Power Surge via USB interface

Let me begin by stating how excited I was to find a new robust X-10 application for the Mac. Do you advertise? I first became aware of your software in the latest issue (September 2003) of MacHome. Maybe I've been blind, but I check most of the prominent Mac sites daily, and I don't recall seeing a mention of Indigo. You seem to have a great start on a great application. Would love to see continued development and sales to support it.
I don't have an issue with leaving my Macs running, they are on 24/7. However, one concern I have had, by not having a stand alone controller and having my Mac communicating to the house wiring via USB, is the possibility of a power surge. All of my Macs are plugged into high quality surge supressors. As you know, X-10 signals degrade, and will sometimes not pass at all, when flowing through a surge protector. For this reason, I have installed filters between my surge protectors and the wall outlet. Having my Mac connected to an unfiltered outlet (ie: via USB and a PowerLinc 1132U) would expose it to the danger of a surge and negate the protection of the surge protector I have my CPU plugged into.
I am open to suggestions. Is there a quality surge protector on the market that the PowerLinc could be plugged into that doesn't degrade X-10 signals? I guess I could run the program on my daughter's iMac, I would hate to expose my tower to this risk.

[matt (support)]

We have advertised a bit, but given the market size it is a bit tricky to put together a profitable advertising campaign for software such as Indigo. Most of our product awareness is driven by the occasional PR's, VersionTracker updates, and word-of-mouth. So, be sure and tell all your Mac friends about Indigo!

You raise a good point about surge protection. In order to provide optimal protection for your equipment you need to have protection on all the wires coming into the CPU that might be exposed to surges (power lines, phone lines, cable, ethernet, etc.). Having a PowerLinc USB plugged directly into an outlet and then into your computer does increase the risk of surge damage to the computer.

You could try to find a surge protector that doesn't suppress the X10 signals. Some strips are much worse than others. I haven't tried this UPS personally, but if I'm reading the description correctly it looks promising:

  http://www.smarthome.com/4453.html

Another good approach would be to use a whole house surge protector. In fact, from the articles I've read only having the surge protector strips often doesn't get you that much protection. They are often referred to as "secondary" surge protection, since you still need a whole house protector to provide adequate protection.

It also would seem that the PowerLinc USB itself might provide some protection. Although I'm sure it is entirely possible for the PowerLinc to pass the surge on through to the computer, it seems possible that it will fry itself and not send much of the surge on through to the computer. I know in the case of phone line surges into modems it is often only the modem that gets fried. Seems the same might hold true for a PowerLinc. But then again, I'm not an electrical engineer so this might be totally off.

Thanks for the interest in Indigo, and let us know what surge solution you end up using.

blue skies,
matt