional sales; or (2) does not possess a functioning central nervous system. In either case, I do not feel like rewarding this person by doing business with his/her company.

    There, does that help?
  • >they spam you daily with their new offers.

    Boy, that's for sure. I never even bought anything, and they sent me at least one love letter a day about some fantastic offer they had. Took me a month of asking before they took me off their list. (ugh)

    I'm still very interested in doing something with this at some point. I just won't ever give x10.com an e-mail address ever again.

  • I have a house full of X10 stuff, some going back to the mid 70's when it first came out. Being a sucker for anything free, I snapped up the Firecracker deal when I first heard about it.

    So far I haven't been able to make it work at all, which isn't surprising because there are a number of things that can interfere with X10 signals, especially PC power supplies.

    Their "Active Home" system is a lot better, and there's Linux software that will work with it. I especially like the Web based interface. Maybe one day I'll even get it to work!
  • Oh yes, they do spam you every day with their newsletter. Every day is a sale day, so make sure you don't rush in to buying anything. I've purchased over $200 worth of stuff from them in the past year, and am fairly happy. Customer service sucks big time, so hope nothing goes wrong.

    There are things that work well, and other stuff that ends up useless.

    Useful things:
    In-wall light switch, palm-pad remote, the 6-1 remote (thought this would be useless, but it actually has more range then my other remotes)

    Useless things:
    Computer interface (nice toy to play with, but thats all), motion sensor (annoying), keychain remote (not their new one)

    Wait for their specials where they give out two things plus everything is 12% off. The best thing to get free is the palm pad. The firecracker deal is really nice. Got one to get the extra receiver and palmpad. Nice tryout type of thing. One thing I hate, all their modules and controllers use AAA batteries, and usually 4 for each. Transmitter range is not that great.

    Overall: satisfied. Never go home to a dark house...

  • The CM11a serial protocol isn't easy per se, but it isn't that complex either. There are some nasty gotchas, like (AFAIRemeber) a result code that could also be interprated as an result code. A nicer (than the official X-10 one) protocol guide can be found here [tanj.com] along with a nifty command line X-10 interface program (named heyu). The newsgroup comp.home.automation [comp.home.automation] is a good resource for X-10 and other HA related things.

  • Linux HA and X10 (Score:3)

    by Ricochet ( 16874 ) on Monday June 21, 1999 @11:30AM (#1840635) Homepage
    Note: I don't make a cent off any of the products mentioned here and this is not an ad for any of the companies. I'm just attempting to add info to the discussion.

    If you want software and information about Linux Home Automation (HA) please check out my pages http://members.home.net/ncherry [home.net] or http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/lig htsey/52 [fortunecity.com]. The software, documentation and link are just a collection of the stuff I've found over the years. It should work with other flavors of unix. I have some other links to HA pages. If you find any interesting Unix/Linux HA projects, software, or documentation please email with the info and I'll add it to the pages.

    I've noticed quite a few errant statements about Linux HA and X10. First the X10 technology has been around since the early 70's (which explains it's weird protocol). X10 is a lot like running a Unix operating system (if you just want to sit back and not know much about it I wouldn't recommend it). X10's customer support is weak and their documentation is poor. For the best source of info on HA (and X10 in particular) check out comp.home.automation. Now that I've said all these bad things about X10 I'll add that I use it and I can make it work pretty well. Mine runs correctly 99% of the time and last 1% is probably my fault. This doesn't include when I'm playing with software (which may tend to crash the system from time to time when you're experimenting with new coding ideas).

    I've been using X10 with Linux for over 10 years and I have it working pretty well. The only thing that we're really missing is a good GUI to make the software collections easier to use. I currently have 5 devices under X10 control at all times (and at Christmas time I have a lot more). The reason for so few is that I'm working on the rest of the house and I haven't a need for more just yet. I have quite a few more devices I'll begin controlling when the time is appropriate. X10 is not the key technology in HA. But it is useful and when used with other technologies can be very nice. Steve Ciarcia (editor of Circuit Cellar Ink [circuitcellar.com] and a great many Byte magazine articles) has a fully automated home (he uses a custom controller which can be purchased ( HCS II [cc-concepts.com]).

    I hope this is enough to whet some peoples appetite for the HA field.

