X10 Community Forum
🖥️ActiveHome Pro => ActiveHome Pro General => Help & Troubleshooting => Topic started by: mp on April 14, 2005, 09:36:01 AM
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Spoke with a tech at X10 and pulled out all <BR>the stops. They did not deny that there <BR>were problems with the CM15A's. They said <BR>that come March 15, the NEW batches had <BR>many fixes but said there was a possibility <BR>that some "little" issues still existed. <BR> <BR>They confirmed that the RF range was poor <BR>and that this was not fixed due to plastic <BR>antenne. <BR> <BR>Basically, the guy was not trying to hide <BR>anything. That is good for X10. <BR> <BR>I want to determine if folks that purchased <BR>AHP and the CM15A sometime AFTER March <BR>15th, still have a load of problems with <BR>macros, bad time, lockups, etc. <BR> <BR>Please post date of purchase, and current <BR>software version used software modules <BR>added (i.e. smart marcos). If there is a <BR>serial number on the CM15A, add that too. <BR>Give very brief list of all problems <BR>encountered. <BR> <BR>................ <BR> <BR>
Re: ATTENTION: Good Batch of CM15A's!! [Manufd: 2005/03/15] [2 of 5] (http://www.x10community.com/forums/index.php?topic=12312.msg30608#msg30608)
Re: ATTENTION: Good Batch of CM15A's!! [Manufd: 2005/03/15] [3 of 5] (http://www.x10community.com/forums/index.php?topic=12313.msg30703#msg30703)
Re: ATTENTION: Good Batch of CM15A's!! [Manufd: 2005/03/15] [4 of 5] (http://www.x10community.com/forums/index.php?topic=12314.msg30978#msg30978)
Re: ATTENTION: Good Batch of CM15A's!! [Manufd: 2005/03/15] [5 of 5] (http://www.x10community.com/forums/index.php?topic=12315.msg31128#msg31128)
[TTA Edit: Experiment to determine whether or not SPLITTING 'Highly-Viewed' / 'Highly-Replied' but currently INACTIVE threads from LONG, LONG AGO (I'm starting with ~2 years) into parts will allow current ACTIVE threads to appear in the Top 10 Topics (by Replies) section of the Statistics Center (aka More Stats) (http://www.x10community.com/forums/index.php?action=stats) Page.
NOTE: I *WILL* address the <BR> problem...]
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...........Before everyone jumps the gun
and says "I got mine March 16th, and it a
peice of crap too" we must realize that
most likely if X10 had lots of pre March
15th CM15A's sitting around that still
shipped AFTER March 15th.
X10, please provide us with serial and lot
numbers of the March 15th and later lots of
these so called "Good" CM15a's please. We
have a right to know if we own one of the
CM15L's or not ("L" stands for Lemon.)
There are lemon Law$ and I believe there
are enough dissatisified people here to
start a class action suitt. (or a Riot)
Lets avoid the whole law$uit thing (it will
not look good for X10 as we know about your
chap1er 11a) and just recall the bad
CM15a's, and replace them with the "good"
ones if that is the case.
If you don't do this, than it is obvious to
us that you are not doing it because you
believe that for $50-$150 many people will
just give up and move on and you keep our
money and we keep your bad product. (Shame
on anyone who gives up like this!!!) Not
so, there are to many dissatisified from
Late 2004 till now.
..............
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............Assembling a team of lawer$ for
a class action lemon suitt is very easy
these days. (Yes, X10 is probably well
aware of this. Maybe they have already
received registered letters about it?)
So lets get some proof on if there are GOOD
CM15A's (March 15 batchs or later) with
little problems. If so, X10 needs to fix
the problem.
I have read that some people have AHP and
are running many macros and have NO
problems. So, are these the people that
have post March 15 CM15A's or are they just
X10 people posting lies?
We need to gather data on serial numbers
etc to find out.
Post here please.
Lets get this thing fixed X10.
Thanks!
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I for one can testify that I have received a
replacement « Diagnostic » CM15A unit last
week from X10 Pro.
Must say that it is day and night. RF Rang
is now back to normal, I have removed all my
TM751 receivers (I used three) and my CM15A
is plugged on my second floor (not hooked up
to my computer), about the center of my
house. All my motion sensors / PalmPads are
now triggering macros faster (direct RF to
CM15A instead of TM751) and reliably. Not a
glitch on timed events as well. Till now it
has behaved like never before.
My specifics:
Windows XP Home SP2, AHP with Smart Macros,
V 3.183.
Old CM15A serial number 04J44
Diagnostic CM15A serial number 05C10 (non
polarized plug)
23 Modules, 17 Macros, 8 Timers
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U-da-man Martin, that's One good feedback
so far!
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My unit seem to work well except for the RF
range that is mesurable in a couples of
feets.
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Martin,
Interesting !
My setup almost identical to yours
XP Pro/SP2 20 Modules, 12 Macros 11 Timers
Except: Old CM15A 04J44 (does not work)
New Diag Unit that seems to work: 04J44 MAR
SteveRF
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I purchased back in Sept O4 original unit
works fine (04j41) I recieved a diagnostic
unit in March (05b06) it works almost as
good as my original(rf range is less but
still over 75 ft. with palm pad) I'm running
all the plugins and the latest version of
AHP.
All my problems are software as most occure
on Win M.E./98S.E. and some on XP. Most of
my problems on Xp never occured before last
update and most I had prior are gone. M.E.&
98 just keep getting worse.Fewer problems
are cured then new problems created with
each new release. I guess adding the plugins
with the older OSs doesn't help.There are
more problems with the plugins for the older
OS then XP.
I run connected to the PC 24/7 mainly
because I have the iWitness plugin but I
have ran both units disconected for over a
week with no time lost or failures with the
exception of a wrongly configured macro!
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My first unit was purchased on March 8 and
did not ship until march 15th because the
CM15A was backordered. I'm assuming this
was part of the good batch. The unit never
worked properly. I had a replacement unit
shipped on April 4. The replacement unit
was worse than the first unit. Perhaps X10
Pro would like to ship me a Diagnostic unit
to keep a customer happy. All I want is a
product that works. I've spent $50.00 on
the CM15A, and $50.00 on the Smartmacros
package and a ton of $$$ on modules.
Perhaps X10 does not want my future
business. There are other alternatives.
Thanks,
Tony
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Tcassio,
Can you please post the serial numbers of
the CM15A's you have and dates you
received. Thanks! Also, for those who
have more than one unit, are the labels
different? Perhaps X10 purchased units
from a different supplier in China or Japan
or ? that are problematic? Humm...we are
making progress. Keep those serial numbers
and dates coming.
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Both my units had a non-polarized AC plug
and a sticker with the code of: 05c10. I
beleived I listed the dates in the previous
post.
T.
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I bought AHP shortly after it came out, last
September. I had a few problems with
registration. I got Smart Macros; had a few
problems, probably partly me. I have
iWitness. No problems. How about quitting
your whining and consider that YOU may be a
large part of the problem.
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Jess Bettis,
Your statements about whinning are
Idiotic. When you try to view the status
of flage and you can't, thats not an end
user problem. Or when you have to download
program changes 4 and 5 times to get the to
work, or constantly having to remove
batteries to reset a buggy unit, thta is
not user problems. I've been involved with
computers and electronics for 30 years and
I know when something does not work because
it is defective. Perhaps you one of the
lucky ones who actually got a unit that
works. But wait until you have a problem
and your calls to tech support frustrate
you or emails to tech support go
unanswered, or your posts are ignored by
the moderator of this forum. I'd like to
see how you behave. Perhaps you should
read all the posts here and see that there
are serious problems with this product.
And serious problems with the way X10 is
dealing with them. Between this forum and
the other X10 forum I'd say there are far
more dissatisfied customers than there are
happy customers. So $^*k off.
T.
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I bought the CM15A last week. Serial
05C10. I am unable to get ANY of my
modules to respond by it. The only way I
can get the Socket Rocket and LM465 to
respond is by remote control (CR12A). Any
suggestions on that would be helpful. I've
posted a full description of my problem in
the "software problems report" area.
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Edward S: I replied to our post in the Bug
Reports forum.
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Tcassio
I would not get to worked up over Jess
Bettis comments, He could have an older
version of the chip. The hardware bug on
the CY7C63723 affect rev A only of the
silicon, based on Cypress errata sheet if
GPIO interrupt are used, when an I/O pin
toggle( like receiving RF signal) a phantom
GPIO interrupt is triggered, mine was
crashing when to many RF signal were
received making me believe this is probably
the cause; clever programming may fix the
problem.
I would add another piece of information to
the puzzle: on the 18 pin chip (U1 on the
schematic) there is a paper label with a
number on it, it would be nice to know the
number of the label, and if you feel brave
remove the label and provide the number on
the chip.Very important to remember
electronic parts are static sensitive, DO
NOT OPEN the CM15 UNLESS YOU ARE SURE OF
PROPER HANDLING PROCEDURE.
I am no using the CM15a at the time, but
the ability to have al in one controller +
RF transceiver is very important to me, and
when X10 get the CM15a working I may
purchase it again.
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Please do not open your CM15A to read the
label on the chip. There's nothing inside you
can change or fix, and you can damage the CM15A.
Carmine: I spoke with our hardware designer
and we're not using the GPIO interrupt, so
that Cypress problem doesn't affect us.
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X10 Pro
I new that would get a quick response.
Regarding GPIO that’s a relief, about RF
range?
