26 replies to this topic

[myyaz33]

http://www.cepro.com...the_end_of_x10/

Interesting enough to post.

[Dan (electron)]

I am having trouble finding confirmation of this ANYWHERE, plus I am not sure why they would even bring up the 'security' issue since X10 wasn't designed with security in mind (anyone here knows you can plug in a power line adapter into an outdoor outlet, and control your lights inside the house).

Eventually old technologies do go away, so I guess anything is possible. Just need more confirmation.

[cornutt]

Yeah, the fact that X10 can be activated from outside the house is not news to anyone who has ever clashed with their neighbor over who uses which house codes. People doing larger installations have long been frustrated with some of the fundemental limitations of the protocol, but for so long there simply wasn't any reasonable alternative for anyone who couldn't afford to rip their walls open to hard-wire everything. Now, with Z-Wave/Zigbee and UPB, there are. Admittedly these are still more expensive than X10 but not horrendously so, and they will get cheaper as volume increases.

I doubt that products using the X10 protocol will disappear from the market anytime soon. It's still by far the cheapest way to get one's feet wet in home automation -- or, to put it another way, it's a gateway drug. The basic X10 patents have long since expired, so other companies will move in as long as there's a market. Actually, the expiration of the patents is probably one reason X10 is going out of business, since they don't have that royalty revenue anymore.. (Their recent flimsy products and their guerrilla Internet marketing tactics probably contributed too.)

[BLH]

Their QC isn't very good these days either.
One user had to have three of the new SC12 Security Consoles. To get a fully functional one.

I had one of the bad run of new soft start LM465 lamp modules. That only went to 50% when turned On. Was a bad run of triacs. Only firing on one half of the AC waveform.

[linuxha]

:throwup:X10/QC?

X10 had the chance to update and improve the product instead they specialized in cheap tricks and no improvements (the CM15A really had a chance to be better but they did lots wrong, like not sharing the info how to talk to it ). I will miss the wireless though it isn't secure either. Good thing we have a little bit of choice when it comes to X10 demise.

[Sacarino]

All I know is I'm picking up some spare motion sensors for $7/ea and door/window sensors for $3.33/ea while I can.

[myyaz33]

Now X10 is offering a tablet computer.. There must be more to it as suggested on another forum.

http://www.x10.com/p..._tablet.html?SN

[Basildane]

This is the greatest thing I've read all week.

The X10 company is the reason I got so into spam / popup blocking back around 1999.
I hope they go down hard and broke.

They are a stain on the automation industry.

[Work2Play]

They are a stain on the automation industry.

Maybe, but they pioneered the path that so many people here followed. My father used X10 when I was very young - and I knew about it, and decided to build on it and grow into full blown automation.

It's hard to say exactly where they went wrong - it seems they could've become the new Insteon or Z-Wave or Zigbee or UPB - but unfortunately that's not the path they chose, but they created a market and an opportunity that others then stepped into.

So while I won't miss the softcore porn that was their advertising, they at least deserve a little respect for what they did accomplish.

[drozwood90]

As Pete_C pointed out on the Homeseer forums, maybe they are going to dump X10 and get into Insteon...it IS the most backwards compatible to X10...

And some of the rumors were pointing out that they were talking about new wireless technology...which Insteon now has...

So yeah...I'm not going to stock up until I know for a fact..i.e. as Dan said confirmed something is going to happen.

--Dan

[batwater]

All I know is I'm picking up some spare motion sensors for $7/ea and door/window sensors for $3.33/ea while I can.

Dang, I missed the 3.33 door/window deal, their up to 3.86 now. Anyone have a "direct link" to the 9 sensor deal?

Thanks,
-Ben

[myyaz33]

Dang, I missed the 3.33 door/window deal, their up to 3.86 now. Anyone have a "direct link" to the 9 sensor deal?

Thanks,
-Ben

$.53 ea are going to keep you from pulling the trigger? Man, I thought I was tight! :-)

[drozwood90]

$.53 ea are going to keep you from pulling the trigger? Man, I thought I was tight! :-)

+1

haha, that made me laugh!

[Basildane]

It's not about the money. We have principles too.
If they were $0.00 with free shipping I still wouldn't buy them.

In fact, back when they were the "only game in town", I built my own lighting control system using Triacs and TTL logic, rather than use X10. And I was 14 at the time.

[batwater]

$.53 ea are going to keep you from pulling the trigger? Man, I thought I was tight! :-)

Sheesh, slow news day??? At x18 (2x 9 unit deal) that's $9.54, okay yes I'm tight, but hey that's 3 more for the same $. $10 in my pocket and 3 more units not in X10 inventory for Basildane not to be tempted to purchase.

For non critical monitoring of openings/closure you just can't beat the price.

BTW Basildane for my use I'm not talking about light control, talking about inexpensive wireless door / window modules for monitoring closure. Whether it's the journey or the destination that floats your boat, its all in fun, no?

-Ben