All of a sudden, I can not control several devices from my Active Home controller. Normally, this would indicate a problem bridging the 2 sides of a
220V line but I had no trouble for over 4 years and this just started. I also have the home security system (which handles the wireless controllers) and several wired controllers and none of them have any problems getting to all the devices!Any troubleshooting suggestions?
If you can't control _anything_ with your AH controller, it may have died. But if it's just certain devices, think about any electronic equipment you may recently have acquired (TV, DVD player, Cell phone charger, etc.) which has a switchmode power supply.
Many of these devices will introduce noise on the powerline or have heavy capacitive filtering ("signal sucker") which will attenuate the X10 signals. To test, unplug suspected devices from the wall - merely turning them off isn't sufficient.
If you identify an offending device, get an X10 noise filter and plug it in between the device and the wall socket.
The fact that you comment about bridging leads me to believe you might not have some sort of coupler already installed. While many get by without a coupler - we did for many years - the signal strength on the second phase is probably marginal. It doesn't take much loading to reduce it to the point that reliability suffers. So, if you don't have at least a passive coupler, certainly add one. And then considering filtering any potential problem loads. I wrote some tutorials that may help:
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