    --

    Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry@home.net [mailto]
    http://members.home.net/ncherry [home.net] (Text only)
    http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/lig htsey/52 [fortunecity.com] (Graphics GB)

  • you lived in a house that could have its x10 units controled buy a person in a seperate house next door? and this was accomplished by the X10 signal traveling through the wire on the pole? i find this very hard to believe, in fact it should be impossible.

    It is infact possible, everyone served by your transformer can see your X(-)10 and you can see theirs. If you have problems with things turning on and off (esp. a round times like 6:00 or 7:15) , you can get a "line cleanser" from a place like SmartHome [smarthome.com]. I know Leviton makes one, and there are others. Some security systems use X10 as well, and can cause things to turn on and off seemingly at random.
  • Come on folks, haven't you all learned to give out your Hotmail account instead of your regular email? I mean, what better place to collect huge piles of spam than on Microsofts servers, at Microsofts expense?

    Anyhow, as has been said, X-10 has a different sale on every day. There are several items that are -always- on sale (starter kits, etc.), and there is always something you get for free with every item (usually remotes of various sizes and flavours.)

    If you can wait, decide what you want, wait for a deal you like to come along (should only take a few weeks at most), and order it. This stuff is cheap, so it's not like it's a huge up-front investment. I ordered the $19.99 starter kit with the remote just so I can have a new universal remote that will also allow me to control the lighting in the TV room. Easily worth $20.

    Now if I could wire up caller-id to the TV, wire up a speaker phone into the TV room that I can control with X.10, and rig up a remote lock for the front door so the pizza guy can let himself in, I'd never have to get up again (well, maybe for some things...)


  • >It's an absolute fire hose of spam. At least one message per day.

    If you think one message a day is a 'fire hose'. You should see my hotmail account! I haven't posted the address in 2 years and I just broke my record recently when I received 20 spam emails in one day.

  • hmm... (Score:1)

    by typ0 ( 32544 )
    does X10 also work with european style fuseboxes?
  • No, it won't. But you can get X10 stuff in Europe, too, made for the 220V 50 Hz power system. From what I've heard from others, they scalp you for that stuff, as usual in Europe. I heard that modules which cost $13 or so in the US, sell in Germany for DM99, which is around $55 or thereabouts.
  • Oh yes, they do spam you every day with their newsletter. Every day is a sale day, so make sure you don't rush in to buying anything. I've purchased over $200 worth of stuff from them in the past year, and am fairly happy. Customer service sucks big time, so hope nothing goes wrong.

    Yeah...after reading an article in Linux Journal about using the X10 290(?) controller, I did some poking around their web site. Found the ActiveHome kit which was a much better price. E-mailed them to see if the controller boxes were compatible from the PC end. Never got an answer, just the daily e-mail specials. And the "one day only" deal is BS...I've been getting mail about the Firecracker deal for like a week now.

    So, their attitude about handling inquires kind of hacks me off.

  • bottlerocket (br) works just fine for me. I had to fiddle with the timings on my Pentium III machine, though, since the author used simple loops to slow things down.



    The kicker with the firecracker is that it's transmit only. You can't watch the wire, say, to see whether a motion sensor has tripped. However, I still think I got my money's worth out of the firecracker kit. The remote, lamp module, and tranceiver (which also has one switched outlet, hard set at device 1 or 9), was a good deail.

  • curious what the total bill came out to if anyone from canada has ordered this thing. given how UPS likes to stack on crap like huge brokerage fees, cod fees on brokerage fees, fee fees, and fee handling fee fee fee fees ;)
  • JINI, that's great! There was a discussion of JINI at the local JUG and I like what I heard. A JINI firecracker component would be really cool but would the whole application come over? The concept of plugging in a camera and JINI supplying the printer interface so you could print from a camera application but how might you do the X10 stuff? Sounds intriguing.
  • People not familiar with X-10 should be aware that it uses a very slow bitrate; it takes almost a second for devices to respond to a given command.

    The slow bitrate is what lets them get away with having the Firecracker computer interface toggle serial port lines in real time to send each bit (instead of using a UART).

    On the handheld remote that comes with the Firecracker kit, there is an LED that blinks out the bit pattern as it's being transmitted to the receiver. It is so slow that you can see the individual bits being sent.

  • This is very cool...

    I load the page and right off the bat the lights
    in the room are flipping off and on...(I assume
    from commands from other viewers...)

