Re: Laying out a new house - looking for Wiring and controller advise

[nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston)]

Wayne,

Thanks for the link. I suspect "smartlabsmike" is the administrator of the
SmartHome Insteon forum that I cited.

I do not buy the "choke" explanation. I think it's a symptom of some more
fundamental problem. It does not explain the similar flickering by the
compact fluorescent, LED lights, Lutron dimmers and others reported in the
forum I cited. And, at least one individual reported that this happens only
when certain modules transmit Insteon but not when others transmit Insteon.
Specifically, he saw flickering with a ControLinc but not with the 2414U.

In the other interference problem I cited, I've isolated the culprit but
haven't yet solved it. I have a NEC MultiSync XV15 monitor (top-shelf &
state-of-the-art when I bought it many years ago) that causes the LED to
flicker on the 2414S, 2456D3, 2000STW & causes the 1132B to go deaf to the
powerline. Whatever it's putting out is not visible on my scope (which uses
this monitor) nor does it register on my ESM1. I've been wanting to get a
new-fangled LED monitor anyway. In any event, I think it's a serious design
flaw that, like the modules losing their addresses after power glitches,
should have been fixed long ago.

I think the Insteon technology is really promising but worry that secondary
issues like these will give it a blackeye.

Wayne <wayne@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

>Dave,
>
>see
>http://forums.accessha.com/showthread.php?t=1137&page=3&pp=15&highlight=choke
>
>post #42
>
>
>On Sun, 28 May 2006 12:52:01 GMT, nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston)
>wrote:
>
>>"none" <none@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>"John J" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>>>news:za3eg.5659$1i1.716@xxxxxxxxxxxx
>>
>>[snip]
>>
>>>> I've read the Insteon comparison, done by Insteon, with a skeptical view.
>>>> Anyone had any real world experience with this size system and layout?
>>>
>>>Insteon has a major hardware defect, sub-standard choke coils that are
>>>allowing noise into the triac, which causes VERY undesirable and significant
>>>light flickering when certain loads are dimmed and there is Insteon
>>>communication. It won't be fixed until July (maybe, they aren't promising).
>>>(and boo to SmartHome for continuing to ship the defective dimmers when they
>>>have supposedly fixed the problem in the newer ToggleLincs but not the older
>>>Decora or KeypadLinc dimmers).
>>>
>>>I would wait until then if you plan on doing anything with Insteon.
>>
>>Where did you find this information? I've been watching a thread on
>>SmartHome's Insteon forum (http://www.techmall.com/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=9)
>>which indicates there are two (perhaps related) problems. One is with
>>Insteon controlled lights that flash on/off rapidly when there is powerline
>>traffic from Insteon controllers and another is with certain non-Insteon
>>controlled lights (various lights & controllers) also flickering during
>>Insteon transmissions. I haven't seen any diagnosis from SmartHome and
>>question whether "sub-standard choke coils" could explain the symptoms.
>>
>>There is another problem which I've seen, Bruce Robin has seen, and others
>>have also reported wherein Insteon controllers/modules appear to be reacting
>>to very low level out-of-band "noise". The LED on the controller/module will
>>flicker rapidly and the controller/module will stop responding to legitimate
>>powerline signals. This problem has been around for a few years, predating
>>Insteon. I first saw it with the very first PowerLinc RS232 interface, it's
>>also present in their 2000STW LampLinc modules and now it seems to also be
>>affecting the Insteon hardware.