Homeowner Forum / Home Automation / September 2005

No, it's not.  That module runs on AC.  That and it doesn't receive RF.  So
it's not the right one on either condition the original poster requested.
It's a handy unit, to be sure, but only for someone that wants to use the
powerline to control a relay.

Remember, X-10 RF is different than X-10 powerline.  You can use one without
the other.  I, for one, am damn sick and tired of the complete unreliability
of X-10 powerline technology and devices.  It just doesn't work reliably
enough and no amount of filtering or other hacks are worth the aggravation.
X-10 over powerline is something people should AVOID.

There are such a things as RF receivers that operates on DC voltage:

http://www.smarthome.com/4832.html
http://www.smarthome.com/4831k.html

But they spit out an RS-232 signal based on the RF they receive.  You'd then
have to rig up something that took the serial signal and tripped a relay.
Something like a Basic Stamp chip could be used to do just that.

The better question, however, is what are you really trying to control?
What sort of devices are involved and what effect do you want to achieve?
There may be another way to approach it.

There are untold number of other RF kits that could be utilized.  Perhaps
even by having something like PC with an RF receiver pickup the signal and
then retransmit it using something else.  I do this to pull X10 RF in from
the remotes via an MR26A and use it to then control some RadioRA light
switches.

Hmmm, I suppose you could also hack an MR26A but you're still faced with
handling the conver

-Bill Kearney