Nom Nom Nom

I have been doing home automation for almost 30 years. I started with x10, and still have a few x10 devices deployed in my house, so I think I’m in a position to know what I’m talking about here.

There are a few major advantages Zigbee and Zwave have over x10, namely:

• The Zs are fast. X10 takes a quarter to half a second at best to travel through the house and activate the device. If there is noise on your powerline, it takes longer. Sometimes messages are missed. This is old tech, and there isn’t a lot of error correction or signal ack.
• Phase Bridge. X10 uses your house power line to send signals. You may or may not know this, but (at least in the US) your power is split into one or more electrical phases. The X10 signals are absolutely terrible at crossing from one phase to the other, and it isn’t always obvious when you plug something in which phase that outlet is on. This leads to a lot of troubleshooting. Things like phase bridges exist to solve this, but they aren’t terribly reliable.
• Wireless. The Zs don’t need to be connected to your powerline to function. There are no powerline x10 devices that run on batteries for obvious reasons. This allows for a lot more versitility.
• No setting house/device codes. If you have ever actually used X10, you know each device has its own house and device code that needs to be selected (usually with a tiny screwdriver while crawling on the floor in the dark, but I digress). This is all handled digitally and is more or less plug and play with zigbee and zwave.
• Encryption. Any idiot with an extension cord and some free time can connect to a power jack on the outside of your home and turn whatever they want on and off with X10. There is no authentication whatsoever. Ironic, considering the company most known for X10 devices sold security equipment.

Now there do exist some wireless battery powered x10 devices (the MS16A motion sensor, for example or the DS10A door sensor). These are actually fairly solid devices, and I still use a good number of them in my home. (I have many DS16As that have been in daily use for more than 20 years)

It isn’t all bad, and there is no reason to throw it all out if it works for you. However, if you are buying new gear to automate with, there isn’t really a compelling reason to go back to X10. the modern solutions are cheaper, faster, more secure, and easier to work with.

I use ICE’s Cyberspace and throw out everything that slows down the story. Works well enough. It was written before most of the world was online, so still has a lot of the quaint charm of early cyberpunk.

I am still waiting on cyberpunk. Is it ready now?

I still get that bass line from the bgm stuck in my head, all these years later.

Gitaroo Man is fantastic. We need more games where you can defeat enemies using the power of your rock.

Brutal Legend also, although not the same genre by a long shot.

If you are fairly tech savvy, this isn’t hard to do.

I have built a few sprinkler valves using an esp8266, relay, solenoid, and esphome. Total cost of each one is less than $15 (US). If you are willing and patient, you could probably get that to under $10 via aliexpress.

The circuit is really simple -

Parts list:

• 12v power supply
• DC to DC converter
• Microcontroller (esp8266 or esp32)
• 5v relay
• 12v solenoid valve
• Plastic enclosure (use old Tupperware or 3d print something)

Outline:

• Run power supply to dc-dc converter, and set converter to output 5v.

• Connect one leg of 12v through switch on relay, then to the solenoid.

• Connect other 12v leg directly to solenoid.

• Run 5v from output of buck converter to input of esp and relay.

• Run data wire from esp pin to data input in relay.

• Put everything but the solenoid in a plastic box.

• Run water source to solenoid inlet and connect sprinkler or drip system to solenoid outlet.

• Flash esp with esphome

• In the esphome code, you will need the home assistant api, a switch, and a sprinkler component.

• In home assistant, set a switch or button on your front end to test everything with and provide manual control

• Write a basic home assistant automation to control via timer, or weather conditions, or soil hydration, or whatever.

You can do all of this without any soldering or any (real) programming - that being said, those two skills will improve the results by quite a bit, and are just useful in general for this sort of work.

It can (of course) get as complex and full featured as you like, but if all you want is a system that can water your flowers every time the ISS passes overhead, the above will get you there pretty cheaply.