Home Control Assistant
WGL and Associates makes several really great pieces of X10 gear. HCA supports these products:
The W800RF32 is a great product for receiving wireless signals and getting them directly into your computer. No more need for multiple wireless transceivers to be used.
We can't recommend the W800RF32 enough! With the antenna that WGL sells, it has a range to cover a large home and works very well. This means that any transmissions from your wireless motion sensors (those with a house and unit code setting on them) and wireless keypads can be received and process by HCA. On all housecodes!
The W800RF32 can also receive the wireless broadcasts from the non-house and unit code motion sensors, security keypads, and door and window closure modules. These components are sold with the much maligned but ubiquitous X10 Home Security System. The problem with this system is that it is a closed box. That is, until the W800RF32, your automation solution was unable to receive any input from any of the security sensors; it was unable to know if the system was armed or not when you used the security remote; and on and on.
With the W800RF32 and HCA you can now receive any of those signals, process them (there is a special kind of trigger that is for these type of wireless components), and start programs to respond. You can even create a program that handles what happens if these components don't send any signal for 4 hours. In this way you can be alerted to broken sensors and dead batteries. This is all described in the HCA Wireless Appendix which can be downloaded from the Documentation section.
In addition to receiving wireless signals, HCA can act as a transceiver to broadcast the signal on the powerline. This gets the signal into the computer much quicker and but still makes it available for devices on the powerline. All this is configurable on a housecode basis.
Special note for users outside of North America: WGL has a version of the wireless receiver that works in many European locations.
More information on the W800RF32 can be found on the WGL website.
Support for the W800RF32 is in the Standard and Plus flavors of HCA.
The Rain8 is a full-featured version of a sprinkler controller. Each time a zone is turned on or off it reports its status on the power line. This coupled with the HCA command confirmation procedure outlined in the Status and Command Confirmation Technical Note can help ensure that the zone is turned on or off. Status commands can also be used at any time to test if the zone is on or off.
Couple this with all the features of HCA weather station or web based weather reports and you can really controller your watering needs.
Each zone is simply added using the new device wizard by selecting manufacturer "WGL" and "Rain8 Zone". All the appropriate properties for HCA to use the zone are setup for you.
More information on this product can be found on the WGL website.
Support for the Rain8 is in the Standard and Plus flavors of HCA.
The Relay8 is a great way to get eight relays in one small unit. HCA supports all the features of this device with status polls and command confirmation.
More information on this product can be found on the WGL website.
Support for the Relay8 is in the Standard and Plus flavors of HCA.