HALOGEN LIGHTS AND APPLIANCE MODULE

[JimC]

I have a set of outside motion activated halogen lights plugged into an appliance module. The way the lights are designed to work is as follows.
1.  Applying power to the lights causes them to turn on, if it is dark outside. They will stay on until they time out. If motion is sensed they will turn back on.
2.  If I want the lights to stay on, regardless of motion, it is necessary to apply power to them for a second, remove power for a second, and reapply power. This will cause them to stay on until power is removed.

I made a couple of macros to handle the above and all works fine except that some time ( I donâ�,��,,�t know how long) after applying power in step one above the appliance module turns back off. 

My question isâ�,�¦is there anything in the design of the appliance module that will cause it to not be compatible with the above lights (Halogen and motion sensor)?    If know one knows of a incompatibility problem I will spend more time using the â�,��"activity monitorâ�,� to see if anything shows there. 

Thanks,

Jim

[Brian H]

If the lights have a Triac type switch in them; like used in the lamp modules to dim. In your case no dim just on or off. It maybe possible that there is noise from the light making things strange.
Though most times the other way around. Light turns back on if off with things like CFLs or Fluorescent lights. The appliance module has a local control sensing circuit in it that sometimes flickers or pulses the light. This sometime results in an I turned it off but it came back on again situation. As a test try putting a small light bulb on the appliance modules output along with the normal loads. See if that makes things better.

[Oldtimer]

If Brian H's small bulb works try this:

Here's a link to another possible solution to the problems discussed here.

http://www.x10community.com/forums/index.php?topic=9281.msg57138#msg57138

I haven't tried it on on halogen lamps so I'd like to know if it works on them also. 

[JimC]

Brian H and Oldtimer,

Thanks for the reply. The small light (night light) plugged into the output of the appliance module along with the Halogen lights seems to have worked. The power to the Halogen lights stayed on all night. I will give it a few more days and if it keeps working I will try the resistor as suggested in the link. 

Thanks,

Jim

[JimC]

Well, after running with the night light connected for a week.  I have noticed the following.

The appliance module still turns off with out being commanded to do so. ( Checked the activity monitor right after seeing it turn off ) Although this still happens it is less frequent with the night light connected. It only happened 3 times over the past week where before it happened several times a day.

On at least one occasion the appliance module turned back on with out being commanded to do so. ( again saw it happen and immediately checked the activity monitor)

Guess the next thing I will try, when I get time, will be to dissable the local control in the module.

I will post results if there is any interest