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[Tophicles]

Greetings!

I have recently delved back into my X10 fascination and I'm starting to understand a bit more how this works. Over the winter, I have some electrical work done and discovered my house is on two phases, hence why previously some modules did not work.

I now have an R5501 Appliance Module on phase II of my home. It is controlling a table lamp that is plugged into it. MY question is two-fold I suppose:

1) Does the R5501 being plugged into the second phase mean that I should be able to send commands from my CM15A to that part of the house now?
1a) How do I tell the CM15A to look for the R5501 when sending a command to the other units on that phase, or do I not have to worry about that?

2) I cannot seem to control the R5501 lamp with AHP (v3.318). My Remote (HR12A) works fine on A9 (triggers the lamp off and on) but the AHP doesn't seem to work. I read in the forums about using a macro to send a command to the R5501 to turn on or off, and that DID work, but does this mean I need two separate macros to turn the light on and off? If that's the case, how will it know whether to fire macro one or two, since it doesn't seem to respond to a "module status" query?

I'm certain I'm doing something wrong, so some pointers would be greatly appreciated. If, as I am guessing, the R5501 (and r the TM571) will extend the range of my CM15A, then I could conceivably wire up the whole house In the beginning I thought the the TM571 would only operate the device plugged into itself, not re-transmit the signal along the power lines again...  I guess I just need a concrete explanation of what it does, in newbie terms please

Thanks so much for listening!

[Brian H]

Using an RR501 as a fix for signal problems may work some here have done it with success. You would have to find a way to force AHP to send an RF signal to it as the power line signals are not reaching it. Your findings of the power line poll function not working with the RR501 would also indicate a power line coupling problem.

You may want to think about a phase coupler or signal repeater for the phase coupling. Then you would not have to come up with fancy macros to send RF signals to control any device not receiving power line signals.

Both the RR501 and TM751 will take an X10 RF command and resend it on the power line and be turned On and Off if the command is to its address {House Code & Unit Code}. The RR501 also has a power line receiver in it and can also be controlled by a power line command and reply to a status request.

http://www.davehouston.net/coupling.htm
http://jvde.us/x10_troubleshooting.htm
http://www.act-remote.com/PCC/uncle.htm

[Tophicles]

Both the RR501 and TM751 will take an X10 RF command and resend it on the power line and be turned On and Off if the command is to its address {House Code & Unit Code}. The RR501 also has a power line receiver in it and can also be controlled by a power line command and reply to a status request.

Here's where I get confused -- so if I issue a command to another device ID, the TM571 (and / or R5501) will "pickup" that signal and re-transmit it along the power lines to the other device (without needing to address the device ID of the TM571/R5501) ?

Example:

Lamp:   DEVICE ID = A10
TM571: DEVICE ID = A9

If I want to power on the Lamp, do I just send a signal to A10, which the TM571 will pick up and relay along the power lines (presumably along the second phase)?

How hard is it to put in a coupling?

[dave w]

Here's where I get confused -- so if I issue a command to another device ID, the TM571 (and / or R5501) will "pickup" that signal and re-transmit it along the power lines to the other device (without needing to address the device ID of the TM571/R5501) ?
If I want to power on the Lamp, do I just send a signal to A10, which the TM571 will pick up and relay along the power lines (presumably along the second phase)?

Yes. The RR501 and TM751 transceivers are completly transparent to the X10 signal and simply pass it on to the powerlines, EXCEPT where the signal is to their House Code Unit Code (HCUC) address which would be HC X UC 1 for the TM751 and HC X UC 1 or 9 for the RR501.

As far as "presumably along the second phase" yes, IF it is plugged in to a phase two circuit. The following is a rule of thumb but by no means a "universal truth":
A typical breaker box has two colums of breakers. Usually each Row of breakers (2 breakers) is a phase. i.e. row one is Phase A, row two would be phase B, row three would be Phase A, row four Phase B, etc. etc.

[Brian H]

Normally the CM15A send power line signals to all the modules.
Not RF signals a TM751 or RR501 can process.
I believe if a TM751 is in AHP, it will send an RF command to it only when you try and turn its address on and off.
Since an RR501 has a power line receiver. I would think AHP would also send it a power line signal to turn it on end off.
I don't know if timers and macros can be written to send an RF command.

Phase coupling could be a dryer outlet device. Smarthome use to make them but are now slowly disappearing. Their effectiveness was dependent on how close the dryer outlet was to the main breaker box and how much signal loss was in all the homes wiring.

Hard wired to the breaker box is another way.
Personally if I was doing the breaker box. I would use a coupler repeater.
XPCP is OK. Act CR234 is very good The JV Engineering's XTB-IIR is the gold standard.

[Tophicles]

Ok, so here's the interesting thing...

I got home and setup the R5501 in the same room as the Lamp Module (LM465) that I want to control.
The R5501 is set at A9, the LM465 is set at A10.
I have the LM465 setup in AHP. The R5501 is not setup in AHP.
When I trigger the LM465 from the HR12A remote, AHP sees the status change, the light turns off or on and the AHP display shows the change.
If I try to trigger it from the AHP interface, nothing happens.

It's like AHP can see and monitor it's status but can't send commands to it (but if it can read the status, why can't it send commands?!?!),

Any other thoughts? I'm going to look into the breaker box direct-wire, hopefully that'll help with the broadcast of all the signals properly. My house is not that big

[Brian H]

If you are using the HR12A command through the CM15A.
Tools Tab
Hardware Configuration.
Transceived House Codes. If it is set to Auto. Try specific and pick the codes you want to use. Auto sometimes does not work as we want it to and specific {I clicked all of them On} works better.

[Noam]

Ok, so here's the interesting thing...

I got home and setup the R5501 in the same room as the Lamp Module (LM465) that I want to control.
The R5501 is set at A9, the LM465 is set at A10.
I have the LM465 setup in AHP. The R5501 is not setup in AHP.
When I trigger the LM465 from the HR12A remote, AHP sees the status change, the light turns off or on and the AHP display shows the change.
If I try to trigger it from the AHP interface, nothing happens.

It's like AHP can see and monitor it's status but can't send commands to it (but if it can read the status, why can't it send commands?!?!),

Any other thoughts? I'm going to look into the breaker box direct-wire, hopefully that'll help with the broadcast of all the signals properly. My house is not that big

Look in your Activity Monitor in AHP. Did the CM15A see a PLC command (Receive A10 On), or an RF command (Receive RF A 10 On)?

It is entirely possible that the CM15A is not able to send or receive commands on the powerline, due to noise and/or other signal problems. However, it may be receiving the RF signal from the remote, and therefore able to react to those commands (by changing the status of the light).

[Tophicles]

Ok, sorry for the delay!

I looked in the AH Activity Log and, sure enough, the HH Remote sent an RF signal to the CM15, thus triggering the AH event, but no action on the R5501.

I suppose I'll have to get that inline coupler now.