X10 woes...help me please....anyone

[Marbles_00]

Okay, I figured I'd dive on into a very simple home automation scheme. Picked up a CM11a and a AM466 appliance module. They are on different outlets, but are on the same feed. The outlets are only about 12" from each other. Do you think that I can communicate properly...not.

Using the ActiveHome software, it's been total hit and miss. I would give it a 20% success rate. Using the x10comm.exe both in and out of Xlobby, still 15%-20%. Played around with my serial port, no change. One time I was able to fire three times consecutively, went away for about a 1/2 hour, and when I returned, I couldn't get it to work again for a long time.

After read'in about other peoples problems with Activehome being unreliable for them, I figured that I wasn't the only one on this ship. I decided to try out xAP and the xAP3 plugin. Installed the X10 Controller (GUI). It was able to find the CM11a no problems. I set up a device in the properties for the AM466. One question here...it is supposed to be a Binary...right? I have the plugin running fine...I can go to it and configure it no problems. I followed ptrinchi three test scenarios in this thread which helped me understand somewhat as to what the xAP plugin can do, but now the GUI is reporting that the message failed to send. I figure that the plugin/hub is talking to the controller, but now I don't know what to do or what path to follow.

I also tried Xlobby's internal commands, but Xlobby reported back an error and either to continue or quit. I figured that it wants to talk to a CM15 USB device.

Anyone, please help me if you can. I figured that this would be a simple task, but it is now turning into a real PITA.

Thanks in advance.

[Bill Lott]

I'll try to help if I can.

Based on this;

They are on different outlets, but are on the same feed. The outlets are only about 12" from each other. Do you think that I can communicate properly...not.

Using the ActiveHome software, it's been total hit and miss. I would give it a 20% success rate. Using the x10comm.exe both in and out of Xlobby, still 15%-20%. Played around with my serial port, no change. One time I was able to fire three times consecutively, went away for about a 1/2 hour, and when I returned, I couldn't get it to work again for a long time.

I wonder if you have some"x10 noise" on the line? Any chance you are connected on a line using a surge protector? They can cause havoc by sucking up x10 signals. Can you try to connect the devices in other areas of the house and see if your results vary. Line noise can be a real pain to track down. We have a treadmill that when connected caused all kinds of x10 failures. Finally put an x10 filter on it and the problem disappeared.

[Marbles_00]

Thanks Bill for the response.

There is no surge protector on that line. Those two receptacles are on their own breaker, with nothing else connected. I purposely wired it that way. They would have shared a receptacle, but both being large, no matter how much hammering I did, they both wouldn't go in.

Now I didn't think of this at the time, I'm running WinXP SP2. After spending some time researching some other forums, a lot of people have had issues using that OS with the CM11a. Some have had success using a USB to Serial adapter, while others have just transfered over to the CM15. I heard that WinXP screws around with the COM port to the point that the COM port is going the way of the wind, with its longtime buddy the parallel port.

I also found out that CM11 modules are notorious for going to "sleep" on a whim, and there's no way to keep the little buggers awake, short of constantly sending messages to them every so often. For that I found a post on a reset procedure should the CM11 lock up, which I'm going to do first.

If you can come up with any other suggestions, that would be great. I guess the other thing is if I'm setting up the xAP X10 Controller GUI plugin correctly. For the xAP plugin, I'm trying to keep it simple (like for the task at hand, it should be), and I think I'm setting that up correctly as I've seen communication at the GUI end.

[Jay]

As a HomeSeer user, I can tell you that CM-11s do not sleep but can hang up. Fix is EZ. We don't use the battery since HS runs all the time. We simply short-circuit the battery connector. Most of us X-10 users have migrated to the USB or the T103 serial device.
xAP works fine on my HS 1.x system but is completely unreliable on my 2.x.
Fletch's HS2, speaker connector-based plugin is flawless.
Yes, it's a leap from what you have.

