Getting X10 two-way working?

tlaverty · Post by **tlaverty** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 9:17 am

I've got a house full of leviton two-way controls and am now integrating HB into the mix. I can control my lights just fine, but it seems that HB is not receiving the commands when a wall switch is pressed to stay in-sync. I'm using the Powerlinc USB interface - any suggestions? (other wall controllers do properly update state, and when I was using the Marrick interface with HCA it also worked fine, so I doubt it's a signal strength issue).

Post by **ScottBot** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 10:43 am

The USB Powerlink will report X10 commands to the appropriate X10 configured Devices. If you haven't done it already, make sure you have Devices configured using the House Code and Unit Code you are wanting to monitor.

To see if/what the USB Powerlink is receiving you can turn on some diagnostic tracing by:

- From the HouseBot main menu, select 'Settings/Tracing...'.
- Press the 'Advanced' button.
- Select the name of the USB Powerlinc in the list (it will be prefixed with an asterisk).
- Select the 'Window' checkbox.
- Press OK to dismiss all dialogs.
- Try and use the interface again. This should generate data in the system log window.
- Turn the tracing off by returning to the 'Advanced' tracing dialog and removing the check mark you set earlier.

Scott

tlaverty · Post by **tlaverty** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 11:23 am

I did as you suggested and I see that the powerlink is getting the commands - when I press the wall switch I see the log entries reporting the correct new state, but the power state in the device screen still shows the old value (and I don't see any way to force a refresh). Any idea's? Should I use something other than the lamp module device?

Post by **ScottBot** » Thu Aug 21, 2003 11:34 am

The Lamp Module should work fine.

Double-check to make sure the HouseCode and UnitCode used by the Device (HouseBot Device, not the physical X10 device) are the same ones you see in the diagnostic trace from the PowerLinc.

Also, create an "X10 Controller Controller" Device and enable it. It should report ALL X10 activity gathered by the PowerLinc. Let me know if that works for you.

Scott

tlaverty · Post by **tlaverty** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 1:52 pm

Scott,

I think I've got the problem defined. It seems that two-way is working if I use a controller (transmitter) to turn a light on or off. If I use the two-way switch itself, it does not. All the on/off events are properly tracked in the log, but there is a small difference: if the message is from a switch it says "Off", whereas the controller says "Status Off". Also, I seem to get the same abbreviated message is I use the 'all on' or 'all off' switch on a controller (and the resultant out-of-sync problem). Please let me know how I can assist.

Tom

Post by **ScottBot** » Tue Aug 26, 2003 9:07 pm

Tom,

What is the model of the Leviton switch you are using? I can't seem to dig-up one around here that is 2-way to reproduce your problem.

I use a 2-way SwitchLinc switch for most of my development and it will simply send a standard X10 "ON" or "OFF" when switched (not the 'status' version of the ON and OFF).

What I find strange is that you are getting a "Status Off" sent from the switch. The "Status Off" should only be sent in response to a "Status Request" message.

When you run the trace, could you output the data to a log file and send it to me? If you use the same filename for tracing the PowerLinc, X10 Controller, and Lamp Module, all of the data can be sent to a single file.

Thanks,

Scott