No more X10 at Radio Shack?

Yesterday I tried to purchase an appliance module at the local Radio
Shack (Rochester, MN) and was told that RS is discontinuing its X10
Plug N Power products. There may be some good deals at stores that
still have inventory.

What is the best alternative to Radio Shack for me, an infrequent buyer
of basic X10 products?

Thanks in advance, Dave

In article <1164650050.111732.10570@n67g2000cwd.googlegroups. com>,
Dave <dcreich@charter.net> wrote:
>Yesterday I tried to purchase an appliance module at the local Radio
>Shack (Rochester, MN) and was told that RS is discontinuing its X10
>Plug N Power products. There may be some good deals at stores that
>still have inventory.

Radio Shack is fast becoming not very useful to those of us who like
electronics and doing things ourselves.

>What is the best alternative to Radio Shack for me, an infrequent buyer
>of basic X10 products?

http://www.x10.com/

=========== For PPP Protocol Analysis, check out PacketView Pro! ===========
Patrick Klos Email: patrick@klos.com
Klos Technologies, Inc. Web: http://www.klos.com/
================================================== ==========================

I suppose you will have go get a new interest. Something like holding a
cell phone to your ear all day!


"Patrick Klos" <pklos@osmium.mv.net> wrote in message
news:ekfa0t$1aj1$1@pyrite.mv.net...
> In article <1164650050.111732.10570@n67g2000cwd.googlegroups. com>,
> Dave <dcreich@charter.net> wrote:
>>Yesterday I tried to purchase an appliance module at the local Radio
>>Shack (Rochester, MN) and was told that RS is discontinuing its X10
>>Plug N Power products. There may be some good deals at stores that
>>still have inventory.
>
> Radio Shack is fast becoming not very useful to those of us who like
> electronics and doing things ourselves.
>
>>What is the best alternative to Radio Shack for me, an infrequent buyer
>>of basic X10 products?
>
> http://www.x10.com/
>
> =========== For PPP Protocol Analysis, check out PacketView Pro!
> ===========
> Patrick Klos Email: patrick@klos.com
> Klos Technologies, Inc. Web: http://www.klos.com/
> ================================================== ==========================

On Mon, 27 Nov 2006 18:15:57 +0000 (UTC), Patrick Klos wrote:
> In article <1164650050.111732.10570@n67g2000cwd.googlegroups. com>,
> Dave <dcreich@charter.net> wrote:

> Radio Shack is fast becoming not very useful to those of us who like
> electronics and doing things ourselves.
>
>>What is the best alternative to Radio Shack for me, an infrequent buyer
>>of basic X10 products?
>
> http://www.x10.com/

That's just mean! ;-)

--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry@linuxha.com
http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site
http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/ Backup site

On 27 Nov 2006 09:54:10 -0800, Dave wrote:
>
> Yesterday I tried to purchase an appliance module at the local Radio
> Shack (Rochester, MN) and was told that RS is discontinuing its X10
> Plug N Power products. There may be some good deals at stores that
> still have inventory.
>
> What is the best alternative to Radio Shack for me, an infrequent buyer
> of basic X10 products?
>
> Thanks in advance, Dave

Take a look at Smarthome.com. You could do a search and see who else
is selling X10 type products.

--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry@linuxha.com
http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site
http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/ Backup site

"Dave" <dcreich@charter.net> wrote in message
news:1164650050.111732.10570@n67g2000cwd.googlegro ups.com...
>
> What is the best alternative to Radio Shack for me, an infrequent buyer
> of basic X10 products?

eBay - there are a couple of dealers that offer a wide variety of X10 items
at prices that can't be beat.

Jeff

"Dave" <dcreich@charter.net> wrote in message
news:1164650050.111732.10570@n67g2000cwd.googlegro ups.com...
>
> Yesterday I tried to purchase an appliance module at the local Radio
> Shack (Rochester, MN) and was told that RS is discontinuing its X10
> Plug N Power products.

Hallelujah! If more retail channels abandon that abomination we'll all be
better off. X10 is shite.

> What is the best alternative to Radio Shack for me, an infrequent buyer
> of basic X10 products?

Stop using X10.

"Bill Kearney" <wkearney99@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:xYWdnQOVYv4h2fHYnZ2dnUVZ_rmdnZ2d@speakeasy.ne t...
>
> Hallelujah! If more retail channels abandon that abomination we'll all be
> better off. X10 is shite.
>
> Stop using X10.

X10 can be a cost-effective and very reliable system for those who care to
put in some effort.

Actually, it is probably better that retail channels drop it because that
will get rid of many of the impulse buyers who are disappointed when it
doesn't work 100% right out of the box. You know the ones - their VCRs
flashed 12:00 for years until manufacturers included automatic clock
setting.

How many of the "new and better" systems will still be around 30 years from
now?

Jeff

Hello Jeff,


> Actually, it is probably better that retail channels drop it because that
> will get rid of many of the impulse buyers who are disappointed when it
> doesn't work 100% right out of the box. You know the ones - their VCRs
> flashed 12:00 for years until manufacturers included automatic clock
> setting.
>

Ours still flashes 12:00 after an outage. X10 let us down here: We
bought the X10 universal remote and on the picture it had a "Menu"
button in the lower left. When I unpacked it I discovered that it had a
"Guide" button in that space and no menu button. Hence we cannot program
the clock or anything else at all except by unplugging again and holding
some magic buttons on the VCR itself. Its original remote had died.

Tried dozens of VCR codes in the booklet and none turns that useless
guide button into menu mode :-(


> How many of the "new and better" systems will still be around 30 years from
> now?
>

Good point. "New and better" is not only about technology, they also
need to understand marketing. So far I don't see that happen.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

"Jeff Volp" <JeffVolp@msn.com> wrote in message
news:3NYah.115414$Fi1.103737@bgtnsc05-

> X10 can be a cost-effective and very reliable system for those who care to
> put in some effort.

There's nothing on the market that can come close to either the low cost or
the breadth of product offerings. Everyone's still playing catch up. With
the addition of the XTB it's become a workable system once more. Thanks
again for inventing it!

> Actually, it is probably better that retail channels drop it because that
> will get rid of many of the impulse buyers who are disappointed when it
> doesn't work 100% right out of the box. You know the ones - their VCRs
> flashed 12:00 for years until manufacturers included automatic clock
> setting.

It's not for the faint of heart, especially in this age of CFL's and
switching power supplies. Even factoring in the cost of filters, a good
meter and XTB's on the main transmitters, X-10 *still* comes in way cheaper
per load than any other control system. And it does it with more types of
controllers (from PLC hardwired to pocket RF remotes) than anything else
currently out there.

Best of all, Ebayers who bought the stuff cheap from X-10 and never used it
are now selling it in droves on Ebay for dirt cheap. They'd be worthless to
me without your XTB. It reminds me a little of the early days of disk
compression and Stacker where you could truly get something for almost
nothing. In this case, it's the ability to extend the life of my X-10 setup
for perhaps another 10 years. Maybe 20. (-:

> How many of the "new and better" systems will still be around 30 years
from
> now?

It's been a remarkable run - made even more so because it's still a player.
Personally, I'm going to start trash talking X-10 here so that people panic
and dump their excess X-10 inventory for pennies on the dollar. I've
already made some fantastic buys - a carton of StickaSwitches, remotes,
appliance modules, transceivers and more (all unused) for $20. It's really
nice to be able to add a few more control points here and there for less
than $2 each.

While I'd love to have the reliability of Centralite or Lutron's RF system,
I don't think I'd ever be able to recover the cost when selling the house.

--
Bobby G.