I have made available on www.danlan.com/homeauto.html source for replacement
firmware for the CM11a along with a unix daemon that provides my standard
tcp/ip interface.

The replacement firmware is in no way compatible with the OEM firmware and
also requires certain pins to be rerouted between the PIC and CM11a board.

The firmware provides a low-level interface to the power line.  Received
bits are grouped 6 at a time and sent to the host.  The host transmits
by specifying a bit string and a repeat count.  All encoding/decoding is
done in the host.  Normally once the host has seen 7 or more zero bits
further zeroes are suppressed, but for full real-time analysis a flag is
provided to force all bits to be transferred.  An additional flag is
available to disable three-phase transmission support and the supplied
daemon sets this flag by default.

I've been running this code for a few days but it should of course be
considered preliminary.  Further documentation will be available depending
on the level of interest...

				Dan Lanciani
				ddl@danlan.*com

Dan,

About 3 years back, I persuaded Dom Kinzer of ZBasic to add low level X-10
functions implemented in the background and buffered a la a software UART.
It automatically handles all I/O, setting flags to signal a reception, etc.
and filling a bit array as a signal is received. For output you merely fill
a bit array and bits are sent automatically at ZC. It even incorporates the
extra AGC signals needed with a CM15A should you want to play with it.

The cheapest ZBasic chip is the ZX-328n (DIP-28) at $10 or the ZX-32n
(TQFP-32) at $15. Both have a bootloader preloaded. The ZBasic software is
free. It compiles to native Atmel machine code for the 'n' version of the
chips.      


http://www.zbasic.net/Microcontrollers/ZX-328n-Microcontroller/p-68.html?osCsid=b0a04ea9323b5a875fafe146db6af062
     http://www.zbasic.net/Microcontrollers/ZX-32n-Microcontroller/p-73.html

You would need to mount them to a daughterboard that then replaces the X10
MCU. And they need a XTAL and serial interface circuitry. These days there
are inexpensive ethernet-serial interfaces for those who want a network
interface.

     http://www.ewiznet.com/goods_detail.php?goodsIdx=115

ddl@danlan.*com (Dan Lanciani) wrote:

>I have made available on www.danlan.com/homeauto.html source for replacement
>firmware for the CM11a along with a unix daemon that provides my standard
>tcp/ip interface.
>
>The replacement firmware is in no way compatible with the OEM firmware and
>also requires certain pins to be rerouted between the PIC and CM11a board.
>
>The firmware provides a low-level interface to the power line.  Received
>bits are grouped 6 at a time and sent to the host.  The host transmits
>by specifying a bit string and a repeat count.  All encoding/decoding is
>done in the host.  Normally once the host has seen 7 or more zero bits
>further zeroes are suppressed, but for full real-time analysis a flag is
>provided to force all bits to be transferred.  An additional flag is
>available to disable three-phase transmission support and the supplied
>daemon sets this flag by default.
>
>I've been running this code for a few days but it should of course be
>considered preliminary.  Further documentation will be available depending
>on the level of interest...
>
>				Dan Lanciani
>				ddl@danlan.*com

Since a lot of people still use the discontinued CM11A as the powerline 
interface for PC-based automation software, I've been working on a XTB 
version with a RS232 interface.  It is based on the new PIC16F1823, and will 
emulate the "real-time" CM11A command protocol.  It will not include timers, 
macros, or any other "controller" functions.

Jeff

"Dan Lanciani" <ddl@danlan.*com> wrote in message 
news:1355627@news1.IPSWITCHS.CMM...
>I have made available on www.danlan.com/homeauto.html source for 
>replacement
> firmware for the CM11a along with a unix daemon that provides my standard
> tcp/ip interface.
>
> The replacement firmware is in no way compatible with the OEM firmware and
> also requires certain pins to be rerouted between the PIC and CM11a board.
>
> The firmware provides a low-level interface to the power line.  Received
> bits are grouped 6 at a time and sent to the host.  The host transmits
> by specifying a bit string and a repeat count.  All encoding/decoding is
> done in the host.  Normally once the host has seen 7 or more zero bits
> further zeroes are suppressed, but for full real-time analysis a flag is
> provided to force all bits to be transferred.  An additional flag is
> available to disable three-phase transmission support and the supplied
> daemon sets this flag by default.
>
> I've been running this code for a few days but it should of course be
> considered preliminary.  Further documentation will be available depending
> on the level of interest...
>
> Dan Lanciani
> ddl@danlan.*com