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Promotional Freshmeat X10 Firecrackers
Paranoid noted that Freshmeat (hi Scoop!)
is now doing an x10 Promotional Offer
for those of you who missed your chance when we did it. You
pay $6 shipping, and you get all the required parts to
turn on your house lights from your command line. Or a TCL GUI.
I just ordered
a set for my gf- these things really rock. I've got my lava
lamps rigged up in my room, plus a motion detector in my
bathroom so I don't kill myself before I get my contacts in
first thing in the morning.
That this particular deal isn't any good anyway,
Followed by:
because $6 is a good deal for the handheld controller that comes with it
One or the other please!
Sure, the 24 hour deals do tend to be more like 24 years, but so what? I ordered one to go with the kit I already have as well. I'm using the new remote and reciever to control xmms. The firecracker will most likely end up in use as well (perhaps as a smart repeater to the other phase of my house wiring.
At any rate, I got my order within the week with no problems. Perhaps you should cancel the order, and then re-order.
To be fair, I have heard of occasional handling screw-ups on their part. I guess you're one of them.
is incapable of dimming a unique device - it can only dim an entire room of lamps at once.
You have to send a unit on command followed by the dim/bright command to select a specific unit. The Bottlerocket docs imply otherwise, but that's what it takes.
Buyer beware: X10 Powerhouse drives this market, and drives it poorly.
Sadly, your critique is all too accurate. A few next to zero cost improvments would yield a much better product. Check out comp.home.automation, there is occasionally talk there about a project to make a superior X10 like setup based on PIC chips.
I think the X10 idea could be much improved by making devices ACK their commands, and make them transmit an equivilant command when they are controlled locally. Making all devices capable of reporting their status when interrogated would complete the picture for the protocol.
I like your suggestion for a wall recptical that screws into the wall. They should also make a lamp socket 'bypass adapter' so a wall mounted controller doesn't have to listen to commands through a hot incandescant filament. (many have complained about lights that will turn on but not off by remote).
The wall controls on velcro can probably be forgiven since they target retrofiting to an existing house. It would be nice if they made an equivilant unit that mounts in the wall for those who want to do it right though.
Credit cards are safer. If someone makes an unauthorized (fraudulant) charge to my credit card, Visa is motivated to investigate and resolve the issue since I still have my money. The question to them is would they would rather be out the money, send me to collections and maybe never see the money, or not pay the person who submitted the charge. It's much cheaper easier, and less risk for them to simply not pay on that charge and let the person who submitted it sue me if they don't like it. (And people commiting fraud probably don't want to go to court)
With a check card, your account is debited already, the bank is out nothing. It's cheaper for them to do nothing and let you sue the person who submitted the charge if you don't like it.
I'm not fond of credit debit personally, so I pay the full balance every month. For people who have a credit abuse problem, there's always American Express. With them, the full balance is due every billing.
The ActiveHome starter kit has 2-way communication to the computer
That kit is very useful. Take that, heyu (linux X10 app) a perl script, and xmms and you have a really nice MP3 jukebox w/ remote control.
The more expensive modules (such as the Leviton decora wall switches) do transmit local commands.
Cool! The last I saw, only the SwitchLinc did that, and was not actually shipping. I'm glad to hear that situation has improved. Could you give me model numbers?
STATUS is as good as an ACK really, since the computer can relay remote commands, and then poll to make sure it happened.
So much for my major objections.
Need it be said that this is not a special offer? That this deal has been available every day since it was posted on here two weeks ago? That their deals NEVER end "TODAY" as they like to proclaim? That this particular deal isn't any good anyway, because you only get one free X10 module, and more are going to cost you $15 a piece?
Does it really need to be asked if Slashdot and Freshmeat are getting kickbacks from these obvious advertisements in the guise of stories? Need it be pointed out that articles that have been paid for in magazines are typically identified as such with "PAID ADVERTISEMENT" printed on the page?
So run, fellow lemmings. Run fast and buy these, because this time they really do mean today's the last day. Yup. Bet the deal won't be there tommorrow.
I ordered a kit three weeks ago because $6 is a good deal for the handheld controller that comes with it, and I've already got piles of X10 units. Three weeks, haven't seen the item, haven't been able to get anyone on the phone that knows if its been sent, or why it hasn't if it hasn't been sent.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
When I first saw this on /., I thought "hey, that's cool!" and ordered one. It took a while to get here (about two weeks) but it finally did, and it performed as advertised. I even decided to buy some more stuff from them (which has NOT arrived yet).
I *did* get spammed, but I went to their "remove" address, and was promptly removed (look at the bottom of the email.)
But then I saw the story on slashdot *again* Then I saw it on freshmeat.... which was posted on slashdot... again... I mean, don't you guys think that's enough? It's getting to be pretty blatant advertising. What's the point of that? Not trying to be a jerk, but at this point it's simply not news - it's just an ad.
Well, one thing that may be happening is that you have the transceiver and the lamp module on a different pair of phases in your house. Try putting the lamp module in an outlet which is on the same circuit as the transceiver, and see if that works. If so, then the problem is that you're not getting coupling across the phases. The lamp module should still work on 1/2 your circuits. :) You can fix this with an inexpensive capacitor, see the x10 website for how to do this.
:)
And for the person with the blinking fluorescent lights, the web site specifically says that these things dont' work with fluorescent, because they need the current path across the filament in an incandescent bulb.
Granted, none of this stuff was in the instructions that came with the modules... but Linux folk are supposed to be good at ferreting information from the net!
However, I found a page (in the netherlands) which explains some of this, and gives tips for modifying the modules to work on 220V. All disclaimers apply, and the site is here.
Well, for one, the modules I received don't have the CE Mark, so they couldn't be sold in the EU.... even if they'd work with the power distribution system over there.
The problem is not so much with multiple circuits, but with different phases. Three wires come into your house, let's call them A B and C. All of your 120V circuits are either across A and B, or B and C. If you put your transceiver on an AB circuit, and the lamp module on a BC circuit, it may not work. There are ways around this, and sometimes it works just fine anyway. Look on the support page on x10.com - hard to find, but they explain it pretty well.
Well, for the $6 that I paid, nothing has gotten delivered yet a couple of weeks later, except for probably nearly one X10-related piece of junk e-mail per day.
Here's whatcha do. Ok, so the starter kit costs $5.90. For that, you get the firecracker serial dohickey, a remote, a transceiver unit and a dimmer module. Keen. Hop on over to rat shack and *sound of record skip* $12 bucks for an extra dimmer? You're insane. Tra la la. "Honey, I need your credit card." Order up another kit,(different name on card, only one per person) at the low low super low insane price of $5.90. Voila. Extra remote ($40) extra dimmer ($12) and an extra xcvr ($18). Cha ching. Perpetuate the scam a bit, ask a few friends to help out, pony up $5.90 and voila a third kit.
As far as the spam haus that they are, just hit remove when you get that first message. Big deal.
The upshot of this? I get a super cool toy that is actually useful for dirt cheap.
Beat da system.
I decided to use the 800 number rather than the online form.
... but a minute or two later, she pointed out that people don't like to provide this sometimes "because of the ..." (she fumbled, and I suggested, "spam?") "Yeah, Spam." So she kindly removed my email address and provided my order number by voice instead. Kudos!
;) So this is sheerly an experiment. I read a lot of comments panning the deal and complaining about a few weeks of waiting, but for under USD 6, this seems like a real bargain, since it includes the remote controller. We'll see!
The wait was mind-numbing: nearly half an hour of "Your call is important to us. We are experiencing longer than normal wait times. Please stay on the line and your call will be answered by the first available operator. All calls are answered in the order received." I think the frequewncy of the message increased as the wait stretched out, too.
When I did get a person, I mentioned that I'd been on hold for a long time, but for once I didn't let my temper get the better of me and try to take it out on her.
She explained that the sales floor closes for the weekend, so all orderes go to her area, which is actually tech support, and that they were two people short (of an unspecified total) in tech support anyhow.
She asked whether I had an email address to which she could send a reeeipt, and then I provided one
Delivery time: she said their warehouse was behind on orders, but that it should arrive in under two weeks. Also that they usually ship UPS, but for this deal they're shipping USPS instead.
I noticed that a CA Slashdotter was charged state tax, so I guess they have some of their operation there, but the woman I spoke with was in New Jersey. Any other states get hit with it?
As far as this deal goes, well, you never know, eh? I have no home automation stuff at all, and know even less.
Good luck to anyone who gets one!
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
The pattern for small companies selling geekware seems to be: get mentioned on /.; deliver the first few orders quickly; then fall farther and farther behind.
;)
I suspect that this variant of the slashdot effect will be much more persistent than just bogging or crashing a web server. I suspect that the people who are ordering now are in for an even longer wait. Don't bother selecting some "express" shipping option.
Geeky modern art T-shirts
I ordered a firecracker deal when Slashdot was promoting them (and who cares if Slashdot gets kickbacks)? It took a while to get it, but I did get it via priority mail. I had gotten concerned and called X-10, and I have to say that their customer service is top notch. Although the hold times are on the long side, when the guy answered he was extremely polite, and apologized and told me that the shipping department had gotten a little behind, and If I didn't get it by friday, call and they would ship another one free of charge (as they should). But there was no need for that, because it came that Friday, and came as advertised. I just ordered a DVD anywhere from there. There is a review of serveral of their products on AGN3D.