Batch sent X10 command

Here is a zero-cost(except for time expended) solution native to XP and TI!03. Talking to a TI103 is different than to a CM11/12. This is for a TI103 (a better interface). Assuming that your ACT T103 is connected to com1 and its DIP switches set for 192000,n,8,1 (if not, change as needed).

1) OPEN notepad.exe 2) Enter (type):

@echo off mode com1: baud=19200 parity=n data=8 stop=1 copy /A X10_OFF.txt com1: PING 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 5000 >NUL copy /A X10_ON.txt com1:

3) SAVE the file as X10toCom1.bat

You may need to fiddle with the 5000 value in the PING command to achieve a five-second delay. This line in the batch file pings the non-existent IP address 1.1.1.1 to create a nominal 5000 millisecond delay. In pre-W2K we could have used the choice.com command, but ABIK, that's gone in WXP, hence the workaround using PING.

4) Go to and download the test software for the ACT TI103 ( compressed in TI103-SW.zip)

5) Unzip, install, and run to generate the ASCII commands that you need to include in next two files ( X10_OFF.txt and X10_ON.txt). This program generates the necessary check sums and provides a test-bed for communicating with X-10 devices through the TI103. See also

6) Create two files using notepad.exe named X10_OFF.txt and X10_ON.txt

X10_OFF.txt should contain the OFF command for your appliance module which will look something like this depending on the module address and resulting checksum::

$>28002A01AOFF1C#

X10_ON.txt should contain the ON command for the module which will look something like:

$>28002A01AONDE#

7) Put all three files in C:\\

8) Have DynDNS Updater run the file c:\\X10toCOM1.bat

HTH ... Marc Marc_F_Hult

Marc, many thanks for giving this so much of your time and effort. I will try it out when I get home from my present trip.

Tony

another possible approach for a 5 second delay:

ping 127.0.0.1 -n 6 >nul

A far more elegant approach for a delay is to use the "sleep" command and tell it how many seconds you want to wait.

sleep 5

will wait 5 seconds without depending on any sort of tcp/ip setup whatsoever.

--Rich

It may be "elegant" but it doesn't actually work within the scope of what I described ("solution native to XP and TI103" ;-)

To create a sleep command 'natvely' in XP (default delay = 16), I suppose one _could_ go :

debug

N SLEEP.COM A 100 MOV SI,0082 MOV AX,[SI] XCHG AH,AL XOR AX,3030 MOV BL,AL MOV AL,0A MUL AH ADD AX,BX MOV SI,AX MOV AH,2C INT 21 MOV BL,DH MOV AX,SI AAM OR AX,3030 XCHG AH,AL MOV [0160],AX MOV AH,09 MOV DX,0160 INT 21 MOV AH,06 MOV DL,FF INT 21 JZ 014C OR AL,AL JNZ 013F MOV AH,08 INT 21 MOV AL,FF MOV DX,016C PUSH AX MOV AH,09 INT 21 POP AX MOV AH,4C INT 21 MOV AH,2C INT 21 CMP BL,DH JZ 012D MOV BL,DH DEC SI JNZ 011A SUB AL,AL MOV DX,016C JMP 0142 DB "XX SECONDS", D, 24 DB " ", D, A, 24

RCX

79 W Q

But maybe not so 'elegant' as the one liner suggested ... ;-)

... Marc Marc_F_Hult

I have directory C:\\Program Files\\Windows Resource Kits\\Tools\\ in PATH and C:\\Program Files\\Windows Resource Kits\\Tools\\sleep.exe in that directory, so it certainly works for me.

Tony

Ah .. Good to know that there is a current, free Microsoft source for that external and so unlikely to get broken by some future patch (a particular sore point with me today as I futz with an auto-damaged server 2003 ... )

Download from here:

'Course with respect to the original poster's need, it might be said that adding an 11.7Mb download, yet another program install, and a raft of stuff to the computer is unnecessary.

Some might even say that the single ~30-byte lines we posted are " far more elegant" than another 11.7MB of MSBloat ;-)

... Marc Marc_F_Hult

This is Internet News so of course that might be said, but it would also not be true. I am the OP and I had nothing extra to download.

Tony

!!

It might also be said that I didn't pay close enough attention to the author, which, usenet or not, would be true ;-)

There is a useful po It may be "elegant" but it doesn't actually work within the scope of what I described ("solution native to XP and TI103" ;-)

To which you (Tony) responded:

I have directory C:\\Program Files\\Windows Resource Kits\\Tools\\ in PATH and C:\\Program Files\\Windows Resource Kits\\Tools\\sleep.exe in that directory, so it certainly works for me.

In my experience (and I make no claim that this is universally the case), one of the more avoidable frequent causes of programming errors (and in turn, of home automation failures) is unmet dependencies.

I've been bitten so many times by minor differences in computer setups that I instinctively avoid solutions that are apt to get broken with (eg) an OS upgrade. This goes back to the days of DOS when most machines were customized with all manner of handy-dandy *.com files and TSRs of various sorts.

In the case in point, if you upgrade the OS or transfer your HA stuff to another machine, the 'native' solution ( the batch file) that I offered, will still work. If you do the same with the sleep.exe external, and forget to add the external executable deep within a path, your program gets broken in an insidious way.

Because there is no functional difference between the two solutions, I

*greatly* prefer the robust, 'native' one to one that is susceptible to getting broken -- especially in the context of home automation.

One can reduce the likelihood of a future problem by making a _local_ copy of your 5,120-byte sleep.exe utility, or the 121-byte sleep.com that I showed how to create with debug (which of _those_ is more 'elegant' ? ;-) in the same directory as the batch file.

In short: It wouldn't occur to me (based on my experiences) to depend on an optional extra to the OS buried where I am almost certain to forget about it, i.e., PATHed C:\\Program Files\\Windows Resource Kits\\Tools\\sleep.exe. At minimum, I'd comment the batch file to note that sleep is an external in XP.

YMMV ... Marc Marc_F_Hult