Re: [mh] Starting out on X10 devices

[Charles S. <cws...@tr...>]

Blake,
I don't understand what Wikipedia is going on about, but most private 
residences in the USA (big apartment houses might be different) are fed
with 3 wires: one is the neutral; one is a hot at 120V to neutral;
and one is another hot at 120V to neutral but 180 degrees out of
phase with the first hot.  240V electrical appliances like hot water
heaters and clothes dryers are connected across the two hots, whereas
normal 120V lighting and receptacles are connected between one or the
other hots and neutral.

Breaker boxes _usually_ have the phases alternating down each column
so that a double breaker can be plugged in for the 240V appliances.

If your house has a clothes dryer receptacle, the simplest way of
providing a signal bridge is with a Smarthome plug-in passive coupler:
 http://www.smarthome.com/4816B2/SignaLinc-trade-Plug-In-Phase-Coupler/p.aspx
 http://www.smarthome.com/4816A2/SignaLinc-Plug-In-Phase-Coupler/p.aspx
depending whether the dryer receptacle is 3 or 4 wires.
Unless you have a huge house, I'd avoid an active coupler-repeater at
this stage; they often create more problems than they solve.

BTW, if you're going to purchase a CK11A kit from X-10, I think they
may still have the RCA-branded units in stock for $10.  (It's always a
good idea to have a spare CM11A, especially now that it's out of
production.)
 http://www.x10.com/promotions/hc60rx_vt_kit.html

Regards,
Charles Sullivan


On Mon, 1 Dec 2008 10:53:11 -0700
"Blake Grover" <lik...@gm...> wrote:

> I also found this information on wikipedia
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distribution_board:
> 
> North American circuit breaker numbering Split Phase 3-Phase Breakers  A A 1
> 2  B B 3 4  A C 5 6  B A 7 8  A B 9 10  B C 11 12
> 
> So a split phase would be only one phase split in two? Or will all the
> devices on the A breakers not be able to talk to the B breakers?  I would be
> willing to put a tutorial on the MisterHouse wiki site explaining all the
> power information I learn.
> 
> Thanks
> Blake
> 
> 
> On Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 10:45 AM, Blake Grover <lik...@gm...>wrote:
> 
> > Thanks, I have seen posts saying they have gotten the CM15 working, but I
> > wasn't sure if it was only basic functionality, or if it was fully
> > supported.  But it looks like it might be a while before that happens.  On
> > the X10.com site I have found they still sell a automation kit for $50 which
> > includes the CM11.  I am thinking I'll go that route.
> > Also I noticed that there is some talk about having to buy a
> > repeater/bridge device if your home has more than one phase.  I'm in the US
> > and I was wondering how I can tell how many phases does my house have,
> > probably two from what others have said, and is it usually the left side of
> > the breakers are on one and the right side are on the other?
> >
> > Thanks
> > Blake
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Dec 1, 2008 at 9:32 AM, Charles Sullivan <cws...@tr...>wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> The CM11 has been around for over 10 years, has a published protocol,
> >> and is pretty much a known quantity, warts and all. It's out of production
> >> now but RCA-branded (fully compatible) models are available new from eBay
> >> X10 resellers for around $20.
> >>
> >> The CM15 nominally has a lot more features but its protocol has never been
> >> published by X-10 (and probably never will be).  The code which exists is
> >> the result of reverse engineering by Neil Cherry and others, and there are
> >> still a lot of unknowns.  Without some modification to the antenna, the RF
> >> receiving range is not very good.
> >>
> >> Others will have different opinions of course, including forgetting about
> >> X10 and going with Insteon or other different system.
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >> Charles Sullivan
> >> (Developer/maintainer of Heyu - X10 automation for Linux, Unix, and Mac OS
> >> X,
> >> which uses the CM11.)
> >>
> >>
> >>
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