X10 PC Interface upgrade

I have this unit an am happy with it .... sort of. Smarthome calls this unit legacy, but continues to sell it. They have NOT fixed any of the problems with it, such as the new Daylight Savings dates and as you point out, the newer OS. Therefore, one must use somewhat clumsy workarounds to make it work. There seems to also be problems with noise if you leave the USB cord connected. This causes the internal clock to go nuts. This appears to happen even if the USB cord is just dangling in the air. I would like the upgraded software to do some fancier "if-thens", but I refuse to pay SM for their crippled product. But, that all said, I still use the unit and it serves me well except that you have to "obey" its idiotsyncracies.

Baran Harper's HC2000 works quite well but is ony a DOS based system. It is quite flakey under any Windows configuration. It does some kind of bit-banging serial or parallel I/F (your choice)

It supports macros, conditionals and renaming almost any object or component in a pulldown menu compiler GUI onterface. Requires a PC, serial port or Parallel and their I/F wall wart. It hasn't been upgraded since hmmmm...1990??? but works well within the reliability of the old X10 modules. Probaly get it for $30-$50 T.O.

Does anybody have experiece with it?

Thanks. I wish though you could have given it a more enthusiastic endorsment. ;-)

In other words, I would end up no better than what I have: DOS with direct serial port access.

Well, I did. I really like the unit. That's why I'm still using it. The USB interface and the program work well with XP. Mine is plugged in just across this small pass-through room on the opposite side from the computer desk. When I need to program it, I connect the USB cable and launch the program. As for the Daylight Savings thing, I, and many other users, have to make a change on the day when the time changes. It should do it by itself, and it used to, but Smarthome wouldn't fix their product. It's just like my Panasonic DVD/hard drive recorder. Panasonic couldn't be bothered to issues a new flash file to fix the time change .... so you do it manually twice a year. BTW, I have seen many of the 1132CUs on EBAY, etc. for pretty good prices. I just wish I could get the Manager Plus software cheap.

It's the same case with the 3rd party DOS software I use with my current CP290 PC interface but I learned to live with it. It only screws up the schedule by one hour for a few weeks a year.

Well, I could not blame them for it too much when even for Microsoft it took several Windows patches to fix the daylight saving time issue. There was another patch just a few days ago and I am still not sure if it was the last one.

OK, I'll check it out there myself but I am curious what software you use with it right now. The essential one that comes with the $70 price? What is in the Plus version that you need over the current one?

Well, I don't know where you've seen all those 1132CU-s on eBay, but I did not find them. On the other hand, as I was looking around more, I also noticed the 2414U USB interface that looks and functions pretty much the same as the 1132CU, so one of them must be the more recent one, I guess. Then even more interesting is the 2412N model with an ethernet interface that allows the use of web browser to control it from anywhere through the Internet. This sounds to me the most attractive option as you basically would not be dependent on an operating system. Any Java enabled Web browser would do it. I sure would like to hear from anybody who has an experience with this one. Basically what I would like to see from such an interface is to be able to program the X-10 or INSTEON devices to be turned on or off at given times and also do out-of-schedule, direct on-off action through the web interface.

The major difference would be the conditionals" that it can handle. Without conditionals all this software is not worth having IMHO. The macros most of the software brag about are mostly useless. Sequencing lights after two minutes is a waste of most people's intelligence and money.

e.g. I set up a routine to water a newly seeded lawn. The conditional went something like this.

If the sun is shining brightly (many remotes signalled daytime) then use 5 minutes of water every hour (ground dries out fast) else use 3 minutes or water every four hours (ground is wet and not drying)

Only water during the day and once after sun goes down (will be wet all night)

..and a few other side goodies (can't remember it all)

In three weeks with a bushy lawn growing the neighbour commented she had never seen grass seed grow like that, especially in the heat of the summer.

E.g. #2 If there is motion from one of the 12 motion detectors then cycle the furnace fan for long periods of time every few hours. else cycle furnace fan twice per day for 10 minutes run a sequence of lights throughout the house at a random time, just after dark to look like somebody walking through the house inlcuding porch lights go on for one minute and then off and then back out through hallway lighting to another door and do same, ending in a trip up the stairs (lights cycle), finallizing into the bedroom. (I had neighbours call the cops when they knew I was on vacation once. The simulation looked good, apparently...LOL)

I woud be sure that more up-to-date software is out there for a few hundred dollars a copy.

Well, I didn't see any now on ebay either. I use the standard software that SH provides. The call it Manager. It is pretty good for most things. The one thing the "Manager Plus" software does and the standard one doesn't is it allows you to say if A1 one is presently on and an A2-on occurs, do an A3-on. Right now I'm doing it with a few X10 universal modules connected together with a powerflash module. It's really a kludge, but it does work.

Art, does your controller's software allow to set random event times as the old CP290 does? It's random within an hour's window. As I only have one-way X-10 modules, I think I could get by with the essential manager software.

Yes. I don't really use the feature because when you are at home, the 1 hour window is so large that at times, you are left in the dark. That is especially true in this house because the sun goes down behind a mountain and dark falls very fast. At other times the light turns on way too early. But, it does do a calculated dusk/dawn for your area. That does vary the time from day to day as the season changes. I don't use the dawn part as I just turn off the lights at a designated time. I suppose this could be set to random, but usually "lights out" occurs from an ALL OFF from my nightstand. I also have an X10 motion detector that will send an ON when it gets dark. If a storm goes through and it gets really dark, it will send the required ON to turn on the main living room lights. It did it yesterday, as a mater of fact. But, I forgot to put in the OFF, so that when the storm passes, it will turn them off again. I'll have to remember to do that next time I'm in the 1132.

Newer software like Home Domination would do better then the old DOS stuff.

Thanks. Do you also use Insteon modules in your setup?

What OS is the Home Domination running in?

Nope, just generic X10 stuff.

I see. I wonder though how you ended up with the 1132CU controller. Did you also start out with CP290 and then progressed ton CM15A before winding up with the current, already deprecated one? With XP soon ending up the way DOS did, you may have to move to yet another, newer controller. That's why I was thinking moving to web based one but they are just too expensive and don't really work well with X-10 modules as they are mainly Insteon.

I started with X10 when no one knew what X10 was. The early modules were not very reliable. These were the old brown units, which I actually still have a few. I had a "timer" unit to control the on/offs. Then a CP290. I went from the CP290 directly to the 1132 because I could never get it to work correctly with Windows, probably 98, but maybe it was ME (yuk). I don't even know where my old CP290 is ... I moved after 38 years in one location, so things are still in boxes even after 8 months. It's probably in the Halloween box. I used it to control some Halloween effects even after I got the 1132. As for XP going the way of DOS, I don't see that happening in my house real soon. Microsoft saw to that when they came out with Vista. Windows 7 looks good, but really, what does it do other than automatic side by side windows (according to their commercials that's all they seem to be able to tout). I think my laptop will never do anything but XP.

So you never even tried the CM15A USB based controller? That is supposed to work with Windows though I could not confirm what version of Windows. I have a suspicion that they stopped upgrading its software with Windows

1. But you're right about those old X10 modules, especially the lamp modules. They seldom lasted long. I started with X-10 around '84 and did not upgrade much beyond getting newer modules. I remember that in the old days X10 was not recommending the use of their modules with flurescent lights. Has that changed? It would have to, with the "green" campaign to replace incandescent lights with fluorescent ones.

Well, 64-bit PCs will be the main computing platforms soon and Windows 7 helps to spread it. So we might as well get on with the program. ;-)

Art,

Do you know if the 1132 can replace a CM11 controller?

TIA Rich W.

Art Todesco wrote: