Envious Technology Home Automation

What is X10? X10 is a communications protocol or "language" that allows compatible products to talk to each other by sending signals over the electrical wiring in your home or office. Most X10 compatible products are well priced and the fact that communication signals are sent over your existing electrical cabling means that no costly rewiring is necessary. Installation is simple, a transmitter plugs (or wires) in at one location in the home and sends its control signal (on, off, dim, bright, etc.) to a receiver which plugs (or wires) into another location in the home.

Our X10 Home Automation products can be found here. Alternatively, keep reading for further information on the X10 system.

X10 is Simple

Press a Button on the Transmitter and the Signal is Sent over the Home's Wiring to a Receiver. Using simple dials or buttons you assign each Receiver with one of up to 256 addresses. If you wish two products to go on and off together you can set them to the same address. All X10 compatible products can be freely mixed and matched.

X10 Advantages

It is estimated that X10 compatible products can be found in over 15 million homes across the world. This is because it has so many advantages over other types of remote control products and systems:

• Inexpensive
• No new wiring is required - perfect for retrofit
• Simple to install
• 100's of compatible products
• Control up to 256 lights and appliances

X10 is also time proven - it has been around for over 20 years. Envious Technology is Australia's largest online retailer of X10 compatible products. Our experts can recommend the right products for your needs and walk you through installation should you need help. Visit our contact us section for details on how to obtain assistance.

Click to view our X10 Products Integration diagram (838kB)

X10 - Making it Trouble-Free

An X10 installation will normally work very reliably. Due to the fact that the X10 system operates over your home's electrical wiring network, the following situations could possibly affect the system.

The first is when there is an appliance running that generates "noise" onto the powerline. Appliances that may cause problems are motors (e.g. dryer, treadmill, vacuum cleaner, etc.) and advanced electronics (e.g. switching power supplies on some laptops, some big screen TV's, etc.). The good news is that all you need to do is plug the appliance into a noise filter such as our FM10 plug-in noise filter.

The second issue that occasionally arises with X10 is if you have 3-phase power. If you have 3-phase power some of the circuits in your home are on different phases, and there is no wiring between the phases. Therefore if your X10 transmitter is on one phase of your home's electrical wiring and the receiver is on the other phase then the signal can not make it to its destination. Often 3-phase homes don't have any problem as the 3-phases are only used for a larger air-conditioning system and the circuits in the home share a single phase. If you do have 3-phase power and the circuits are spread over more than one phase then a 3-phase coupler will be required (see our CR244 3-phase repeater).

X10 Module types

Our Home Control category is where most of our X10 products can be found. This has been divided into different sections, representing the different types of X10 modules. The most important categories are listed below:

Transmitters: Transmitters send a specially coded low-voltage signal that is super-imposed over the 240 Volts on the home's electrical wires. A transmitter is usually capable of sending up to 256 different addresses on the AC line. Multiple transmitters can send signals to the same module.


Receivers: Receiver Modules receive the special signals sent by the transmitters. Once a matching signal comes in, the device responds and turns ON or OFF, dims or brightens a connected load. Receivers generally have "code dials" that are adjusted by the user to set the address. Multiple devices with the same address can co-exist in the same home - they will turn on/off together.


Interfaces: These devices both send and receive X10 signals. Like regular receivers and transmitters, they can communicate on all 256 addresses. Interface products are helpful for status reporting and triggering other receivers to turn on, off or even run a macro event (a multi-step event run by a programmable controller).


RF Devices: These products add the convenience of a radio frequency link (e.g. signals which travel through the air) to X10 products. Popular products in this class include wireless hand-held remote controls and wireless motion detectors. An RF Interface is required to catch the radio signal from the wireless unit and puts the X10 signal onto the line (just like a garage door remote activates the opener). The TM13 RF Interface is popular, which is a DIY plug-in unit with an antenna.

Troubleshooting X10/A10 systems

For more information on X10 including troubleshooting techniques, click here to view our troubleshooting guide.

View our X10 products

Click here to visit our X10 Home Control category