Binding for X10 CM11A

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trai...@illinois.edu

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Oct 30, 2013, 4:56:10 PM10/30/13
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Hi All,

My current home automation system uses X10 switches, a CM11A interface, and control via ECS software. The fellow who has supported ECS for years, Mark Gilmore, seems to have disappeared. So, I would like to begin using OpenHab as my software solution.

In the short run, I would like to continue to use the CM11A and the X10 switches that are in place.  I can't afford to replace them right now.  So, I am wondering if there is a binding for the CM11A that I have overlooked (don't see one listed).  If there is not, I would consider creating a binding for the CM11A.  But, before I do that, I would like to get feedback on the wisdom of such an approach.

In the long run, I plan to replace all of my old X10 equipment with something new that includes wireless support:  z-wave, insteon, enOcean, etc.  In that case, I could probably use bindings that are already available.  But, I don't have the budget for that.  Right now, I have more time than money.  So, building a CM11A binding might make sense for me.

What do you think?

Best Regards,

Kevin
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Maze

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Oct 30, 2013, 6:27:16 PM10/30/13
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I'm in the same situation, I have many X10 switches and dimmers that I want to re-use until I can afford to replace them to any more modern equipment. Uses HouseBot right now but the software has not been updated in several years. OpenHAB seems to fulfill all my wishes regarding GUI and rules. I am very interested in a Binding for CM11A.

Kai Kreuzer

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Oct 31, 2013, 11:26:40 AM10/31/13
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Hi,

Maybe it is a dumb question, but I’ll have a try: Would it be an option to invest in an Insteon Hub? From what I was told, this should be backward compatible to X10 devices and would allow you to add more modern devices than X10 easily. An Insteon binding is currently under development. Is there anything this solution would be lacking over a CM11A?

Best regards,
Kai

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Trainor, Kevin

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Oct 31, 2013, 12:32:46 PM10/31/13
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Hi Kai,

I will check out the Insteon hub. My old friend Mark Gilmore has resurfaced.  So, the urgency of my situation is lower than I initially thought.

Thanks for your suggestion.

Kevin

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bbl...@gmail.com

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Nov 15, 2013, 9:08:26 AM11/15/13
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Hello,
 
I just installe openHAB yesterday and I say that so far I love it.  But I feel the same way as some others on this board.  Missing X-10 binding is almost a deal breaker for me.
Although my main house is equiped with Z-Wave, I have a fair number of X-10 devices that I keep with my holiday decorations.  It lights up anything from the Xmas tree to window candles and various other decorations.  I keep them in the same box as my decorations and they are ready to go the following year.
 
I hope someone tackles on the project even if this is a dying technology.  For some of us, it will still be around for a while
 
Bernie

Kai Kreuzer

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Nov 15, 2013, 3:12:49 PM11/15/13
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Hi Bernie,

Glad to hear that you like openHAB. Yes, I understand that especially in the US X10 is still a very widespread technology. So I would hope that some guy with X10 equipment and Java experience comes up with a binding for it!
For the moment, my recommendation would still be to look at the Insteon Hub, which is said to be backward compatible to X10. The binding for it is already pretty far advanced and should become a part of openHAB by the end of the year: https://github.com/openhab/openhab/pull/49

Best regards,
Kai


bbl...@gmail.com

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Nov 15, 2013, 3:47:47 PM11/15/13
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Great .. that could be a possibility .. thanks for your reply Kai.
Can anyone in the US attest that this would work as a possible solution for X-10?

Fabio Folino

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Nov 17, 2013, 1:25:07 AM11/17/13
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I'm not sure about the insteon hub, but depending on your OS you should be able to setup similar to my cm19a/cm17. What I have is a secondary program with command execution. I have bottlerocket on linux for my cm17, but I found this for windows http://x10controller.sourceforge.net/X10Server/. Then just use exec binding to activate switches.

