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[wztaylor]

1. I have a PR511 facing the driveway and it works fine blinding us as we drive in at night.  Well, until this weekend, but that's a different issue.  I want to get another one for the back of the house to replace the current floodlight (currently controlled by a WS467 and turned on when the front 511 senses motion, but no local motion control).  But the back floodlight is not wired directly into the house - it looks like thick extension cord wired into an outdoor socket.  So, I am wondering if it is safe to wire the PR511 to that cord, or if that will cause a dangerous situation.  The connection is under the overhang of the house, so it's protected from the weather, but not completely shielded from blowing rains.  I know this is more of a general electrical question than an X10 question, but you seem like electrical gurus.  And I know I can just add a motion sensor and accomplish almost the same thing, but I was hoping to get a decent light back there too - the existing one is rather pathetic.

2. I finally set up my AHP and added a batch of units and re-coded my existing ones.  Everything used to be on "D", now the outside stuff is on "O".  The PR511 floodlight used to be D1, now it is O1.  I used to be able to turn on the PR511 lights from my mini-timer set to "D", but now if the mini-timer is set to "O" it does not turn on.  Plus, the AHP can turn on all the outside stuff from the computer, but not the lights on the PR511.  I know it is on the same housecode (O) as the others because the PR511 still turns on all the other outside lights when it is activated.  I haven't spent a whole lot of time on it, but nothing logical has popped in my head.

3.  Pretty sure the last one is phase issues.  Most of the units in the front half of the house are still on "D", and those in the back half are on "I".  House is long rectangle, not too big (1700sf) and built in the 50's.  I tried writing a macro so a button on the "D" mini-timer turns off all of the lights in the back half (I), and a button on the "I" mini-timer turns of all of the lights in the front half (D). But the requests are not crossing house codes.  I have the plug-in wall transceiver (forgot the number) set to "I" in the back half, and the security console set to "D" in the front half.  There's a CM15A also in the front half for everything, so handling the "O".  Simple phase issue, right?  But if I run the dryer shouldn't everything work?  It doesn't help.  Another macro I "borrowed" from someone on this forum is the bedtime procedure - turns out all the front half lights, and turns on some back half lights (set in house code "D").  The macro works to turn off everything in "D", but doesn't not follow through with turning stuff on in "I".  Even with the dryer on.  Sorry, I only added this as an afterthought and it's getting really long.  But I want to make sure I know the issues before spending a few hundred bucks on couplers, repeaters, noise blockers, etc.  Even the tester that is recommended right off the bat is $100.  I can't afford to be dumping that much more money into something that was supposed to be economical.

Thanks for any help.  #1 was my main question.  The rest was "as long as i"m posting" but I can try to figure out more after giving up another weekend reading the forums and trial & error.

Wendy

[wztaylor]

Just an update on #2. I got home to find that magic had happened and now the PR511 lights come on with the direct house/unit code from the mini-timer. But they do not come on when included in any macro, while the others do (they are on WS467's).

[dave w]

1. But the back floodlight is not wired directly into the house - it looks like thick extension cord wired into an outdoor socket.  So, I am wondering if it is safe to wire the PR511 to that cord, or if that will cause a dangerous situation. 

3.  Pretty sure the last one is phase issues.  .

1. Pretty difficult to access with out seeing, but an outdoor fixture "zip corded" to an outlet certainly isn't to code. Probably need a local electrician to evaluate.

3. This epistle is pretty convoluted, but: you are using the CM15A macros so minitimer "D" can turn off "I" and minitimer "I" to turn off "D". So the question is: can the CM15A control all these lights by itself? If not, it could be phase OR noise issues. If it does control all these lights without any problem then you may have problems with your macros. 

The dryer test will not be conclusive if you have a noise problem. Since you have X10 all over the home, I would recommend a repeater. We have a similar sized ranch home and we DO need a repeater to get X10 powerline signal throughout home, especially with all the noise makers we have (a passive coupler did not work). I also have the antenna mod on our CM15A to pick up X10 RF commands from anywhere in the home.

Search the forum for "phase" and "Noise" or go here
http://jvde.us/x10_troubleshooting.htm
Break your problem down into smaller pieces (i.e "why does the CM15A control all but two lights in the back bedroom?") and tackle one at a time.

[wztaylor]

Thanks for the advice, Dave.  Lucky for you, I took a picture of it this morning before I saw your reply.  Here is the light, complete with spiderwebs, in all of its embarrassing glory. The close-up of the cord coming from the eaves to the socket is the second pix.




You will notice in the first picture how satellite and other cables are strung along the outside of the house. Don't know why it's so tacky in back, because in general it is a well built house (originally built by a local builder and founder of the area's HBA for his family).  Since satellite and other things would be an add-on to a house built in the 50's, I guess they didn't try too hard to get anything concealed later.

I have read a lot here about noise, signal sappers, phase, etc.  I guess that's what has me a bit grumpy (like others) that I have to invest more time & money after getting the stuff.  I've had some x-10 for years, but only recently went a little crazy trying to get almost everything on it.

I'm sure I have noise/sucker issues with my A/V stuff and other wall-wart chargers.  The small plug-in filters aren't that much so I was going to get a few anyway.  With the old house, almost all of the outlets are two prong and not grounded.  When I bought it, I had an electrician come and add a ground to the LR outlet where the A/V stuff would be.  I should have had him do more.  So, one plug of the outlet has an Acoustic Research line conditioner/surge suppressor that runs the TV (regular old tube type), receiver, sub, DVD, etc.  The other plug has a longer surge suppressor cord to the computer back-up battery, which has all the computer & peripherals plugged in it.  I know any fireman type who happened by would give me a stern lecture on having such a load on one outlet.  And just to let you guys think "well, duh!", that circuit (but different outlets) is also the one that has the primary living room lights (socket rockets with CFL) as well as the mini-timer for "D".  But I need to do a lot of digging to backs of components or instruction books to add up the total amps so I know which filter to get.  Then I would have to figure out how to install in the in-line filter for the larger amps since I know from other installations that there is minimal space in the receptacle boxes.

You are right about the signal loss to the other end of the house.  I moved the CM15A to the "I" end to see if that would help it break the D-I Barrier.  But when I pressed D5 on the front mini-timer, not even the "D" portion of the macros executed.  I moved it back to the middle so it can do the "D" and "O" (outside) macros, but it won't do the "I" portion.  Interestingly enough, from the min-timer on the "I" end, I can run the "O" macros, so the signal is getting back to the CM15A from the back.  But again, can't do any "D" macros from the "I" mini.

So like you say, back to testing, macro-checking, and figuring out what's causing the signal loss.  And so like I said, there goes another weekend. 

[Brandt]

you can do what I did and stop wasting time and money and just invest in an xtb-iir.

[wztaylor]

I've tried a test or two each evening this week, but won't have time for a full attack until the weekend.  Did learn that the CM15A could execute the macros to both the "I" end and "D" end when triggered from a remote (Platinum something), even if they didn't always work from the plugged mini-timer. So, as expected, noise or suckers on the line is the likely culprit.  Even when triggered from the remote, not all of the units that are expected to respond actually do.  But if some do, at least I know that the macros were working, the CM15A sent the signal, and more noise in the back half ate it up.

So now I am really pondering pomprocker's easy solution.  I could spend another month of free time and $20/$30/$50 here & there trying to isolate and figure out the problem, or spend $170 now and just blast through the problem.  I am very cheap, but it is still a tempting option.  If I did get an XTB-IIR, would that override my noise/sucker issues so I don't have to do the testing to find the exact problem? 

[Brandt]

Yeah I've found that the xtb-iir has overpowered most problems i've had.

Also they say that while filters only solve 1% of your problems that the xtb-iir solves the other 99%


After you get the xtb-iir, goto the hardware store and buy a length of 3-conductor 18 gauge power cable and the appropriate dryer outlet plug and hook that all up and plug her in 

 

[wztaylor]

Oooo, now it's even more tempting!

Jeff's site says (at least 'on the record') that it needs to be wired to the electrical panel by an electrician.  So 'off the record' it can be installed differently?  I'm a pretty confident DIY'er and will tackle most things I have clear instructions for (replaced a circuit breaker in the panel, removed the old gas water heater and installed an electric one, replaced all of our ceiling fans & overhead light fixtures, plus changed almost all of the light switches to X-10).  I may not exactly know the whole electrical process happening, but if I understand what to do, I can usually get it done.

Which kind of bring me back to what I initially asked about before getting sidetracked ... I wouldn't mind wiring that outside cord to a PR511 and finding a way to make it weather tight, but I figured I'd ask those in the know if wiring something that way vs. like a normal overhead fixture would cause the house to explode or something. 

[Brandt]

Jeff's site says (at least 'on the record') that it needs to be wired to the electrical panel by an electrician.  So 'off the record' it can be installed differently?  I'm a pretty confident DIY'er and will tackle most things I have clear instructions for (replaced a circuit breaker in the panel, removed the old gas water heater and installed an electric one, replaced all of our ceiling fans & overhead light fixtures, plus changed almost all of the light switches to X-10).  I may not exactly know the whole electrical process happening, but if I understand what to do, I can usually get it done.

What he means by that is have an electrician wire up a 30-amp or so wall receptacle coming directly off the main panel. However if your laundry room or 240v dryer outlet is close enough to your main panel you can just use that.