X-10 (was Re: controlling power)

From: Dave McGuire <mcguire_at_neurotica.com>
Date: Tue Jun 26 17:51:37 2001

On June 26, Richard Erlacher wrote:
> communication via the power mains, isn't it? My notion to date has been that
> the X-10 stuff is a mite costly, considering that one could hook up a triac, an
> MOC30-something isolated triac driver, and a PIC, e.g. one of the 14-pin or
> even 8-pin parts, and put the thing in the box with the switch.

  Costly? A 300W dimmer module costs like nine bucks. When I add up the
price of the components required to duplicate that, I have trouble
figuring out where they're making a profit.

  They're all PIC-based, by the way...the modern dimmer modules contain
12c508 chips.

> It would be an interesting job, actually, though the MCU would be largely
> wasted. It's smaller than an equivalent set of CMOS logic, though.

  Well, the 12c508 is a *tiny* processor with a *tiny* control
store...

         -Dave McGuire
Received on Tue Jun 26 2001 - 17:51:37 BST