Les Ash

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Nov 17, 2013, 4:43:14 AM11/17/13
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Hayu for Linux may also be an option....

nwe...@gmail.com

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Feb 27, 2014, 3:59:52 AM2/27/14
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Hi All,
Any progress on the X10 interface yet?
I have about ten devices I would like to bring across.

Kind regards,
Neil.

Maze

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Feb 27, 2014, 7:22:16 AM2/27/14
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+1

pe...@sandpward.com

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Apr 1, 2014, 9:23:43 AM4/1/14
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I've just installed OpenHAB on my Fedora box to use with my INSTEON Hub, brilliant
INSTEON Houslinc is ok but only runs on Win, the INSTEON Hub itself cannot handle any conditional processing.
However I also have a lot of old x10 kit.
Some clarification on the hardware....INSTEON Hub CAN send/receive x10 powerline signals.
The INSTEON bindings would have to be updated for OpenHAB to communicate this to/from the Hub though.
In addition to x10 powerline kit I have a lot of x10 RF motion detectors. These will only communicate with x10 hardware, in my case a CM-15 Controller.
If you have an INSTEON Hub though an alternative to buiding an x10 binding would be to use an x10 transceiver module to convert these x10 RF signals to x10 powerline signals.

Either way, there is a LOT of x10 kit out there, not all of it needs to be thrown away so an x10 binding to x10 CM-xx Controllers or an update to the INSTEON binding to allow the Hub to send/receive x10 powerline would be used by many.

ran...@gmail.com

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May 14, 2014, 11:48:00 AM5/14/14
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+1

anthony...@googlemail.com

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May 19, 2014, 2:01:03 PM5/19/14
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I have written a simple binding for the CM11A X10 interface.  It supports sending on, off and brightness/dim commands to the basic appliance and lamp modules.  The binding doesn't currently listen for X10 commands coming from the powerline, so if you change switch an X10 module on/off with something other than openhab, then openhab will show the wrong state.  I understand the the CM11A can theoretically receive commands from the power line, but I don't have any other X10 transmitters to test this out with, so it isn't implemented.

There is no pull request yet as it is still a tad rough.

A jar file is attached for the keen.
Configuration examples below:

openhab.cfg
cm11a:serialPort=/dev/ttyS0

Items:
Switch X10_OutputE2 "X10 E2" { cm11a="E2"}
Dimmer X10_LampA1 "X10 A1" { cm11a="A1"}


Anthony

On Wednesday, May 14, 2014 4:48:00 PM UTC+1, ran...@gmail.com wrote:
+1
org.openhab.binding.cm11a-1.5.0-SNAPSHOT.jar

nwe...@gmail.com

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May 21, 2014, 8:30:45 AM5/21/14
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Hi,
Will this binding work with windows?
Im assuming that I would need to change the openhab.cfg file to a have a COM3 style of port setting but other than that?

Kind regards,

Neil

Anthony J. Green

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May 26, 2014, 11:10:59 AM5/26/14
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Hello,

This uses the same library as the serial binding to access the hardware, so it should work fine on Windows or a Mac.  According to the Serial binding wiki page, that would be: 
"COM1" on Windows, "/dev/ttyS0" on Linux or "/dev/tty.PL2303-0000103D" on Mac.
Anthony

nwe...@gmail.com

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Jun 1, 2014, 3:09:28 AM6/1/14
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Hi,
I have installed your binding but it is having issues.

