Re: mystery signal

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Dave Houston" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4374eac9.51193534@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> "Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>

<stuff snipped>

> My walker doesn't handle stairs or any but the slightest of grades so...

Troubleshooting X-10 clearly is for the nimble.   You've got a troublesome
situation.

> Even if I could get close to the (basement) breaker panel, signal
> attenuators can cause misleading measurements.

In the absence of any leads, it would be the one I would try to follow.  It
makes me wonder again if I shouldn't try to set up some ESM1's at different
points in the house to continuously monitor the signal.  It would make it
easier to track down such anomalies because you'd at least have some
baseline readings from different areas in the house.  I recall you once
saying that you were never able to reliably detect noise on your ESM1.  I
assume that wish has been granted in a round-about way.  (-:

> I can't navigate to the neighboring apartments. They are
upstairs/downstairs
> from mine.

I thought it would be a problem.  Yet it's plausible someone plugged in
something in one of the other apartments that's generating the interference.

> I don't think intercoms or baby monitors output a (somewhat) sporadic
signal
> like this one. Most of those use FM so they output a continuous wave with
no
> interruptions.

I wasn't sure how they functioned.  Why would a triac-based device output so
randomly?  If they're chopping the wave at regular intervals, shouldn't
their output be regular as well?

> It seems to be related to the triac-like bursts which have been here for a
> few years. They (and I) predate all other tenants. There are some
automated
> external lights but I think they are just on a timer.

Have you noticed anything new?  CF bulbs in the hallways?

> I don't think there is anyway to block external signals except at the
> breaker panel. I think (but am not certain) its presence on only one
'phase'
> indicates it's probably not from a source external to the building.

That seems to be a good call.  If it was outside, it would pass through the
main breakers equally and show up on both phases.  I suppose that leaves you
with trying to determine whether the interference is 24/7 or whether there's
a day/night pattern to it as you might expect to see if lightning was
involved.

> The first thing I did was make sure there are no transmitters of any kind
> plugged into the problem 'phase'.

I was pretty sure you did, but it never hurts to touch on even the obvious.

> I wish this had shown up while I had the Insteon kit here. It would have
> been interesting to see how well (or not) it handled it.

The Electronic Demons don't work like that.  (-:  It would be too easy!

Have you unplugged stuff on the phase that is exhibiting the problem.  The
only other thing I can think of is that two transceivers stuck on at the
same time causing collisions, but that's so unlikely an event it's hardly
even worth considering.  Unless someone's paid one of your neighbors to do
it -- you do have one or two folks around who would love to see something
like this (or worse) happen to you.  I've heard of far stranger things done
by unhappy newsgroupers!

IIRC, you were reporting pretty strong signal voltage of the interference.
What kind of levels of X-10 signal do you normally see in your apartment?
If it's in the 3-4 volt range it seems like another indicator that it's
something in the next apartment because that seems to be about the right
level of attenuation.

I guess absent any other options, I would execute the "X-10 Unplugging
Dance" to make sure that it was nothing in your own apartment that went
rogue.  I had a X-10 Maxi controller that began spewing loads of garbage
onto the line when it failed.  That was before I got the Monterey so I can't
say for sure what it was outputting but they weren't valid X-10 codes that
could be captured by Activehome.  All X-10 commands in the immediate
vicinity of the failed Maxi wouldn't work - just things at the farthest
point from the failed controller.  I think I still have it in the junk box.
It would be interesting if the Monterey showed a similar output to your
noise.

My only suggestion at this point is to pretend to be the owner and hire a
sparky to filter your apartment at the main breaker.  It won't be cheap,
though, because of the unusual configuration you have with two feeds from
different phases.

--
Bobby G.