Making an X-10 lamp module immune to dimming
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Posted by Robert Green on June 4, 2008, 10:19 am
Please log in for more thread options does anyone have any suggestions on how to accomplish it? I have lots of extra modules to experiment on, and it would seem that there's a control line that tells the triac how much to "chop" that could be modded to always run full tilt. That way, a brighten or dim command wouldn't affect them. I found the schematic at Dr. C's site: http://www.edcheung.com/automa/lm465.gif He also did some work attempting to make the switch smarter http://www.edcheung.com/automa/iwsp.htm by dropping in his own PIC, but was overtaken by events and commercial units becoming available that did what he wanted. It looks like the triac, BTA10-400C, gets controlled by pins 6 and 8 of the 78561 microcontroller. The trick is to make it deaf to only bright and dim, not on and off. -- Bobby G. | ||||||||||||||||
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Posted by Bill Kearney on June 4, 2008, 3:33 pm
Please log in for more thread options > Anyone know of a mod to make an X-10 lamp module immune to dimming?
As opposed to just using an appliance module? | ||||||||||||||||
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Posted by Robert Green on June 4, 2008, 5:52 pm
Please log in for more thread options >
> > Anyone know of a mod to make an X-10 lamp module immune to dimming?
>
> As opposed to just using an appliance module? Yes, for quite a few reasons. 1) Most importantly they do not clack 2) I have about 40 of them doing nothing that I would like to put in service 3) they can be used for some CFL's as long as they aren't dimmed 4) I seem to have less of a flashing and phantom restart problem using them with CFL's. 5) They respond to ALL LIGHTS ON and OFF, appliance modules don't -- Bobby G. | ||||||||||||||||
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Posted by BruceR on June 4, 2008, 6:30 pm
Please log in for more thread options The instructions for the mod you seek can be found here:
http://www.idobartana.com/hakb/ Scroll down on the left to "Lamp Modules" and the sub heading "Making a Silent Appliance Module" and start warming up your soldering iron! Ido's site is THE repository for X10 mods! Robert Green wrote: >>
>>> Anyone know of a mod to make an X-10 lamp module immune to dimming?
>>
>> As opposed to just using an appliance module? >
> Yes, for quite a few reasons. > > 1) Most importantly they do not clack > > 2) I have about 40 of them doing nothing that I would like to put in > service > > 3) they can be used for some CFL's as long as they aren't dimmed > > 4) I seem to have less of a flashing and phantom restart problem > using them with CFL's. > > 5) They respond to ALL LIGHTS ON and OFF, appliance modules don't | ||||||||||||||||
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Posted by Robert Green on June 4, 2008, 7:36 pm
Please log in for more thread options > The instructions for the mod you seek can be found here:
> http://www.idobartana.com/hakb/ > Scroll down on the left to "Lamp Modules" and the sub heading "Making a > Silent Appliance Module" and start warming up your soldering iron! > > Ido's site is THE repository for X10 mods! Thanks! I saw that and it's close but no ceegar. One of the reasons to do this is so that lamps CAN respond to all lights on and off. I suppose in the spirit of "Thomas Edison" whose strategy was often "try anything you can think of" I'll try cutting the control lines from the PIC to the triac to see what happens. I had hoped to avoid using virtual housecodes as Jeff suggested to filter the dim and bright commands. It just seemed to me that the bright and dim control circuit paths might be separate enough from the on off circuitry that one could be neutered without affecting the other. It would take a far smarter person than I to determine where to snip based on circuit analysis, even with Mr. Bloom's helpful schematic. However, reading through Ido's explanation of his mods, I've got a few more clues as to how the module operates. -- Bobby G. | ||||||||||||||||
