X10 Community Forum
🔌General Home Automation => Automating Your House => Troubleshooting Automation Problems => Topic started by: jcws6 on October 14, 2008, 04:20:14 AM
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I'm trying to set up a motion sensor to turn on my porch light when I come home at night. I've got an Active Eye MS16A controlling a light switch module via an RF Transceiver TM751. I have everything set up correctly, and the motion sensor behaves as expected when I tested the system indoors.
However, the light will not work when I move the Active Eye outside. The transceiver is on the electrical socket a foot away from my front door, and the Active Eye is about 4 feet from the door, mounted 7.5 to 8 feet up. When I walk by the motion sensor, I can see the red light picking up movement, but it seems that the transceiver does not receive the signal. The Active Eye is using brand new batteries.
I tested the system with a 10' distance inside (behind a wall), and the light turned on. I also experimented by putting the motion sensor on the ground outside with the transceiver inside, and that didn't work either. Everything seems to work fine until I move the Active Eye outside. I'd estimate the effective range to the transceiver is reduced to around 6 feet once it goes outside. If it matters, the sensor is using code J2.
This is extremely frustrating, and any help would be greatly appreciated!
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..... However, the light will not work when I move the Active Eye outside.
Please allow me to make a wild guess.... and guess your attaching your ActiveEye to some sort of metal siding. Aluminum and steel siding will absorb or ground out the RF signal. A small non-conductive spacer can often help with that. I like using Velcro on both the siding surface and the sensor... it makes it easy to change batteries and reprogram too.
Of course... it could be your just trying to send the signal through metal siding... and maybe even metal lathe too. If that's the case try locating the sensor and Transceiver (TM751) near a window. Windows have very low resistance to RF.
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Good guess - the Active Eye was supposed to be attached to the metal siding on the top of the porch. However, the sensor also didn't work when I moved it to the ground. To test further, I opened the front door & put the transciever right in front of the screen door (with an extension cord), and the sensor still didn't work until I brought it closer to the transceiver. I also tried moving the transciever (again with an extension cord) next to the closest window, which is about 4 feet to the left of the door - still no change. The outside of the house is brick. Any other ideas?
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When you moved it. Did you remove the batteries? If so; did you reset the address when you replaced them? If not as a test try A1. The default for motion sensors.
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.... I opened the front door & put the transciever right in front of the screen door (with an extension cord), and the sensor still didn't work until I brought it closer to the transceiver..... Any other ideas?
It doesn't make sense. The concept is pretty simple. Motion triggers the sensor... sensor sends an RF signal.. Transceiver hears the singal.
Could your home be in an area awash with interference? Like are you next door to a TV or Radio station or under high power lines?
.... I've got an Active Eye MS16A controlling a light switch module........ If it matters, the sensor is using code J2.
That part of your original post.... caught my attention. If your using a really long extention cord for testing.... the signal maybe received by the transceiver... but not making it to light switch. If your required to test via a cord.... plug a lamp into the TM751 and look for it's built in switch to trip. The TM751 always trips at the house code it is set at ON UNIT CODE # 1. So as Brian H you might want to test using the default H/U code.... A1.
It could be... your problem is a phase issue (testing as above will tell). As ceiling lights are most often a different circuit than receptacles... and could easily be a different phase.
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Is the Active eye new?
Is the tranceiver new?
Has anything ever worked beyond 10 feet?
Do you have a Palm Pad or other remote that you can confirm good range on the tranceiver?
In other words you could be dealing with poor receive sensitivty on the tranceiver, or poor transmit range on the Active Eye.