More Lighthearted Post- What's been causing your interference?

[captainjerky]

So after weeks of tinkering, I finally have a mostly reliable network of motion sensors, lights, macros, wireless cameras, and the X10 security system all tied together.  I have found in my adventures that several things had been causing interference on the powerlines, and I know I've heard lots of items mentioned that can cause issues.
I thought it might be both fun and informative to post some of the culprits for the rest of the people to see and maybe give someone else who's having problems a kickstart.
My culprits:
Cell phone charger (fine if it's plugged into wall, but shoots down my cam signal if plugged into phone and charging)
Cordless baby monitor (must unplug from wall)
(here's the kicker) Cordless toothbrush charger.  It's one of those induction ones- no cords, just set the electric toothbrush in the cradle and it sends the current through the plastic case.  Well, every time I plugged that thing in to charge, I lost 2 out of 3 camera signals.

Best of luck to us all!

[Brian H]

You lost the 2.4GHz video signals or the 120KHZ power line signals to control them?
Thanks for the data. I know Cell Phone Chargers have been reported by Jeff Volp and others as big time problems.

[dave w]

Cordless toothbrush charger.  It's one of those induction ones- no cords, just set the electric toothbrush in the cradle and it sends the current through the plastic case.  Well, every time I plugged that thing in to charge, I lost 2 out of 3 camera signals.

Great information, but the toothbrush interference is really weird. Typically they are just a loose coupled transformer with the transformer primary in the base unit and the secondary in the toothbrush itself. No exotic switching supply needed.

This is one for the books. Out of curiosity; do you still have the interference when the toothbrush is off the base?What brand is the toothbrush? And like Brian asked, is it knocking out the camera's video or the camera control? If video, that's even stranger...the FCC would be interested it a toothbrush spewing 2.4 gHz. 

[captainjerky]

With all of the trouble maker I've mentioned, the effect is the same, so I'm not sure if it's the 2.4 ghz or powerline signal that's a mess.  What happens is that my picture becomes mostly static and distortion, and I can't switch cameras and am stuck with the closest/strongest signal.  The toothbrush only causes problems when it's charging; brushing my teeth does not interfere with my cameras.  Eh, at least I know how to make it all work now!
Still, the system is about 90% reliable, and I think I've identified all the reasons for the other 10% of the time!

Thanks again to all the forum members who've repeatedly answered my pleas for help!  Now I need to decide what to do with that spare motion sensor and some Ws467 switches...

Ryan

[dave w]

With all of the trouble maker I've mentioned, the effect is the same, so I'm not sure if it's the 2.4 ghz or powerline signal that's a mess.  What happens is that my picture becomes mostly static and distortion, and I can't switch cameras and am stuck with the closest/strongest signal.  The toothbrush only causes problems when it's charging; brushing my teeth does not interfere with my cameras. 

WOW, that sounds like the interference is RF in the 2.4 gHz band and not PLC. I supose a confirming test could be to wrap the toothbrush hand unit in aluminum foil, leaving the bottom clear and put back on charger just long enough to check the video.  If the video is considerably clearer, I think I would write a letter to the toothbrush manufacturer asking what the heck is going on. Electric toothbrushes are not supposed to be radio transmitters.

Do you have any other 2.4gHz systems around the home (wirless router, Bluetooth, cordless phone, etc) that is being interfered with? Like I said, this is one for the books. Thanks for the info.

[Brian H]

Gee maybe you have both.
The video getting distroted does sound like 2.4GHz problems.
The lack of control sounds like 120KHz power line problems.

[captainjerky]

The foil test sounds like fun, but I'll have to wait until the weekend is over and my wife is back at work.  I can just hear me now having to explain:
"But a guy on the internet told me to wrap foil around my toothbrush!"   :-)
Sounds like a good idea, though, and I'll have to make a note to try it out...

[dave w]

The foil test sounds like fun, but I'll have to wait until the weekend is over and my wife is back at work.  I can just hear me now having to explain:
"But a guy on the internet told me to wrap foil around my toothbrush!"   :-)
Sounds like a good idea, though, and I'll have to make a note to try it out...

Oh come on...as long as you don't make a hat out of it she won't say anything. Or at least my wife don't. 

Besides, if you get her to watch the monitor while you put the handle in the charger she won't know (hopefully) since you will only leave the tin foil handle in the charger for a few seconds... But if she catches you, I'm denying everything.

[captainjerky]

Quick update-I've pretty much cleared up the airwaves at my house, but one noisy scrambler remains- the Nintendo Wii controllers are guaranteed to put a few lines across my wireless images when they're active.  I can even use that to tell when they've been playing by looking at the timestamp on images that the cameras have captured.  Don't think I'm going to get the kids to swear off the Wii, but as long as they're not playing in the middle of the night, there's no real problem!

[tomsteffan]

My main camera/receiver interference problem was caused by the power supply for a X-Box 360. The X-Box doesn't have to be turned on, just plugged in. Adding a XPPF filter reduced the interference by 90%. Plugging it into a power strip and asking my kid to shut off the strip when he isn't using the X-Box gets rid of the other 10%. My second problem was intermittent. It turned out to be my wireless network card in my laptop. The wireless router causes no problems and the card caused no problems when receiving data, only when it transmits back to the router.
I found the fastest way to isolate an interference problem is to shut off one house circuit breaker at a time. Then you only have a few items on each breaker to troubleshoot rather than randomly checking probable causes from an entire household. The downside is you'll have to temporarily run good quality extension cords to your equipment (PC, TV, cameras etc.) when you shut off the breakers that they're on.
Bottom line is X-10 has great products for the money. My rules are: Never install anything permanently until you're 100% sure it'll work and have 100% of your components in place. Gaffers tape is a great product! Rule 2, approach these products as a hobby. I'd hate to make a living installing X-10. Rule 3, read the forums. There's no reason to re-invent the wheel since someone here already has.

[dave w]