Re: OK.. Weird one here - a shredder

[nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston)]

It might be enlightening (no pun intended) to put a scope on the powerline
to see whether it is noise or low voltage. But, whichever it is, this may be
the Achilles Heel of the various *Linc two-way switches and modules.

I haven't looked at the innards of my LampLinc two-way modules. I wonder
what MCU they use.

"AZ Woody" <Reply@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>I do think it was a "brown out" type problem...
>
>I moved the shredder to an outlet across the room (the outlet was on the
>same wall all the smarthome 2-way wall switch) and the problem is gone.
>
>I tried a filter and it didn't do anything (had a spare one)
>
>
>"Dave Houston" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>news:427b5c57.177742657@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> >I picked up a new paper shredder the other day.  I plugged it in in my
>home
>> >office, and started using it.  (same circuit as some smathouse X10
>stuff...)
>> >
>> >Well, when I use it C1 (smarthouse 2-way ) keeps repeating (C1-ON) when
>ever
>> >I fire up the shreader!  I also get C2 on's to the basic X10 lamp module
>I
>> >have on the same circuit...
>> >
>> >What the heck to I do?  It's not a "signal sucker" problem, as I only get
>> >these bizare X10 events at the time that the motor on the shredder fires
>up!
>>
>> This one may be tough. A filter may not help. It depends on which of two
>> scenarios (see next paragraph) is applicable.
>>
>> I suspect the shredder motor is pulling the line voltage down causing a
>> brown-out reset by the MCU (not so) smarthouse (I assume you mean
>SmartHome)
>> two-way. Or, the motor noise is somehow triggering a reset directly. I
>doubt
>> a filter will solve the former but may solve the latter. I don't recall
>> whether you can disable local control or even local control reports in
>these
>> two-ways. I have three but they exhibit different flaws and I don't use
>> them.
>>
>> This would explain a few similar reports. I just never made the connection
>> until you noted that you have the smarthouse (sic) two-way. They report
>> local control changes, thus generating valid PLC commands.
>>
>> Given the Manchester encoding used by the X-10 powerline protocol, I think
>> it's impossible that a noise source can generate valid X-10 commands out
>of
>> whole cloth. I've been taken to task by several people for insisting that
>> there has to be a transmitter that is sending the signals when there are
>> apparently valid signals being logged.
>>
>> X-10 has documented the brown-out reset case in one of their FAQs.
>