RFXCOM offer a range of USB RF transmitters and receivers that are compatible with a large number of common wireless Home Automation protocols.

The RFXCOM range also includes a variety of 1-wire sensor modules and electricity meters that are compatible with their receivers.

Due to the support for such a wide range of devices, the RFXCOM receivers are a better choice than the rival W800RF32 device from WGL Designs.

The xPLRFX service for Windows 98, 2000, XP and Vista provides full support for any number of RFXCOM transmitters and receivers in a single application, including all of the protocols handled by these devices.

xPL and RFXCOM support devices from the following manufacturers:

 

The requirements for using RFXCOM transmitters and receivers with xPL are:

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xPLRFX does not work in isolation. To be useful it needs to be part of an xPL network. The basic software requirements for an xPL network are the xPLHub (which must be installed on every computer running xPL applications), and xPLHal, which is the "brains" of the system. Scripts running under xPLHal read incoming xPL events and send out commands to control other devices. A more detailed description of xPL can be found here.

Download and run the xPLRFX installer (.msi) file. The installation process is straightforward and will set up the xPLRFX service, and the xPLRFX configuration application.

Once installed, run the xPLRFX configuration program, and set up your RFXCOM transmitter/recievers (See the section on Configuration below). No RF messages will be sent/received until this is done.

Next, run xPLHal Manager and find xPLRFX under the Devices/Awaiting Configuration tab. Double click on the xPLRFX entry and change the instance from Default to your chosen instance name (maximum 16 characters).

To test the system, start the xPLMonitor from xPLHal Manager's Tools menu. If you have a receiver, get one of your RF devices to transmit a message. You should see an xPL message appear in the log. If you have a transmitter, use the Send xPL Message option from the xPLHal Manager Tools menu to send a message to control one of your devices. If you have a compatible receiver, you should also see this message appear in the xPL monitor log.

If the messages are not received, or the xPLRFX service cannot be seen in xPLHal Manager, there may be an error in your xPL network. Download and run xPLDiag to test your installation. For further help, post a message to the xPL forums.

When first installed, xPLRFX requires some configuration before it can function. The installation process will add a link to the xPLRFX configuration program on your program menu under 'xPL/xPLRFX'. Run the program, and the main screen will appear.

Note - while the configuration program is running, the xPLRFX service will be stopped.

The screen is divided into two sections. The top section, labelled 'USB Modules' lists all the RFXCOM transmitter and receiver devices that have been set up. The bottom section, labelled 'Configurable RF Devices' lists all the RF devices that the xPLRFX service has received messages from (except standard X10 devices - more on that later). When first run, both these sections will be empty.

The first step is to set up your RFXCOM USB Modules. Each module may contain one or two receivers, or a single transmitter. If your module contains receiver(s), click the 'Add Receiver' button. If it contains a transmitter, click 'Add Transmitter'. You will be presented with one of the following dialogs:

If your module is connected directly to your PC via USB, or is an Ethernet module used with a COM port redirector, choose the correct serial port for the module from the drop-down list (the module must be connected for the port number to be available). If you want to connect to your module via the ethernet, then fill in the address and port number of the module. Note: by entering an ethernet address and port number, xPLRFX will assume an ethernet connection is desired, and will ignore any COM port that has been selected.

Next, check all the protocols that you want to use. Note that not all protocols are supported by the older RFXCOM receivers. For transmitters, each protocol adds to the time taken to send messages, so only enable the ones you need. If your transmitter is an RFXMitter, then protocols are not specified here. Instead, the protocol is included in the xPL message you send to xPLRFX. Make sure the RFXMitter checkbox is checked, so that xPLRFX will know to expect protocols in the messages. Click OK to save your settings and return to the main screen.

If this is the first time you have run the configuration program, the 'Configurable RF Devices' section will probably be empty. Devices do not appear here until the xPLRFX service has received a transmission from them, so click OK to leave the configuration program (which will restart the service), and then get all of your devices to send messages. You can monitor activity in xPLHal Manager's message monitor. When you return to the configuration program, you should see your devices listed. Note - Standard X10 devices, including those that are mapped to X10 such as ELRO, NEXA, KlikOn-KlikOff and Domia Lite, do not require configuration and so do not appear here.

The configurable items is a list of hardware devices, with sub-items for each sensor value. In the screenshot of the main screen, all the devices have been expanded to show the values they report. Each of these sub-items represents a possible source of xPL messages, and are colour coded green or red to show whether or not the sending of xPL messages is enabled. If the item is new it is coloured blue. Items are considered new until they have been configured. An item can be configured by double-clicking on it or by highlighting it and clicking the configure button. The following screen will appear:

For some devices, such as RFXSensors, it is important to set the sensor type, so that the correct conversion can be applied to the raw data. Otherwise, the main use of this screen is to allow the sensor to be renamed. The name will be used to identify the sensor in xPL messages, and so must be unique.

The Optional Configuration section is provided so that the user may fill in the room, floor and comments that will be used in a future generic sensor schema.

Note - due to problems some users have experienced with interference from neighbouring sources, Visonic PowerCode sensors default to not sending xPL Messages and must be enabled in this configuration program.

The xPLRFX service sends and acts on messages using a number of xPL schemas. These are outlined in the table below:

Unlike previous RFXCOM transmitters, when sending X10.basic commands to the RFXMitter, by default the message will only be sent as standard X10. To select a different protocol, add a line the the end of the xPL message body as shown in this example to send a Domia Lite command:

In the case of KlikAanKlikUit, KlikOnKlikOff or Homeeasy devices, the use of X10 messages is restricted to devices that have address wheels. Newer devices are controlled via the Homeeasy.basic schema.

There is a new variant of the Homeeasy protocol appearing in Europe. By default, the RFXMitter will send using the UK protocol (which is also used by KlikAanKlikUit). To send Homeeasy messages to devices using the new EU protocol, add a line to the end of the homeeasy.basic command as shown below: