[mythtv-users] Power Line Network Connections and Myth ?

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Sun Sep 26 22:35:30 UTC 2010


On Sunday, September 26, 2010 02:29:09 pm Tom wrote:
> At 11:31 AM 9/26/2010 -0600, you wrote:
> >On Sunday, September 26, 2010 11:18:52 am Dave Brown wrote:
> > > On Sun, Sep 26, 2010 at 6:02 PM, Nicolas Riendeau
> > 
> > <knight at teksavvy.com>wrote:
> > > > I also believe that, just like X10 stuff, it's also affected by phase
> > > > (everything on the same phase should work but might not be able to
> > > > talk to things that are connected to the other phase...
> >
> >If I understand it correctly, the UK uses a 220 volt single-phase system
> >with no "neutral" conductor.
> >
> >So you would not have the problem of different outlets being on different
> >"sides" of the neutral, such as we can have here
> >in the US.
> >
> >So what works for you might have only a 50% chance of working for me,
> >depending on whether the outlets I am trying to use
> >are on the same side (phase) or not. Nicolas mentioned the same potential
> >problem, and I think he is right, but I think I
> >can set things up so that everything's on the same phase for me.
> 
> On topic: Find a way to get real live wired ethernet to the box. There's no
> other good way to do it. With more and more stuff coming with Gigabit by
> default, it just works. Even without gigabit, do your wiring carefully, use
> Cat 5e or Cat 6 wiring and watch your distances, and you should be able to
> do 100mb full duplex, which is more like 200mb (well, 175mb anyhow.)

I agree 100%. A copper path is the only way to go for a Myth system, and I would not consider anything else, in my own 
home.

But my brother has a spouse to contend with, and there's nothing I can do about it.

> 
> Off topic: I have no trouble with X10 (I'm in the midwestern US) everywhere
> in my house-- Leviton has a widget called an X10 repeater that I've seen
> for US$ 100-150 but I picked one up at a swap for $20. It's a little weird
> though, I have a controller and two sets of lights on my living room, with
> one set of lights on the other phase from the other two components. When I
> hit the button for those lights, the ones on the same phase as the
> controller go on immediately, then the other set go on (30 characters per
> second x about 12 characters) later (X10 is 300 baud) as they make their
> way through the repeater.
> 
> Mine looks like this:
> http://www.smarthome.com/4820X/X10-Signal-Amplifier-Repeater-XPCR/p.aspx
> 
> It was pretty trivial to install-- just piggyback two of the wires to two
> breakers that are on opposite phases. A third wire goes to the neutral buss
> in the breaker panel. The fourth is not used in US residential panels.
> 
> People used to use capacitors rated for line voltage across the phases. I
> don't recall what value-- perhaps 0.1 mfd or smaller. But it wasn't a
> reliable as one of these widgets.

Thanks, I'll look into that. I do run X-10 in my own house, but this is the Myth list :-)




More information about the mythtv-users mailing list