According to HiMARK data sheet for RX3310A
we should be able to get 100m( over 30ft )
open air; a better antenna could do the
trick? .
I hope you realize I am not bashing X10, I
have as much interest to have the CM15a
working as you and the rest of the user; if
you get RF range up, and reliably receive
RF commands, this can be a great product.
The alternative of using separate
transceiver, increase the response time and
collisions, and it’s going to cost me a lot
more.
It would be nice if the full pro line would
be available from you web site, buying from
a dealer here ( in Canada ) is very
expensive.
Ps. I do not encourage anyone to open any
electronic equipment, I am a professional,
and even at home I have proper antistatic
workstation and tools and I have 25+years
experience.
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X10 Pro
Sorry , that sould have been "over 300ft"
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Jess Battis said: "How about quitting your
whining and consider that YOU may be a
large part of the problem."
To which Tcassio blew a gasket.
However I think Jess has a valid point. Why
does some units seem to work satisfactory
but others do not. I had a unit which would
mysteriously quit running macros or timers.
It still does not run flawlessly, however
after receiving a new CM15A from X10 which
seemingly did not work much better than my
September 2004 unit, I began to wonder if I
wasn't part of the problem....and I was.
After taking the time to analyze my
conditional macros, I found several mistakes
in my macro schedule. Unfortunately AHP and
CM15A does not do a good job telling the
user/programmer that it is looping or hung
up.
After correcting a number of macros I was
trying trigger incorrectly, I find my macro
schedule is running more reliably. I am no
novice at X10 or X10 controllers (hint:
Circuit Research's Enerlogic 1400 - mid
1980's - was the best X10 controller ever
made, unfortunately Circuit Research is past
tense. Anybody remember when the Appliance
module was completely redesigned to
eliminate a solenoid holding a Cherry Micro
Switch closed during the modules "on"
period) anywho, my point is Jess Battis has
a good point, in that, the problems we whine
about…are not all X10’s.
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Dave W
You are right, as some of the problems are
user related.
When I was testing the CM15a I was only
controlling 1 light( stairs) using 2
motion detectors( 1 on top and 1 at the
bottom) I else used flags
including ,dusk/down and timer , the macros
where fully tested with the CM15a connected
to the computer. The macros were working
fine with no problems connected to the
computer(and yes they were set to run from
the interface); with the CM15a
disconnected, if I triggered the motion
detectors within 5 seconds of each other it
would stop working(the clock was lost), of
course the moment the CM15a is plugged back
to the PC it work again(magically the clock
is reset).
I did numerous test using another computer
connected to an CM11a used for monitor
only, I concluded that if the controller
got busy (RF + timer) some how it would
clobber is software clock.
In my book if a user programmed macro can
make the CM15a fail, it’s not a user fault
but a device design flaw.
I am not a novice X10 user either, some of
my lamp module are brown with a “BSR” label
original purchased from a company called
Heat Kit ( ps I am only 29…).
In our shop we have dedicated people just
testing and abusing the device we make,
user error can not cause the instrument to
malfunction, it’s not acceptable.
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Dave,
I agree with you completely ! I have made
those same mistakes myself. Actually some
were probably a lot worse than yours !
Personally, I think all of the units are
flawed in some respects (even my diag unit).
You can bet X10 is fully aware of the
shortcommings of the unit and probably have
something in the mill already as a
replacement. I am also sure they like this
forum as it gives them insight into some of
the more obscure "software" bugs but I bet
their hardware/software delvelopment teams
really get a kick out of the "wannabee's"
telling them what is wrong with the chips,
the timers, the antenna's, cases etc... You
can bet that they have known about the
hardware glitches for months or years. One
day they will have the "new and improved"
units ready for distribution and hopefully we
will all have an upgrade path.
In the meantime we can all have fun with this
one and some can just "go elsewhere" if your
not happy. X10 is having a ball keeping up
with orders...smile...
Regards,
SteveRF
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Carmine,
Since you have 25+ years of experience X10
would be well advised to listen to you.
I'll use caution if I decide to add teh
antenna to the CM15A.
I see that you are only 29. You really
started early !
SteveRF
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Steve RF
The 29 was just a joke,
I am 51 (the “BSR” should have given away)
I am a Sr. Hardware and firmware designer
using microcontrollers. I have currently 5
Jr. engineers working in my department.
I have an interface designed and populated
for X10 with hardware RTC, lot’s of memory,
Lantronix Xport Ethernet port with embedded
web server, 4 line by 20 characters LCD and
16 keys keypad; then only thing missing is
firmware, after a full day at work I rather
spend time with my 11 month old son, than
programming.
X10 should not have released this product
before fully testing, I still hope they
solve this problem soon, I need a good RF
all house code transceiver, the CM15a is a
bargain compared to other devices on the
market.