Essay Preview: X-10
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X-10 is an inexpensive way to automate your home. It uses your existing power lines along with some additional X-10 equipment, and for under $500 you can automate your entire house!
X-10 was developer by a Scottish company called Pico in 1975. It was their 10th project, 8 of which dealt with calculators and the 9th was a project to select specific tracks on vinyl records. Their 10th project, X-10, was a project to use existing AC wires to transmit signals to lights and other appliances. A few years later, circa 1978, X-10 was appearing in Radio Shacks throughout the country in various modules and formats. By 1984 a joint GE / Pico venture created the Homeminder, a device that connected to the TV and used a remote control to control devices within the home.
The first computer interface was on Mattels Aquarius computer, this interface then became the Radio Shack Color Computer Interface, and then the CP-290 unit. The CP-290 was around until the 1990s and had software that made it possible to interface with Apple IIs, Macs, DOS, and Windows.
X-10 has several competitors, but it still is the most popular among home owners who did not want to spend in excess of a few thousand dollars for a full home automation system.
“X-10 communicates between transmitters and receivers by sending and receiving signals over the power line wiring. These signals involve short RF bursts which represent digital information” – www.smarthomeusa.com. An X-10 control that has a simple on / off switch works by sending the data through the power lines and using eleven cycles. The first two for the Start Code, the next four are the House Codes, and the last five make up the Number or Function Code. The Number code is the number of the device associated to the X-10 controller and the Function Code is on / off.
Here is a list of a few things that can be accomplished with X-10:
Turn on / off specific lights with a remote control
Turn on / off all lights in home with one button
Interface with security system to turn on / off lights
View images on TV / Computer from any X-10 enabled camera
Turn on light / appliances at certain times.
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