X10 Community Forum

🔌General Home Automation => Automating Your House => Troubleshooting Automation Problems => Topic started by: bitman on October 27, 2008, 11:25:06 PM

Title: x10 won't work well in my living room.
Post by: bitman on October 27, 2008, 11:25:06 PM

Darn!

Just where I like to couch potato.

I have 1 tm751 in the garage. House Code A
1 MS12a in the garage transmitting A9 to the entryway light and parking light - These work every time all year.
1 MS12a in the stairway transmitting on A9 to the entryway light and parking light - This has worked for the 1 week it has been in play.

2 LM465s in the master bedroom on A1 and A2 plus a appliance controller powering a PC on address A3 - Has worked great for months.

6 appliance controllers controlling 6 10 channel audio mixer in a basement (off the garage) recording studio - These have been perfect for 2 years. These are on A10 - A16

1 Chime on A8 in the dining room off the living room - works always.
1 ms16A motion detector outside transmitting to the chime at A8 to detect the return of my dog from business.

All this stuff works without issue.

But if I start putting lamp controllers in the living room on lamps at address A4 A5 and A6 they will sometimes work but most times not for no explicable reason. If I go turn on the clothes dryer nothing changes.

Adding these devices does not seem to upset any on the existing happy modules.

????

:Ron

Title: Re: x10 won't work well in my living room.
Post by: -Bill- (of wgjohns.com) on October 28, 2008, 12:12:37 AM

It sounds like something on the livingroom circuit has a signal sucker or noise generator on it.

Start by unplugging everything on that circuit and trying to control the X10 modules.

If all work well then, plug in one thing at a time and try again.

When it stops working, you have found at least one of the offenders.

 >!

Title: Re: x10 won't work well in my living room.
Post by: Brian H on October 28, 2008, 06:47:35 AM

Sure sounds like a noise maker or signal sucker.
TVs and most electronics can be a problem maker. Don't overlook things like a cell phone charger. They can be unthought of troublemakers.

Title: Re: x10 won't work well in my living room.
Post by: PajamaGuy on October 28, 2008, 08:38:43 AM

What happens if you move the TM751 to the living room?

Title: Re: x10 won't work well in my living room.
Post by: steven r on October 28, 2008, 01:13:04 PM

Quote from: -Bill- (of wgjohns.com) on October 28, 2008, 12:12:37 AM

It sounds like something on the livingroom circuit has a signal sucker or noise generator on it.
Start by unplugging everything on that circuit and trying to control the X10 modules....

A good 1st thing to unplug is the TV including the surge box that it's plugged into.

Title: Re: x10 won't work well in my living room.
Post by: bitman on October 28, 2008, 01:43:30 PM

Thank for the replys good people!

This morning after pondering these posts I remembered I had a wired IBM controller.
So I plugged it into a socket in the living room and was able to control some, but not all of the uncontrollable devices.
I had to go to work and leave the fun behind, but it is likely to be a mix of distance and suckage.

This should be fun to hunt down.  ::)

My home is a scant 1800 sq feet. Is it possible that all my working devices are on the hairy edge of the network and my
living room is just to far to reach or overcome x10 suckage?

Thanks.

:Ron

Title: Re: x10 won't work well in my living room.
Post by: JeffVolp on October 28, 2008, 02:06:28 PM

Quote from: bitman on October 28, 2008, 01:43:30 PM

My home is a scant 1800 sq feet. Is it possible that all my working devices are on the hairy edge of the network and my living room is just to far to reach or overcome x10 suckage?

If you maintain a powerline environment that is "X10 friendly", there should be no problem at 1800 sq ft.  Even double or triple that size is possible with aggressive use of filters to isolate all potential noise sources and signal suckers.

Jeff

Title: Re: x10 won't work well in my living room.
Post by: bitman on October 28, 2008, 08:14:45 PM

Well that was easy.

It was the cheapo power strip the tv cable and stereo are plugged into.

Sorry to bother you all with such trivia.
Back to the real problems now.   :-[

:Ron

Title: Re: x10 won't work well in my living room.
Post by: -Bill- (of wgjohns.com) on October 28, 2008, 08:25:28 PM

Quote from: bitman on October 28, 2008, 08:14:45 PM

Well that was easy.

It was the cheapo power strip the tv cable and stereo are plugged into.

Sorry to bother you all with such trivia.
Back to the real problems now.   :-[

:Ron

Just glad we could help!   >!