Hi,
I am building soon so I have the opportunity to cable the house from scratch. I am Mac based and want to be able to stay that way using salling clicker and elgato eyetv etc. so Indigo would slot in very well with this setup. I have heard bad things about X10, I was just wondering what my options are, can indigo work with another system, or is there a way to make X10 reliable when you are cabling from scratch?
thanks in advance.
tim
Newbie Question about X10, Indigo and cabling.
- timM offline
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Sep 26, 2004
Newbie Question about X10, Indigo and cabling.
- matt (support) offline
- Site Admin
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- Posts: 21417
- Joined: Jan 27, 2003
- Location: Texas
Re: Newbie Question about X10, Indigo and cabling.
Hello Tim,
You can setup a fairly reliable X10 system. A phase-coupler repeater helps quite a bit. Smarthome has plug-in versions, like the SignalLinc, that can be used at a 220V dryer connection. But the best way to do this is to wire one into the circuit breaker box, which can easily be done by your electrician. This device will provide a good signal path between the two 110V "legs" of your power system. Without it, the X10 signal will likely need to go all the way up to the transformer feeding into your house, go through the transformer, and then back down the other 110V leg. Additionally, a couple of FilterLincs on X10-noisy appliances can help X10 signal reliability significantly.
The current version of Indigo can only control X10 based hardware. But there are some very promising new protocols that are more reliable (no filters needed) and faster, such as Smarthome's Insteon, PCS's UPB, and ZenSys's Z-Wave (and maybe ZigBee based devices at some point). Indigo will likely not support all three protocols anytime soon, but I would definitely expect to have support for a non-X10 protocol in a future version. Once this happens, you will be able to mix and match your control hardware by having some X10 devices, and some Insteon/UPB/Z-Wave devices.
The other option is to hard-wire everything. This used to be the standard for doing high-end installations, but I personally don't recommend it. The cost is high and given today's RF technology (ZigBee and Z-Wave) and power line protocols (UPB, Insteon, X10), you just don't need to manually hard-wire control of lighting.
I would, of course, recommend Cat5e or Cat6 run to every room in the house (probably 2 cables per room), along with Cat5e run to your thermostats and sprinkler controller. This will provide you with good bandwidth across the house for room-to-grow. Also consider running RG6 for video distribution. Pick a server closet location and have all of the Cat5 (including thermostat and sprinkler), RG6, alarm sensor wiring, and telco wiring terminate into it. Even if you don't automate everything at the beginning, this will save future wiring headaches as you integrate the systems together.
Regards,
Matt
You can setup a fairly reliable X10 system. A phase-coupler repeater helps quite a bit. Smarthome has plug-in versions, like the SignalLinc, that can be used at a 220V dryer connection. But the best way to do this is to wire one into the circuit breaker box, which can easily be done by your electrician. This device will provide a good signal path between the two 110V "legs" of your power system. Without it, the X10 signal will likely need to go all the way up to the transformer feeding into your house, go through the transformer, and then back down the other 110V leg. Additionally, a couple of FilterLincs on X10-noisy appliances can help X10 signal reliability significantly.
The current version of Indigo can only control X10 based hardware. But there are some very promising new protocols that are more reliable (no filters needed) and faster, such as Smarthome's Insteon, PCS's UPB, and ZenSys's Z-Wave (and maybe ZigBee based devices at some point). Indigo will likely not support all three protocols anytime soon, but I would definitely expect to have support for a non-X10 protocol in a future version. Once this happens, you will be able to mix and match your control hardware by having some X10 devices, and some Insteon/UPB/Z-Wave devices.
The other option is to hard-wire everything. This used to be the standard for doing high-end installations, but I personally don't recommend it. The cost is high and given today's RF technology (ZigBee and Z-Wave) and power line protocols (UPB, Insteon, X10), you just don't need to manually hard-wire control of lighting.
I would, of course, recommend Cat5e or Cat6 run to every room in the house (probably 2 cables per room), along with Cat5e run to your thermostats and sprinkler controller. This will provide you with good bandwidth across the house for room-to-grow. Also consider running RG6 for video distribution. Pick a server closet location and have all of the Cat5 (including thermostat and sprinkler), RG6, alarm sensor wiring, and telco wiring terminate into it. Even if you don't automate everything at the beginning, this will save future wiring headaches as you integrate the systems together.
Regards,
Matt
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