Posted: December 06 2002 at 10:40 | IP Logged

I have been using ActiveHome for a while and have been wanting to do more advanced things than the software supports, then I came across PowerHome and decided to evaluate it.

I have downloaded and installed "PowerHome Runtime Environment" and "PowerHome Executable" Version 1.02.2 on a Windows 2000 machine (the same machine I have ActiveHome working on, so I know the computer is set up correctly).  Everything appears to be working well, I have the com 1 set up, and I've only entered 2 modules so far, an 2 way appliance module and a lamp module. 

When I go to X-10 Status, the appliance shows up as "Unknown".  When I try to turn on either modules through the interface I get the following error:
"A timeout occurred while waiting for the Controller to play the X10 code".

Any ideas?

-Tony

Posted: December 06 2002 at 15:23 | IP Logged

Tony,

Ive seen this problem before when ActiveHome is installed on the same machine.  Before you start PowerHome, you must make sure that ActiveHome is not running.  Even if you've exited ActiveHome, a communications routine is usually left running and needs to be manually exited.  Sometimes, even manually exiting this routine will not restore full control of the COM port back to the OS and I'll have to reboot.  Just to make sure that nothing is snagging the COM port, I would reboot the machine fresh and try launching PowerHome without going into ActiveHome.

PowerHome will show the status of modules as "Unknown" until it successfully communicates with them to determine their status.

Im assuming that since you're using ActiveHome you probably have a CM11A on COM 1.  The timeout error that you are describing is exactly what you would get if PowerHome cannot get full control of the COM port.

Let me know if the reboot solves your problem or not.

Thanks,

Dave.