[sharp_1]

I have the USB CM51A and have been having nothing but problems here. I even exchanged the original interface after x10 support told me that the CM51A was defective...after having everything working for about a month and a half everything stopped!!! I am now working with support again to try and solve the problem. I tried a x10 noise filter to the PC thinking the power supply was the issue but that didn't help either.

If x10 support can't help I think I will looking a bit harder at the Insteon products!!! http://www.insteon.net/

[Wayne123]

I had X-10 problems all the time, lights turning on in the middle of the night and other problems. I installed a bunch of Insteon switches a year ago and it is much better then X-10 so far.

[Bill Lott]

Marbles,

Did you ever get it working? I'm running Server 2003 with a CM11A and over 50 x10 devices with no problems.

I never could get the xAP plugin working correctly, but as above, switched to Fletch's Homeseer plugin and having no problems.

I would suggest getting the x10 working OK before trying to interface with xLobby. Your problems do not sound like xLobby problems but either a faulty module or I still would not rule noise out. Hope this helps - tracking down x10 problems is no fun!

Bill

[Marbles_00]

I agree that it is not an Xlobby problem as I can't get it to reliably work outside of Xlobby. I tried disconnecting the CM11 and taking out the batteries. It looked promising as I was able to trigger the AM466 a bunch of times in a row, using the Activehome software...but then I went away for about 10 minutes, and upon my return, it stopped working again.

Now to add to this frustration, since installing the home automation software, xAP GUI, xAP3, Girder CM11 plugin (yes I tried that as well), at some point, my computers ability to go to sleep has now been "broken". I tell it to sleep, it appears to go through the process of setting up to goto sleep, the power supply looks as though it is dropping down (watching the LED's), only for the system to come back alive.

I'm almost to the point of setting up a simple 'old fashioned' dial timer on the outlet that has all the equipment I want to control and be done with it, and be finished with this rather disappointing home automation experience. I guess before I do throw in the towel, I should try the controller with a Win2K computer and see if the problems persist.

I take it that the Homeseer plugin requires Homeseer? For what I want to do, it's not worth the money to spend on Homeseer. It was only for my music to server to shutdown the rest of the equipment (tuner/amps) when the server goes to sleep and to turn back on when the server woke up.

[Bill Lott]

Sorry to hear about isuues with what should be a pretty easy straightforward project - sounds like one of my wife's "honey it will only take a few minutes" projects. They are never as easy as they should be.

Have you tried different x10 equopment? something is faulty in the stuff to be causing all these problems.

Hope you get it fixed.

[Marbles_00]

I think the computer was being kept up by having the xAP plugin installed. If I recall it has a built in xAP Hub, I think it may have been running in the background and trying to keep communications alive...possible? Now that everything is uninstalled, the computer now goes to sleep properly.

I still want to experiment with the home automation stuff sometime, but not for this instance right now.

Thanks for all your help guys (used as a generic term )

[Jay]

I think you're right. The xAP heartbeat could keep your machine up.

[Marbles_00]

Well, after reading a bunch of posts on a X10 forum, their is a big problem with running the CM11a on WinXp SP2 machines. WinXp has done away with support for the COM port. The one suggestion was to use a USB to RS232 adapter harness. So I decided to try it, and it seems to be working pretty good. Using the ActiveHome software, I've been able to reliably toggle the AM466 module. With ActiveHome running in the backgroud, I've been able to reliably toggle the AM466 from within XLobby using the X10comm command line feature. BUT, if I don't have ActiveHome running, but only the communication bridge, I'm not able to send commands via xlobby.

Conclusion then is to have ActiveHome running in the background. Is this how others have done it? Just want to know.

[sharp_1]

Not sure but I use the ahcmd.exe in xl to send x10 commands. Activehome does not have to be running at all. If you need the ahcmd.exe please let me know...I will zip it and send it to you. I am on a winxp machine.

[Marbles_00]

Do you use it the same as the x10comm.exe command? Sure send it to mayhemDOTprodATemailDOTcom.

Thanks sharp.

[sharp_1]

you got mail