Best appliance module ?

[George Pontis <gpontis@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have been trying to use a grounded appliance module to switch fish tank lights
on and off. It has been unreliable. I put an X10 analyzer on the line and found
very good X10 signal strength (900mV), but quite a bit of noise (up to 120mV).

I traced the noise to an in-wall light dimmer, and replaced the dimmer with a
simple non-X10 on-off switch. The noise came down to less than 15mV. Two of the
three modules that I have tried are still not reliable. The one that seems to be
working well is an X-10 Pro. The ones that are not working reliably are a
Honeywell HSA-111 and a Smarthome ApplianceLinc 2002SHL3.

I should note that this house has a variety of in-wall X-10 receivers (Leviton,
PCS) that have been working very reliably for almost five years. Whatever PCS or
Leviton uses in the 16xxx switches seems pretty good elsewhere in this house. If
only there was an appliance module with the same discrimination. Maybe there is
something funny about this one socket, but I don't know what.

Is it a known fact that the X-10 Pro is a great appliance module and the others
are not ?

George