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[Dan Lawrence]

I have AHP version 3.228 Windows XP Home, an assortment of lamp, appliance and Socket Rockets, plus 2 RR501 transceivers and a several MC460 desktop controllers.  My house is a small one with 220 volt 3 phase service with a 0.1 uF 250 VAC Capacitor in my electric stove outlet to bridge the X10 signals on both phases.

I have never had any problem with any interface or software from day 1 (middle 1980's).  Anybody else have a trouble free X10 installation?   

[lummox]

I don't think you have 3 phase service...home service is almost always single phase.....

[zach1234]

I just got done installing a system and it had no problems at all. I used a RF repeater and Line coupler and filters.

[Brian H]

lummox; It is being increasingly common for power companies to now service areas with three phase. With each user getting two of the three phases. Giving you 208 V hot to hot and 120 V one hot to neutral. The lines are then never 180 degrees apart like the older split singel phases is. X10 thoughtfully enough sends added signals at I believe 30 and 60 degrees so each line will see a signal at the zero crossing and decode X10 properly. Other protocols like Insteon are not that way and in those installs many time fail completely. Though for now as you pointed out single split phase is the most common.

[Dan Lawrence]

I don't think you have 3 phase service...home service is almost always single phase.....

Wrongo!!!  My electric stove is 220 volts.  Half my house is on one phase and half on the other, thus the "cheapie" phase coupler.

[dave w]

I don't think you have 3 phase service...home service is almost always single phase.....

Wrongo!!!  My electric stove is 220 volts.  Half my house is on one phase and half on the other, thus the "cheapie" phase coupler.

H-m-m-m-m

[Dan Lawrence]

How did my original topic (people with no X10/AHP problems) morth into an electric service topic?


I have a trouble free X10 system and that's been since the 1980's. When I first got introduced to X10, I could not address the Master Bedroom or the Breakfast Room (we don't cook where we eat) until I bridged the phases with the Capacitor connected across the the stove outlet's terminals.  Presto!!!  Any module I install works the first time, every time.

[steven r]

...My electric stove is 220 volts.  Half my house is on one phase and half on the other, thus the "cheapie" phase coupler.

Wouldn't that be a 2 phase system?

[Dan Lawrence]

...My electric stove is 220 volts.  Half my house is on one phase and half on the other, thus the "cheapie" phase coupler.

Wouldn't that be a 2 phase system?

Not sure.  Our local electric company's local distribution voltage is 440 volts, 3 phase, grounded neutrals (which requires our local transit authority, the local streetcar museum and Amtrak to have an isolation transformer in any private substation that uses a track for the return since the track is "earthed") and neighborhood voltage is 220.

[Brian H]

Yes we did stray on the question.  Sorry now back to the original posts thread.
My mixed vendor X10/Insteon system is about 99.9% problem free. Maybe 1 time in a month of scheduled timers. One may miss. So on the whole mine is about as trouble free as I can think of. The Insteon stuff has an X10 Address programed into them.

[JeffVolp]

Everything works virtually 100%.

Jeff

[Don N]

For timer and macro execution my environment is about 99.5% with out problems.  It's about 90%-95% error free for RF activities.  I doubt if I have anything that works 100% error free.

[HA Dave]

Everything works virtually 100%.

If you went through (as I have... many times) and tested my system.... you would find absolutely no problems.

However... about a month ago: I tripped my (X10 DS7000) alarm when returning home, while my garage door was closing and executing it's macro. I believe... this also happened at sunset (I use an X10 floodlight to detect sunset... and run macros).

I think all the activity flooded my system, as the garage door failed to report as closed.

This would most certainly disquality me for a 100% compliant system (unless we were to apply government standards). But any such glitch in my system is certainly very rare, and (thus far) non-recurring.

I think in my case.... as my system has grown... I realize the odds of conflicting actions and macros increases. By being aware of the odds, I can apply some normal risk-management, and reduce or elimate the chances of an error. In the fore-mentioned case... the alarm triggered flawlessly... so I think I can live with it.

[steven r]

This would most certainly disquality me for a 100% compliant system (unless we were to apply government standards). But any such glitch in my system is certainly very rare, and (thus far) non-recurring.
I think in my case.... as my system has grown... I realize the odds of conflicting actions and macros increases. By being aware of the odds, I can apply some normal risk-management, and reduce or elimate the chances of an error....

I too have a pretty reliably system also but as Dave indicated above, as the variables and new toys increase so does the need for trouble shooting and creative tweaking from time to time.

[Alan V]

Everything works virtually 100%.

Jeff

I quess the question from me is, what does "virtually 100%" mean?   Is it safe to say that any X10 system can only approach 100% reliability?

Also, I would think that any configuration that uses wireless modules (like DS10As, or MS1XAs e.g.) cannot work reliably 100% of the time because their is always the possibility that two or more transmitters could step on each other during transmission.