X10 Community Forum
🔌General Home Automation => Automating Your House => Troubleshooting Automation Problems => Topic started by: nabril15 on May 01, 2016, 09:00:51 PM
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I hope that this forum remains active.
I have a tm751 receiver and remotes that I use to control a bunch of different modules; i have a mt13a controlling things daily.
All of a sudden, I cannot send signals with either of my 2 cr12a remotes. I replaced batteries and moved the 751 receiver to different outlets, but no module responds.
The mt13a signals work fin and the modules respond.
Do i obviously have a 751 that mysteriously went bad? If the button is pressed on it, the lamp comes on. If i unplug and replug it in, pressing 1 ON on the remote does turn on the lamp that is plugged into it; subsequent offs and ons do not work.
If it has gone bad, do I get another one? Or do I get a PAT03, that looks to be the newer model?
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Unplug he lamp that is connected to the tm751 and test.
It sounds like a signal sucker issue which may be cause from the type of bulb in the lamp.
The PAT03 is a better unit and has several enhancements.
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If you turn On the TM751 with the local button on the front. Will the button also turn it Off?
Unless something has changed. The TM751 has a ratchet type switch in it and if you unplug it when it is On. When powered back up it should still be On.
You may want to turn the House Code Dial around a few times. We have seen dirty House and Unit Code Dial switches not be set to what the dials are pointing to.
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Thank you Brian and Tuce
I can turn the attached lamp on and off by pressing the local button. I did rotate the house code dial 2 times around.
My upstairs remote now does activate lights, and the downstairs one does at times and not at others. If I unplug the local lamp, the downstairs remote can turn some lights on, BUT NOT OFF. For some reason, it will turn the first button ON button that I press, but not subsequent presses of ON; pressing OFF does nothing.
Yes, weird. Nothing new has been plugged in or off. I have a visiting relative that has a normal USB charger plugged in somewhere - that's the only change from everything working perfectly normal last week. She has been here for 3 weeks.
Something is causing noise, right?
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The USB charger is most likely the culprit as they have been shown to cause noise.
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I had to add a filter for my phone charges at the night stand. They weren't the worst offenders, but once I took care of #1-5, they were right up there.
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Ok, the internal lights seem to be responding to the remote sporadically here and there. Nothing new has been plugged in since I installed a much needed and helpful XTBR module several months ago.
My biggest offender is a switch that I have outside to control my pool pump. It is the 20amp XPS3 equivalent, and has been working fine every since installation. That circuit is fed from my main exterior panel, while all the rest of the house is fed from my garage panel. As of a week ago, when all my x10 troubles started, this switch will not respond to signals from either of my 2 remotes. It has code 4, and it just won't turn on by remote; I have to walk outside, and turn it on by hand.
As part of the standard troubleshooting, I can turn off the other breakers on that panel so as to try to isolate the offending circuit, and thus item on that circuit.
But, again, it worked fine until a week ago.
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Move the TM751 to your garage panel and try the remote. When a transceiver will not respond to a remote, it's usually a defective RF receiver rather than a powerline noise source.
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If I unplug the local lamp, the downstairs remote can turn some lights on, BUT NOT OFF. For some reason, it will turn the first button ON button that I press, but not subsequent presses of ON; pressing OFF does nothing.
That usually indicates what you are controlling is injecting noise onto the powerline, and preventing subsequent commands from being decoded. Some CFL and LED lights are known to be noise generators. If you are controlling CFL or LED lights, try switching to incandescent for a test. If that makes a difference, you have two options. One is to isolate the offending lights with appropriate filters. The others is to replace the offending lights with ones more compatible with X10 operation. There have been several reports on this forum of lights that do not cause a problem. The Feit PAR30 and BR30 lights we bought at Costco a couple of years ago continue to work fine, and have caused no problems for X10 operation at all.
Jeff
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dhouston and Jeff, I thank you as always.
I found the culprit; it was the visiting sister in law (as I suspected)!!
She landed and X10 didnt work properly, and she left and X10 works fine. She had a Samsung-brand phone charger that I unplugged, but the issues remained. My wife informed me that she had an ipad charger in the bedroom, and nothing else plugged in (dryer, etc).
That charger is gone, and so are the problems.
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I don't think the Samsung charger is the issue as my wife has had one plugged in on/off for a few years without issue. I did find that when her iPod or iPhone chargers were plugged in things were very broken. I blame Apple for all X10 problems! rofl
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I also have several Samsung chargers plugged in from time to time (my wife has her charger always plugged in) and not had a issue (Yet) from them.
I say "Yet" as I've seen things that weren't a issue become one as they age, like a laptop power supply and CFLs.