Repo: https://github.com/dhocker/athomepowerlineserver

In the world of X10, most of the power line controllers like the CM11/CM11A have been around for years. The majority of the sophisticated X10 management applications run on a PC or Mac and more or less use the power line controller as a relatively “dumb” controller. There are a number of problems with the current configurations that the AtHomePowerlineServer aims to address.

First, the AtHomePowerline server is designed to run on a light weight system (e.g. a Raspberry Pi) that can be run head-less and fan-less. This is as opposed to a PC or Mac based solution. The small size of such a system like the Raspberry Pi allows it to be positioned more freely (ideally, close to the breaker panel). And, a Raspberry Pi system can be assembled for considerably less than a PC. While the server was designed to run on a lightweight system, it will run on any system that supports Python 3 (including Windows).

Second, the communication mechanism to the AtHomePowerlineServer is TCP/IP (over Ethernet). A light weight system like the Raspberry Pi supports many WiFi USB interfaces. This further improves the freedom of location for the X10 controller. In the past, the distance between a PC and the X10 controller was gated by the need for physical wiring and RS-232 limitations. With the AtHomePowerlineServer architecture, this limitation is effectively eliminated.

Finally, the AtHomePowerlineServer application is open source. Anyone can fork it and build upon it.

While the functionality of the AtHomePowerlineServer is designed with knowledge of the CM11/CM11A architecture, it does not exactly match that architecture. The AtHomePowerlineServer is an abstraction of the capabilities of the CM11/CM11A. For example, the AtHomePowerlineServer features timers and actions that are conceptually similar to the CM11/CM11A timer initiators and macros, but they are not exactly alike.