Media for Re: Help with 7 Circuit Project?

Re: Help with 7 Circuit Project?

It's one thing to train others in the care and feeding of a proprietary system, it's another to understand the fundamentals of powerline communications.

The fact that you had both the X-10 frequency and voltage levels wrong and the fact that your knpwledge of UPB appears to be based on PCS press releases indicate that your grasp of the fundamentals is weak.

There is an "oscilloscope" screenshot of the UPB pulse on pp8-10 at...

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You will find there are numerous things (e.g. triacs, ballasts, PF capacitors) that will put similar noise pulses on the powerline. So it's doubtful that the shape, position and frequency content of the pulse are major factors in the robustness of UPB. The fact that they use a two-way error correcting protocol probably has a far greater impact.

HAI recommends a phase coupler for all UPB installations. Why?

As I recall, UPB has a fairly low bitrate so claims that it is fast should be taken with a grain of salt.

I may be wrong but my interpretation of Cenelec rules would mean UPB is illegal in Europe. (5V maximum signal strength.)

Any talk of security for powerline or RF communications is ridiculous. Unless the system uses rolling codes it is a simple matter to capture codes and play them back - no decrypting is necessary.

That powerline communications can be robust is proven by the widespread adoption of HomePlug's broadband over powerline. PLC broadband modules are retailing in the $20 range. Should someone decide to use HompePlug for lights and appliances, it's likely to be "lights out" for PCS and X-10.

UPB may work as advertised but, so far, most of the reports here have come from dealers. There has been near zero feedback from end users. Given the high cost, it's likely to popular only with installers (if it is as robust as claimed). If the UPB computer interface could also do X-10, it would help with market penetration.

Insteon (from SmartHome) would seem to win the published specifications duel. It has a high bitrate (i.e. it's fast), uses a two-way error-correcting protocol, is backwards compatible with X-10, uses both PLC and RF, fills the network with a 2.5V signal level (each module functions as a repeater), and doesn't cost much more than X-10. It would appear to comply with Cenelec.

Aga