I was recently asked in an email how to make a lamp turn on by X10 turn on for 1 hour then back off again. Although there isn't a X10 timer widget that does this directly, it is possible to make it work with the new Pulse widget that is available with the firmware upgrade.
This is kind of complicated but if you read this a few times, it might begin to make sense.
We all know that a X10 widget can be made to turn a light on and off. Another way to send an X10 command is by creating an Action. A Digital Input to Output Link can be configured to send X10 on/off signals when the state on a digital input pin changes. This feature was added so users could make a simple "digital input to X10" light switch.
Now that we have an way to make an X10 outlet turn on/off from a digital input, how do we make it turn on for specific times period? With a Digital Output Pulse widget! By physically connecting the digital input and digital output on a channel (see the picture) AND setting the channel to Send Message on Digital State Change, we we're created a means of controlling X10 from a digital output pin. All that is left to do is make an hour long Digital Output Pulse widget for that channel.
Here is the chain of events:
1. Digital output pulse widget is clicked.
2. The digital output goes high.
3. The signal is sent to the digital input pin by the wire.
4. The module sees the digital input state change and sends a message to the ioBridge server
5. The ioBridge server see that the digital input has gone high and uses the Action you've created to send the X10-ON command.
6. The X10 smart board receives the command and turn on the light.
... an hour later
7. The digital output pulse goes back to low.
8. Steps 2 - 6 occur again , except this time the server knows to send the X10 - OFF command instead.
