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Author Topic: Timers and Macros Quitting After "X" Days  (Read 17930 times)

carmine pacifico

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Re: Timers and Macros Quitting After "X" Days
« Reply #15 on: June 21, 2005, 10:20:31 AM »

To answer Steve RF question “ some are
running for months without any problems ….”
It’s not how many macros, lights or motion
control you have, it the complexity of the
macros that can cause problem. I only had 3
light and 3 motion on my system during test:
2 motions controlling the stairs lights
(top and Bottom)
1 motion for the bathroom.
The stair macros would use dim or bright to
the light and during night time would else
turn control the kitchen light using
Dim/Bright command.

The bathroom light else is using Dim/Bright
command.
I else had a recovery macros using the
commands from the motion photocell: in the
event the light where manually turn off.
This set up generate a large number of
commands on the power line and RF, unless
the CM15a (or RR501, V572) has a large
buffer to store more than 1 RF command, the
macros will not work properly.
Usually if I triggered the stairs motion
(stairs light and Kitchen light On  with
multiple Bright commands) and then trigger
the bathroom motion within 10 seconds, the
CM15a would fail and loose the clock( it
takes more than 10 seconds to send all
those Bright/Dim on the power line).
With the 1132CU I eliminate the crashes and
loss of clock, but to achieve the
performance I wanted I had to replace the
wall switches with “Preset-Dim” switches to
reduce traffic on the power line.
In a nut shell if you keep you macros
simple and minimize traffic on the power
line ad RF signals, it will probably work
flawless.
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arf1410

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Re: Timers and Macros Quitting After "X" Days
« Reply #16 on: June 21, 2005, 10:31:58 AM »

X10-Pro -

Though my timers are simple, and I don't use
any macros or RF, is it possible all
the "activity" generated by my 2-way
switches (which send out a signal every time
they are manually operated) is what is
causing my CM15A to stop functioning after a
couple of days?
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andre

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Re: Timers and Macros Quitting After "X" Days
« Reply #17 on: August 20, 2005, 11:35:59 PM »

I seem to be seeing a common problem where
the CM15A looses it's mind and no longer
properly processes timers.  A friend of
mine is also experiencing the same
symptoms.  Unplugging the unit from the
wall and removing the batteries is the only
way to restore USB communications to the
unit in order to restore the timers.
Assuming X-10 is monitoring this forum, I'm
challenging X-10 to provide a suitable
explanation as to why so many user's
patience are being challenged by this
product.  Is there a firmware update
available that we can use to reflash our
CM15As?
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arf1410

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Re: Timers and Macros Quitting After "X" Days
« Reply #18 on: August 21, 2005, 07:27:28 PM »

Andre -
my understanding is that the firmware in
this unit is NOT upgradeable ...
After 6-9 months of asking , X10 Pro has
come up with no explanation or potental fix
to the unit malfunctioning of a period of
time ...
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SteveRF

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Re: Timers and Macros Quitting After "X" Days
« Reply #19 on: August 21, 2005, 08:01:06 PM »

Andre,
My CM15A did the same thing but was swapped
out for a diag unit (04J44 4 Mar) way back in
Mid Mar.  I have ramped up a bit since then
to include more timers and lots more If/Else
macros.  I use the unit disconnected from the
PC 24/7 and connect only to reprogram.  Even
with lots of recent power outages (some 2-3
hours) I have noticed all my timers and
macros fire on time (on the minute) and as
expected.  I still suffer from some several
second delays when several motion detectors
fire at the same time but I dont seem to
loose timer or macro control and definitely
do not loose PC connectivity.  The original
unit was awful...lost time, reset...stopped
working..you name it and it did it... now I
wonder why mine seems to be so stable when so
many have trouble.. I do set it up for No A
or P codes... only transceive codes I am
using B,C,D,E,and F and run the unit
disconnected fromt eh PC exclusively.  I have
been looking at adding Cams to the set up but
am not yet convinced of the cam quality...
Let me know if you find a resolution (other
than shooting the unit)...
SteveRF
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andre

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Re: Timers and Macros Quitting After "X" Days
« Reply #20 on: August 22, 2005, 06:45:45 PM »

Thanks for the replies, ARF1410 and
SteveRF.  The loss of sanity can't be
attributed to transceived codes or complex
macros as neither myself or my suffering
friend run more than simple timers. I am
running timers that are located on 2
different house codes, H and I. It's quite
disconcerting to find the aquarium lights
going on at 2am instead of 7:30, or the
porch light going off at 8pm instead of the
programmed 6am.  As for power outages,
we've had stable power for months without
so much as a neighbourhood brownout.  I
have been able to tell because my Kenmore
microwave resets as soon as there is any
inconsistency in the line voltage.  One
note is that I run my CM15A disconnected
from the PC except for programming. I'm not
exactly looking forward to pulling out my
scope and debugging yet another poorly
designed consumer product.  Has anyone seen
schematics of the CM15A posted on the web?  
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murphy

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Re: Timers and Macros Quitting After "X" Days
« Reply #21 on: August 22, 2005, 07:16:09 PM »

Go to fcc.gov and search for the type
acceptance number that is on the CM15A.
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andre

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Re: Timers and Macros Quitting After "X" Days
« Reply #22 on: August 22, 2005, 10:25:15 PM »

Hi SteveRF, I took a peak at my CM15A and
it has the same batch code as yours, 04J44.

