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[neex]

If I didn't see it myself twice I would have never believed it.  I had a wireless RF X10 switch and/or tranceiver accidentally switch on my microwave range hood fan.  The fan is normally controlled digitally through the keypad with three levels.  The 'accidental voltage jump' or whatever caused the fan to stay on in the high position and wouldn't respond to the keypad at all.  I unplugged the microwave and the fan was still on.  I was onl able to shut the fan off by sending a pile of random pulses on house code B.  Just so we're clear, there are no x10 switches on the outlet that the microwave is plugged into.  This would be like using an X10 keypad and having a VCR 'lockl' on REC for no reason....

Any thoughts?  I assume maybe the voltage spike might have tripped a zenner diode, capactitor or a NAND/NOR gate of some kind... or something like that.  I just thought this was rather interesting and certainly strange.  I hope it doesn't happen often or I will have to pull the x10 switch off the back porch light.

Thanks,
Andrew.

[Brian H]

Is the key pad wired to the fan or is it wireless?
Maybe they are using an OEM X10 Remote.   

Can you give more details. Like fan model and manufacturer. If the control is a wired in one or wireless.
Also can you tell us the X10 model of the devices causing the problem. Like the RF sending device and transceiver receiving the RF. Maybe the House/Unit Code in question and anything else I probably forgot to ask. 

[dave w]

I think your microwave key pad is going bad and the rest is massive coincidence.

[neex]

I think your microwave key pad is going bad and the rest is massive coincidence.

I would have thought so also myself but I can reproduce this by 'messing' with the wireless X10 switch.  I looked to see if maybe the microwave had an option for an RF controlled fan thinking that maybe it was jumping on that frequency somehow but this wasn't the case.  The switch in question is an SS13A and the tranceiver is on HC B along with 2 socket rockets and a camera.

The keypad on the microwave going bad hypothesis makes no sense because when the fan is tripped, nobody is anywhere near the microwave.  I swear that this happens because of the x-10 signal or the RF signal but I don't know why.  Maybe if I was an EE I would have a better idea.

Thanks,
Andrew.

[Brian H]

Well I am an Electronic Technician and have seen strange things over the years [too many to want to admit to  ]. So it could be possible that the X10 signals could be messing with the microwave. Maybe aggravated  by some component in the microwave starting to deteriorate.
You may want to unplug the transceiver and see if just the remotes RF will trigger anything.