Re: CBus / X10 Opinions please

[Kevin Hawkins <lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

That's an awkward, sad and unfortunately costly tale Gerry,

I just wonder if it would be possible for the electricity company to
move you onto a different phase that might not have quite so much
interference ?

Also I believe some (most) houses in the US have two phases supplied
in which case I wonder if the problem would still persist if you could
get those swapped around too ? If you do have dual phase supply are
there incoming filters on both ??

Like another user posted here I have found that a single device
plugged into my mains can disrupt the X10 totally - in my case also a
laptop charger (Samsung) or the Dell/Rio DDAR audio receivers.
Weirdness like being able to turn devices ON but not OFF or vica versa ,
losing control totally or spurious other devices coming on instead.
I'm almost sure you will have been through every avenue here but I do
assume that if you unplug every possible appliance / lamp etc  in the
whole house then the problem still persists (including any hardwired
dimmers) ?  I had a X10 transceiver module that had been working fine,
something went wrong with it and I lost a lot of X10 device control -
unplugging that X10 device fixed it. When it was plugged back in it all
still worked.  As a lot of X10 stuff in the US has two way capability
and as so many of your dimmers are hardwired this would be a lot of work
to do as you have so many permanently attached loads. Pulling whole
fuses eg (particulalry) all lighting would be the best and quickets
route dropping down to just one small circuit and two modules or
something. If its the interference these wouldn't work either.

How did you ascertain it was noise from outside and that it had
actually changed ?? If there is such noise on the incoming power I would
have thought the utility company should have some responsibility surely
to fix it or at least track down the source. Otherwise their product is
at fault.   Noise is something you take no notice of until it causes a
problem and then looking at the waveforms they look dreadful so you
focus on that, in reality it could have been dreadfull all along - but
just worked - and actually could be quite normal and something else
changed .


Kevin


but Gerry Duprey wrote:

>Howdy,
>
>Okay -- I'm in the US and all, but I can at least weigh in on my X10
experience.
>
>I have a moderately old house (1928), so refit is the key here.  As
such,
>I've been refitting the house with X10 stuff, specifically, the Leviton
AGC
>based switches.  These switches have a top and bottom press to them
(for
>separate on/off/bright/dim action) and feel pretty good to the touch.
>
>At this point, just over 9 years into the project, I have about 50 X10
>switches and I think 2 non-X10 switches (plain old manual wall switch).
 And
>until about 6 weeks ago, I never saw any problem with X10.
>
>However, about that time, something outside the house started
generating a
>*lot* of electrical noise all the time.  My X10 system just totally
>shutdown.  I couldn't control anything.  I have the power company
involved,
>but they are not being too helpful (since my appliances and lights come
on).
>I've installed a X10 noise blocker in the main panel and that helped
enough
>to get most of my X10 switches that are levitons working (the agc stuff
is
>the key -- if the X10 signal is strong enough, they can ferret it out
of the
>  noise pretty well).  Well, mostly.  Where as X10 had been rock solid
>reliable for years, it's now about 90% reliable.  Very, very
depressing.
>
>The killer is that it's from a source outside the house -- something I
have
>no control over.
>
>
>