    Damn cool.
  • ITs called heyu, and its damn good, you can script things to happen on your box depenfing on the lighte, you can even have a light turned on if you have e-mail. This stuff is madd good, get it while you can

  • My apartment is visible at http://phobos.illtel.denv er.co.us/~abelits/apartment.php3 [denver.co.us] -- two webcams and x-10 devices that can be controlled through HTTP.

    Everything runs on one linux box, camera is qcwebcam, and x-10 software soon will be released. x-10 hardware is a bit strange -- it's TW-523 and " TWO-WAY [asihome.com]" serial to interface.

    I will close the access to this when blinking will become too annoying.

  • You can block all X10 signals coming in to your house by using a blocking coupler. You put it on your load center, and on outside outlets. You can also get a coupler/repeater, that not only connects phase a and b in your house electrical system, but also repeats any signals it gets to increase reliability.

    Not only that, but X10 stuff has gotten a lot cheaper lately. Me, a poor college student has been able to afford some stuff. I have all the lights in the den and my room on X10. The remote I have even works with our TV, VCR, and stereo. I've been thinking about setting up a security system on X10 as well.

    I don't think X10 has any patents or anything (note the think), because you can download the protocols for free. Several linux drivers have been written, my favorite of which is currently heyu. ( http://heyu.tanj.com/heyu/ [tanj.com]). Of course the little computer interface they give you free isn't compatible - try the CM11A interface for linux stuff.

    These are fun toys to play with, and in my opinion the $6 is worth it. A lot of stuff is happening in the home automation arena right now, at least for me, since I work on the IBM products :-)
  • ...not just for themselves, but for the end-users they serve. If one programmer writes a BeOS port, that's several thousand new potential end-users.

    Sure, sales to programmers may be minimal. Sales to end users who are interested because of the work of those aforementioned programmers... now, that's significant.
  • The FireCracker version is windows only.

    They have an ActiveHome package that looks very good, and there is a linux version available from a third party supplier.

    With the ActiveHome, the transmitter(?) at the back of the PC stores the information, and transmits it out, whether the PC is up and running, or not.

    I've played with the 'free' package a little bit, and like it. When money allows, I was planning on getting the ActiveHome package.

    My only concern would be electical spikes due to lightning strikes, but then I realize that the machine is plugged into the wall outlet directly, the phone line, ....

  • The "freebee" kit is a good bargain but watch out, you only get one lamp module and will want to buy more.

    That should read "incredible" bargain. And technically you get two modules (the RF receiver is an appliance module in and of itself) so you can control two things from the git-go. You also get a little handheld RF remote that talks to the reciever. The little serial port dongle is almost incidental. But for six bucks this is not to be missed.
  • Wrong-o.

    Daisychaining 4 X10 units together would give you effectively 256^4 combinations, not 256*4. 256^4 is 4,294,967,296 codes.

    Just a *little* bit more secure than 256.

  • I had many problems getting this ordered... I could get up to the point to put in my CC number, but after clicking proceed, nothing happend. Stop, hit Reload, proceed button... nothing. Repeated that a few minutes later.

    Never got through untill I got home from work and ordered. Got a confirmation email for that one, and none of the others. I am hoping that I don't get 4 kits and/or 4 charges. I will be VERY ticked.

    I called the 800 number to see if they could tell me about my orders, but the lovely (pissed off?) man on the other end very gruffly told me "If you didn't get a confirmation email from us, we didn't get your order. Goodbye. *click*"

    If, and when, I get banged out for $18 more than I ordered, heads will roll :)

    jason
  • I think what you meant was that each type of X10 controller has different software to control it. The CM11A has x10d, heyu, Mr. House and a few others, the Cp290 has software and the Firecracker has Bottle rocket. There are a few other controllers but they tend to need other hardware to use properly.

