Re: I think they've done it again.

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Dave Houston" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

<stuff snipped>

> In most of the reports, the Insteon device is at about 20% dim level when
> the flicker occurs. This would put the triac switch-on point well past the
> ZC.

Do you think that it's flickering the same, small amount when brighter but
that it's less noticeable as the lamp brightens?

In filmmaking, the human flicker fusion threshold seems to be around 16
hertz (Hz) although most movies are recorded at 24 frames per second, and TV
with PAL and NTSC even faster.  Motion seems continuous at 25 or 30 fps but
brightness deltas may still be noticeable.  People can reliably detect much
faster flicker rates indirectly by various stroboscopic effects like the
ghost image of a airplane propeller slowly moving superimposed over the blur
of the rotating blades or wagon wheels seeming to rotate slowly backwards.

Anyway, the point of all that was to posit that the Insteon lights are
likely to be flickering at < 25 time per second to be detectable by the
human eye.

In one of the threads you cited previously, a "dbaustin" said: "For me, the
problem is only on loads over 240 watts, which is about 8 out of 80 devices.
However, it is a problem for 100% of my house since these 8 loads provide
the primary lighting and they all blink if dimmed with every bit of Insteon
traffic."

It sounds very much like the Insteon signal itself is being rendered
"visible" almost the way the battery LED on a boombox dims as very loud bass
passages play.  I recall having a CRT that would flutter in time to loud
bass played using a receiver on the same circuit as the CRT.

"Dbaustin" reported something that others have reported as well:  that this
problem appears to be related to running the switches at full load.

When an Insteon signal is sent, do all the other Insteon switches in
"earshot" repeat the signal?  Would the power consumption of each switch
rise as it transmitted or would it stay the same?  What would be the effect
of up to 80 small loads suddenly drawing current, especially on a branch
where there was already a large load running?

The rest of that thread has a tantalizing message from SmarthomeJohn made
yesterday that says:

"We have found a field fix that is simple to apply to a problematic dimmer
that has "mild" flickering. There are some varying opinions as to whether we
should offer this kit. I believe SmartLabsMike would like to hear some
thoughts from the community."

http://forums.accessha.com/showthread.php?s=a6a3751b89b977309ac470704bd7899d
&t=1137&page=4&pp=15&highlight=choke

I just hope someone takes some photos of the modules before Insteon swaps
the troublesome units so we can know for sure what's been changed.

--
Bobby G.