Re: XTB-II Enhanced Repeater

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Jeff Volp" <JeffVolp@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:a78si.389185$p47.35528@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Hello Bobby.
>
> The newsgroup has been pretty dead lately - nice to see some activity
again.

It's summer vacation time and lots of people are away.  I've been kinda busy
with that unfortunate event I told you about.  )-;

> I'm planning to address the broadcast storm in the following way:
>
> If the same command is repeated constantly for at least 30 seconds, the
> XTB-IIR will shut down its transmitter, and send a command out the digital
> port indicating the shutdown.  The command will be a "Status OFF" issued
on > the housecode selected for XTB-IIR mode control programming - default
is P.
> Your CPU-XA can watch for that command, and issue an audible warning when
it
> happens.  It could also log the exact time, which might be helpful to
> diagnose the problem.  The XTB-II will continue to monitor X10 traffic,
and
> will resume operation when the storm has been cleared.

I started thinking that the XTB needn't be involved at all.  If you had an
Ocelot or CPUXA already it seems it could be easily programmed to sound a
bell
after X continuous seconds of X-10 activity.  However, if you can do it
internally within your device and firmware that simplifies things.  You'd
just have the ADI device look for the BSS (Broadcast Storm Signal) and then
it could take whatever action required.

I locked-up a CM11A recently and without the Monterey, I would have had no
idea where to look.  Worse, still, it was caused by a dangling serial cord
and began long after the cord became loose.  I think that happened just so
Fate could show me that my detector wouldn't solve every case of broadcast
storms.  In fact, it would have gone off in the middle of the night when the
CM11A reached some sort of critical mass and began "singing" its song.

The detector should be able to react to *both* valid X-10 signals and X-10
noise on the line for thirty continuous seconds and then sound an alarm that
required a push button or a cleared power line to reset.  Sounds like that
wouldn't be too hard with what you're proposing.  Will the XTBII detector
react to both noise and valid X-10 commands?  I ask because sometimes
lockups are caused by a continuous stream of garbage commands as a result of
collisions or unusual failure modes.   It would be nice to catch those as
well.

--
Bobby G.