X10 Community Forum
🔌General Home Automation => Automating Your House => Troubleshooting Automation Problems => Topic started by: LucidLight on February 20, 2012, 04:04:58 PM
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I am baffled. I have 2 x10 controlled lights in my kitchen. Both use WS12A dimmer switches. The first one controls 4 recessed lights (3 halogen, 1 CFL), the second one controls a hanging lamp with 2 regular 60 watt light bulbs. Both will randomly shut off. It appears the first one does it more. It could happen once an hour or 3 times in 5 mins. I tried unplugging all my transceivers and controls. No change. I then changed the house code on them. No change. It seems as it has gotten worse. My roommate noticed it long before I did. I thought she was just being crazy, but now it happens multiple times a day. Previously my x10 devices stopped working almost completely before I got a coupler/repeater and wired it in to the fusebox. However, I do not know if this problem predated the addition of the coupler. I know CFLs create noise, but even when the first switch had 4 CFL, I do not remember it turning off. I have 4 of the exact same switches in the rest of my house, and I have not noticed them going off. Any ideas would be great!
James
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If it were me, I'd remove the CFL off a dimmed switch. Others have found that this will work out find, but it just seems like a bad idea. You could just remove it for testing to see if it helps. If you are controlling CFL and you have decora style switches, why not move over to the XPS3. That is designed for CFL and other inductive type loads.
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CFLs can change over time. You may want to test for awhile with it removed and replaced with a standard incandescent bulb.
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Well I have replaced the other 3 recessed lights since I have found that the CFLs tend to last 6 months instead of 7 to 10 years as advertised. I will try removing it as well. The other switch having the problem is right next to it, but has no CFLs.
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Do you have any other X10 devices and are they also doing strange things?
Your power company didn't recently change you meter to one of the new Smart Meters?
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Ok I have removed the CFLs in the kitchen. Any other CFLs in the house are on regular switches and turned off. It just happened like 4 times in a row for both x10 kitchen switches. No other x10 problems in the house, unless you count the slim wall mount switches not always working. I would not rule out a smart meter being installed, but I might need to call the power company to verify. Of course it could just be a ghost unhappy with my meal choices.
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If the switches are the same age/date code, it could be a developing problem with the switches. I suppose the only way to verify that is to replace one with a new and see if the problem persists.
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Have you considered that you might be receiving signals from a neighbor? I don't know how close you are to anyone else that runs X10, but if you are, they might have their signals entering your house and controlling your lights. If that were the case, you could try changing the house code on the switches to see if this is still an issue.
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Yes, I already changed the house code. Lights still kept going off.
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Any other ideas?
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They never go On only Off if they are On.
Many X10 devices default to Off on a power loss. I don't know how fast a short interuption is before they stay Off. Maybe you have a wiring problem with the power feeding them.
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You know I was just wondering if I was getting super quick drops in power. I will have to see if there are any other x10 devices on that same circuit, or if it is limited to just that light box.
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Do you have any motion sensors on the same house codes, one unit code below the lights?
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I had 2 motion sensors. One which is an x10, that was recently added. The lights were turning off way before that. Also ruled that motion sensor out by unplugging all my transceivers. The other was a porch light with built in motion sensor. I just moved it to a regular single pole switch. The lights still went off. I did find that the front door light (which is not used that much) is going off as well! It is on the same circuit as the kitchen lights, but on a different wall. So possible power dips are still a possibility. How would I go about testing for them or fixing them?
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So possible power dips are still a possibility. How would I go about testing for them or fixing them?
$0.02
I'm not real sure this will be any help, but anytime I have had a module fall out of conduction, causing the light to extinguish, the power line dip was severe enough to clearly see. Do you see your lights dim when a (pick one) air conditioner, heat pump, well pump, shop air compressor, shop vac, etc. switches ON?
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No, nothing I can see, or associate with any other power draw. A few times I have had them go off only minutes apart. But I have also had them go off when I am the only one up late at night.
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Double Post.
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No, nothing I can see, or associate with any other power draw.
Then IMHO it probably isn't caused by a dip in power. New "Smartmeter" installs by the power company is proving to be yet another nemisis to X10. Have they changed your meter? Otherwise I would replace one unit and see if things improve.
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I have swapped out the 2 kitchen x10 lights with 2 from another part of the house. The x10 function was not really being taken advantage of where the were before. So far after a day and a half, that has seemed to solved the issue. If the old ones were going bad, it explains why they keep turning off more and more frequently over the past 6 months.
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Well after it looked like it was solved. I noticed that I had not changed the housecode or ID back to the normal kitchen ones. Once I did, the problem resurfaced quickly. I had previously changed the housecode from H to I in troubleshooting, and that did not fix it. This time I changed the housecode to J and all the rest of my x10 devices to J as well. That seemed to fix it. BUT IT IS BACK AGAIN! First it started by turning on the light, now it is turning them off again too. I am about to pull my hair out and use the damn switch for a shotgun target. Also from what I can tell I don't have a smartmeter, but I need to confirm this with the power company.
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Well after it looked like it was solved. I noticed that I had not changed the housecode or ID back to the normal kitchen ones. Once I did, the problem resurfaced quickly. I had previously changed the housecode from H to I in troubleshooting, and that did not fix it. This time I changed the housecode to J and all the rest of my x10 devices to J as well. That seemed to fix it. BUT IT IS BACK AGAIN! First it started by turning on the light, now it is turning them off again too. I am about to pull my hair out and use the damn switch for a shotgun target. Also from what I can tell I don't have a smartmeter, but I need to confirm this with the power company.
This doesn't track the standard X10 problems/symptoms/solutions. -:) I think you have a Smart Meter (does it have a digital display?), or your kids/wife/neighbor etc. is playing tricks on you. You don't hear anyone snickering when the lights change state, do you?
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Where are you located? What power company?
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No kids, no wife, and roommate is the one it is pissing off the most when she is cooking. The power company is JEA and the meter is a Schlumberger Centron CL200 240v 3W Type C1SC 30TA. I does have a digital display. I did not see any install date or any date on it.
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That seems to qualify as a Smart Meter but, according to this page...
- http://www.solarhome.org/itroncentrondigitalmetertypec1sfm2s240vcl200remfg.aspx
it uses ZigBee to communicate with its data aggregator (Gate Collector). The ones causing the most problems are using powerline communications for that.
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Anything that can be done about smartmeter interference?
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I have swapped out the 2 kitchen x10 lights with 2 from another part of the house.
Exactly what did you swap? lights? switches?
Do you have other X10 switches or modules? Are they affected?