I have it set for COM1.
15:48:21.318 DEBUG o.o.m.i.i.GenericItemProvider[:334]- Start processing binding configuration of Item 'X10_Driveway (Type=SwitchItem, State=Uninitialized)' with 'CM11AGenericBindingProvider' reader.
15:48:21.318 DEBUG o.o.b.c.i.CM11AGenericBindingProvider[:69]- Succesfully added item: X10_Driveway for X10 module: A3
15:48:21.318 DEBUG o.o.m.i.i.GenericItemProvider[:334]- Start processing binding configuration of Item 'X10_WallLight (Type=SwitchItem, State=Uninitialized)' with 'CM11AGenericBindingProvider' reader.
15:48:21.328 DEBUG o.o.b.c.i.CM11AGenericBindingProvider[:69]- Succesfully added item: X10_WallLight for X10 module: B4
15:48:21.328 DEBUG o.o.m.i.i.GenericItemProvider[:334]- Start processing binding configuration of Item 'X10_Dining (Type=DimmerItem, State=Uninitialized)' with 'CM11AGenericBindingProvider' reader.
15:48:21.328 DEBUG o.o.b.c.i.CM11AGenericBindingProvider[:69]- Succesfully added item: X10_Dining for X10 module: B1
15:48:21.328 DEBUG o.o.b.c.internal.CM11ABinding[:53]- CM11A Binding has been activated
15:48:21.338 WARN  o.o.m.i.i.GenericItemProvider[:108]- Attempted to register a second BindingConfigReader of type 'zwave'. The primaraly reader will remain active!
15:48:21.338 DEBUG o.o.b.n.internal.NtpActivator[:31]- NTP binding has been started.
15:48:21.348 DEBUG o.o.m.i.i.GenericItemProvider[:334]- Start processing binding configuration of Item 'Date (Type=DateTimeItem, State=Uninitialized)' with 'NtpGenericBindingProvider' reader.
15:48:21.358 DEBUG o.o.m.i.i.GenericItemProvider[:334]- Start processing binding configuration of Item 'Date (Type=DateTimeItem, State=Uninitialized)' with 'NtpGenericBindingProvider' reader.
15:48:21.888 DEBUG o.o.b.c.internal.CM11ABinding[:119]- New configuration string received: COM1
15:48:21.888 DEBUG o.o.b.c.internal.CM11ABinding[:61]- CM11A Binding has been deactivated
15:48:21.898 INFO  o.o.b.c.internal.CM11ABinding[:72]- Initialised CM11A X10 interface on: COM1

When I press an output, I can then see data coming out every 5 seconds, in the log it keeps showing the following.


15:56:54.311 DEBUG o.o.b.c.i.m.ApplianceModule[:26]- Updating Appliance module: A3 State (current/desired): null/true
15:56:54.335 ERROR o.o.b.c.internal.X10Interface[:434]- IO Exception when updating module hardware.  Will retry shortly
15:56:59.360 DEBUG o.o.b.c.internal.X10Interface[:228]- Connecting to X10 hardware on serial port: COM1
15:56:59.368 DEBUG o.o.b.c.i.m.ApplianceModule[:26]- Updating Appliance module: A3 State (current/desired): null/true
15:56:59.392 ERROR o.o.b.c.internal.X10Interface[:434]- IO Exception when updating module hardware.  Will retry shortly
15:57:04.439 DEBUG o.o.b.c.internal.X10Interface[:228]- Connecting to X10 hardware on serial port: COM1
15:57:04.449 DEBUG o.o.b.c.i.m.ApplianceModule[:26]- Updating Appliance module: A3 State (current/desired): null/true
15:57:04.640 ERROR o.o.b.c.internal.X10Interface[:434]- IO Exception when updating module hardware.  Will retry shortly
15:57:09.710 DEBUG o.o.b.c.internal.X10Interface[:228]- Connecting to X10 hardware on serial port: COM1

The X10 device does not actually switch.

I'm running this on Win7

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Kind regards,
Neil.

Anthony J. Green

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Jun 1, 2014, 1:58:19 PM6/1/14
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Hello,

It looks a little odd.  The log entries suggest that your configuration is reasonable and the binding has apparently successfully connected to the serial port you've configured.  However it reaches problems when sending or receiving data to the port.  Switching to TRACE logging would give a bit more information on how far it actually got before the IOException was raised, (e.g. if it managed to send and data at all).  Unhelpfully my error logging has not logged the stack trace with the IOException that might have given a bit the reason for the IOException.  I've now pushed a commit to my repo that fixes this so that more information on the IOException is logged. (jar attached).  If you can give that a try, it might narrow the problem down. 

regards,
Anthony
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org.openhab.binding.cm11a-1.5.0-SNAPSHOT.jar
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nwe...@gmail.com

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Jun 1, 2014, 3:46:11 PM6/1/14
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Hi,
Figured out the debug logging.

