X10 Community Forum
🔌General Home Automation => Automating Your House => Troubleshooting Automation Problems => Topic started by: TundraAuto on December 21, 2013, 10:08:16 PM
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I have what appears to be a problem with one phase of our house. Several outlets have had numerous problems for some time. System is Stargate > XTB-IIR > Panel. I have two local outlets coming directly off the panel, one on each phase. On one outlet the XTBM sees the IIR (as a repeater when initially plugged in) and reports about X8.5 N.00, the other outlet does not see the IIR and reports roughly N.62
Plugging an XTB-ANR in to the noisy phase brings noise down to N.00 but has no impact on the XTBM seeing the IIR.
With a maxi in the outlet on the IIR, the good phase sees commands with about X8.0 - X9.4. The bad phase sees the commands with about X0.07 (N0.00 or N0.01 w/ ANR).
Could something suck the voltages down this low or could the IIR be outputting a really low signal on one phase? If voltage suck, any thoughts on what could do this?
Thanks,
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There is a common output stage in the XTB-IIR that drives both phases, and it is very unlikely that the L-C coupling circuit to the second phase is not working correctly. It is possible that there might be a bad connection to your second phase. You could VERY CAREFULLY verify there is 240V across the Phase I and Phase II terminals with well insulated meter probes.
While it is unlikely that any signal sucker could reduce the signal that low near the XTB-IIR, it is possible that a severe signal sucker might do that out on one of the circuits. But it would take more than the common signal suckers, such as surge protected power strips or computer power supplies.
You could check the signal near the panel on the second phase. If it reads low there, I would really suspect a bad connection to the second phase.
One of my other customers reported a very low signal level, and it turned out that his electrical system included some sort of electrical device that added a huge capacitance directly across the powerline to provide a clean waveform. As I recall, that device was supposed to improve the energy efficiency of his home. His only option to run an X10 system was to remove that device.
Jeff