I found all of the threads in a flash by searching on "Anand Dhuru". Here are the ones of most interest.You can buy back issues of Nuts & Volts from their website. Anand attached a schematic, scanned from the article, to a message in one of the above threads.
Extended commands / Translation
Might also be of use.
http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=34854
DT
Perhaps, but probably not in the case of Status Request. There are only a few X-10 modules that respond to Status Request and those do not actually reflect the state of the load - merely the state of the module. The lamp might be burned out, turned off at its switch or unplugged but the module will still report its ON if that's the state of the module. It's more a, "What's your best guess of status?" request and a, "Your guess is as good as mine." response.Originally Posted by Darrel Taylor
BTW, the reason meL supports the BasicStamp codes is that Xout (and Xin) were original BasicStamp procedures. The non-Pro PB syntax is based on PBasic.
Last edited by dhouston; - 28th November 2007 at 17:24. Reason: added the BTW
Since this is a PBP forum, I'm hesitant to suggest another method but, if the goal is just to build a system to control your own household and not a commercial endeavor to sell your designs to others in your country, there is a solution that is very quick although much more costly.
Elba Corp. sells several BasicStamp-ish chips and modules that use a much more advanced version of Basic. Some of their products (I think all with the "a" suffix but you should confirm this.) allow you to define two TTL PLC channels that operate in the background, much like a software UART) to send (if the module is two-way) and receive X-10 commands using any of the X-10 TTL PLC modules (PL513, TW523, PSC04, PSC05, TW7223, XM10, Smarthome 1132B). Since you specify the bits to send, you can send any valid (or not) X-10 commands. You can only receive those commands which the X-10 modules report so it's limited to valid, standard commands. Off the top of my head, I think it handles 50Hz or 60Hz but you need to confirm this. If 50Hz is not supported, I'm sure they will be willing to add that - they are very responsive to feature requests (if doable). In fact, they added this feature at my request.
Status is probably more useful for Dimmers. Especially the ones that have a slider or other way to manually adjust the level.
Then the main controller can know it's current setting.
But as you pointed outThe supports there, just not the documentation.
DT
Status Request doesn't work with dimmers either. The newer modules that support X-10's extended comand set do accurately report load status, including level, but the TW523 class controllers cannot receive the codes.
Most of Smarthome's own brand of X-10 switches and modules respond to Status Request and even report changes (bulb burns out, switched off, etc.) in status, using the standard Preset Dim commands, so they are the way to go if you want accurate status reports using TW523 class controllers.
Last edited by dhouston; - 28th November 2007 at 18:15.
Hi Guys
Wow! thanks for all the info, I'm gob-smacked at the complexity of some of the applications, but agreed, if you want that level of addressability and control it's needed. I just wanted to turn the geyser on/off and one light!! so I will get inspiration from the circuits particularily the mains interfaces, and just use some simple PPL tone switching at 2 different frequencies, the didtances are pretty short and I should mangae without zero crossing detection or phase control etc and just stick to a simple go on/off to 2 devices. I'll give X10 a miss and just output a high on a pic port to turn on the PLL. But thanks a ton for the info.
Graham
Well, he might have given up, but I'm still curious Dave.
Is there another extended command set I don't know about.
Not trying to be contrary, I just want to make the previous posts as complete as possible.
I wasn't exactly thorough in my search last time, but those were the only other X-10 commands I could find.
Are there more?
DT
I think there's an even easier way that doesn't require power-line comms. You can use a current transformer or hall-effect current sensor from Allegro to sense when the geyser is on or off and use RF links to communicate.
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