Need help understanding what a EZX10RF can do

[satwar]

I was thinking of installing Insteon light switching for rear house entrance and garage.  My problem is I currently have Homelink in my car which controls these lights using RF controlled switches.  I would like to retain the use of Homelink, and I thought possibly a EZX10RF could receive the Homelink RF commands and send out Insteon commands to my new Insteon switches..

 

Do I understand what the EZX10RF can do ?

[larryllix]

I had one about two years ago when I first started with Insteon. I thought it would translate X10 code to Insteon. It did,

 

Another feature of the EZX10RF was to repeat X10 signals. I thought this would be a good idea. it was not. It repeated X10 signals so that things got the signal twice. X10 does not have enough intelligence in the protocol or devices to handle this properly.

 

However the unit I had also did another bad thing. It not only repeated every X10 signal it repeated the previous X10 unit code combined with the current house code and command.

 

eg.

 

Turn A4 off

  X10 = A4 select,  House A off

Turn B5 on

  X10 = B5 select, House B on

 

The EZX10RF would now send

     B4 select, B5 select, House B on

 

This would turn B4 on which was not sent or desired. I had to resurrect my old home brew monitor software to find this.

I concluded this was not a bug in the manufacture but a bug in the engineering design. The repeating of X10 was too intelligently done to be a bug in the firmware. and I eventually found a company person bragging on a forum about how they added X10 code repeating after a certain version.

 

The unit went back as defective.

 

I haven't touched any of their products since and they have some nice I/O devices. Too bad for Insteon users.

Hearing about some of their other product design flaws has only reinforced my opinion.

 

 

According to their claims the device should be a perfect fit for your application. The PLM will receive X10 signals on the powerline only and work with other X10 bridges that you must already have.

[matapan]

EZX10RF converts your wireless X10 signals to an Insteon command sent to an Insteon device you map the X10 command to.

 

It's useful for applications like Homelink, where you want to either activate a scene, run a program or toggle an Insteon device triggered by the wireless X10 command. 

 

If you have a X10 motion sensors, it's a cheap way of checking occupancy in any area of your home.

[satwar]

Thank you all.  It appears that some have had success, so I'll give it a try.

[larryllix]

I would make sure it is returnable. Many report having them in their tool box but I have yet to hear anybody using one successfully but then the need for such a device is waning.
 

[cmccartney]

I installed an EZX10RF many years ago when I still had an extensive X10 system not yet converted to Insteon and used it with some success. Presently, its only used to convert the HomeLink RF from one of our automobiles to Insteon to open/close the garage door; it still works fine for just that.

 

Today, I would not use an EZX10RF as most garage door opener manufacturers have a RF device available to convert HomeLink RF directly to whatever the new garage door protocol is. KISS

 

Craig