X10 Guest Discussion Wrap-up
By Carol

We all felt great about having the opportunity to talk with Michael Cole the Executive Service Manager from X10. We shared our ideas, frustrations, and hopes for a better X10 of the future. I hope they look back at our postings for the sake of creating new products and improving the existing X10 product line. They have the potential to be a super company, and stay on top as the home automation leader, but as some of the topics will attest, they have room for improvement.

Let's look at some items that were addressed, and what answers were given by the X10's representative, and get his ideas on what improvements and changes are coming from X10, and when we can expect to see them.

What is X10 planning?

On the Xcam (all versions) are improvements on the way? X10's response was, "I can't really talk about specifics, but keep an eye on our site for some new products that should really expand the capabilities of our camera line, and integrate it with home automation and other systems."

These improvements include the Xray Vision software that has had problems, X10 said to one forum participant who had a complaint about the software, "We have gotten a lot of feedback from our users about problems similar to the ones your are experiencing, and have been making changes to our software to solve them. We are putting a new release of the software up today that should help. It's listed as a beta version on www.x10.com/xrv." The fact that X10 is offering huge incentives to on these items at this time, may be an indicator that something is about to change.

What about X10 security systems, will they have improved integration with our HA systems? X10 said, "Allowing the security systems to communicate with ActiveHome via the power line is something we've been working on," and, "you can expect to see some developments relatively soon."

X10 may someday upgrade or redesign the CM11A, controller with conditional logic and expanded memory controller such as the long hinted at CM14A. X10 commented, "A new, more capable controller is definitely going to happen, though whether it will be the CM14A or a descendant remains to be seen. Conditional logic will be an important feature, as will some other expanded capabilities." When asked if they knew when we could expect this controller, we were told, "Unfortunately, no. I think we are still figuring out exactly what direction we want to go with the hardware." I get the feeling this was a "maybe" answer.

Page 2, The Case Of The Missing IR