RFXCOM vs. W800

[chewie]

I am trying to decide which way to go and am not really sure why one of these would be better than the other. The W800 is significantly cheaper, but I do not want to skimp and save a hundred bucks, but have it not work nearly as well as the more expensive system.

My plan is to use one or the other of these to receive the RF signals from some X10 motion sensors, door/window alarms and Oregon/Other sensors to measure temp/humidity/other stuff. My house is a 2 story house built in the early 80's and I want to make sure that I can receive signals from everywhere, so I was planning on putting the antenna in the attic near the center point of the house.

Can I solicit some input from some of you guys that are using these? How much range can I expect from a single antenna? Can I hook up multiple if I need too? Any reason to simply NOT go this route?

Thanks in advance guys!

[Michael McSharry]

If you want to take advantage of the cheap Oregon Sensor and some of the other special devices then the RFXCOM hardware is your best choice. Burt is active on this board so the potential for new development work exists should something new show up. From the software perspective the RFXCOMM plugin or xapmcsRF application will handle whatever is delivered by the RFXCOM hardware. There is also the ACRF2 plugin, but I think it only deals with a subset of what is available.

For those that have X10 RF for motion and security with other mechanisms such as 1-wire for local environmental data then the W800 is a good fit. I know xapmcsRF and ACRF2 handle this hardare. I do not think the RFXCOM plugin supports it.

[Gogs]

W800 wil work perfectly for basic functions, ie. detecting X10 and DS10 type security codes, however, RFXCom can do a lot more.

[Uncle Michael]

There is one other detail that is critical. What frequency does your device transmit on? If it is a US X10 (310 MHz) device, then you may find that the RFXCOM 310 MHz receiver band is a bit too narrow for the often mistuned US devices. If you are looking to receive Oregon Scientific devices, then the RFXCOM 433 MHz receiver is the best (only?) choice. If you want to receive both frequencies, you'll need two receivers.

[TeleFragger]

i run the w800 and the rfxcom units...

i have the w800 for 310 and rfxcom for 433.... but if i could.. i would get both in 1.. id go with rfxcom..

you could buy a rfxcom 310 master..

add my 433mhz slave unit.. v50 (just programmed - no antennea or box )...

http://forums.homeseer.com/showthrea...364#post952364

[rmasonjr]

I have both and the only problem I have is that I sometimes have collisions with several Oregon sensors running with the RFXCOM receiver/plug-in.

[Moskus]

I have both and the only problem I have is that I sometimes have collisions with several Oregon sensors running with the RFXCOM receiver/plug-in.

I only have RFXCOM and dozens of Oregon (and other) sensors, but have very little problems with collisions.

[b_weijenberg]

Using multiple Oregon sensors:

Communication Failures will sometimes arise if you have 2 or more Oregon sensors of the same category and with the same channel selected. One or two sensors are sometimes not received for a period of a few hours. The reason is that they transmit during that period on the same moment. The interval time differs a very little bit for each sensor and the transmit period shifts slowly and at a certain time both sensors transmit on a different time again and are received again.

The solution is to select another channel on each sensor of the same category or use different sensor types.
Note: TEMP1, TEMP2 are different types but THR128 and THC138 are the same types as they are both TEMP1 sensors! For a category list see: http://www.rfxcom.com/oregon.htm
The THGR810 is a 10 channel sensor and you can use 10 of these sensors without having the Communication Failure due to sensor transmission overlap. An out of range is then the most expected problem. Don't install the sensors near metal objects because this can limit the range too.

It can still happen that sensors transmit at the same time when having different sensor types or different channels selected but not for a long period and Communication Failures will not appear due to this.

[rmasonjr]

Yeah, I've tried changing channels on the sensors - still have two that refuse to play nice. Havent gotten the courage to 'unmount' them and play some more. They are both installed in tricky locations