Any drawbacks to X-10 Pro XPCR?

They are available on eBay now for a fraction of their price a few years ago. I was just wondering if they have any drawbacks -- e.g., do they handle extended codes correctly? Thanks.

Reply to
Stu Alden
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Reply to
BruceR

Thank you - when I saw prices like $16 and no good description of capabilities I suspected something might be wrong. I'll take a look at the XTBs.

Reply to
Stu Alden

The older Leviton repeater was the 6201. I have two sitting on the shelf today. One was used at our last house, and it did better than a .1uF capacitor. However, due to its transformerless supply, the amount of power it can deliver is limited, and it can't compete with the many "signal suckers" found in the average home today. As Bruce said, it also had issues with X10 codes that deviated from the fixed 22-bit format. Leviton replaced that model with the HCA02, but there were still reports that dimming didn't work properly.

Dimming is one thing I took pains with in the XTB-IIR. After the first dim (which is repeated like all other X10 commands), every sequential dim is also repeated. Extended commands are not "repeated" to avoid the possibility of collisions. However, they are transmitted and received in their entirety through either the digital I/O port or the X10 Input receptacle. An earlier version of the firmware did repeat the "standard format" portion of an extended command, but even that had to be eliminated because of conflicts with certain Leviton devices.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Volp

| An earlier version of the firmware did repeat the "standard | format" portion of an extended command, but even that had to be eliminated | because of conflicts with certain Leviton devices.

Interesting. Which Leviton devices and what was the conflict? The ACT repeater repeats the whole extended sequence so I need to avoid such devices...

Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com

Reply to
Dan Lanciani

Dan, The early version of the Leviton Repeater which is now sold as the XPCR by X10Pro was, IIRC, called the 6201. It does not handle dims well and does not support extended code oor thr HC line of Leviton X10 devices. Leviton later released the HCA02-10E as a less expensive and more capable repeater but still not as good as the ACT repeater you have. In fact, the ACT repeaters were the best until Jeff Volp came out with the XTB-IIR. If your ACT repeater still doesn't solve all your signal problems it is likely that the XTB-IIR will.

Reply to
BruceR

The 16400 controller with the "scene" keypad caused the conflict.

While it is certainly possible to repeat the entire 31-bit sequence, that can't be done in sync with the original command like it is with standard

22-bit commands. The repeat would occur after the extended command has completed. However, if the repeat collides with another command that is tailgating the extended command, both commands would be corrupted. Other issues arise if the repeat is sent later when the line is clear. Of course the user's program could be modified to include a delay after an extended command. But, since there are not many "remote" transmitters that issue extended commands, I thought the safest approach was to exclude them from being repeated.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Volp

In article , snipped-for-privacy@NOgmailSPAM.com (BruceR) writes: | | | Dan Lanciani wrote: | > In article , | > snipped-for-privacy@msn.com (Jeff Volp) writes: | >

| >> An earlier version of the firmware did repeat the "standard | >> format" portion of an extended command, but even that had to be | >> eliminated because of conflicts with certain Leviton devices. | >

| > Interesting. Which Leviton devices and what was the conflict? The | > ACT | > repeater repeats the whole extended sequence so I need to avoid such | > devices... | >

| > Dan Lanciani | > ddl@danlan.*com | | Dan, The early version of the Leviton Repeater which is now sold as the | XPCR by X10Pro was, IIRC, called the 6201. It does not handle dims well | and does not support extended code oor thr HC line of Leviton X10 | devices. Leviton later released the HCA02-10E as a less expensive and | more capable repeater but still not as good as the ACT repeater you | have.

It's a little more complicated than that. There were two totally different versions of the 6201. The original version had black & white wires only and was not compatible with extended codes. The second version supported three-phase operation, had a red wire, and was compatible with extended codes. Unfortunately, it had an absurd power-on sequence requirement that no residential installation would guarantee to meet. The HCA02 has been associated with too many "odd" reports to even consider. :)

In any case, I was interested in which Leviton devices are not compatible with repeating the extended code sequences, something ACT supports.

Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com

Reply to
Dan Lanciani

| The 16400 controller with the "scene" keypad caused the conflict.

I think I actually have one of those, but without the scene keypad. I'll have to look into this.

| While it is certainly possible to repeat the entire 31-bit sequence, that | can't be done in sync with the original command like it is with standard | 22-bit commands.

That's what the ACT repeater does. It repeats the entire extended command immediately after the original with no gap such that it is in sync with the second copy (if any) sent by the original transmitter. So far so good...

Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com

Reply to
Dan Lanciani

I ran into a problem with that here. There are extended commands imbedded in several of my multi-command sequences. Since an extended command is not sent twice, repeating after the extended command completed stepped on the next command coming out of the TW523. So it just doesn't repeat them. That is only an issue when the XTB-IIR is acting strictly as a repeater. It supports extended commands in both directions when providing the powerline interface. However, I don't believe any controller yet has the ability to accept extended command inputs.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Volp

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