X-10

Front door controls
Front door controls
Porch light
Porch light
Living room controls
Living room controls

What?

An X-10 based lighting control system

When?

Whenever

Why?

Because I'm lazy

How?

Something of an ongoing project, this one. The first couple of devices were purchased some time in 2000, and used to switch a spotlight on and off with an RF keyfob remote. Over time, the system has grown to the point where we have two keyfob remotes, an infra-red to X10 controller, a hard-wired control panel, a plug-in porch light module, five appliance modules and three lamp modules.

The main use of this system is appliance control; particularly at night. Whilst it's convenient to have things like televisions sitting on standby during the day, there's no point them sitting there wasting electricity all night. So, everything that needs to be powered down sits on one X10 code, and at the touch of a button, it can all be shut off. Handy. Of course, the lamp modules are all used for controlling various lights around the place.

We used to have macros set up on our Pronto, but it recently died and we're waiting for a new one. Likewise, all the X10 units were under computer control via an RS232<->X10 bridge, but the addition of a lighting controller to the main house server used up the last free serial port. I'm currently working on a very small X10 Web interface for the Texas Instruments' TINI, but this still needs some work. As I said, it's ongoing...


No, Why?

No, really. I liked the idea of turning things on and off without having to move(!)
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