Just another story to inspire those working out X10 non-performance issues.
I was installing my last toggle-switch-KR19A assembly. I was testing it and it did not work reliably at all. I was quite frustrated, to say the least. I grabbed my XTBM meter - not for the signal level, but for the commands-as-they-pass-by readout.
L3 ON, ok, L3 OFF, ok …C9 ON, huh? Where is that coming from? Oh, C9 is my motion sensor to turn on a small lamp when I enter the room, rather than the overhead light. So where am I standing as I test my toggle-switch-KR19A assembly? Right in front of the motion sensor! The commands were stepping on each other. (Making Homer Simpson ‘Doh’ sound).
I moved the motion sensor and then the toggle-switch-KR19A assembly worked flawlessly.
Later I was testing a newly added CM11A macro: Floods ON and Floods OFF. I issued Floods ON and the floods came ON. I issued Floods OFF and lights turned ON and OFF all over the house, but not the floods. WTF I thought! Again I turn to the XTBM. I issued Floods ON and the see the proper Floods ON commands go by. I issued Floods OFF and I see all sorts of other unexpected commands go by. Wait a minute, those look like the “Night Shutdown” command of another macro. I look at my CM11A programming, and I had properly assigned the Floods ON command to the ON side of the controller button, but improperly assigned the wrong macro to the OFF side of the controller button.
A simple edit correction and all worked as planned.
The moral to the story is:
if your X10 is not working, there’s probably a good reason you’re not seeing, and not that X10 is junk. And a meter is invaluable.