    --

    Linux Home Automation - Neil Cherry - ncherry@home.net [mailto]
    http://members.home.net/ncherry [home.net] (Text only)
    http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/lig htsey/52 [fortunecity.com] (Graphics)

  • Does anyone know of a way to send IP (as in TCP/IP, UDP/IP and ICMP/IP) over X10?? I have one computer user in my house that wants internet access (via our household LAN), but doesn't want the unsightlyness of an ethernet cabel running through the house... Ideally it would have a 10-base-T port on it directly, because all computers in the house have 10-base-T ethernet NICs. I envision something like this:


    ------\ /------\ /-------\ /-----|- AC
    | RJ45|-|10base|-| 1 MB. |-| X10 |- outlet
    ------/ |T eth | | buffer| |tran-|
    . . . . \------/ \-------/ |sever|
    . . . . . . . . . . . . . .\-----|
    P.S. Please excuse my insult to ASCII art.
    P.P.S. Rob, could you please make Slashdot able to support the &xxx; HTML tag? -- Thanks
  • "I'm sorry, Mr. Gates, Supreme Lord Of All Things Computing, but an illegal operation has been preformed by: 'undergroundlair.dll'. Please reboot your house."

    And you know he's got the voice automation calling him that :)

    jason
  • Tymm Twillman, the author of BottleRocket [missouri.edu], has confirmed for me that his software works with this kit. In fact, this is specifically what he wrote it for.

    --

  • If they are supposed to, they are not. I can (personally) see my X10 devices from the neighboors house, and there usally about one-two people a month on cha that have these sort of problems.
  • Hm. If one plugged the pass-through serial unit into a Pilot-modem cable, it shouldn't be too difficult to write software to make it go. One might even be able to make it work with the cradle. Kind of interesting...
  • I've been using X10 with Linux for over 10 years and I have it working pretty well. The only thing that we're really missing is a good GUI to make the software collections easier to use...

    Umm... How could you have been using X10 with Linux for 10 years when Linux has only been around for less than 8 years (Linux first appeared in September 1991)?

  • hehehe...
    When I was eight my grandfather sent me this kit:
    "Clone Yourself - Be First to be Second on your block."
    I hid it from my parents.
    Anyone seen an evil guy running around who looks just like me?
  • Not necessarily. If each device in the daisy chain stays on once activated, it would in fact be 256x4 possible combinations. I do not know much about how these protocols work, but if subsequent "on" commands did not turn the unit off one would only have to send at most 256x4 commands. The only way it would be 256^4 would be if one was required to turn all units on in the perfect order, which I do not believe is correct.
  • I haven't seen MouseHouse [mousehouse.net] linked to by anyone, so I guess I'll have to do it. MouseHouse has a lot of stuff that the X-10 site seems to ignore (nice thermostats, for example).

    There is also the 220/240v 50Hz equipment here. And yes, it's ex-spend-sive!

    Another feature is the emphasis on Mac software (yeah, I know it's pretty much the same stuff, just wrapped different...) and hardware. PCI multi-port serial card [mousehouse.net], anyone?

    One final thing -- and this is just opinion on my part -- I like the site design a lot better than X-10.com!!

  • Posted by !ErrorBookmarkNotDefined:

    This appears to be a variation of X10 technology. I've been using X10 around the house for some time, and it's quite nice. Most hardware stores carry X10 modules (e.g. switch controls, motion sensors, etc.), so it's easy to upgrade. I run this all through linux with a custom module (have a look at the OReilly book "Writing Linux Device Drivers"--it's cut and paste to make your own kernel module.) You can find out more about x10 at: www.x10.com Beware: DO NOT join their mailing list. It's an absolute fire hose of spam. At least one message per day. Just visit their page every so often for updates.

    -----------------------------
    Computers are useless. They can only give answers.
  • I got my kit last week and tried installing it over the past weekend. Extremely simple, but alas I was never able to get it to work. Granted I only gave it 15 minutes worth of trouble shooting, but it seemed the problem was in the serial-port wireless transmitter... hmm...

    I would love to find sites on how to build the stuff myself though.. 13 bucks a pop to hook up a light isn't cheap...
  • This has been available for a while now. The "freebee" kit is a good bargain but watch out, you only get one lamp module and will want to buy more. The good news is that X10 is really reasonably priced and they always throw in free stuff. Be warned though that the firecracker controller is nothing more than a simple remote for X10 devices, it does not include most of the features of the more complex controllers, including builtin macros, being able to query devices, etc.

    There is a couple of packages for linux that control the firecracker. You can find links at freshmeat. I've tried this one and it works ok.

    http://mlug.missouri.edu/~tymm/
  • There is linux software for this.
    http://mlug.missouri.edu/~tymm/ [missouri.edu]. Probably others will work too, if it's basically standard X10.

