Forgive the cross posting.
Happy Monday!
I wanted to relay my recent experience with setting up X-10 with an AAC device. For those of you that do work
with X-10 and IR with AAC devices, you know that the X-10 IR-543 has
been discontinued.
The only replacement device that I was able to find was:
I recently set one of these up, and it was "interesting."
I thought I would relay my thoughts to help other professionals decide if this is a good option for you.
First,
each box can send only ONE X-10 address. This was not a big deal for
me, because I only needed to send two X-10 address, and I got two boxes
because I wanted to cover a large area. But, this was not something I
was aware of and would have been a problem if I had not bought two boxes
for another reason.
You CANNOT use the included remote control to program the X-10 signal. This information will save you a lot of frustration!
Basically
you are training the box to send an X-10 signal and then learn a IR
code to trigger the signal. You do not need a tranciever as this box
will send the signal for you. In order for the device to learn the X-10
code you need a plug in controller. I tried setting up the system with
just an X-10 module, but this did not work. Maybe the signal from a
plug in controller is stronger? You plug the X-10 controller into the
Smarthome box directly when "learning" the X-10 address. They say that
you can use ANY remote, but this was not the case for me. What ended up
working was using a universal remote with a NEC code (it took a couple 3
digit codes to find one that the box would respond to). I then trained
that IR code to the AAC device.
When sending the
signal through the AAC device, it required the IR signal to be sent a
couple times. When I sent the signal with the universal remote, it only
took one sending - not sure what was up with this, but this was not a
problem for my client, so I did not investigate further.
So, yes, this device will convert IR to X-10, but it has some big caveats.
If someone out there knows a better substitution, please share.
Hope this helps.
Antoinette Verdone, MSBME, ATP
Assistive Technology Consultant
ImproveAbility, LLC
Phone/Text: 512-522-1705
Email: xxxxxx@improveability.com
Fax: 888-501-1009
Address: 7301 Burnet Rd, Suite 102-265, Austin, TX 78757
DARS Provider# 1-274278960-0-000
"One cannot consent to creep when one has the impulse to soar" -- Helen Keller
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