We installed a Town & Country fireplace in our home and it has its own proprietary wall mounted control and wireless RF remote contol. I am looking for a way to control it with my X10 powerline system and Plato software. I think the wall unit has the RF receiver in it and so I don't want to replace that. Is there an X10 to RF device out there that could take my powerline signals and translate them to RF? It would probably have to be a learning system since I can't imagine my signals would be in its library.
It's not likely that the fireplace control will use the same frequency as used by X-10. Even if it does, the RFXCom hardware is illegal for use in the USA.
Look on the fireplace remote for an FCC ID number. Then use it to determine the frequency at...
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If the frequency is one for which there are readily available transmitter modules...
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you can buy a receiver and capture the codes using...
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and then build a transmitter module (home built is legal) using...
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I'm unfamiliar with Plato so I cannot help with the software end.
Controlling fire with X-10 is a bad idea. Unless you have a manually operated off device like a valve bad things could happen. Such a valve would defeat the whole purpose of X-10 except for the wow factor.
In my experience X-10 is over 95% reliable. That is not enough to control an open flame in my house.
But that is me. I am not comfortable with an RF remote in this application...
All models of this brand of fireplace come with a rather sophisticated handheld, programmable RF remote so it's probably safe to assume Town & Country, targeting upscale homes, have done their homework as far as safety is concerned. It's unlikely that the wall mounted receiver will accept any codes other than those it has been designed for so there's little likelihood that one can send any "dangerous" codes that it will act on. (Still, if we learn the frequency and protocol, it would be a good idea to test all possible codes as a precaution since it may act on undocumented codes intended for installer use.)
This is not a simple ON/OFF application so an X-10 appliance module to replace the wall unit is not applicable (and I'd be concerned about safety for the same reasons expressed by Lewis).
RF is RF so using a different source of RF doesn't change any fundamentals. The problem, as I outlined in my earlier post, is in learning the RF frequency and then in capturing the individual button codes in order to accurately reproduce them. Having looked at their web page, I suspect few owners will be willing to hack the original remote, so it really boils down to whether T&C uses an RF frequency for which there are readily available off-the-shelf transmitter modules (315, 418, 433.92, 868, 915MHz) or for which there are programmable chips (covering 300-1000MHz continuous). For that, the FCC ID on the Maestro remote is the starting point.
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Also, this is going to require programming skills which are probably beyond simple scripting. Unless the OP has those skills, there's not much to be gained in further discussion.
One other possibility is to check RemoteCentral.com to see if anyone has already done any homework on this.
You cannot control it with X-10 but, if you can do a bit of DIY construction and programming, you might be able to control it from your PC.
I got the Maestro remote's FCC ID number from Pacific Energy sales and looked it up on the FCC site. It uses 303.8MHz while X-10 uses 310MHz for its RF remotes. The Maestro schematic shows a single transistor RF transmitter section which is easily duplicated. You can capture the codes from pin 1 of the EM78P458 MCU using an oscilloscope or the soundcard method I detail on my web page.
Schematic:
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Capture Codes:
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Wen Shing makes a standard 4-pin transmitter for this frequency as well as a superregenerative receiver but I haven't seen the transmitter available from dealers.
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You can buy an older, 6-pin Wen Shing transmitter from Computronics in Australia. They also have the receiver.
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We installed a Town & Country fireplace in our home and it has its own
I'm disturbed by this a little. Controlling a fireplace properly requires controls that always fail safe. X10 is a convenience technology, not suited to what you want to do. My biggest fear is that the fire would be turned on when you are on vacation or something. Even if the signal is in the library how could you guarantee that spurious X10 or program bugs would not turn it on unknowingly?
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