Re: mystery signal

[nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston)]

"Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

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

I'm confident I could run this down quickly if my mobility were not so
severely restricted.

>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?

Powerline intercoms predate X-10. I used them in the early '60s.

I'm not sure this signal is from a triac-based device. It appears to be in
sync with the triac like switching transients that have been on the line for
several years (but which are not coming from any of my devices). The
switching transients come ~1.6ms after each ZC. The endpoints of the periods
when this signal is absent coincide with the switching transients but the
transients are always there even when there is no change in this signal
presence/absence.

>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.

That's not a reliable indicator since some X-10 transmitters output 10Vpp
and others 5Vpp.

>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.

It's not worth that. I only have one X-10 device that's affected and it's in
a walk-in pantry and is not critical. There are outlets for each apartment
in the basement for washers/dryers. I suspect the tenant in the basement
apartment may have plugged something into one of those.