Wireless Motion Detector

[Cheap Engineer]

I'm currently using a X10 ms14 motion detector in my sunroom and it has been working fine. The problem I have is that it puts out a lot of X10 traffic and sometimes it screws up some of my other X10 devices. I'm using a Homevision connected to a PC to handle my automation. I'm looking for a wireless solution that I could interface to either the PC or the Homevision. I was leaning towards a wireless alarm addon board and motion detector, but I just started looking at using a w800 with the ms10 detector. Are there other solutions? I think the w800 would be the cheaper approach and is very expandable, but I'm not sure how reliable it would be. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Cheap

 

[Rupp]

Cheap,
Many of the HomeSeer users had this same problems with heavy X10 traffic from using several motion detectors and have switched to using the W800. It's a great device and is very reliable using the W800 plugin with HomeSeer so it should be reliable for your setup as well. The beauty of the W800 is that it also works with the DS10A's (Door and Window sensors) and these devices work great.

 

[Madcodger]

Come to think of it, I don't know if I've EVER had a problem from my W800. I bought another 25 or so feet of RG-6 and mounted the antenna on the outside of the house, hiding the RG-6 behind a downspout. It's hardly noticeable, and it picks up everything, everytime, inside or outside the house. It even picks up a signal inside a detached garage located about 50 - 100 feet on the other side of the house from the antenna.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

FYI Cheap Engineer. With a handle like yours you have got to take a look at THIS thread!

(I love that handle BTW! ).

 

[Michael McSharry]

With Homevision I believe there are interface mechanisms for xAP and/or xPL and both these protocols have W800/RFXCOM connectors. The W800 or the RFXCOM receivers both will yield excellent results. Be aware of the frequency your receiver is tuned so it matches the sensors you want to use. The USA and the other parts of the world use different frequency bands.

 

[Cheap Engineer]

Well I was leaning that way anyways, so it looks like I'll order the w800 and a MS10 and see what happens. I found some software that will take the w800 input and transfers it over to my Homevision software through DDE. Now if I start adding a bunch of DS10 transmitters to the mix is there a limit to how many you can add before you get problems? I don't see too many in the future maybe 10 tops at least for the near future. I've read about some crazy ideas on using the DS10 on this board.

Thanks for the compliment on the handle. I actually find the name a little redundant. I thought all engineers were cheap by nature. The antenna design is very nice. Antenna design is more black magic then engineering.

Cheap