Lynx X-10 Analyzer (WAS Re: Decora HCPRF)

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"BruceR" <brNOSPAM@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

> I have the Lynx which shows a lot of interesting detail but hasn't
> really helped me do much troubleshooting.

I spent a while fretting about how I would load the Lynx program CD onto the
old Compaq Armada I had earmarked for it (no CD drive!).  Then I looked at
the files on the clearly limited-edition paper-labeled CDR disk and saw they
were from 1998 and 2002 and would all easily fit on a floppy.  It installed
nicely, although it took me a while to realize it was "locked" and I had to
enter my CD-Key to activate it.

At first I was both overwhelmed by the complexity of the screens and
underwhelmed by things like simple signal strength measurement.  It can draw
all sorts of fancy phase angle graphs and pseudo-oscilloscope output, but I
didn't see anything that would really help me get to the bottom of the
Phantom Menace that's been haunting my X-10 setup.

Then, just to see how it would react, I decided to press two keychain
remotes simultaneously, one set to housecode "B" and the other set to "D."
Lo and behold!  Now I had a grid the showed the breakout of what the Lynx
receiver saw on the powerline, bit by bit, and it showed, embedded in the
middle of lots of what it labels "code fragments" was a DIM command for
Housecode M, Unit 16.  Bingo!  There's no M housecode in use in my system
anywhere.  I'll run a few more tests and even set up a few lamp modules on
the M housecode to see if I can't get it to activate by pressing
transmitters on D and A codes.

> I spent an hour with the engineer who designed it at an EHXpo 2
> years ago and he showed me how to read it.