Re: Cause of some major X10 problems found

[nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston)]

You're distorting things and making claims that are not supported by fact.

1. Jeff has not "seen such created codes already when not really looking for
them". He has seen _one_ instance where the noise resulted in a
1010101010101... sequence and has postulated that if a receiver saw a
transition from 111111111111... to 1010101010... it would act on it. Such a
code would represent "M-13" and would turn nothing on.

2. I did not "point out, those are constructed on the binary level to be the
most likely created by noise bits." I said that the _single_ occurence
reported by Jeff could only be "M-13" or "J-Status Request". After further
review, it can only be "M-13". What's most likely to result from a constant
noise source is 111111111111111111111111111111.... Whether a Monterey will
report that as BSC I don't know as I never wasted $300+ on one but I suspect
it will.

3. Most of the reports of logged streams of "M-13" and/or "J-Status Request"
involve a CM11A and/or Leviton repeater. Disabling the CM11A and/or the
repeater stops the storm.

4. Dan's suggestion that "some" switches don't check one slot for
complementarity is insufficient as more slots need to evade the censor to
create an "ON". If there were several such slots we would have had many
reports of switches that had multiple mysterious maladies.

5. If my memory is reliable, (I've been taking statins for a few years which
seem to have adversely affected my memory.) Dan Wright reported a repeated,
specific logged code of unknown origin which is different from this.

I'm afraid that, on this issue, I'm not a "creationist" but believe in
"intelligent design". Random noise is not going to create repeated, valid
codes - that requires some type of (at least semi-)intelligent X-10
transmitter.

One caveat, however. I've forgotten who it was but someone sent all possible
combinations of X-10 RF codes and found a few that were not included in the
CM17A documentation from X-10. I later learned of yet another but it turned
out to only work with certain transceivers. I have no idea whether those
were intended or merely due to programmer error. It may well be that "some"
PLC receivers will respond to non-documented patterns but if this were
common I think we would have heard about them long ago. Also, they probably
would act the same at 4PM as they would at 4AM.