05:44:02.657 DEBUG o.o.b.c.internal.X10Interface[:228]- Connecting to X10 hardware on serial port: COM1
05:44:02.667 DEBUG o.o.b.c.i.m.ApplianceModule[:26]- Updating Appliance module: A3 State (current/desired): null/true
05:44:02.858 ERROR o.o.b.c.internal.X10Interface[:434]- IO Exception when updating module hardware.  Will retry shortly
java.io.EOFException: null
    at java.io.DataInputStream.readUnsignedByte(Unknown Source)
    at org.openhab.binding.cm11a.internal.X10Interface.sendData(X10Interface.java:379)
    at org.openhab.binding.cm11a.internal.X10Interface.sendFunction(X10Interface.java:293)
    at org.openhab.binding.cm11a.internal.X10Interface.sendFunction(X10Interface.java:329)
    at org.openhab.binding.cm11a.internal.modules.ApplianceModule.updateHardware(ApplianceModule.java:29)
    at org.openhab.binding.cm11a.internal.X10Interface.run(X10Interface.java:427)
05:44:07.928 DEBUG o.o.b.c.internal.X10Interface[:228]- Connecting to X10 hardware on serial port: COM1
05:44:07.938 DEBUG o.o.b.c.i.m.ApplianceModule[:26]- Updating Appliance module: A3 State (current/desired): null/true
05:44:08.129 ERROR o.o.b.c.internal.X10Interface[:434]- IO Exception when updating module hardware.  Will retry shortly
java.io.EOFException: null
    at java.io.DataInputStream.readUnsignedByte(Unknown Source)
    at org.openhab.binding.cm11a.internal.X10Interface.sendData(X10Interface.java:379)
    at org.openhab.binding.cm11a.internal.X10Interface.sendFunction(X10Interface.java:293)
    at org.openhab.binding.cm11a.internal.X10Interface.sendFunction(X10Interface.java:329)
    at org.openhab.binding.cm11a.internal.modules.ApplianceModule.updateHardware(ApplianceModule.java:29)
    at org.openhab.binding.cm11a.internal.X10Interface.run(X10Interface.java:427)
05:44:13.199 DEBUG o.o.b.c.internal.X10Interface[:228]- Connecting to X10 hardware on serial port: COM1

Kind regards,
Neil.

madmad...@gmail.com

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Sep 10, 2014, 4:21:20 PM9/10/14
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I own a cm11 usb will it work?

Anthony J. Green

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Sep 11, 2014, 2:14:52 PM9/11/14
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As far as I know the CM11 is the same as the CM11A, so it should do.
Note though that so far this binding is only working under Linux, not in
windows as there are some differences in the behaviour of the rxtx
serial libraries in Windows that I haven't been able to workaround. (I
haven't got a Windows PC to hand)

madmad...@gmail.com

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Sep 15, 2014, 4:34:00 PM9/15/14
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Ok i'm gonna try next weekend on my raspberry pi....

jjh...@gmail.com

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Oct 2, 2014, 10:27:54 AM10/2/14
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Yes, the CM11 is the same as CM11A. 
Can you tell me the status of this binding  as of this date?  What are some of the issues if it is still a work in progress?  Is there any documentation around that describes its capabilities? as there is a great deal of functionality/capability in the CM11A.
Is there any interface to CM17A (aka 'Firecracker'  serial to x10-rf).
Is there any interface to the CM19A (usb to x10-rf)?

I know x10 is 'old school' but a lot of ppl use it.  The I/O is basically $10USD a point, and all one does is plug it in the wall...no need to home-brew/reinvent AC lamp switches.
Depending on the needs of this effort, I may be able to contribute.