    --

  • First, if you already have X10 equipment - BUY THIS NOW. It's about $100 worth of stuff for $6 (and they spent $3.20 for shipping).

    If you don't have X10 already, it's a cheap way to see if you want to use this equipment. If you don't like it, you're only out $6 (instead of about $40 for the active home starter kit).

    X10 has been around for years and provides for home automation via the AC line (as previously described). You have 16 house codes and each house code has 16 numbers within it, which provides for 256 devices per house. While there isn't software for the firecracker yet (it translates RS-232 -> RF and works rather nice from my laptop), there *is* software for the ActiveHome Kit (the CM11a?) that works just fine under Linux.

    Heyu and xtend are two great software packages for this.
  • The Firecracker is not the same as the CM11A they are 2 different devices. I hope to have the Firecracker protocol on line within the week (and give credit to it's proper author, which is not me).--

    Linux Home Automation - Neil Cherry - ncherry@home.net [mailto]
    http://members.home.net/ncherry [home.net] (Text only)
    http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/lig htsey/52 [fortunecity.com] (Graphics GB)

  • I got mine today (what a coincidence!) and I can't even use the thing. Why? Because the serial adapter is huge. It hits the case of my computer and won't go in. If I try it in my laptop, I can get it in, but it pops out if I want to put the laptop down on the desk. Very impractical. I could buy an extension cord, but I'm not going to do that for this little novelty. It just seems they should have thought that part out a little more thoroughly.
  • Posted by CapitolCrime:

    If you go to http://www.x10.com/homepage.htm, you can register for (pretty much) daily emails of X.10 specials. In the one I received today, they reference http://www.x10.com/active_home_39.htm which is a "one-day-only" sale (that keeps getting extended) that will sell you Active Home package at $39.99, plus CA tax, if you're out here, but with free shipping (UPS brown).

    I started with the Firecracker package, and have really been playing with it, and have an Active Home kit in transit. Seeing heyu, et al, it makes this at least a fun toy, and even practical ... perhaps.

  • According to a neat usenet article I found on Dejanews [deja.com] about the protocol, the Firecracker works by clocking DTR and RTS.

    If the control program toggles DTR, the modem could hang up. If the control program toggles RTS, then you could get a buffer overflow from releasing flow control too early. The latter probably isn't so bad, but the former is probably the reason for the dropped connection. Adding a '&D0' to the modem init string would make the modem ignore DTR commanded hangups. Perhaps that would let you activate firecracker without being diconnected from your ISP.

  • Hey .. I didn't see anyone list what is probbably the best HA software for linux that is out there right now. It is called MisterHouse. It runs on Linux and Winblows. It is all done in Perl and and TK. The home page is at http://misterhouse.net/house/programs/index.html
    This software has a web based interface, does speach recognition, text to speach ... and much more. For all you HA buffs this is deffinately worth a look.
  • For the security consious, consider this. If you install this, big brother won't need fancy recievers that pick up the RF noise of your monitor to spy on you Tempest style. They would not even need Microsoft funded special pirate catching active tempest fonts [berkeley.edu]

    Once you have this installed, you have a nice RF pipe that any malware tojan can use to broadcast your data, even if you are not connected to the net at the time. All it needs to do is toggle DTR and RTS, and poof, you are on the air.

  • Okay... I'll concede that at 60 Hz it would be next to useless... (although not entirely so)... Can someone suggest another wireless/semi-wireless(over AC/telephone) that would be usefull to remedy this... and (preferably) 10-base-T compatible...

    I saw some telephone-based LAN kits (that ran at 1 MB/s) that looked desent, with the following shortcommings:

    • I didn't see any obvious signs of Linux support... (although this may have since changed.)
    • One of the ends of the connection is a Macintosh Performa 631CD, and is not compatible with much (I'm pulling teeth trying to find a printer for the darn thing), so something 10-base-T on both ends would be best.

    P.S. Does anyone know any retailers/distributors that have any "new in the box" (discontinued) HP DeskWriters still in stock?

    Thanks in advance,
  • Not worth the six bucks? Buddy, get this sucker and give it to your parents or something for christmas. heck, it'd make a darn fine wedding gift! just claim that it's a $73 value..
  • How different is the CM17A from the TW523? The TW523 appears to be similar to the description that has been posted here. It uses a few signals and has tight timing requirements to talk to it. You basically have to time writes to it so that they go out on the right phase of the 60Hz signal.

