Thanks for that. I know it slow, but its cheaper than doing some sort of RF link when he has 110VAC outlets all over the place, and really its mainly to turn on fog machines so nothing that is going to be an issue if it takes a few more seconds. For relays...yes I can add a relay to an appliance module, just more hoping that there was a single relay module out there, rather than 4 or 8. Not a big deal...I have some small boxes with AC prongs that I suppose they were just waiting for this project to come around. I'll look this over and see if its going to work. I do have till Sept to get this done, so figure if I start now....I might just make it in time :-) Neil Cherry wrote: alan smith wrote: > I was approached by a friend to start thinking about a halloween setup > for next fall (forward thinking I suppose) and the best way I could find > for what he wants, and expanding out his feature sets is to use X10. > > I'm going to use a controller board from a prior project, and was > thinking how to send X10 data over a serial link. X10 makes a TW523 > module that appears to be the right choice, but I havent looked into it > further other than its on my list. Has anyone ever used it > before...appears to be simple but.... > > Also, I would prefer a relay output to control some things but I do not > see a X10 that has a relay on it...anyone know of a device out there > already being produced? This is a one-off for him and may want it to be > expandable in the future so I don't want to be building since this being > done as favor (other than he will pay for the parts, etc) You'll need this: ftp://ftp.x10.com/pub/manuals/technicalnote.pdf There are quite a few limitations on X10. One being that it's takes about 1 second for each command to be issued. It's a slow and unreliable protocol so be careful. -- Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry@linuxha.com http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog Author of: Linux Smart Homes For Dummies -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist --------------------------------- Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage. -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist