ASRock's X10 IoT Router remotely controls home appliances over radio and IR

ASRock’s new X10 AC1300 is among the first mass-produced routers to offer Internet-of-Things features. Apart from the usual 802.11ac dual band Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet connections, the X10 also integrates the ZigBee standard and an infrared blaster, so it can act as a central hub that controls all sorts of smart appliances around the house.

At the heart of the X10 AC1300 IoT router there lies a Qualcomm SoC with four ARM Cortex–A7 cores. It comes with two 5 dBi high gain antennas and includes one GbE WAN port, four GbE LAN ports, one USB 2.0 port for storage devices and one USB 3.0 for add-on controllers.

The ZigBee radio controller can connect to various smart home appliances like sensors, lights, security systems and cameras. This is done through a 250 Kb/s channel, which enables users to interact with the appliances via iOS and Android apps.

Most home devices are also controlled through IR signals, so the router has those covered through the integrated IR blaster. Users can thus control TVs, media players and air conditioners, but all these need to be in the router’s IR range.

The X10 router is already available and can be ordered for US$139.99 from Newegg.

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