X10 - will it ever return?

My evolutionary path is:
I put my whole X10 menagerie on ebay hours after going to a Wink. I put my Wink on eBay hours after switching to SmartThings. I put my SmartThings on eBay hours after switching to Hubitat.
I hope I am done evolving.

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Been using X10 since late 70s when it was BSR. Have my 2800sq. house running mostly on Homevision now. At this time I have switched a few things over to Hubitat from Homevision.
Thought I would switch\upgrade to Hubitat and Z-Wave . But after 6 months with the Hubitat I find that my Homevision is much more flexable, easier to program and more reliable.
The main reason for switching to Hubitat is it doesn't need internet connectivity .

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I saw the question from the OP and thought, "Well, I've sure got a bunch of X-10 stuff still laying around." Then I thought, "I really need to take that stuff to a recycling station."

So, my opinion: Gone for good.

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Please don't bring back X-10 there was nothing worse that having some random lighting events that you couldn't explain and to make things worse how many companies like SmartHome would sell the $70 dollar switches with known bugs and not do anything to fix them (PreSet Dim and Scene commands come to mind). I did try to preserve my X10 with the Vera integration and after say 60 days of coding and modeling in LUA I said it wasn't worth it and started to buy Z-Wave switches and ZigBee sensors.

For basic controls X-10 was great. I had my mom's basement all setup for lighting from one switch location and it worked flawlessly. It was the expanded commands and buggy devices and the hopping of commands between legs of power for me that killed it.

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I beg to differ. How about a Powerhorn remote siren randomly going off at 110 decibels while it is screwed into an outlet, so you're scrambling to find the breaker to turn it off ......

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There are degrees of worse, WAF is at the top of the list, coding and maintaining the code is somewhere in the middle.

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@aaiyar it's somehow comforting to know I'm not the only person who's had an X-10 siren go off for no reason at all in the middle of the night. That's the same night I disconnected the Insteon/X10 PLM module from the back of my Vera Plus, and added it to the two drawers-ful of X10 equipment.

Okay, guys, you've convinced me. Sell all X10 on eBay and be done with it!

  • Libra
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People on ebay actually buy X10 stuff? I may try to sell mine, then!

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I sold mine about 7-8 years ago - whenever Wink first came out. Sold all to a guy. Shipping ate up much of to price. Here is a similar one to what I sold as far as device count.

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I have some but not all of my X-10 devices. I threw out most of my peripherals, when like @jameslslate I started using Wink.

I still have a couple PowerHorn sirens, several smoke detectors, and various other things in a box in my attic.

I had been running x-10 for about the same length of time. Some time into X-10 I found a controller called Ocelot it was a box with a Z80 ยตP and used a input similar in concept to Rule Machine but much simpler and faster. It had a built it battery backed up RTC. No internet connection.

The Ocelot was hard rock stable. Basically would go years without any hiccup. What drove me away was the lack of return communications from the modules. BYW the controller was stable but the X-10 boxes were not.

I have a load of X10 bits but none in use. I hope I never see them again.

I also have a HomeVision Pro controller still in daily use and a couple 'spare'. Very reliable and I use it for scheduling and some logic. It handles C-Bus lighting rather than X10 now.

I believe there is an X10 plugin for HomeBridge.

My favorite was coming home to my garage door being open every now and then. Yeah, risky implementation...and I wouldn't have set that up if it weren't for my Visonic alarm system tempting me by having an X10 interface that allowed for SMS commands (cellular) to be sent to the alarm system to operate some number of X10 devices.

I loved the honkin big 240V cross-panel circuit X10 signal repeater that made my drier plug stick out an extra 2" or so. As I recall that thing wasn't cheap...but it fixed some of the problems getting signal around the house.

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Ha, yep! I actually built my own phase bridge, out of a 220V male plug and some carefully soldered components, using a circuit diagram I'd found on the very early Interwebs.

Worked a charm! Saved me the $$$ from buying a repeater!

I don't trust ANYTHING to open or close my garage door. Had an aux relay on my Elk M1G alarm system set to open the garage door when a button was pressed on my fob. Came home once to an open door and disabled it and won't trust it again. Some things are better left not automated.

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Ha - you reminded me that I still have the darn thing plugged into my dryer outlet!

Removing it now - here it is:

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X10 lives (for some reason)

But Insteon is the superior evolution, and it can work with Hubitat with the aid of a bridge. I use it myself and it's one of the most reliable of anything I own. Hubitat automation with Insteon is top notch, and offers Lutron RA2 type integration at the cost of what you can expect from Z-Wave (but without the headaches).

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HA !

Curious, did the incandescent lights in the house brighten when you unplugged it ?

Or perhaps the streetlights? :rofl:

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Coincidentally, perhaps ironically, the best "budget" bridge was in fact... a 220V electric clothes dryer! Turns out some models created the phasing needed for X-10 to work across legs of your breaker box, just by being plugged in. I heard along the way that the bridging was somewhat hampered (no pun intended) whenever the dryer was operating, due to heating of the element (high resistance?).

I did not know this. Thanks for sharing. The owner of our previous home loved the Insteon automation, but not the UDI hub I left him. I'll let him know about this today.

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