Smart Home Blog

If your use CM11A to control your x10 devices that software might be interesting for you. The CM11A emulator is a Java application developed by Jaap Gordijn which allows to do following:

• Emulate CM11A itself: X10 command, event and status report.
• One or more simulated X10 devices (on/off devices, dimmers): On/Off devices and dimmers and two way devices.
• A remote control: using a command line interface, you can change the state of X10 devices, and the CM11A emulator reports this accordingly.

You can download the CM11A emulator here.

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X10 LCD Mini Timer 64 Event allows to schedule up to eight lights or appliances to turn on and off automatically. Sure you should have some X10 switches or plug-in modules for that. The Mini Timer includes built-in alarm clock. So, you can use it instead of old school alarm-clock.

X10 LCD Mini Timer 64 Event is available on smarthome.com at $35.99.

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Yanza is a small system which allows to control x10 devices. It’s installed under MCE and adds functionality needed to manage your home appliances. Free version of Yanza allows to control 2 x10 devices only. Which is appropriate solution just for playing with automation not for real using.

The next issue is x10 protocol. It’s very old and insecure. So, probably it’s better to use Z-Wave, Insteon, ZigBee or some other modern protocol.

And finally, you need Microsoft MCE to work with Yanza. IMHO some Linux solution is more stable and cost effective. For example, BlueLava is a set of Perl scripts. You can use it to control any number of x10 devices. Moreover, it offers a web interface. So, you’ll able to do that from any place. BlueLava is open source application. You can customize it as you want.

I wouldn’t like to say that Yanza is not good or whatever. I’m sure that it gets its users. But personally, I don’t see any reason even try it. Because the offered features are too pure and you can use it with MCE only.

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BlueLava is a Perl web application which allows to control your x10 devices via Internet. It’s run as CGI script (it’s old school but many providers support CGI and its configuration is extremely simple) and uses various commandline x10 utilities. The latest version - v0.4.1 offers WAP interface. So you’ll able to control your home devices even from your mobile phone. Demo version of BlueLava 0.4.3 can be found here.

BlueLava is developed using Perl under GPL license. So if you’re Perl geek you can extend it easily and share your result with other people.

BlueLava v0.4.3 can be downloaded here.

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The English company Lifetime Software offers its HomeLife - a software package which allows to control x10 devices via web interface or via phone. The system uses X10 CM12U (or equivalent) interface to connect x10 devices with PC. The software uses a true client/server architecture, the server runs as a windows service and communicates to clients using TCP/IP, giving you full remote access to your home automation system. The client uses the latest .NET framework to provide a modern and easy to use user interface.

There is a free version of HomeLife which allows to connect up to 4 devices. The activation of full-functional version is £34.99.
As you can see, this solution is only for Windows users. So, Linux geeks should find something else.MisterHouse, for example, or Plutohome.

[via eHomeUpgrade]

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