dhoward
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Joined: June 29 2001
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 4447
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| Posted: December 22 2004 at 13:25 | IP Logged
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Wayne,
What version of PowerHome are you using? Earlier versions had some issues with the CM17A.
The types of X-10 commands you are sending and how you send them are important as well. The CM17A can only send on, off, dim, and bright commands. A possible bug also exists with dim and bright commands with the CM17A. If the X-10 type of the unit you're trying to control is flagged as supporting extended dims, then the X-10 status screen's ADIM and the ph_x10btn functions "absolute dim" commands will be translated to extended dim codes which wont be sent over the CM17A.
The CM17A also does not support group type commands. You can for instance send A1, A2, A3, and then AON and have units 1,2,3 all turn on simultaneously. With the CM17A, this type of X-10 control would result in only the A3 unit turning on.
Another thing to check is the CM17A settings in the pwrhome.ini file. The default settings that worked best for me are:
[CM17A]
Standby=100000
Signal=600
Wait=600
SendDelay=800000
DimPercent=14.3
The one last thing that I can think of is that the serial port just may be incompatible. The CM17A does not communicate the way a normal serial device does by sending and receiving data through the send/receive lines. Instead, the DTR (Data Terminal Ready) and RTS (Request to Send) lines are toggled high to low to generate a specific bitstream that causes the CM17A to send the appropriate X-10 RF. This is why the CM17A can actually be used with a normal serial device in a passthru fashion (the normal send/receive lines are not used by the CM17A). It's possible that something is wrong or incompatible with the DTR and RTS lines and PowerHome is unable to toggle them (although normal serial communication would work without a problem).
BTW, you are probably aware that the CM17A is pretty low end on X-10 controllers. It's not very fast either. If you're interested in a low cost X-10 controller, I would investigate the PowerLinc USB (PowerHome now supports this controller). It's only $35.00 and is capable of doing much more than the CM17A. If you still want to work with the CM17A, I would try testing with the Palm Pad screen to eliminate other variables.
Let me know how it goes.
Dave.
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