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I have quite a few lamps on my house with a wire dimmer connected to a wall socket. Anyone knows of an X10 equivalent exists?

Wire in - dimmer - wire out - light
The dimmer should respond to X10 commands over power lines, as well as allow local control. Preferrably local control includes dimming and I do look for something with a decent look.

I see plenty of plugin lamp modules, but having an advanced X10 system with (forgive me) ugly wall plugs is not my idea of good looking.

Any suggestions would help.

Did you look at the Xanura module dimmers, you can put them behind your existing wall sockets, so always the look you want!

Thanks for the suggestion, doesn't quite do the trick I think.

Controlling the lights locally is more complicated.
If you 're-decorate' once in a while, simply unpligging the wire dimmers and walking the light somewhere else should not always include reconfiguration wall sockets.
Also I hesitate to dim sockets. Normal practice in the US, but when someone uses the socket for non-dimmable appliances... (vacuum cleaner?)

Any other suggestions are welcome

OK now I know what you mean. I have two seperate outlets beside each other in my house.
You need an external X10 dimmer....

"External X10 dimmer" is an excellent name for it, had not googled that before. Sadly no new findings. Maybe you can help woth translating 'vloerdimmer' or 'snoerdimmer' in English?

Looking at an AM12E (http://www.x10europe.com/pdf/AM12E.pdf it states:

The load connected to the switch module can still be controlled locally by its own switch, but do not forget to leave the local switch in the "ON" position, otherwise the load cannot be controlled by an X10 controller. Switch the load off by remote control.

Guess what will happen... Seems like they do not grasp the concept, or am I too picky?

A combination of a single-controller with actuator, similar as is available as in-wall switch such as AW10 http://www.marmitek.com/nl/manual/8931.pdf, just in floor casing...

This seems to be either a huge opportunity in the market as it just not there yet, or I am the only one asking for it... Any floor dimmer will cost around 20 euros anyway, why not make it X10 compliant, just in case...

Anyone?

Hi,

I have build my own "snoerdimmers" See picture.
They can be X10 controlled and locally controlled (ON/OFF/Dim/Bright)

Interesting, but how did you do it?

That looks really good!! Better then the most X10 stuff for sale, IMHO.
Do you want to share the schematics?
And a silly question maybe, but why does it have 3 wires?

Hi,

Yes I'm willing to share the schematics (let's talk about that via e-mail).
I have 2 lamps connected to the unit. The 3rd one is for the 220V input. Here is another picture (of another unit, with one pusbutton for local control).

Since I can't use PM yet, could you please email me: jeroen at codeblack.nl.
Thanks!

Please do not use email to share this information but instead post it in the forum. It might be interesting for all members.

I think the schematic is quite straightforward, like on a standard micro module installation. What I would like to know is what components you have used (casing, buttons/switches).

The unit is based on a PIC (16F630). The casing is from PacTec (Farnell). The switches are microswitches with a cap, pcb mounted).
Here is a picture of the pcb (this is a screen controller with 2 triacs, but the dimmers look simular):

I'm planning on building some modules of my own. The digital part of it is not the problem, but the analog part is the challenge. It's been I while since I've done analog electronics, so I'm trying to get as much info, examples and research as I can.
What I'm most interested in, is the 'business end' of the unit (switching, dimming, controling motors &* sunscreens), the X10 interface (how do get/put X10 data from/on the 220V wires) and the powersupply. Ok, that's about the whole unit.... I know . And of course, I want to make it as small as possible. So use less and small components. For prototyping size is less important, as long as I know I can also build it small scale (e.g. SMD).

So, anyone wants to share? I'll be posting my progress and results here and on my (upcoming) blog.

Hi,

Last year I have put some effort in building a website to communicate some of my X10 work. It's very simple and I never finished it. Nevertheless it gives some information on the X10 hardware. Here is the link: http://members.chello.nl/h.alink1/index.htm.

I have been putting a lot of effort in Zigbee last year. Í'm now waiting for my US software "partner" to catch up and enable communication based on the Zigbee Home Automation profile from his home control software.
In the meantime I looked again at my X10 units and decided to put effort in a bidirectional controller. I ordered some special devices to make the power supply hardware smaller. This should enable a bidirectional unit in the same space as the current "snoerdimmer".