General Home Automation Best Way to Amplify X-10 Signal?

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Subject Author Date
Best Way to Amplify X-10 Signal? Brian S. Schang 03-01-06
Posted by Brian S. Schang on March 1, 2006, 7:13 am
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Hello:

To make a long story short, I've had much success using X-10 for
lighting control. Although I have a smaller house, I have made sparing
use of Leviton plug-in filters (I forget the model number) for the
electrical devices I have that tend to attenuate the X-10 signals. I
try to be cognizant of the devices I add so that I can pinpoint a
problem when it occurs. I've been fairly successful.

Now, however, I'm in a project to finish my basement. I'm staring to
get flakey X-10 behavior, and I know exactly where the problems are.
I've moved my computers from upstairs to the basement and have not
reinstalled the filters yet. I'm sure that if I were to reinstall
them my problems would go away.

Here is my question ... is this really the best way to handle this
problem? While I've been successful using these filters, I have
friends and family that have been equally successful using repeaters
and amplifiers. Which is the most robust solution?

I ask simply because as I finish the basement, I'll either need to buy
more filters or buy another solution, such as a repeater or amplifier.
I want to try to put my money towards the most robust solution. While
I don't want to throw money away, I'm willing to spend more to get a
better solution.

Lastly, and I really don't know what I'm talking about here, are there
any issues with repeaters and/or amplifiers with extended X-10 codes?
To be honest, I'm not sure if I even use extended codes right now, but
if I am, I don't want to loose that functionality. Are there any
issues that I need to be aware of?

Thanks for listening and for any advice that you may be able to offer.

--
Brian Schang


Posted by Dave Houston on March 1, 2006, 7:56 am
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Filters help with both noise and signal sinks while amplifiers may make
noise worse.


>Hello:
>
>To make a long story short, I've had much success using X-10 for
>lighting control. Although I have a smaller house, I have made sparing
>use of Leviton plug-in filters (I forget the model number) for the
>electrical devices I have that tend to attenuate the X-10 signals. I
>try to be cognizant of the devices I add so that I can pinpoint a
>problem when it occurs. I've been fairly successful.
>
>Now, however, I'm in a project to finish my basement. I'm staring to
>get flakey X-10 behavior, and I know exactly where the problems are.
>I've moved my computers from upstairs to the basement and have not
>reinstalled the filters yet. I'm sure that if I were to reinstall
>them my problems would go away.
>
>Here is my question ... is this really the best way to handle this
>problem? While I've been successful using these filters, I have
>friends and family that have been equally successful using repeaters
>and amplifiers. Which is the most robust solution?
>
>I ask simply because as I finish the basement, I'll either need to buy
>more filters or buy another solution, such as a repeater or amplifier.
>I want to try to put my money towards the most robust solution. While
>I don't want to throw money away, I'm willing to spend more to get a
>better solution.
>
>Lastly, and I really don't know what I'm talking about here, are there
>any issues with repeaters and/or amplifiers with extended X-10 codes?
>To be honest, I'm not sure if I even use extended codes right now, but
>if I am, I don't want to loose that functionality. Are there any
>issues that I need to be aware of?
>
>Thanks for listening and for any advice that you may be able to offer.


Posted by Neil Cherry on March 1, 2006, 10:04 am
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On Wed, 01 Mar 2006 12:56:11 GMT, Dave Houston wrote:

>>Now, however, I'm in a project to finish my basement. I'm staring to
>>get flakey X-10 behavior, and I know exactly where the problems are.
>>I've moved my computers from upstairs to the basement and have not
>>reinstalled the filters yet. I'm sure that if I were to reinstall
>>them my problems would go away.
>>
>>Here is my question ... is this really the best way to handle this
>>problem? While I've been successful using these filters, I have
>>friends and family that have been equally successful using repeaters
>>and amplifiers. Which is the most robust solution?

> Filters help with both noise and signal sinks while amplifiers may make
> noise worse.

Dave's correct, I have an errant signal sucker (can't find it yet,
busy doing other thing) and an amp. Luckily the amp/repeater doesn't
appear to repeat the noise. It does detect noise (hours worth) but I
don't see it on both sides of the 2 2 'phases'. The X10 works OK most
of the time but I sometimes lose an on or off. I then have to fix it
manually.

--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry ncherry@linuxha.com
http://www.linuxha.com/ Main site
http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/ Backup site

Posted by BruceR on March 1, 2006, 4:42 pm
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I agree that if filters do the job you should forego the repeaters.
Adding the repeater will not eliminate every filter. In my case, I have
both.


> Hello:
>
> To make a long story short, I've had much success using X-10 for
> lighting control. Although I have a smaller house, I have made sparing
> use of Leviton plug-in filters (I forget the model number) for the
> electrical devices I have that tend to attenuate the X-10 signals. I
> try to be cognizant of the devices I add so that I can pinpoint a
> problem when it occurs. I've been fairly successful.
>
> Now, however, I'm in a project to finish my basement. I'm staring to
> get flakey X-10 behavior, and I know exactly where the problems are.
> I've moved my computers from upstairs to the basement and have not
> reinstalled the filters yet. I'm sure that if I were to reinstall
> them my problems would go away.
>
> Here is my question ... is this really the best way to handle this
> problem? While I've been successful using these filters, I have
> friends and family that have been equally successful using repeaters
> and amplifiers. Which is the most robust solution?
>
> I ask simply because as I finish the basement, I'll either need to buy
> more filters or buy another solution, such as a repeater or amplifier.
> I want to try to put my money towards the most robust solution. While
> I don't want to throw money away, I'm willing to spend more to get a
> better solution.
>
> Lastly, and I really don't know what I'm talking about here, are there
> any issues with repeaters and/or amplifiers with extended X-10 codes?
> To be honest, I'm not sure if I even use extended codes right now, but
> if I am, I don't want to loose that functionality. Are there any
> issues that I need to be aware of?
>
> Thanks for listening and for any advice that you may be able to offer.



Posted by Brian S. Schang on March 2, 2006, 9:56 pm
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On Wed, 01 Mar 2006 07:13:18 -0500, Brian S. Schang

>To make a long story short, I've had much success using X-10 for
>lighting control. Although I have a smaller house, I have made sparing
>use of Leviton plug-in filters (I forget the model number) for the
>electrical devices I have that tend to attenuate the X-10 signals. I
>try to be cognizant of the devices I add so that I can pinpoint a
>problem when it occurs. I've been fairly successful.
>
>Now, however, I'm in a project to finish my basement. I'm staring to
>get flakey X-10 behavior, and I know exactly where the problems are.
>I've moved my computers from upstairs to the basement and have not
>reinstalled the filters yet. I'm sure that if I were to reinstall
>them my problems would go away.
>
>Here is my question ... is this really the best way to handle this
>problem? While I've been successful using these filters, I have
>friends and family that have been equally successful using repeaters
>and amplifiers. Which is the most robust solution?
>
>I ask simply because as I finish the basement, I'll either need to buy
>more filters or buy another solution, such as a repeater or amplifier.
>I want to try to put my money towards the most robust solution. While
>I don't want to throw money away, I'm willing to spend more to get a
>better solution.

Thanks for all of the good feedback. Seems unamimous in that filters
would be a better choice than repeaters/amplifiers since I have been
successful with the filters in the past.

The only potentially complication is that when moving my computers
downstairs I upsized my UPS. I have a 1000W unit now which exceeds my
filter's rated capacity of 120V and 5A (600W). I have been using
Leviton model 6288 filters.

Given that I need more capacity, are there any filters that will work?
If not are there any good alternate options?

Thanks again for the help.

Brian Schang


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