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X10 continuous bright problem...

I've been running a fairly large X10 system for almost 20 years. 60 modules, repeater. I've eliminated the wireless leg over power lines. It's been generally reliable, with a few soft spots on long runs and the occasional killer power supply in a PC, printer or game device. No whole house filter, but my neighbors are 100 - 200 feet away.

So today, it stops working. Total shutdown. A little research turns up a continuous E9/bright command. My little tester flags it as a strong, clean signal with noiseless zeros and full strength 1s.

A long search reveals no suspicious devices, so I turn off the breakers one at a time. Doesn't work. I open all the breakers, and find that the signal is on at least two separate circuits. I have the repeater disconnected as well.

Then comes an indiscretion with the tester as I connect it across the two lin phases, and it ejects black smoke. So I never quite nailed it as an external influence, but it seems that is what it has to be. Almost like one of my neighbors is blasting e9/b with a big amp.

Of course, it is gone now. And the whole house filter will arrive this week.

Anybody ever seen anything like this? It was almost like a deliberate jamming signal.

Reply to
martin.reynolds
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Reply to
BruceR

Martin,

In addition to Bruce's suggestion of a stuck button, there's a fairly common occurence with X-10 transceivers getting locked into a continuous state (I dubbed it "endless dim syndrome".) where they send DIM or BRT until unplugged. There's also a condition usually referred to as "powerline storms" which usually is associated with the Leviton HCA02-10E coupler/repeater although the symptoms you see do not seem to match those usually seen with the coupler.

Are you us>I've been running a fairly large X10 system for almost 20 years. 60

Reply to
Dave Houston

I had a similar problem, my wife spilled a bit of tea on her nightstand and it splashed on the manual controller. It sent out continuous stuff. I finally found it, unplugged it and all was well. After a complete drying out, it worked again perfectly.

Reply to
Art Todesco

Thanks, all. Dave, your point on the BX24 s a good one: mine feeds a PC which runs an Ocelot, and it was reporting nothing on the RF link.

The odd thing is that I opened ALL the breakers, and still found the signal on two separate legs, with each only powered on individually. Ialso pulled the coupler/repeater, that was not the guilty part.

Had I then connected my tester across one line and neutral, I would have had a definitive observation instead of vaporized PCB traces.

Reply to
martin.reynolds

Unless the RF source is out of range of the BX24-AHT it would appear that your gremlin is definitely PLC based and possibly coming from "out there". Do you have any 230V loads that might serve as a passive coupler?

There have been a few (rare) reports (mostly from the West Coast) of power companies using load management signals that cause problems for X-10. Could that be the case here?

You can borrow an ESM1 X-10 meter from AutomatedOutlet.

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If you decide to keep it, you can do a simple modification that will let you use it with a soundcard "Line-In" to record what's on the powerline as a .WAV or .WMA file. See my preliminary web page on this at...

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Reply to
Dave Houston

Could a neighbor have an XTB?

Reply to
Dave Houston

Bruce, I think Martin meant that he uses a BX24-AHT which lets him control how to handle wireless signals so they don't automatically end up on the powerline.

Reply to
Dave Houston

Thanks, Dave.

I pretty much eliminated everything by opening all breakers except one, and still finding the noise on that leg. I did that on two different legs, and saw the same signal.

The signal was very clean, according to my tester. That would seem to rule out the power company, unless they are using some kind of X10 signal.

So I think that leaves me with a neighbor with an XTB and a stuck button. But I don't see any other X-10 signals. Maybe my life is about to change?

The only other possibility is that I had two wall switch units go funny, and stay funny through a coupe of power cycles.

All of these scenarios seem unlikely.

Reply to
martin.reynolds

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