Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Conjureone]

Greetings all!

I am a complete newbie to the whole x10 Home Automation arena.  I bought a house several years back that I current reside in and the previous owners were big on X10.  Needless to say several lighting and fan elements within the home are controlled via switches that are X10 based.

Livingroom has two tracking lighting elements that run the length of the LR in addition to two fans all of which are controlled by a single XP4D-W that is plug-in to a Wall Base Transmitter.  The lighting and fans were all put in by them as additions thus their wiring runs into the garage near the houses main breaker box.  Which is probably why they opted for X10 in order to reduce the cost of running new wires through the house.  There is also at least one lighting element still present in the kitchen as well as a couple switches the seem to control elements out on the porch.  These all seem to have been controlled at one time by a HomePlate remote Wall Switch Model RSS18 though only one of these still operates today and that is after I got hold of a RF Transceiver Module Model RTM75.

Although the lights in the Livingroom have worked fine up until now, recently they have started to come on and off randomly.  While they are on the switch will no longer function in turning them off.  Now the switch itself randomly functions if at all to turn the elements on or off.

Not looking forward to bring in a electrician to have to properly run wires in order to install basic switches in order to operate these elements, but if I have to then I guess I will.

Any suggests on how to solve and remedy this situation and get all the elements to work as then were planned and installed to?

Thanks in advanced for any suggests and help.

Hiller 

[dave w]

You left out some details that might be important. For instance, what is a "Wall Base Transmitter"? We need legitimate X10 names or model numbers.

First, I would replace batteries in all the RSS18 (Slim Line Switch) or you could buy a hand held RF transmitter such as a "Palm Pad" http://www.x10.com/products/x10_hr12a.htm and use it for testing.

X10.com has had a substantial interuption to their manufacturing capabilities, so if you need replacement switches, etc try Ebay or a third party X10 vendor (Google is your friend).

Next read this: http://jvde.us/x10_troubleshooting.htm

Noise could be preventing X10 signals from probagating through out the homes wiring. Also "phase coupling" could be a problem, so check for a X10 Phase Coupler/Amplifier which is explained on the JV Digital Engineering tutorial page. The previous owners probably had one but may have taken it with them (they should'nt have because they are integral to X10 power line communications. It will likely be near your power panel or perhaps on your clothes dryer outlet if you have one.