To Murphy,
FCC, Industry Canada, UL and CSA filings
are confidential because they usually
contain proprietary data, so why did you
think that the FCC listing number would
yeild schematics?
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murphy

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Re: Timers and Macros Quitting After "X" Days
« Reply #23 on: August 22, 2005, 10:45:13 PM »

Could it be because I downloaded the
schematic from there.  Note that fcc.gov
doesn't work.  It has to be www.fcc.gov

Look here:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?R1A4229AB

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andre

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Re: Timers and Macros Quitting After "X" Days
« Reply #24 on: August 22, 2005, 10:56:53 PM »

Hi Murphy,
My appologies, and thanks for the link. I
see right off that the submitted schematics
are not totally true to the actual shipped
product.  The RF daughterboard has been
sub'ed out for a 2 board pair, each with
their own antenna.  It appears that the
module has been split into separate
transmit and receive modules.  The Cypress
microcontroller is consistent.  I'm goingto
start by having a deeper look at the power
supply section because that's where most
product's woes are located. It also appears
that there's no watchdog, but I still have
to download the datasheet for the
microcontroller.
Has anyone else explored the design?
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carmine pacifico

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Re: Timers and Macros Quitting After "X" Days
« Reply #25 on: August 23, 2005, 10:43:05 AM »

Andre

The microcontroller is cypress Encore
series, it is obsolete and not recommended
for new designs. Apparently Cypress bought
the company that originally made the Encore
USB chip. This processor has some serious
hardware flaws in the silicon.
The Encore II is PSOC based  and should be
a replacement for the original Encore chip(
not pin and firmware compatible) but
unofficially my Cypress rep does not
recommend it, he suggested the new PSOC
with USB , this chip it’s not available in
production quantity yet.
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roger1818

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Re: Timers and Macros Quitting After "X" Days
« Reply #26 on: August 23, 2005, 12:47:06 PM »

Andre:  It sounds like you are having
problems with powerline noise causing the
clock to run too fast.  X10 Pro has
admitted that some users suffer from this
problem, but despite the fact that I showed
him exactly where on the schematic the
problem lies, he claims that it isn’t a
bug.  I had this problem for about a week
about six months ago, but it seems to be
running on time now (I am thinking the
noise may have been coming from an HP
DeskJet but I don’t know for sure).

If you want to tinker with yours, you might
want to try putting a capacitor in parallel
with D1 or an inductor in series with R1.
You will probably have to try several
different values until you find one that
works well.  You want to make TR10 provide
a clean 60Hz square wave to U4.  Currently
if there is high freqency noise while TR10
is in its active region it can produce an
extra pulse causing the clock to gain time.
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Mike C

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Re: Timers and Macros Quitting After "X" Days
« Reply #27 on: August 23, 2005, 08:14:14 PM »

I have had the same problem with my unit
going to sleep after a number of weeks.
Somtimes days if I unplug it from the PC.
This past weekend I came home to a dark
house. I unplug the unit, pull the batterys
and wait a few minutes. Plug it back in run
the software and download the data.
Everything works again.  I have sent several
emails to x10 requesting a replacement unit
but get no response.  I guess my next post
will be sometime in Sept when it fails again!
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andre

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Re: Timers and Macros Quitting After "X" Days
« Reply #28 on: September 07, 2005, 06:49:13 PM »

Hello everyone,
I've added the decoupling to my CM15A,
and it has retained its sanity for the past
week which is better that in the past.  The
components I added are 0.1uF 50V capacitors
across the following components:
U5: IN to COM
U5: OUT to COM
U2: pin 1 to pin 8
U1: pin 6 to pin 11
I checked the signal coming from U4 and it
needs no additional filtering.  The base-
emitter junction of TR10 only see the
botton 0.7 volts of the AC line so any
noise on the waveform is filtered out.  The
data sheet for the microcontroller is an
interesting read, it has the power-up reset
circuit and watchdog that I observed was
missing from the schematic of the CM15A,
and Cypress confirmed for me that they had
no issues in their database regarding the
use of either of those features.
If anyone has additional mods they'd like
me to explore, pass them along.  It's the
most fun I've had at work in months.
Cheers.
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roger1818

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Re: Timers and Macros Quitting After "X" Days
« Reply #29 on: September 09, 2005, 01:54:09 PM »

Andre:  Thanks for posting your findings.
I can't believe X10 didn't put any
decoupling caps on U1 and U2!  That alone
could be causing lots of problems.  Did you
use tantalum caps?

I am curious why you needed to add caps
across U5.  Don't C11 and C12 serve this
purpose?  Are they not physically close to
U5 (I haven't taken my CM15A apart yet)?

I will have to give these mods a try on my
old (pre-diagnostic) unit.  Thanks again.
« Last Edit: April 21, 2006, 05:21:46 PM by roger1818 »
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