What is X10?

Filed in archive Home Automation on February 12, 2005

X10 has become a basis for many home automation projects, but most people still don't know what X10 is. Tony Northrup, co-author of Home Hacking Projects for Geeks has a great article that explains X10. He says:

X10 is a communications protocol, similar to network protocols such as TCP/IP. However, X10 works across home power lines and is extremely low-bandwidth. X10 devices send about one command per second, and the commands are as simple as "Device A1: turn on." These commands require less than 1/1000th of the bandwidth of a dial-up connection. Like a broadcast network, every command is sent through every wire in your house; it's up to each individual device to decide whether it needs to respond to a particular command.

With X10, devices that can be plugged into the wall can communicate with each other and with your computer. There are hundreds of X10 devices available, and most are fairly inexpensive--less than $40. Figure 1 shows some of the most common types of X10 devices: a two-way, hard-wired X10 wall switch, a wireless transceiver, and a battery-operated wireless wall switch.


Read The Introduction to X10 Home Automation Technology