KR22 Credit Card Remote - Dim & Bright Problem

davemgraham · Post by **davemgraham** » Mon Mar 15, 2004 8:09 pm

Hi All,

I think I'm going slightly mad !!

I have a KR22 Credit Card Remote controller which turns two lamps on/off, and dims/brights them.

Within Housebot (v1.51c) , these two lamps are set up as X10 Controller Devices with Composite properties as follows

Lamp1 = A;1;On

Lamp2 = A;2;On

When I use the KR22 Credit Card Remote to Turn off Lamp1 the values become

Lamp1 = A;1;Off

Lamp2 = A;2;On

So it can independently recognise the difference between the house codes for On and Off.

However, when i use the Bright or Dim buttons the values become

Lamp1 = A;*;Bright

Lamp2 = A;*;Bright

or

Lamp1 = A;*;Dim

Lamp2 = A;*;Dim

The Dim and Bright buttons as I understand are relative to the last house code button pressed, so after I press A1 on, and then press Dim it should Dim only A1.

I've added logging to the Computer Interface and it's not receiving the numeric part (1 or 2) of the Unit Code of the module, just the "A" part.

Now I'm sure this used to work and I'm trying to figure out why it isn't working now. Since the unit can Dim and Bright the lamps independently (without Housebot) I'm guessing that the controller is working correctly and sending the correct codes to the lamp modules.

The only thing that has changed is the addition of a Wireless Access Point in my house - but I can't imagine it would receive the data with just the unit code missing !!!

Or I am going mad and maybe it didn't used to work correctly - It's been a few months since I last played with it !

I'll turn on tracing this evening as well as installing the latest version of Housebot.

In the meantime, has anyone ever experienced anything similar ?

Kind regards,

Dave

Post by **ScottBot** » Mon Mar 15, 2004 8:29 pm

Dave,

The problem is that the X10 Controller Device isn't really meant to be associated to any individual physical device as you are trying. It's really more of a global type of utility X10 Device... It's kinda hard to describe its purpose, but it doesn't really fit to the standard HouseBot Device metaphor.

What you need to do is:

Consider upgrading to version 2.0. There's nothing to help your problem in this release, but it looks a lot better
In place of the X10 Controllers you are using create X10 Lamp Modules. Assign each Lamp Module the HouseCode and Unit Code of Lamp 1 and 2.

What actually happens is that the Device will register itself with the X10 Hardware Interface to receive notifications when the X10 Interface receives an X10 notification on the power line. If they have specific HouseCodes and UnitCodes assigned, the particular Device will maintain it's own state and not get confused with other X10 devices. When you use the X10 Controller, it receives notifications for ALL X10 activity, which is not what you want.

Hope this makes sense.

davemgraham · Post by **davemgraham** » Mon Mar 15, 2004 8:53 pm

Scott,

I will definitely upgrade !!

Regarding your suggestion of creating X10 Lamp Modules, wouldn't that negate the functionality of being able to Dim & Bright my lamp modules - as they're not the standard Leviton style down here in Australia ?

I seem to remember the way around that was to create them as X10 Controllers with Composite properties?

Cheers

Post by **ScottBot** » Mon Mar 15, 2004 10:02 pm

A while back I added a "Direct X10 Command" Property to the HouseBot Lamp Devices for X10. This combined the ability to send the dim and bright commands with the ability to have distinct Devices.

Give it a try and see if it works for you.

davemgraham · Post by **davemgraham** » Tue Mar 16, 2004 5:31 am

Thanks Scott,

I've since upgraded and all seems well....I've still got a bit of work to do in getting Housebot to keep a record of the status of the Dims/Brights.

Cheers