Print

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

[roger1818]

Late last night I noticed the RF range was
suddenly reduced substantially (to a couple
meters for a palmpad, and less for keychain
remotes).  Surprisingly I saw this decrease
in range on BOTH my CM15a AND my TM751 (I
use the TM751 for housecode B and the CM15a
for housecode C).  I was able to fix the
problem this morning by unplugging my CM15a
and removing the batteries.  When I plugged
it back in, everything was back to normal.
The only think I can think of that would
cause this problem is if the RF transmitter
in the CM15a suddenly started transmitting
garbage.

I am using version 3.183 on Windows XP Home
SP2 and I keep my CM15a disconnected from
my computer.

[joe s.]

Next time (if you didn't) try just
unplugging and plugging back your TM751.  I
experienced something similar on a non-
tranceived housecode months ago, which gave
me something like a "signal-storm" - where
the CM15a and TM751 were locked in some
sort of loop - sending signals (I was RF
dimming at the time and I could see the
storm on my boosterlinc).  I've since
removed the TM751 and have CM15a tranceive
all my codes (but I appreciate where most
experience really poor range with CM15a).
Mine is "just good enough" to work.

[roger1818]

Joe:  That was the first thing I tried.  I
also tried unplugging the CM15a without
removing the batteries.  Neither solved the
problem.

I don't think it is a signal storm since
powerline commands seem to work just fine
(Macros even seemed to still work although
I think my timers stopped working).  It is
certainly a strange one.  I had never seen
this before.  I will let you know if I see
it again.

[tony]

I experienced this on 3.181 and on 3.183 and
while using the TesterLinc 4819A  Signal
Analyzer I was able to observe what the
result of any remote command was.  So
situations earlier which determined that RF
stopped, really turned out to be diminished
range.  I can diminish range by about 50%
by simply bringing up AHP Rooms view, and
turning off all cameras with my CR12A.  This
I suspect is a function of the I/O service
routines somehow missing the command due to
bad timing, lack of process speed, or
defective programming.  I’ve also noticed
that ONLY via the RF (remote) initiated
command almost always manages to generate a
bad 3 cycle code (BCY)  in the command
string.  This may be firmware…  : --(  

[roger1818]

Tony:  That is interesting what you said
about being able to diminish the range of
your CM15a.  It could be what you said, but
I am not convinced that it couldn’t be RF
noise generated by the CM15a.  From what I
can tell, the TesterLinc only measures
powerline signals and noise and doesn’t
have an antenna to pick up RF signals and
noise.  If the CM15a was spitting out RF
garbage it wouldn’t ever be transceived
onto the powerline for the TesterLinc to
measure it.  Besides, I am not sure
how “bad timing, lack of process speed, or
defective programming” on the CM15a would
decrease the range on my TM751.

[SteffenH]

I had a simular problem this weekend, The
Cm15 was in a constant receive condition
getting bogus commands that I traced back
to my CM19A which seems to be causing the
condition. Once I pulled the usb connection
on the CM19A the bogus commands stopped.
However after this the RF range seemed to
be very limited at best, I needed to hold
the palmpad remote right next to the CM15
to get it to recognize anything. I tried
clearing the interface and reloading the
macros and timers but this did nothing. I
then completely unplugged the CM15 pulled
the batteries and USB cable, let it sit for
about an hour while I did other things,
came back plugged everything in again
downloaded configuration and macros.
Magically everything was working again had
plenty of RF range, have one motion sensor
about 20 feet away. I think that something
must have locked up that only a cold
restart fixed.

[tony]

Roger H:  Communication is primarily
sampling or placing status at predetermined
intervals (windows) and then doing something
with it.  Certainly hardware may latch the
status to extend the window, but eventually
one must get back to service the next
window.  This is generally done through
polling or via an interrupt scheme.  If
within this service scheme you run out of
time (miss a window) or handle an interrupt
improperly strange things happen.  Besides
it would be more likely that such self
inflicted noise anomaly would be caught
during prototyping… or are you inferring…
Apparent diminished RF range can certainly
be caused by RF interference/noise and the
PL analyzer certainly won’t detect it, but
it can also be caused by software/firmware
anomalies (cause vs. apparent effect).
Looking at the track record of X10 in
hardware vs. Software is why I opted for
the “soft side” and possible anemic process
speed/capacity.  

[tony]

Roger H: P.S.  I did not observe any drop in
reception of a TM751 but when I tried it the
TM751 was at least 15 feet away from the
CM15A and by my CM15A’s established RF range
standard it was well out of range.

[X10 Pro]

This is a weird thing to have happen, and
we're looking into it.