X10 Community Forum
🔌General Home Automation => Automating Your House => Topic started by: Pluton on January 27, 2006, 09:21:40 PM
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I was wondering how I can improve the range
of my motion sensors without buying a
repeater. I am only getting like ten feet
of range. Is there a way to increase the
transmitter power or add a quarter-wave
antenna to the receiver?
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I got better range with my Active Eye
sensors when I tried a Energizer AAA
Lithium battery. I found them at Lowe's.
They are a little expensive, but they have
a much longer lifetime and they work great
in the Active Eye and Palm Pad.
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10'. Is the problem detecting or getting the
signal back to the tranceiver? For detecting
the sensors work best if the movement is
across the detection field like left to
right. Directly to and from the sensor is
much less sensative.
If it is a receiver range. Is there any
metal between the sensor and the tranceiver?
That can make rf range very poor. If it is
mounted on a metal surface that can make it
a very short distance it can send.
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Are you using a cm15a USB Interface with AHP?
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Can anyone tell me how to convert the eagle
eye to functon as the active eye?
I am told that the +1 function can be
deleted internally, How?
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Richard the 1st.;
Many just take the unit out of the case and place a piece of dark black tape over the photocell. Some have reported they cut the photocell out and it also stoped the dusk/dawn thing. http://www.idobartana.com/hakb/index.htm has some mods for motion sensors. I don't think they have the dusk/dawn thing but do have internal photos that may guide you. As always you modify you are on your own and warantee gone.
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I have the following pieces:
ActiveHome Professional Computer Interface
and USB Cable (CM15A)
Lamp Module (LM465)
ActiveEye Wireless Motion Sensor (MS16A)
Is the above all I need to turn on a light
via the ActiveEye?
When I setup the units in the same room… no
problem.
When I move the sensor/lamp module to a
different room then the CM15A. It’s very
spotty. We’re talking about 25 feet to
the sensor from the CM15A and there is a
wall between those two pieces.
How can I make this work? Or will it as
is?
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KG
The CM15A has range problems. You might
review the AHP forum
(http://www.x10.com/news/msgb/index.cgi?
board=ahp-general) for other suggestions,
but here are a couple.
If you leave the CM15 connected to computer,
1. move it as far from the computer as
possible. Computers put out a lot of
interference which in effect reduces the
sensitivity of the CM15A. 2. rotate the
antenna on CM15A down, so it extends past
the main body of the CM15.
3. plug CM15A into extension cord and hang
as high as you can (say in a closet) and
have the antenna pointed away from the CM15A
housing. This works very well. And finally:
If you are handy with soldering iron and
dremel tool, "www.accessX10.com" has a good
DIY on adding a "F" connector and an
external antenna to the CM15A. This makes a
big improvement also. If you go this route,
take a "few feet" of RG 6 coax and
install "F" connector on one end. Strip
outer jacket, braid and foil shield back
19inches on the other end. The remaining 19
inches of foam core and copper wire center
conductor make a nice half wave antenna
which I stuck up a hole drilled in a closet
ceiling. I mounted the CM15A inside closet
plugged into extension cord. This gave me
extended range well outside the house.
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Absolutely awesome job.
VERY MUCH appreciate you ringing in.
Great work.
Thank you!
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I have done the antenna mod on my older
cm15a and it was a vast improvement over the
supplied one.
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Dave W. That antenna sounds interesting for
the cm15a mod. I may try it over the one
they linked to on accessha.com
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Just for refference on the cm15a antenna mod.
The article shows an earlier version cm15a.
Later ones don't have the tunable coil on
the receiver and the surplus antenna wire is
not randomly balled up in a wad, but is hot
glued to the pc board. Also in my mod I had
to also remove a small amount of plastic
from the top cover where the antenna cutout
was; so the F conncctor didn't hole the
cover up above the bottom.
Not as radical but I have also see a mod
where the user removed the hollow antenna
tube and replcaced it with a longer one that
allowed the full antenna wire to be
streached out,
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Brian,
I was going to make the horizontal/vertical
polarized antenna made from TV twin lead.
But gee whiz, that is a lot of work (and I
didn't have any twin lead laying around
anyway. I figured the 1/2 wave "omni" would
work, and it did. I could probably get
better range by going to the dual polarized
twin lead, but I can hit the CM15A with a
Palm Pad from about 60 feet outside of the
house. That satifies my purpose which is to
sprinkle Active Eyes around exterior of
house.
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NOW! If anyone can tell me how to get the
KR22A's to work better than a cooouple of
feet away I would be eternally grateful.
Need an atenna all around the house hundred
feet or more?
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Has anyone tried the The SR731 Smart RF
Repeater? Does this help pick up motion
sensors around the house?
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Taking a external antenna mod (any) as high
and clear from interference as posible will
fix pretty much anything.
The signal strength reduces as it passes
through walls and electronic equipment.
Running the antenna outside or to the attic
will give incredible distance for anything
outside. if you run it inside, outside gets
reduced by walls. most houses have
cement/metal outer walls (stuco, aluminum
siding, ect) so, placing the antenna HIGH
(attic or outside) eliminates that
interference.
I bet with the antenna outside you can
achieve 150 - 300+ ft distance on remotes
as the exterior wall give you the most
interference.
also quality of antenna & shilding the
wires to the unit reflects distance of
transmitions.
remember, these units are setup to require
a repeater (sold seperate) to give small
effective areas to reduce outside
interaction from other sources.
X10 isnt coded which allows interference.
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Had the same problem and got a V572A
transceiver that comes with an external
antenna. Mounted it up on the TV antenna
mast as far up as the cable would allow. Now
I can cover an acre with both motion sensors
and palmpads. Keychain remotes seem to still
have a problem and I can't figure that one out.
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I did the antenna mod on my cm15a. Mounted
the antenna in my attic. I now have an
eagle eye about 150 feet from my house and
it works great.
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Chris 2/11/2006 09:15 AM
I did the antenna mod on my cm15a. Mounted
the antenna in my attic. I now have an
eagle eye about 150 feet from my house and
it works great.
Chris, which Mod did you do? Detais please
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The antenna I made is
here:http://www.cocoontech.com/index.php?
s=e298fbdd7672e85c41e812fe8f34e76f&showtopic
=126
The cm15a mod is
here:http://www.shed.com/tutor/CM15mods/CM15
mods.html
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couldnt we just add a antenna to the sensor
would send it even further. somewhat like
what was done for the P/T (pan&tilts).
havent senn a mod for this yet.