The ActiveHome is a computer interface (hardware) that enables a Macintosh to send X-10 commands over the existing electrical wiring to devices, such as lamps and appliances in your home.
A serial cable is required for a Macintosh to communicate with an X-10 computer interface.
The CD-ROM version of Thinking Home is the same software that is available for download. The difference is that ordering it means you will be sent a CD-ROM, which you do not receive when ordering "Thinking Home (Online)".
Also known as ActiveHome, the CM-11 is a computer interface (hardware) that enables a Macintosh to send X-10 commands over the existing electrical wiring to devices, such as lamps and appliances in your home.
Also known as FireCracker, the CM-17 is a computer interface (hardware) that enables a Macintosh to send X-10 commands over the existing electrical wiring to devices, such as lamps and appliances in your home. It does so by sending radio frequency (RF) signals to a transceiver, which in turn sends the X-10 commands over the home's electrical wiring.
The CP-290 is a computer interface (hardware) that enables a Macintosh to send X-10 commands over the existing electrical wiring to devices, such as lamps and appliances in your home.
Examples of X-10 commands are "turn on the living room lamp", "Turn off "A5". Commands are sent as small electrical signals over the home wiring.
Examples of devices are standard lamps and appliances in the home. They can be plugged into X-10 device modules that control power to the lamp or appliance when the module receives signals over the home wiring.
The download version of Thinking Home is the same software as the CD-ROM version. Ordering the "Thinking Home (Online)" gets you a license for the software that you can use right away. It does not entitle you to a CD-ROM.
And event is a scheduled command, stored in an X-10 computer interface and sent at the scheduled time. An example of an event is "turn on the porch light daily at 5:00PM."
Also known as CM-17, the FireCracker is a computer interface (hardware) that enables a Macintosh to send X-10 commands over the existing electrical wiring to devices, such as lamps and appliances in your home. It does so by sending radio frequency (RF) signals to a transceiver, which in turn sends the X-10 commands over the home's electrical wiring.
Home automation refers to the automatic control of lamps and appliances throughout the home. Operations can be scheduled or made to be interactive. An example of interaction is a motion sensor turning on a lamp when a person enters a room.
The IBM Home Director (HD-11) is an X-10 computer interface, equivalent to the ActiveHome interface. The IBM model has been discontinued.
An interface is a piece of hardware that communications with a Macintosh and communicates with other devices via signals sent over the home's electrical wiring. Examples include the ActiveHome, CP-290, FireCracker and IBM Home Director. Most models of interfaces offer scheduling and some offer macros.
A macro is a sequence of X-10 commands that are sent by an interface in response to an observed command. An example would be a motion detector sending "A1 On", which triggers a macro in the interface. The interface then would send out commands to turn on a lamp and turn off another.
An X-10 module is a device that controls electrical power in response to commands. For example, a lamp plugged into an X-10 lamp module will be turned on, off or dimmed when the module receives X-10 commands from the home electrical wiring. Those commands could have been sent by a hand-held remote/transceiver, a motion detector/transceiver or a computer interface.
X-10 computer interfaces use serial communications to exchange information with a Macintosh. X-10 interfaces use RS-232 serial communications while newer models of Macintosh support only the USB format. A USB serial adapter is required in those cases.
There are X-10 compatible thermostats manufactured by third parties. The temperature setpoint and operating mode can be controlled using X-10 commands. Thinking Home provides intelligent thermostat support, automatically determining the best features available, given your combination of computer interface and thermostat model.
Thinking Home is the Macintosh software that supports X-10 interfaces, such as the ActiveHome, CP-290 and FireCracker. It provides scheduling of events, storage of macros, AppleScript support, speech recognition and many other features.
An X-10 transceiver receives commands via radio frequency (RF) signals and transmits the commands onto the home's electrical wiring where they travel to the controlled device. RF sources include the FireCracker interface and various hand-held remotes.
USB stands for Universal Serial Bus, a relatively new communications standard for connecting computers to peripherals, such as keyboards, mice and a wide variety of other accessories. New Macintosh computers rely on USB and most of these new models have none of the "old-style" serial ports. Third parties provide adapters for connecting standard serial devices, such as X-10 computer interfaces, via USB.
X-10 is the name of a company and it is the name of their communications standard for use with home automation.