I am experiencing major powerline issues in home, unfortunately, like many others. Too many devices in the home to filter. Signal gets through almost all the time to a few rooms. To others, almost never. It worked the day the XPS4 switches were wired by the electrician, of course. But not afterwards :-(
Many of my outlets were recently converted to surge protector outlets, and that killed X10 signals and powerline ethernet AV1200 signals as well at the vast majority of them. There is only one outlet left in my home office downstairs in the front where X10 signals still get through, despite everything except the CM11A being filtered. X10 commands typically reach my home theater, porch, and terrace. They rarely reach the backyard, upstairs master bedroom, or rear upper deck.
I'm wondering if we can improve X10 communication a little bit by bypassing some of the noise between rooms. I'm thinking maybe have a few Raspberry Pi Zero, each with a CM11A or CM15A, located in different rooms, and each listening on an HTTP interface. Then, the main X10 plug-in would select which Pi/CM11A to use depending on the X10 code. It could be as simple as mapping certain house codes to certain Pis, depending on how your devices are wired. Or it could be more of a matrix with specific house code / number combination assigned to specific Pis.
It would be a somewhat expensive solution still, with component shortages, and CM15A often going for $50+. It would use a bit more power as well, for each Pi, but really shouldn't be too much. If you have small numbers of X10 devices in a few rooms located far apart, it might be good enough, though, and cheaper than replacing all X10 devices, especially hardwired devices. It might also eliminate the need for X10 amplifiers/phase couplers.
Many of my outlets were recently converted to surge protector outlets, and that killed X10 signals and powerline ethernet AV1200 signals as well at the vast majority of them. There is only one outlet left in my home office downstairs in the front where X10 signals still get through, despite everything except the CM11A being filtered. X10 commands typically reach my home theater, porch, and terrace. They rarely reach the backyard, upstairs master bedroom, or rear upper deck.
I'm wondering if we can improve X10 communication a little bit by bypassing some of the noise between rooms. I'm thinking maybe have a few Raspberry Pi Zero, each with a CM11A or CM15A, located in different rooms, and each listening on an HTTP interface. Then, the main X10 plug-in would select which Pi/CM11A to use depending on the X10 code. It could be as simple as mapping certain house codes to certain Pis, depending on how your devices are wired. Or it could be more of a matrix with specific house code / number combination assigned to specific Pis.
It would be a somewhat expensive solution still, with component shortages, and CM15A often going for $50+. It would use a bit more power as well, for each Pi, but really shouldn't be too much. If you have small numbers of X10 devices in a few rooms located far apart, it might be good enough, though, and cheaper than replacing all X10 devices, especially hardwired devices. It might also eliminate the need for X10 amplifiers/phase couplers.
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