    There is a good driver for the TW523 for FreeBSD. I'll have to see how hard it will be to add support for this device when my package arrives. I went ahead and ordered it, since for $6.00 you can't go wrong.
  • They won't ship it to the uk. Or at least there is no option to do so. If they charge $10 to send it to Canada then I don't want to know how much it would cost anyhow.
  • Oops rounding error :-), Sorry but I have no idea what year it is. I started using X10 with my 3B1 (AT&T Unix). The first Linux I had was .9x kernel in 1993. Sorry about that I was concentrating more on the HA stuff.

    --

    Linux Home Automation - Neil Cherry - ncherry@home.net [mailto]
    http://members.home.net/ncherry [home.net] (Text only)
    http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/lig htsey/52 [fortunecity.com] (Graphics)

  • You can download a free/unlimited ActiveX control for X10 Firecracker at Kenware [hypermart.net]. I have not personally tried it, but it should allow you to write whatever control app you want.

    Just a suggestion.

  • A friend of mine has his house wired and is quite happy with it. It's good to see X10 doing something to build an established user base before Micros~1 kicks into gear and tries to dominate this industry (which they are very much considering doing; there's quite a lot of growth potential and, at a couple $ per light switch in America, there's quite a lot of money to be had).
  • Does anybody know where to get these European versions? I've been looking for things like this for quite some time, but couldn't find any 220V versions..

    Greetings,
    Ivo
  • I *think* there's a Linux port that provides at
    least some of the X10 functionality.
  • I personally haven't used them, but my uncle uses an X10 system to completely control his outdoor holiday lights.

    I'm not sure if these are compatible with the standard X10 system or not, but one of its really cool features is the ability to interface a telephone module to the system. Think about it, power-cycling a hung machine via telephone.
  • This isn't a big sale... X10.com seems to always have one of their intro kits on sale for next to nothing. And once you order, they spam you daily with their new offers. Check out Smarthome [smarthome.com] for some similarly great deals, a better interface, less spam, and more honest promotions. Another good place is Worthington [worthdist.com].

    Check out this thread [anandtech.net] at AnandTech for some more opinions! Some people said that the Firecracker is not really home automation, but rather like a remote control... You need ActiveHome or something to get real automation (timers, etc.).

    Of course, you may want to buy from Smarthome after you get the intro kit from X10.

    -Dodja

  • Re:Bah. (Score:1)

    by jtn ( 6204 )
    FreeBSD has had X10 support for quite some time.
  • Actually, I believe the protocol is very simple. You just have to issue commands to the serial port. (you could even do it with kermit or something like that) When the windows version was testing my system, I saw it send "A1 ON", which in turn, turned relay "A1" , well, umm...on. Looks like it would be extremely easy to script.

    Micro$oft(R) Windoze NT(TM)
    (C) Copyright 1985-1996 Micro$oft Corp.
    C:\>uptime

  • It seems that the X10 folks are rolling this promotion through several on-line communities. I picked up the Firecracker package through the promotion they did with ZDNet a couple of weeks ago.

    They certainly delivered what was advertised. The biggest complaint that I had with their approach is the amount of promotional e-mail that they have sent me since I signed up.

    I am not sure if you can avoid the spam I've been getting by filling out the forms differently. In other words, I don't remember if I had the opportunity to opt out. I assume that I simply made a mistake.

    However, I would point out that I subsequently followed their unsubscribe instructions, and the promotional e-mail has not stopped yet. YMMV.

  • I have a website that has several computer controlled electrical appliances, and is completely homebrewed.. no X10 stuff involved. The site is at http://www.alignment.net/~restil/spy.html

    From a webcam view, you can turn on and off the lamp, and move the camera via a stepper motor I have connected to the same computer. The circutry involved is simple, and I'm using the parallel port on a linux system for control. Relays vary in price, but you can easily get one for $5 that will be able to handle enough AC current to turn a lamp on and off.

    -Restil
  • Firecracker can only send commands to a RF receiver. As I said in the article above yours, it works great with my laptop.