-J

jjh...@gmail.com

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Oct 2, 2014, 10:29:01 AM10/2/14
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t

On Thursday, September 11, 2014 2:14:52 PM UTC-4, Anthony J. Green wrote:

nwe...@gmail.com

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Oct 2, 2014, 8:11:21 PM10/2/14
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Hi ,
It doesn't work on windows.XP or Win7. Issues with the serial control.

I ended up making my own ethernet to serial/X10 interface. Actually I'm moving all of my serial stuff to ethernet so that my synology can be the OH server and does not require serial ports.

Neil.

nwe...@gmail.com

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Oct 2, 2014, 8:11:24 PM10/2/14
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dani...@gmail.com

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Oct 26, 2014, 11:09:19 PM10/26/14
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Hello. I'm trying to get my X10 hardware running using Openhab. This binding is the best thing I have found in my pursuit to make that happen. I'm very new with using anything like this though. Is there anywhere I can get a step by step on how to install and use this binding that you've created? Thank you for any help you can provide, and thank you for writing this binding. 

nwe...@gmail.com

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Oct 27, 2014, 3:35:47 AM10/27/14
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Hi Kevin,
What operating system are you using?
I couldn't get it to work with windows but I believe it works on linux.
I ended up doing my own ethernet to x10 interface so that OH would talk to it.
kind regards,
Neil.

Toon Fiets

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Jul 2, 2015, 10:09:10 AM7/2/15
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Hi All,

Any news on the CM11A binding? I tried to 1.5.0 release (in 1.7.0) but could not get it to work.

I have (as many other) a lot of X10 modules and want to switch from HomeSeer to openHAB but a good working CM11A binding is stoppingme right now.

Any help greatly appreciated !

-ben

nwe...@gmail.com

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Jul 2, 2015, 11:23:39 PM7/2/15
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Hi Kevin,
I gave up on the serial interface ie windows box driving the cm11. I ended up using a ethernet based arduino board. OH uses udp to talk to the arduino and the arduino sends it out on the serial port to the cm11.
Been working perfectly for 9 months.
Neil.

Toon Fiets

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Jul 6, 2015, 6:20:16 AM7/6/15
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Hi Neil,

Where can I find the description of such an Arduino based ethernet interface ??

-ben

Cort Sturdevant

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Sep 6, 2015, 5:45:40 PM9/6/15
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So I stumbled on this thread whilst searching for a solution to this very same problem on my windows HA server, i found a workable solution should work with your existing cm11a/cm17a using the X-10 SDK and/or AH Pro software. I posted it on the OpenHab Wiki for those who may be interested, the post is at https://github.com/openhab/openhab/wiki/X-10-Using-AH-PRO-CLI. Below is a copy of what I posted to the wiki.

The steps are relatively simple:

  • Install Active Home X-10 SDK and Drivers
  • Browse to C:\Program Files (x86)\AHSDK
  • Find an application called AHCMD.exe
  • Copy it to your OpenHAB Directory
  • Insert the exec command into your items file, mine looks like this:

Switch Light_Main_Bedroomlamp "Bedroom Lamp" <lights> (Main,
 
Lights){exec="ON:ahcmd.exe sendrf A1 ON, OFF:ahcmd.exe sendrf A1 off"}


Notes:

  • If you have Active Home Pro installed you already have AHCMD.exe, it is located at C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\X10\Common
  • These steps will be similar in Linux, and can be achieved using the HEYU X-10 interface.
  • The command ahcmd.exe sendrf A1 ON will turn on the X-10 device at address A1 via the RF (Firecracker/CM17A), to use a CM11A replace "sendrf" with "sendplc".

Reference Credit:

X-10.com Forums - http://forums.x10.com/index.php?topic=16813.0

OpenHab WIKI- https://github.com/openhab/openhab/wiki/Exec-Binding






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