X10 Community Forum
🖥️ActiveHome Pro => ActiveHome Pro General => Topic started by: Baum on June 01, 2005, 07:51:08 AM
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With some help from X10, I have fully
functioning system.
MY Installation
My house is a moderate 4 bedroom, 2 story
will full basement. I have 24 light and
appliance modules.
Two Important Things
a) Use a good quality USB cable. Shorter is
better. But get one certified for USB 2.
Changing the cable solved my problems with
the CM-15A becoming disconnected from
Active Home Pro.
b) Get a phase coupler-repeater. I'm using
SmartHome 4826B. It's cheap and it just
plugs into the dryer or oven outlet (make
sure you have a 220V outlet somewhere, but
you probably do).
Basically, I'm using it for lighting
control now, but it's been stable for weeks.
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That's Great!
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Baum,
Are you saying that the USB cable that
comes with the unit was at fault?
T.
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Baum,
Glad you have a good working system. I had a
similar problem with the electrical phases
and , like you, I purchased a phase coupler.
That did the trick. All has been running
pretty well for several months now. I used
the wired coupler since I had a nearby load
center in the utility room. The only
problems I have now are slow response when
signals from 2 motion sensors are seen within
seconds of each other. That causes a bit of
trouble for bath lights and the other is a
glitch in the status reports. Glad to hear
about others that have been successful.
Regards,
SteveRF
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SteveRF,
The "problem" you are experiencing with 2
MS triggering nearly at the same time, is
not really a problem. It is directly
related to the nature of the X10 PLC
structure. Each command issued to the PL
takes roughly 1 second to execute. If
there is other traffic on the PL it will
wait to avoid collisions before sending,
now throw a couple of dim commands on the
PL and there goes another couple of
seconds. Also, if the same motion sensor
is tripped several time before the second
one is tripped, well there is your delay.
With creative programming you can eliminate
excessive PL commands. I am running HCA
and what I do is create a flag and set it
after the first trip of the motion sensor.
The macro will look something like this.
trigger is the motion sensor.
test flag for not set
if not set
set flag
turn on light
pause 30 seconds
unset flag
if flag set, do nothing.
This will eliminate excessive PL commands
and speed some things up considerbly.
T.
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PS,
I am using 8 Motion sensors in my setup and
very rarely experience delays using this
technique.
T.
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<Post removed by moderator.>
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WanderingX10
Wander somewhere else already will you!
Don't you have something else to do? No
posts about Junk, Lousy devices, Crap, etc.
are going to be carrying weight after BT's
identiy crisis. You know him, right!
My system works well as long as I leave
some SM time conditionals out of the
equation. I am confident that will be
working sometime soon and we will have
complete functional HA systen with iWitness
and SM running circles around everything
else out there for the $$$ spent. Already
doing most of it anyway and recommend it to
anyone who doesn't want to spend $1000's of
dollars for similar functionality but
doesn't need top of line equipment. Like
it or not, CM15A and AHP is roughly working
now and getting better.
Jealousy is a green eyed monster!
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TCassio,
Your solution may work for me but I am
wondering about the built-in MS delay. My
MSensors seem to have a 6-10 second delay
before they will "see" again. With that much
delay I would not think there would be much
PL traffic. We are only talking about 2
MSensors tripping at about the same moment.
It apprears that the signals are simply too
close together and only one is being worked
while the other was ignored. The ignored
sensor has to wait 6-10 seconds to "see"
again thus my poor visitor in the dark
bathroom has to manually turn on the
lights...or wait in the dark. I am wondering
if, with your setup, one or the other bath
will still see a delay ? I was prone to
believe that the CM15A was just not robust
enough to handle 2 RF signals 1 or 2 seconds
apart ?? I may try your idea and see if I
can simulate the conflict. Maybe X10
programming can give a bit of priority to
incoming RF signals ??
I really like innovative solutions.... Many
Thanks !!
SteveRF
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TCassio,
PS, I like your idea.
What are you using to "turn off" the lights ?
MSensor timing trigger or macro timing ?
SteveRF
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SteveRF,
HCA has a test condition where you can test
weather the trigger was tripped by either
an "on" command or an "off" command and
react accordingly. I have the MS set for 2
minutres befor sending an off command after
no motion. The pause in the macro is an
arbitrarey duration to keep the PL traffic
to a minimum after it triggered the first
time.
T.
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TC,
Thanks...
Sounds like a plan to test...
SteveRF
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Steve
Are you experiencing slow response ,or loss
of signal? Regardless of the make the
motion sensor will not detect collision and
if 2 signal overlap both are lost, and it
will take about 10 seconds to detect again.
Another issue is if you are using
Dim/Bright to control your bath light,
until all the Dim/Bright are send all other
command are ignored; I got tired of the
long delays and I purchased 2 wall switches
with preset dim, they cost more but no more
banging on walls at night.
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Carmine,
the rf comming from the MS should not get
lost because of collisions. The CM15A
picks up the rf then puts it on the
powerline. The CM15A has collision
avoidance. That is the reason I switched
from the V572A to the W800 transceiver.
The W800 is connected directly to the PC.
T.
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Tcassio
I was referring to 2 motion detectors
sending overlapping signals.
This will happen if first one is triggered
and light turns on, then a very short time
later a second motion is triggered, in the
mean time the first one detect light and
sends the dusk RF signal while the second
one is sending RF signal.
I had this problem occurring frequently
enough that finally I disconnected the
photocell from the motion detectors and
problem stopped.
The Cm15a ( RR501,V572AB) they all have
collision on the PLC side, but the RF side
is one way only(from motion to RF receiver)
and RF signal collisions can not be
detected.
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I'm not sure, but I think he was referring
to RF SIGNAL overlapping.
All of the X10 RF devices use the same
frequency, and if multiple RF devices are
triggered at the same time, I'm sure that
the transceiver won't be able to make heads
or tails of what is being received.
So, if you have TWO motion sensors within
close proximity to each other, I would expect
that you'd see problems with communication
if these devices are triggering at (or nearly
at) the same time. Problems will double
of course, if you have the "Off" timers set
to the same value. . . .
T
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Tigger
You are correct, else the dusk RF signal if
not disabled, will transmit every time
light in the area turns On or Off. With 2
motion detectors in close proximity you
have a potential of up to 8 RF signals
being transmitted at nighttime; the
possibility of RF signal overlap is very
high, potentially preventing a macro to
correctly execute.
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Carmine,
In answer to your question, I am experiencing
loss of signal due to what appears to be the
CM15A's inablilty to process a rf/macro
combination AND process another incoming rf
signal within 2 to 3 seconds from the first
reception. It is not always repeatable
because of timing. Maybe the next major
harware update will include better store and
process management but for now I can live
with it. oh, both bath MS/photocells have
been deactivated.
regards,
SteveRF