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Why trust UPB communication protocol?
The X10 Promise
When Doug Hill and I left our “real jobs” to begin iTouch years ago we started with the sole purpose of building a better, faster, cheaper way to do home automation. As a result, our flagship product, the iTouch Estate Whole House Automation System was born. Not knowing much about this industry we built iTouch Estate to talk on the powerline via X10 protocols for lighting, thermostat, irrigation, garage doors, and a few other miscellaneous controls. Doug was the developer and I was the field tester. He would make it go in the lab and I would make it go in the field. While we knew things like the AV controls, web browser, etc. that were a part of the system would go regardless of “field conditions”, the items we were controlling on the powerline via X10 were in question. We began doing installations and, unfortunately for me, THEY WORKED - at first.
I completely automated nearly 25 homes using hundreds of X10 devices without a glitch. Then it happened – THE HOUSE FROM HELL. You know the one:
· Some X10 devices don’t work at all
· Some work some of the time but not all of the time
· Some come on and off all on their own.
Even further, I had garage doors going up and down randomly, thermostats adjusting at their own discretion, pool pumps going crazy and irrigation zones watering when and if they pleased.
X10 was CHEAP, X10 was EASY, but X10 was NOT RELIABLE.
The search for another solution was on!
The RadioRA Reality
After a great deal of research we landed at RadioRA and added it to the iTouch Estate System. It provided quite a bit of the same convenience that X10 did especially considering that it was wireless – this time radio frequency instead of powerline carrier. The “industry” said it was rock solid so we went with it.
At the end of my first installation I said, “Man this stuff works great.” I followed that with, “But man it’s expensive and the programming is a PAIN.”
I had a solution, but the per-device price and programming time required eliminated a HUGE portion of the market I was previously able to service with X10.
The UPB Revolution
A few months passed and we received a phone call from Powerline Control Systems (PCS) in Southern California. Since the inception of the iTouch Estate System PCS had been our main supplier of X10 devices. Their stuff was, as far as we were concerned, the best X10 stuff on the market (I know, “best x10” is an oxymoron). We literally sold THOUSANDS of their X10 devices and thus became very close with them. In 1999 PCS, in an attempt to improve the reliability of their existing X10 products, made a discovery that WILL revolutionize the home controls market. They discovered that they could use the powerline for communication in an entirely different manner than X10 through the use of digital PULSES. These digital pulses have proved to be 99.9% reliable (that’s better than even the hardwired solutions). They gave that discovery a name - UPB.
UPB, which is an acronym for Universal Powerline Bus, scared us at first. We told PCS that we would help them beta-test the product to see if the discovery they made was indeed “revolutionary”, but with great hesitance. Over the next couple of years we would get test kits, lamp modules, and controllers in the mail from time to time with instructions to take them to our most difficult X10 environments and see if we could make them go. Our confidence grew as our successes mounted. However, it wasn’t until about a year ago, once PCS had built an actual light switch/dimmer that we could buy, resell, and install, that the true test came. We returned to THE HOUSE FROM HELL.
With a great deal of reluctance I ripped several dozen X10 switches out of the wall and replaced them with some of the first UPB switches to be re-sold and installed anywhere in world. With the switches installed and the house completely dark, I crossed my fingers, whispered something to the heavens and injected an ALL ON command into the powerline. And there was light. Lots of light. ALL of the lights! I then sent ALL OFF. Perfect. ALL ON again. No misses.
And there haven’t been misses – not one in over a year at. Since then we’ve done projects anywhere from 2000 square feet with 10 UPB devices to 17,000 square feet with 150 UPB devices, and we have yet to miss.
PCS has now licensed UPB technology to several other manufacturers who are bringing fantastic UPB devices into the market at highly competitive prices.
At this price point and level of reliability, we have migrated our entire product line to speak almost exclusively via UPB protocol. If you want dealer pricing give us a call.
My dad used to say that there are no guarantees in life. My dad never tried UPB.
Andy Sperry
Vice President - iTouch