  • From their FAQ page:

    How can I write my own program to work with the CM11A interface? X-10 provides two pieces of information about programming for the CM11A. The first is a help file that is part of the normal ActiveHome installation look for X10COMM.HLP in your ActiveHome folder. This document tells you how to use X-10's communications link to pass data to the CM11A. If you want to start from scratch, our CM11A communications protocol specification - ftp://ftp.x10-beta.com/ftp/protocol.txt [x10-beta.com] - describes how to directly program the CM11A. A web search will also turn up ActiveX and Visual Basic tools that other X-10 users have written to work with the CM11A.

    If hardware manufacturers aren't going to do a linux port, then they should supply the specs so an interested programmer can do it. It looks as if that is what they are doing. They also said that a Mac version of the software is available at www.shed.com. Someone here has also mentioned that there is something on freshmeat to control it too.

  • X10 has been out there for a while and in the beginning it was used by geeks. Low level electronic geek mostly (partly guessing here, talking from limited personnal experience) but still, people usually not satisfied by the baseline. That is why there always was a lot of information on the standard out there.

    For once, this company know who they're selling to and they are acting accordingly
  • Yes, but he's only one-eighth your size.
  • smartin: Be warned though that the firecracker controller is nothing more than a simple remote for X10 devices, it does not include most of the features of the more complex controllers, including builtin macros, being able to query devices, etc.

    Quite true, but it looks perfect for hanging off a Pilot, pdQ, or PowerBook to tweak the lights while sitting out in the back yard.

    (Okay, so I don't have a back yard yet. Damned townhouses...)

  • Posted by transgression2:

    Why the hell don't they have a REAL X10 clock that you can set the time through?

    Limitations in the X10 protocol I'm sure...

    Sucks.

    Wouldn't mind scheduling my viper alarmed truck starting either...

    -Will
  • Since the Linux GUI is written in Tcl/TK, it would be a trivial matter to extend it to include true automation features. Of course this would require your computer to be on, but would also allow fairly complex conditional activation (turn this light on, but only if it's the last tuesday of an alternate leap year...) that I presume ActiveHome does not support. Admittedly, most people probably don't need such features, but the potential is quite cool.
  • I've asked them about whether the system will work on 240VAC several times and had no answer so I decided to do the same thing and unsubscribe. That didn't work either. I've heard that they just don't have the time to field requests from people all the time. I think this is a definate customer service problem. If they want to advertise through the Web and Email then they should listen to the people responding from those directions. Still getting spammed to this day.
  • The firecracker (CM17A) is not the same thing as the CM11A! It uses a protocol that depends on toggling the wires such as DTR. The CM11A uses a serial protocol where you send and recieve bytes from it. Most of the software for Linux such as heyu, x10d, ... do not currently work with the CM17A. There are early versions of programs that do work (eg. bottle rocket) but they are still very new.

  • FYI (Score:3)

    by tgd ( 2822 ) on Monday June 21, 1999 @09:59AM (#1840732)
    NOT all X10 controllers work under Linux. A bunch of people posted on here about how there is X10 control software, and didn't mention that each one is controller-specific.

    This is also NOT a good deal. This is perhaps $40 worth of stuff for $6. They often have deals for $50 that include a dozen or so control modules, and you certainly can't do much with just one. You're going to spend more money buying more modules than buying one of their other "deals".

    That said, I'm going to buy one because I don't have a good hand-held controller. I've been using X10 stuff with one of their older control units that actually does work with Linux for several years. Let me repeat again, the linux software may not work with this unit.

    You can do some pretty slick stuff with it though. The multi-remote that came with the package I bought works with one of my TV's and VCR's -- and I have perl scripts that are triggered by X10 events to check my voicemail, bring my network link up and down, and stuff like that. Nice webpage on a secure server lets me control the important things like all the halogen lights and my coffee pot, to keep from burnin my place down.

    The coffee pot is the most useful. At noon at work when I can't remember if I shut it off I can call into my (also linux driven) voicemail, punch in a pass code and get to an IVR prompt that lets me control the X10 devices in my house (air conditioners, lights, coffee pot, and the three of the PCs on my network so I can turn them on, punch in the "connect to internet" code, and get files off them from remote...)

    If you really want to play with home automation (and X10 is OLD technology, most new automated homes use MUCH higher tech stuff these days -- this is poor man's home automation) get one of their larger packages. As I said mine was around $50 or something, and included the computer interface, infared remote, keychain remote, motion sensor (computer tells me if I've got e-mail when I walk into the room), like six or eight light units, two or three appliance units, and a wall switch.

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