Correcting mis-wired 3-way light switches

[BillB]

I jumped before looking, and now need some advice.  My living room ceiling lights have been controlled for many years with X-10 switches: the one I just removed is WS477.  My big surprise was finding this was one of a pair of 3-way switches (the second switch is out of sight and had been forgotten).

As I replace incandescents with CFs as needed, I ended up with a mix in this room, and the lights would mysteriously turn themselves on several times a day (but never off).  A bit of research told me that having both types of lights on a circuit controlled by a switch without a neutral connection was the problem.

So still ignorant of the 3-way wiring, I found XPSS3-IW and concluded it would do the job.  The red wire at the old switch was what surprised me!  But this new switch was indicated for 3-way as well, so I wired it in place, digging the neutral from the depths of the box.

Now the switch controls the lights manually, but when I send an ON signal from Active Home, there is a brief loud chatter and the light stays off.

I hope someone here can explain this behavior.  I am perfectly willing to remove the previously unknown 3-way and forego any control from that location.  If necessary, I can simply forget the remote control function, as I seldom use it anyway.

Feeling rather stupid, all things considered.

[BillB]

For a temporary fix, I disconnected the slave switch by connecting the line and load wires with a wire nut, and omitting the red traveler wire altogather.  Now the new switch I installed works fine, both manually and via its X10 command...no more chatter.  An appropriate slave switch is on order so I can restore the original 3-way circuit.