30 Watt CFL and 3 wire appliance module

[szyhxc]

I could not get the 3 wire module to turn off a 30 Watt CFL (in a pole light on my front yard).  It would turn on once and then stay on.

I fixed this by cutting the resistor/capacitor across the contacts in the module.

Does anyone have a more elegant solution?

[Brian H]

Is the appliance module new?
The new X10 CFL friendly modules are much better with CFL bulbs.

Is it a X10 module? As I have not seen any X10 modules with a resistor capacitor combination across the relay contacts.
I have seen the resistor capacitor network across the relays in Smarthome Modules.

There is a chance the CFL was making noise or it was sucking up the signal when on. Thus it would not go off.

Adding a small 4 watt light bulb with the output to the outside light may also have worked.

A filter on the outside light may also help.

[dave w]

I could not get the 3 wire module to turn off a 30 Watt CFL (in a pole light on my front yard).  It would turn on once and then stay on.

I fixed this by cutting the resistor/capacitor across the contacts in the module.

szyhxc
Can you elaborate?
What is a "three wire module" ? Wall Switch or Appliance Module? X10 or Smarthome?

And are you talking about the cap/resistor/diode near the contact side of the relay? The "goes ON stays ON" problem is usually caused by noise, but your fix suggests something other than noise at work here.

[szyhxc]

Brian,

The module was very old (I would not open and start cutting on a new one.) and definitely X10.  Adding the 4 Watt light is something I'll remember in the future.

Since starting this thread, I have reconfigured the lights outside my home, bringing four wall sconces and the pole light to the same circuit. I replaced the sconce bulbs with four 13 watt CFLs and now that combined five bulb set is working fine with unmodified modules.  I did leave the modified module on that line since it too works and I have no other use for it.

Thanks,,, Bernie