Evan Kleiman
- 2001.09.24
Q. What is this X10 technology I've been hearing so much
about?
A. Believe it or not, X10
software and technology has been around for a rather long time, but
it was never really well known because it didn't really get the
publicity it deserved.
To sum it up, X10 is a technology that allows you to remotely
control anything that plugs in to the electricity in your house,
using either a wireless RF remote, a power station, or even a
computer, using one of more of the X10 receiver boxes.
How you can put all of this together to work with your house and
your desired needs? It's easy.
Modules
First, you need figure out what your needs are. First, decide
which devices you want to control via X10. In my room, I have a
lava lamp, two black lights, two main lights, and two accent lights
attached to X10 modules.
Next, you need to decide which kind of controllers you want on
each object you are controlling. There are many types of devices.
The most common ones are Light Modules: these are dimmable boxes,
and when you press the "all lights on" button on your controller,
they all turn on. Another is the appliance box, which is similar to
the light boxes, except they do not respond to the "all lights on"
button and do not dim. These are useful for any appliance or light
you do not want to dim, such as a fluorescent light. It is also
useful to hook up a coffee maker, etc. to, because you don't really
want an empty coffee maker turning on every time you light up your
room. The third type is a three prong appliance module; this is the
same as the two prong version, except it will take grounded
devices.
In my room, I have all four regular lights hooked up with light
modules, but the two black lights and the lava lamp are hooked into
appliance modules. This way, when coming into my room in the dark,
I can press one button and have all of my normal lights turn
on.
Controllers
Now that you've decided what you need, go and buy the boxes.
Even Radio Shack carries the most common items for X10. However,
you can also get these things from eBay
and the X10
website.
You're going to need to buy a box for every individual unit
you're going to be controlling separately, because X10 works by
giving each box a letter and a number to distinguish it from the
rest of your system. The reason X10 is so great is because you need
to do any wiring - X10 boxes and controllers send their messages
through the existing power wiring in your house.
A quick tip to save some money on your X10 purchases is to
remember that you can hook two or more things into the same box, as
long as you want them to have the same unit ID. For example, I have
two accent type lights connected to the same box (by attaching them
both into an extension cord and plugging the extension cord into
the lamp module). This way, whenever I press the "5" button on my
controller, they both turn on, and when I'd like to dim them, they
both dim to the same lighting level.
Now that you have your X10 boxes, it's time for the magic -
hooking them up and turning your room or apartment or house into
the Star Trek room of the future. (C'mon, how many of you have
wanted a room just like anyone from Star Trek when all you need to
do is say "lights" and have all of the lights turn on?)
Once you have all of your boxes hooked up, you're going to need
to get some kind of controller. If you're reading this article,
you're probably going to want to use a computer as a controller.
However, most of us don't automatically go to the computer to turn
on lights, and computers don't always work the way you want them
to, so I recommend spending the extra $15 or so to get another plug
in controller, such as Radio Shack's Model 61-2677, available at
all of their stores.
You can also get one of the many RF (Radio Frequency)
controllers and a nifty small remote. Now that you have your extra
controller, you can now figure out what solution you'd like to get
for your computer.
In this case, it is better to use an older low-end Mac for your
X10 system, because all of the current Macs will require a
Serial-to-USB adapter to connect to the X10 controller. Any Mac
will work 
well for this, since it really doesn't
require a whole lot of resources. (Editor's note: A floppy-only
Mac Plus is a popular choice,
since it is small and very quiet.)
Software
First, choose your software. The three big ones out there are:
X-Tension, MouseHouse, and
Thinking Home. They all offer pretty much the same features, except
for X-Tension, which allows scripting, a very more useful feature
for making your room more like a Star Trek room, but more on that
next week. All three of these programs are available from the products page on
the X10 website.
Once you have your software, it is time to choose your hardware.
For any Mac that only has USB support, you will need to buy some
form of adapter. My favorite is the adapter from MouseHouse, called
the Active Home Mac USB adapter; you can get it for around nine
bucks (US) from MouseHouse
Electronics.
Now that you have the software and cable, you need to get the
hardware to control your new X10 setup with your computer. There
are several options available, and my favorite is the Active Home
series, by X10
and Active Home. You can find it for all kinds of prices at
eBay, X10, or MouseHouse. If you're lucky, you can get a
cheap deal on a starter package that has all of the things you need
to get it set up, such as the RF controllers, the boxes, the
computer hardware, and the computer software, but it always does
seem, for me at least, that it is always cheaper to buy it by
themselves instead of together.
Well, now it seems, after you've done all of this stuff, you're
ready for life in the 23rd century, so have fun surprising everyone
with your cool new "Star Trek" lights. Next
week, we'll go over using scripting and speech recognition to
make your room even more like Star Trek.
Editor's Note: I've been using X10
at home for years. It's a great way to turn lights on and off from
bed, for instance. As Evan notes, they often have very impressive
bundles available. Although the site seems for focus heavily on
their Xcams, they have a lot of other useful products.
