RE: Debugging X10 problems

[Marcus Warrington <marcus.warrington@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Andy,

On the whole I find X10 pretty reliable (in my house) as long as nothing
ne=
w is plugged in somewhere else in the house.
Usually the main ceiling lights work fine, it's the lamps that are plugged
=
into sockets that cause the problem. This makes sense because its usually
s=
omething that's been plugged into a socket in the house that is causing
the=
problem, so the noise is loudest on the actual ring main.

Last weekend I moved our sons PC into the bedroom next to ours, next
mornin=
g the bedroom table lamps wouldn't turn off from the remote. After a brief
=
head scratching session I turned off his PC PSU (i.e. the little switch on
=
the back.. the PC was already off) and the table lamps started working
agai=
n. This PC had been in his old room (at the far end of the house) for the
p=
ast 2 years and not caused any problem, presumably because the noise was
fu=
rther away etc. Another example was when just MY tableside lamp stopped
res=
ponding, this turned out to be the wife's laptop that she had plugged into
=
the socket next her side of the bed. Unplugged the laptop and my table
lamp=
started working again !

So my suggestion would be... sit back and think, what new thing has been
pl=
ugged in or existing thing moved ? Try unplugging all devices that use a
sw=
itched mode power supply and see if that cures it. You can then start
plugg=
ing them back in one at a time to try and isolate the main culprit..
althou=
gh remember it may not be one individual device but a combination of
device=
s.

The only real way of stopping this is to have a filter plug on each
applian=
ce .

The official X10 filters aren't exactly cheap at =A327-30 each... does
anyo=
ne know if a those surge protection/filtered extension leads would do the
s=
ame ..?

One small thing you can do that may help is to move the CM11/12 unit as
clo=
se to the main consumer unit as possible. This way the X10 signals are
cent=
ral to the wiring and means that potentially the signals have less wire to
=
travel and so will be louder when they reach the appliance/lamp modules.
Th=
is slight increase in volume may just be enough to let the module hear the
=
signal. I myself haven't done this as yet.. but its on my list of things
to=
do, I have already run a cat5 cable to the cellar and installed a plug soc=
ket next to the consumer unit. Just need to wire up a couple of serial to
c=
at5 connectors.

Another problem I had once was when a spare CM11/CM12 unit that I had
plugg=
ed in but not connected, starting sending spurious X10 messages
constantly,=
flooding the network and occasionally sending codes for modules I had plug=
ged in and causing them to behave randomly. I eventually tracked this down
=
by checking HomeVision logs and seeing constant messages for house codes I
=
wasn't even using. Solution was to simply unplug the unit. A few days
later=
I thought I'd try plugging it back in ,.. no problem, all was fine and has=
been since ... no idea why it started sending all on its own, it must have=
felt lonely :)

HTH

Marcus
________________________________
From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of B=
ov
Sent: 18 July 2008 09:23
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] Debugging X10 problems


Ah, X10 reliability strikes again... My X10 has started to behave
strangely. A couple of days ago we noticed that some lights were not
switching on or off while others were coming on at strange times. We
then got woken up the other night by one light in the bedroom coming
on at 3am...

I spent some time trying to locate the problem yesterday and am even
more confused now. One set of lamps will only turn on/off if I
disconnect my Squeezebox receiver - although it's been all working
fine together for 4 months now. My HomeVision unit is showing me that
the X10 signals are being sent and received but some lights are
obviously not getting the signal. It seems to be table/floor lamps
rather than ceiling lights. It's almost as if there is something
causing noise on part of the mains.

Anyone got any ideas or recommendations for things to try to track
this down?

Appreciated.

Andy.



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