Re: Insteon now or wait?

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Bill Stock" <me7@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

<stuff snipped>

> Did a walk test of the sensors today and the lights did not come on, which
> is as it should be. Although they seemed to come on in the past with
> visitors arriving (anecdotal). It could still be an intermitent problem.
> I've unplugged the RF transmitter temporarily to see if that's the
culprit.

Things that work fine with one or two people moving around the house often
get dicey with more.  Whether that's because they block RF paths that are
normally clear, activate things simultaneously or what I couldn't say for
sure, but I had similar problems with the whole house becoming haunted when
it's filled with people.  Not as embarrassing as flaming birds dropping down
the chimney during Thanksgiving dinner, but embarrassing none the less as
bathroom lights kept going on and off without reason - while occupied.

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> > Elsewhere you say you have an XPCR repeater.  Does the problem still
occur
> > when you power this unit down?
>
> Haven't tried it yet, but I have considered it. The weird thing is that
this
> does not happen when the event runs in HomeSeer, only when I launch it
> manually from HomeSeer.

Sounds like it's something in HS otherwise it would happen all the time.
I'm betting a variable is properly initialized in one case, but not in the
other.  I remember discussing building an LED panel that shows some of the
more basic assumptions HomeSeer was making as well as switches to correct
any misimpressions it might have (i.e., thinking it's day when it's really
night or a weekend when it's really a weekday) or to temporarily override
system settings.

> > I'm betting you've got at least two or three completely undetected
> > but severe signal "sinks" going.  They can be as small as a plug in AA
> > battery charger and as big as a whole house AC unit.  Only a meter will
> > tell
> > you the extent of their impact on your X-10 setup.  It will probably
> > enable
> > you to redeploy your existing filters to items that really need them.
Not
> > all fluorescents or UPS's are X-10 unfriendly.
>
> Yes I got FilterLincs on the aquariums and AF-120s on the larger UPSs.

Do you know which outlets or lights are at the end of the circuit branch?
I'd set up a test transmitter and take readings at each terminus to see if
one of them was way lower than the others although I think your
unreliability is less signal strength related than I previously thought.

> > If you filter some of the massive sinks, the rest of the system improves
> > immediately.  Throw an XTB or two into the mix, use X-10 friendly CFL's
> > where you can't install series filters and I'll bet you'll see a
dramatic
> > change.
> >
>
> My XTB s/b in the mail soon I hope. :)

It will certainly make a difference.  I still marvel out how much it boosted
the overall reliability of the system.

> >In the meantime, an ESM-1 meter and Jeff's XTB will do a lot for
> > you.
>
> I've had an ESM for a while and recently added a TesterLinc. But I can't
say
> the TesterLinc showed any noise, so it must be a sink issue.

One bad thing I discovered in trying to hunt down sinks is that some of them
are intermittent.  My cheap UPS was fine while idling but blew out that
entire circuit when it was charging, emitting both horrendous noise and
sinking the signal.  When the float charger kicked out, it was fine again.
I had let it charge up before I tested it for X-10 nastiness and it passed.
I'd take the Testerlinc, mount it on a 100 ft cord, set up a test
transmitter and then go to the basement and do the sequential shutdown test.
That's how I found the drill charger, the ultranoisy UPS and a few other
felons.  It *should* be a lot easier to find X-10 killers, but I haven't
found a better way yet.  I have some projects in planning to at least
monitor the system so I know when something recently acquired causes a
profound loss of signal but they're not top priority.

> > It would be nice if someone designed a simple "button"
> > screw-in filter that you could put between the bulb and the socket that
> > would fix errant CFL bulbs, X-10 wise.  But X-10 friendly bulbs *are*
out
> > there.  They're just not 5 for $10 at Walmart.  :-(
>
>
> I was wishful thinking about the button filter today.  But I imagine it
> would be difficult to make it thin enough.

Who knows?  They've come out with SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave) devices that
are incredibly small compared to the components they replace.  It would be
nice, though, to have a button filter, especially for situations like yours
where there's no room to easily install a series filter.  In that case, I
think all that's left is to play Indiana Jones and hunt down compatible
CFL's.

--
Bobby G.