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🔌General Home Automation => Automating Your House => Troubleshooting Automation Problems => Topic started by: szyhxc on December 06, 2009, 11:46:49 AM

Title: 30 Watt CFL and 3 wire appliance module
Post by: szyhxc on December 06, 2009, 11:46:49 AM

I could not get the 3 wire module to turn off a 30 Watt CFL (in a pole light on my front yard).  It would turn on once and then stay on.

I fixed this by cutting the resistor/capacitor across the contacts in the module.

Does anyone have a more elegant solution?

Title: Re: 30 Watt CFL and 3 wire appliance module
Post by: Brian H on December 06, 2009, 12:37:43 PM

Is the appliance module new?
The new X10 CFL friendly modules are much better with CFL bulbs.

Is it a X10 module? As I have not seen any X10 modules with a resistor capacitor combination across the relay contacts.
I have seen the resistor capacitor network across the relays in Smarthome Modules.

There is a chance the CFL was making noise or it was sucking up the signal when on. Thus it would not go off.

Adding a small 4 watt light bulb with the output to the outside light may also have worked.

A filter on the outside light may also help.

Title: Re: 30 Watt CFL and 3 wire appliance module
Post by: dave w on December 07, 2009, 12:33:21 PM

Quote from: szyhxc on December 06, 2009, 11:46:49 AM

I could not get the 3 wire module to turn off a 30 Watt CFL (in a pole light on my front yard).  It would turn on once and then stay on.

I fixed this by cutting the resistor/capacitor across the contacts in the module.

szyhxc
Can you elaborate?
What is a "three wire module" ? Wall Switch or Appliance Module? X10 or Smarthome?

And are you talking about the cap/resistor/diode near the contact side of the relay? The "goes ON stays ON" problem is usually caused by noise, but your fix suggests something other than noise at work here.

Title: Re: 30 Watt CFL and 3 wire appliance module
Post by: szyhxc on January 05, 2010, 09:13:48 AM

Brian,

The module was very old (I would not open and start cutting on a new one.) and definitely X10.  Adding the 4 Watt light is something I'll remember in the future.

Since starting this thread, I have reconfigured the lights outside my home, bringing four wall sconces and the pole light to the same circuit. I replaced the sconce bulbs with four 13 watt CFLs and now that combined five bulb set is working fine with unmodified modules.  I did leave the modified module on that line since it too works and I have no other use for it.

Thanks,,, Bernie