Modifying the mini controller for 10 unit status and polling
By Home Automation Forum Users

DISCLAIMER:This is just an example of what some users have done, intended for ideas only. Experiment at your own discretion and only if you're qualified.

Powerflashes are useful but expensive. They have one dry contact that when shorted will send and X10 command. If you have an application that needs several triggers, this can add up.

Well over at Ido Bartona's excellent site, there are modifications to the X10 mini controller. This is a 4 unit on/off controller with all on/all off and a dim/bright button.

By connecting wires to the inside of the box, you can get 10 different dry contacts! Two for each of the normal units (A1-A4 for example), on and off. And also the all on/all off button.

Refer to Ido's site for the details. I wanted to post this here as some of us came up with ways to get the wires connected securely, and have notes on how to additionally "poll" the unit using a universal module.

Above is the board inside, the part that faces the bottom when assembled. You will notice that there are holes near all the points you want to solder to. Rather than solder on the top of the board and risk foil peeling, choose a gauge wire (solid) that will fit through the holes. Strip, push through and solder:

Above is the foil side. On the right, notice a detail of the bent wire, solderd onto the pad. This ends up very secure mechanically.

Finally, here is my wiring above. I connected the wires to a terminal strip. Since these wires are connected to a circuit that's on the 110v main, any projects using this should have appropriate wiring, and not expose any wire.

While having switches send X10 commands when closed is fine, polling can be done too. Each switch has a common, for example there is one wire for A1. To turn A1 on, short it with the ON wire from inside the unit, for OFF do the same, using the OFF wire. Refer to ido's site for more on this.

Anyway, when using this controller, it's perfectly fine to keep A1-ON closed, A3-off closed etc, all switches work fine. And as a bonus, if you take the common ON wire and make/break the connection, the controller will send out status for all the switches set to "ON". This is like you pressing all the switches together, so you would see x10 commands like "A1 A2 ON" come across the wire.

This also works for the OFF wire. So to poll all of them, set up a DPDT relay that has two separate normally closed contacts in series with the ON wire and OFF wire. Then pulsing the relay will open/close the ON and OFF wires, and the mini controller will dump out all the ON switches and all the OFF switches.

Note that the order that these come through vary. And I found it to not be stable when some of the controllers wires were just hanging around, so I would short any unused inputs to the OFF wire.

Please comment on any of this if it's unclear, I'm having a hard time explaining it! Look at the Great Garage Project schematic for it in use.