X10 kit
"Ever use X10 kit? Mine has been working for decades.
So, how does it do when you have a brownout? Or your fridge kicks in? Or the neighbor's does? Or a trucker with a linear amp keys his mike nearby? Or during a thunderstorm?
My granddad was ahead of his time in adopting home automation. He'd often come home to find the lights hooked to his X10 kit in some random state. Lights he left on were off. Lights off were on. He was (rightfully) afraid to use one of the appliance modules to control anything that had the potential to start a fire. Sometimes one of the dimmable modules would leave a light in a seizure-inducing rapid flicker state. I played with X10 and had similar results. It was neat for its day and had a ton of features, including PC control with the right software and hardware add on. But the analog nature of the control signals just didn't filter out spurious signals, which were easily mistaken for legitimate control codes being sent.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
