Re: Water heater eating X-10 signal

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Dave Houston" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:46390847.120205171@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> "Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> >> Sorry - I think this obsoletes Bobby's Monterey. ;)
> >
> >It's not going into the junkbin just yet unless you can shrink all of
this
> >down to the size of a cigarette pack with a line cord.  (-:  But the
ability
> >to capture raw line data to disk with just a sound card should be
extremely
> >useful in debugging certain sets of problems, particularly something like
> >overnight phantoms and noise related events.  Every weapon in the arsenal
> >helps.  I'll bet it would help solve Mr. Land's problem or at least shed
> >serious light on it.
> >
> >With the plan I had to distribute a number of wall warts around the house
> >feeding a rotary switch and then the ESM1, this would give a very good
way
> >of being able to inspect the powerline at several places around the house
> >quite easily and in great detail AND with a recorded log.  That could be
a
> >*very* good tool for analyzing the effect of things like signal suckers
on
> >the entire household wiring network.  Before this, with no way to record
or
> >compare the signals other than through the LED bar graph display, it
wasn't
> >really workable.  Now it is.  Good work!  With both the power feed and
the
> >I/O line on sockets, I should even be able to retain its function as a
> >portable device.
>
> It's much smaller than a cigarette pack. It adds a 3.5mm cable coming out
of
> the ESM1 and there are two resistors (which will need a small vector
board)
> in the line between the ESM1 and soundcard.

What happens if you move the ESM1 meter head near the transformer, as in
mounting both the head and a power supply inside the same box and having
just a line cord extend from the unit?  One "ease of use" feature of the
Monterey that I really like is the built-in power supply.  The line cord is
typically easier for me to find a ready outlet for than the whole wall wart.
I use a 6' extension cord right now, but if I am going to be modding the
ESM1, that a mod I'd consider doing at the same time because I've been
thinking of mounting the "head" on a little slotted hinge so I can angle the
readout to see without hands.  It's like my doctors.  "As long as we're
going in to fix your cruxus whatis, why don't we do a little debriding?"  In
for a penny, I guess.

> I'll need to build one and test it to see how accurately it will record
PLC
> level. This is a 60Hz signal and some soundcards may not do too well with
> that.

No rush, but I certainly like the idea of a having a different "EKG" for
each circuit in the house.

> You may need a lot of free disk space to record overnight - I haven't
> analyzed that yet. Nor do I know if there are limits on the size of .WAV
> files that can be viewed & edited.

I may actually want to send a known reference pulse through each transformer
in round robin fashion and save the files for visual or computational
analysis.  If the standard J1 ON starts to show unusual noise or a drop in
amplitude, it should be obvious in a comparison view.

What would happen if I recorded in MP3 and converted back to WAV format?
would the loss be noticeable?  Disk space wouldn't be as much of an issue
that way.

--
Bobby G.