[Coco] Some thoughts on the X10 (Plug 'n Power)

[K. Pruitt]

I may take you up on that offer in the near future.  Thanks.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brendan Donahe" <brendan at polylith.com>
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2012 10:35 AM
Subject: Re: [Coco] Some thoughts on the X10 (Plug 'n Power)


> FYI, I use a firecracker module with my Ubunutu Linux server in the house.
> Basically, it's the "br" command wrapped with some simple Perl scripts and
> a few cron jobs to control Xmas lights, among other things.  Let me know 
> if
> you're running Linux and would like me to share any of my scripts.
>
> The downside of the firecracker is that, IIRC, it's "write-only", meaning
> it can't ask a module's status, only send commands to it.
>
> Brendan
>
> On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 12:54 AM, K. Pruitt <pruittk at adelphia.net> wrote:
>
>> I've been playing around with the Plug 'n Power module a lot of late 
>> trying
>> to figure out how to interface with this thing on a Coco 3 (Christopher
>> Hawks is obviously a highly skilled Ninja warrior for figuring out how to
>> program this thing) and while looking for info I came across a little X10
>> device called a "firecracker".  The firecracker sends out wireless 
>> signals
>> which are picked up by a X10 transceiver which then passes
>> the signal down the home wiring which in turn tells the modules what to 
>> do.
>>
>> Some definite pluses for this device are:
>>
>> The firecracker plugs in to a standard 9-pin serial port while at the 
>> same
>> time allowing pass-though capabilities for another device plugged in to 
>> the
>> same serial port.
>>
>> The protocol for the  firecracker is very simple and well documented.
>>
>> It could easily be plugged in to a drivewire cable either hooked to a PC 
>> or
>> not.
>>
>> They are extremely inexpensive.
>>
>> I have to get myself a wireless transceiver to fully test this thing out
>> but
>> this may be a very real alternative to the RS Plug 'n Power module. 
>> I'll
>> keep ya'll updated on this if my experiments yield any useful results.
>>
>>
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>>
>
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