X10 Community Forum
🔌General Home Automation => Automating Your House => Troubleshooting Automation Problems => Topic started by: studmaster on January 15, 2007, 10:00:03 AM
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Hello everyone,
I am having a Firecracker problem. I received the firecracker a couple years ago and didn't use it, now I'm trying to set it up on my computer. Without having any luck, I brought the firecracker and the transmitter (TM751) into the office and it worked very well.
Some people would immediately say there is some sort of interferance at home, but I even tried a serial extension cord and placed it right beside the TM751 and it still wouldn't flip the switch....but in the office it worked fine even 20 feet away.
I have used the serial port on my computer before to transfer data just fine, so I think it's working and set up properly. I only have one serial port on my motherboard so I can't switch it to another one.
Any ideas on how to get this working or what my problem may be?
Thanks in advance,
SM.
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The firecracker serial port unit is, simply put, a remote control that connects via your computer to a program interface. The TM751 is a transceiver, receiving the firecrackers RF signal and changing and transmitting it as an X10 line signal. The transceiver will also activate it's built-in plug on the NUMBER ONE of the HOUSE CODE.
First make sure your software remote is set for units 1-9 and then make sure both the software remote AND the transceiver are set to the same HOUSE CODE. See image below (set as HOUSE CODE C UNIT 1).
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Thanks for your reply Dave,
I tried a few different house codes with no luck....then after the last time I took the TM751 to work and, without changing any of the house codes, successfully used it on my laptop with the firecracker. So my guess is that it's specifically my home computer related .....but my serial port works fine for other hardware. And I have the little RF remotes that work find in my apartment with the TM751.
Any other ideas?
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studmaster:
Since you had the Firecracker working with the TM751 in the room with the PC your PC and TM&51 are setup correctly But As Dave_x10_L pointed out: The TM751 is a transceiver, receiving the firecrackers RF signal and changing and transmitting it as an X10 line signal.
Many things can interfere with RF signals wireless routers,cordless phones large metal objects in between the two!
There are two courses to take:- Leave the TM751 in the same room as the PC where it works and purchase another appliance module the TM751 will send the code to that module over the power line
- Do an Advanced Search (http://www.x10community.com/forums/index.php?action=search;advanced) for RF interference and do some detective work to find out what is causing the signal to get lost! Range may be another issue but you don't state the distance form PC to TM751
;) ;) :D
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studmaster,
Although you haven't mentioned what OS's you are using on the various machines you have tried, I thought it might be worth mentioning that some people have reported problems getting serial devices to work reliably under Windows XP with certain built-in serial port hardware. If you're running XP on your home computer, this may be your problem. Assuming you are, you might try buying one of the adapters that plugs in to a USB port and adds a serial port.
Just a thought,
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studmaster,
Dopey me! Just because my office is in my house doesn't mean everyones office is in there home! ::)
Obviously after rereading your post you are talking about two different PCs & places!
Here is the problem with extra serial ports (com ports) Windows will designated Resources to plug&play devices which may be needed by that serial port in order for it to work thus a conflict arises when you plug something into it causing it not to work! ::)
The fix:
Do as Bill suggested or...
Go into your Device manager and change the resources (I/O Range,IRQ and Memory Range)for that serial port it may take a little playing but that should solve the problem! ;)
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Do you use a modem for dialup on internet.Had the same problem as you before.I had the setup on Firecracker set to auto detect the com port & it interfered with modem because I had the Firecracker set to start on Windows XP boot.If I started modem before Firecracker the modem would work fine.There may be another program on your PC that grabs the com port at startup.Check to see.Play with the com port setting's in Firecracker setup,This may work..
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Hopefully you're listening for the click sound on the TM751 or a device connected to it as a test.
If the a computer is next to the transmitter without a filter, the powerline signal itself will not go very far.
I've had a horrible time trying to get the Firecracker to work off of a usb->serial device as the firecracker does not
read binary 1's an 0's data from the com port but HIGH/LOW voltage / duration changes from the pins on the serial port.
Onboard serial should be more reliable for the firecracker.
Go find an old serial mouse (maybe from a friend at work) and see if the com port is configured correctly in the bios/etc.