Re: Motion Sensor Light for Front Entrance

["Robert Green" <robert_green1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Mark Lloyd" <mlloyd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ESNho.3142$VE4.1581@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [snip]
>
>  CFL don't pass that trickle
> > current - they just absorb it until enough builds up to flash the lamp.
> > Very annoying.  Sometimes, the flashing is enough to activate the X-10
> > "current sense" switching and the light comes back on several seconds
> > after you turn it off.
>
> X10 RECEPTICLE modules don't have the current sense "feature" but for
> some strange reason still have the trickle current. A CFL won't be
> completely off unless you have some other load connected too.

But not another CFL load!  I just tried running two CFLs from a splitter
plugged into an appliance module and "bang-bang" both turn themselves back
on, in serial order.  The load has to be something that absorbs the trickle
current completely, and that's usually a tungsten lamp, although it can be a
non-PS power supply or other type of device.

While there are many "mods" listed for turning off local current sense, I've
found that they don't eliminate the flow of trickle current into a CFL and
thus, they still flash but at least they won't spontaneously relight.  It's
such a bummer that X-10 should really come out with a CFL-friendly control
module.  I am surprised they haven't, given the potential scope of the
problem with the phase out of tungsten bulbs.  Hmmm.  Years of Usenet have
taught me to Google before bashing.

OK - just checked with X-10's live support.  They are still pushing AM466
modules which flash and relight like crazy!  The actually called me on the
phone (sales, not techie) sent me three useless links, said it was "noise on
the line" (tell that to three different X-10 meters I own that say "no
noise") and were pleasant, friendly and yet totally unhelpful in solving the
flashing problem.  Google seemed to intimate there was a new, CFL-friendly
module, but it had actually done the annoying trick of turning my search
words into a mis-labeling of a link to the plain old
flash-like-a-turn-signal AM466 appliance mod.

--
Bobby G.