BWired A/X10 pc interfacing

[Richard]

BWired,

Can you tell something more about interfaceing the Xanura A10/X10 communications from your pc?

I found in the "How" section some minor info about it, quote: "Features:
- X10 Send and Receive from CM11A, Radio Shack plug'n power and IBM Home Director. (direct RS232 without 3rd Party controls)"

Is this the part what is sending/receiving the A/X10 signals to/from the Xanura devices? If so can you tell me some more info about tje device? e.q. website, store, price... etc.

I read lots of stuff on your site and i'm willing to say... you hit me on the right spot . House Automation is a verry long dream of me, this because my previous job as climate control engineer. lots of automation .

So i think im finally are going to take the 'big' step, and also start an HA project (start small). My current occupation is fulltime software developper, so i thing i get the good ingredients all in the house.

Ideas in my head at this moment:
- Look for one 1-Wire interface for pc-communication
- Look for one or two 1-Wire devices, counting (engergy meter) and temperature.

- When the above found and orderd, then take a look for a couple of Xanura (light) devices. And some A/X10 interface for pc-communication (see my original question above this text)

So enough for now,

Thanks in advance.

Richard Donckerbergh, Europe, The Netherlands, North Holland

[Bwired]

Hi Richard,
As you probably know I use my own software for interfacing with all the domotica products in the Bwired house. I'm still using the (good old) CM11 and I also have the Xanura CTX35 running parallel. These two devices are controlling all my X10 / A10 devices (compatible). The software written in Visual Basic 6 is communicating with the controllers. To begin it's best to use Homeseer, you can program a lot of scripts in it and you will be able to understand everything much faster. Later on you can try for your self! I also use the dallas 1-wire devices, RFXcom Visonic and X10 receiver. All those devices are interfacing with the Bwired Home control system (VB6). If you are a software developer the you will be able to do this much easier (I'm a IT designer[:D]) If you need some info don't hesitate and ask this forum. Specially before you are buying stuff.... ask first, we all bin there!
Regards
Pieter

Pieter Knuvers
www.bwired.nl Online House in the netherlands. Domotica, Home Automation.

[DMB]

Richard,

I would suggest to start with homeseer and the CTX35 from Xanura.
This interface is a copy of the ACT TI103 (only 230V).
In homeseer you have to choose the TI103 interface.
I used the CM11 2 years, also in combination with Linux.
After a lot of own software writing under Linux I choose for homeseer under windows and later for the CTX35.

See the dmb posting in /topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=35

DMB

[Richard]

Hi BWired, DMB (and offcourse everybody else)

First of all, thanks for the replys.


If i read both of your postings correctly i think the CTX35 would be a good start for interfacing the Xanura devices, the point about to start with HomeSeer looks very fine with me (for learning/study purposes). After that we (read: i) can start trying to build software by my own. But thats a long way ahead.

Do you guys (or girls ) have a good experience with the Xanura devices in common (and also for the CTX35 in particulair)? Or if you both can start all over again (a fresh new start) would you buy the CTX35 again? or do you think again and look further for other devices (with same functionality as the CTX35)?

Are there some special points of the CTX35 device to look ahead first? or is it a great product at first glance?
Do you know (i honestly confes that i didn't read the CTX35 manual/pdf, that i had in mind for the upcomming weekend )
if the CTX35 has some 'offline' buffering meganism? so if there is no pc attached to it, it still logs the events that are comming from the X10 devices? or do you guys say that this device is not a standalone thing and only is used for controlling the X10 by the pc?

So that were some new questions about the CTX35, if the reactions are positive i think this is the device i need (am looking for), as mentioned early'r i want to start first with some small 1-Wire setup for logging/registering the energy/gas usage. But for that point i will start a new thread at an other section of this forum.

Ps. typing a full message in english is a hard thing to do but very learningfull.

Thanks in advance,

Richard Donckerbergh.

[DMB]

Richard,

The combination of homeseer and the CTX35 is a good start.
For learning purposes you can install a serialportmonitor (e.g. hddportmon) for investigating the traffic between the computer and the CTX35. There is also a good description of the protocol.

You can't use the CTX35 as a stand alone server, but always in combination with a computer and HA software.
(The CM11 has the possibility to store some macros and execute them offline.)

At the moment I have more than 60 X10 devices active in and round my house. About 50 of them are from Xanura.
The first serie of the Xanura devices had some production or engineering problems, but Eaton is still trying to improve their quality. That's my opinion, but there is a lot of discussion about the quality of the Xanura modules in this forum. Please read them also.

It is also possible to use X10 devices from other brands like marmitek or elekhomica.

Elekhomica has a replacement (own brand) for the CTX35 . (I am not sure how to translate 'huismerk' into English.)

I use the DS9097U interface for 1-Wire in combination with the Pete Garyga plugin (www.garyga.com) in homeseer.

When you start a new thread you can do it also in the dutch homeseer thread in this forum want dat verteld wel een beetje sneller.

Look also in this thread http://www.domoticaforum.eu/topic.asp?w ... C_ID=16#48.

DMB

[Bwired]

I agree with DMB CTX35 or -15 is the best option for controlling A10/X10.
See this topic for all the manuals from Xanura specially on the CTX35 and its protocol http://www.domoticaforum.eu/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6
I'm now building a new driver in Visual Basic for the CTX35.
For the 1-wire discussion see topic http://www.domoticaforum.eu/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7
Any questions... let us know
Pieter

[MindBender]

The CTX35 is a much better choice than the CM11, also from a programmer's point of view: The CTX uses a human readable protocol, which means that all bytes transmitted and received on it's serial bus are normal characters. The CM11 however uses a binairy protocol which usus unreadable and untypable bytes in it's communication.

Having a human readable protocol is very convenient when you want to do some testing with the interface or write your own software.

[Richard]

DMB, Peter, MindBender.

Thanks for the positive reply's.

I think the CTX35 will be a good choice for me to start with. i will leave it alone for now and try to focus to the 1-wire stuff first. offcourse i will follow the interesting topic of MindBender about the Xanura quality and problems, i hope this works out to an satisfied MindBender

Offcourse i will follow the other topics about A/X10 / Xanura also, but for now i'm concentrating on the 1-wire stuff. (with buy'ing both systems together it will be a (too) expensive happening/hobby, first i "must" confess my girlfriend about my 'new' hobby )

Anyway thanks guys for the information about xanura/interfacing. i think i have enough info for this moment.

Richard