Posted: October 28 2002 at 13:17 | IP Logged

Bob,

The [X10STAT??] system variables only report what PowerHome thinks the status should be which would be either from commands it received on the Powerline or commands that it issued.  There is no built in facility which verifies that the module actually "heard" the command.

I wasn't familiar with the PAM21 so did a quick search on the net and see that it is a two-way 2-pin appliance module.  I know that most 2-way modules can be polled for their status or can be set to automatically send a "confirmation" that the command was applied.  If you would like to "verify" that the module actually responded to the command, you should be able to create a trigger on "X-10 Out" for the modules in question and have an action that then polls the module and sets the status appropriately.  You could probably do this several different ways based upon how the PAM21 reports that it properly received a command.  Im thinking that you could create a trigger on outgoing X-10 that would use the ph_x10setstat function to set the status to unknown or some other value that would represent that you're not sure what the status is (this will directly affect the [X10STATUS??] variables), then have a trigger fire on incoming X-10 which corresponds to the PAM21's verification and then use the ph_x10setstat to set the modules status appropriately. 

If you could provide me with a little more info on what the PAM21 does to verify that it heard a command properly, I can probably put together a way for you to verify the status.

Dave.

Posted: October 28 2002 at 15:45 | IP Logged

^{There is precious little info I've found on what any X-10 device does. . . Everything I think I know is found empirically.  This particular device (X-10s PAM21) will respond to a "Status Request" like this:}

X-10 controller 1 transmission of House code: C, Command: Status Request

Incoming X-10 received on controller 1. Byte Values: 02 01 2D  Decode:  C{Status On}

If and when it responds the [X10STAT??] sets to the correct value.  The question is how did you know it responded?  If it doesn't respond (ie you unplug the module) the "Status" request goes out nothing comes back and [X10STAT??] is unchanged.  (seems to me the system should set the [X10STAT??] to "UNK" when the "Status Request" is sent and update it if and when it gets a response)

I have been unable the change [X10STATC6] to a "0" with this formula ph_x10setstat( 0, 'C', 6, 0, 0 ), I'm at a loss as to were to go from here.

Bob