Re: X-10 Mystery - An Anti-Signal Sucker

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Dave Houston" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:430af839.28364842@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Is there any noise reading when there is no X-10 signal?

I'll go look.  No noise in either range exceeding 8mv.  I took the unit out
of the PC room, there's lots of wierd gear to the kitchen, where there's
not.  This time it showed a .4 to .5V boost to a signal that read 1.0V to
start with.  That kind of magnitude will show up on the ESM1 when it returns
home - it's out on loan.  That should be a good check to see if it's
Monterey dependent or a true voltage boost.

This is a TM-751 test.  It could be related to have one on each phase.  I
have to repeat the test with a Maxicontroller to make sure there's no
out-of-phase monkey business occurring.  I'll get to that later today or
tonight.  May also have the ESM1 back for confirmation analysis as well.

> John Galvin found that the Monterey "was also extremely sensitive to out
of
> band, non X-10 signals... There were many instances when the Monterey gave
> much higher readings than what was really there, due I'm guessing, to it's
> sensitivity to noise outside the normal X-10 frequency range."
>
>
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/comp.home.automation/browse_thread/threa
d/6b1ba0cd1050658a/683aab3fb0577048?lnk=st&q=galvin+monterey+esm1+group:comp
.home.automation&rnum=5&hl=en#683aab3fb0577048

Yep, I read through that thread a number of times before I plunked down the
money for the Monterey.  It doesn't seem to explain why *adding* a switching
power supply to a circuit would boost the meter reading if it didn't show
much noise in the noise analysis or the signal dissect mode.  One would
think it would detect out-of-band noise in those discrete modes if it's
detecting it in the summary mode.

I suspect that a scope the only way to know for sure, but I don't have one
and the wife's already got her eye on you and all the money I spend hanging
out here talking to all the HA gurus.  She'll be really PO'ed when the
latest AllElectronics box arrives tomorrow.  That place is like pat rat
crack.  Very addicting.  :-)  Each time I order, there's more and more
stuff.  Lots of it makes great gifts and stocking stuffers for all the boys
in the family.

--
Bobby G.