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

[Brendan Donahe]

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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