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[Geewiz]

Happy Holidays!  Having been bit by the X10 bug for nearly 4 years, during which my biggest obstacle has been very low Wife Appreciation Factor.

However, once a year the WAF goes up to nearly 100%.   This is the time when I take 10 LM465 lamp modules and place them all on the same house and unit code so as to control all 23 window candle lights for our holiday decorations.  Now, rather than going to each light and plugging/unplugging 23 times, the wife has only to push a single button on the remote palmpad and all 23 lights respond at once.  She will remain thrilled with X10 from now until a few days after the new year.

The house is about 4,300 sq ft on three levels.  The service panel contains 20 circuits breakers and, after having less than satisfactory results with a Signalinc 4826B Coupler Repeater, and then with an XPCR wired in at the service panel, I was finally able to achieve about 99% reliability on 95% of the household after installing Jeff's excellent XTB-IIR.

There remained however one persistent problem area on the second floor in one of the bedrooms.  Only occasionally could I get a module to respond to an off/on command.  This has frustrated me immensely as I have gone through the painful process of mapping out the two circuits that control the lights and outlets in this room without finding any obvious offending noise generator or signal sucker.

The only items on these two circuits that I felt could be potential problems are the 25 year-old Kenmore washing machine in the adjoining laundry room, a clock radio in the bedroom, and a GFI outlet in the bathroom.  Beyond that, these are very free and lightly used circuits.  Nothing else plugged in.

This morning, out of a last ditch act of desperation, I plugged the Signalinc 4826B into the dryer outlet( just to see what would happen ) and...the modules on the offending circuits now respond perfectly!

Beyond scratching my head raw over this, I have obvious questions about having the XTB-IIR wired-in at the service panel (in the basement) AND having the Signalinc booster/repeater plugged in to the dryer outlet on the second floor.  The LED's on the Signalinc are showing a lot of red flashing light activity, which I would expect, but these collisions (so far) don't seem to be having any derogatory effect.  The XTB-IIR seems to remain operating quietly and reliably, and so far I've seen no resulting problems with any other X10 related control issues.

The run from the service panel to this bedroom is shorter than those to the other end of the house, and I simply cannot understand why having the Signalinc plugged in to the dryer outlet would make any difference whatsoever.  But it does?

So, aside from condolences and sympathy, anyone have any thoughts or ideas on this perplexing dilemma?

Cheers for the holidays!

[JeffVolp]

In newer homes the bathroom GFI is usually on its own 20A circuit.  Similarly, the laundry should be on its own circuit.  If that is the case here, those devices should not be a factor.  While clock radios have not been known to cause a problem, it might be a good idea to test the module with it unplugged if you haven't already done so.

I see several other possibilities.

1)  Even though you have mapped the room and don't think there is anyting else on that circuit, you may still have a noise source somewhere that is interfering with that signal.  The fact that the LEDs in the SignaLinc show a lot of activity tends to support that possibility.  Even a little wall-wart for a cell phone, MP3 player, or computer game can cause a problem:  http://jvde.us/x10/x10_cellet_noise.htm

2)  There have been several reports of "black holes" in a X10 distribution network.  This might occur if the powerline inductance and distributed capacitance are just right to cause an effective null in the X10 signal at that location.  Moving away from that location would increase the signal level.  I was able to see this effect during my powerline distribution simulation.  However, the chance of it actually happening is pretty remote.

3)  You might just have a X10 module that is mis-tuned, and it needs more signal than normal for reliable operation.  However, you probably already substituted a different module to check that possibility.

The only thing to watch out for using the SignaLinc repeater along with the XTB-IIR, is the possibility of command ping-pong between the two repeaters.  The XTB-IIR does have a mode option to repeat each command only once to break that loop if it becomes a problem.  Otherwise, if it works, don't fix it.

Jeff

[Geewiz]

Thanks, Jeff.  I guess I'll embrace the "black hole" theory.  Even when I was only using the Signalinc I couldn't get a signal to those circuits. 

Once again, the XTB-IIR has proved to have made the difference here.  I got that unit as a last resort, and my only regret is that I didn't make it my first!

Regards and Merry Christmas!

[BaBaLou.]

How about a hidden door bell transformer? just a thought.

[Geewiz]

Hmmm..interesting!  We have a Nutone whole house intercom system which incorporates front door bell and intercom.  It's rarely used, so I've forgotten about it.  I'll have to check which circuit this is on over the weekend.  Thanks for the idea!