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[lhntx]

wimp!  What's a little power outage??? LOL. I live in Houston and I've been through 3 major ones (Carla in 61, Alicia in 83, and Ike in 2008) plus many small tropical storms.  A loss of power for two weeks (83 and 08) does definitely make one understand how wonderful an invention that electricity - and most importantly air conditioning - is!! 

[Brian H]

Yes I belong to the Certified Wimp Club. 
Nothing like no power to put things back in perspective.
In my case the phones also go dead. As the fancy phone equipment at the end of the road. has a battery backup that on a good day lasts an hour. Many years ago when we had a hurricane. The old fashioned copper trunk lines where hanging almost to the ground. Though we never lost phone service.

I downloaded the threads and will be studying them.

[JeffVolp]

Uh....  I don't mean to sound ungrateful, Jeff, but I understand very little of your reply. Most of that is way over my head.

I spent my whole working life talking to other engineers, so it is sometimes difficult for me to explain things to others in layperson terms.  How about this:

The XTB is a simple plug-in unit to boost the output of a single transmitter that is plugged directly into it.

The XTBR does that, but can also boost the output of other transmitters on the same phase of your electrical system.  (Most homes have two phases.)

The XTB-IIR does that, but has two outputs to drive both phases.  To do that, it must be wired to a 240V circuit or connected to your electrical panel.  It produces a stronger signal, and has other features not available on the smaller units.

Jeff

[pconroy]

Hurricane Earl

 

First and foremost - stay safe!!!

[Brian H]

OK. I looked at the threads and I believe this is what you have now.
Four Wireless Cameras with power supplies.
Motion sensors
Camera remote
Video receiver
VA12A USB video adapter
CM19A USB Tranceiver
Two TM751 Transceivers
Vanguard Software
CM15A Active Home Interface with Active Home software.
Some of the Active Home Software plug ins.

I know you are not presently using everything. Can you maybe give a short list of what you now have in use and what software you are using?
Vanguard or one of the Active Home Software plug ins?

Depending on what you are using. The V752A and XTB Booster Options will be effected.

[lhntx]

Jeff: I understand. When I start talking about how to fix a PC problem I can see the other persons eyes glaze over sometimes.

Brian:
I have everything that you mentioned, but I currently am only using:
-the 4 wirelass cameras, and three motion detectors.  One camera is inside the home and I only want it switched to manually over the internet.
-the AHP software, which crashes constantly.  The email function has never worked, even manually.
-the CM15A with macros downloaded to it/with an extra 9" piece of coathanger wire added to the antennae
-VA12A usb video adapter / with the paddle antennae removed and replaced with an wireless router multi directional antennae.
-all are hooked to a dedicated netbook laptop on a wireless home network.

[Brian H]

If the laptops power supply and the CM15A are on the same branch circuit. I would first try an X10 type filter on the laptops supply. They are one of the known problems with X10 signals.

From what I have read. You have problems controlling the cameras addressable supplies over the power line.
You also have RF reception problems from the motion sensors.

Since thinks like the V572A send the X10 signals back on the powerline. Maybe getting the X10 power line signals working would be the first step.
The V572A most times is installed in the center of the home and as high as possible. It then sends the received RF signals back on the power line through a X10Pro PSC05 or X10 TW523 interface to the CM15A. I have seen users with the V572 in a closet and have the external antenna connected to it from the attic with a piece of coax cable.

Did you have a chance to read Jeff's Troubleshooting Tutorials? I know they maybe too deep for many to totally understand, but the general things to do are a great way to start.

Selectively disconnecting things like TVs and other electronic devices and then trying to control the cameras may show better control with some devices disconnected.

A X10 signal meter  would be a big help, but not 100% needed as after correcting the problems. Many times it would just sit there unused. My XTBM is a great meter but is not used that much anymore unless I am testing new devices for possible X10 problems. At one time some automation dealers where renting the ELK ESM1 meters to users. I don't think they are doing that any more.

[lhntx]

Hmm... so having the laptop power supply and the cm15a plugged into the same circuit causes issues. WTF??  Since you have to have a computer to run the CMA15a and get security emails you would think that whomever designed the CMA15a would have figured out that since the computer and cm15a have to be plugged together via a USB, that it would be highly likely (like what, 100% likely???) that they would have the same power supply??  That is so stupid that I it boggles my mind.

What exactly are x10 filters?  How would I find them?

I  actually have a cabinet/closet type area in my home that contains all of my  AV equipment, Tivo, Wii, IR extender system, subbase woofer controller, etc. that has an access hole into the attic which I have wires to my surround sound system and a usb wireless receiver for the tivo/blue ray/dvd system, so I could add the vr572 into that - but everything would all be plugged into the same ciruit since I only have ONE standard wall socket to feed all of these electrical devices.

can you tell me what a psc05 or tw523 is?

I have read the trouble shooting forum entries, those are part of the rabbit trail system and many go into a lot of electrical engineering answers.  That's why I got out my solder iron and changed out the antennae on the vr36a.

[dave w]

Hmm... so having the laptop power supply and the cm15a plugged into the same circuit causes issues. WTF??  Since you have to have a computer to run the CMA15a and get security emails you would think that whomever designed the CMA15a would have figured out that since the computer and cm15a have to be plugged together via a USB, that it would be highly likely (like what, 100% likely???) that they would have the same power supply??  That is so stupid that I it boggles my mind.

I think you are reading to much into it.

SOME switching power supplies put electrical noise on the powerline (they come in all forms, but cell phone chargers, notebook "power blocks", computer power supplies, CFL bulbs, etc. are good examples of switching supplies that may be noise makers). If this noise contains certain frequencies it can corrupt the X10 powerline signals. X10 corporation has no control over this and they really have no way of fixing it, other than to offer filters which block the noise. Since the offending noise is of the same frequency as the X10 signal, these filters will also block X10 signals. So the filters can not be incorporated in to X10 devices, otherwise they would block the incoming or outgoing code.

The idea is: once you find a noise maker you plug it into a filter (like the X10 Pro XPPF, http://www.x10pro.com/pro/catalog/platform.html#filters) and the filter will block the noise from getting on to the homes powerlines.

Another way of combating powerline noise, which has been previously mentioned, is to use a good (X10 signal) repeater coupler.

[Brian H]

I am sorry my point was not too clear.
I knew the troubleshooting tutorials where technical but buried in them was some orderly steps to ways to track down problem items.
dave w covered it nicely.

Unfortunately since the x10 signaling was patented. Many new electronic devices have been produced that effect them in a negative way.
This is also not an X10 only problem. The Smartlabs Insteon Protocol can also be effected by electronic devices even though they play it down.

The V572A is a kit of parts:
V572 receiver
External Antenna with mounting bracket.
12' of coaxial cable to connect the antenna to the receiver.
Wall wart power supply.
PSC05 Interface that takes the received information and places it on the power line.
An RJ11 telephone style data cable that goes between the PSC05 and the receiver.
An RS232 serial cable for programming the receiver if you do not want to use some of the addresses. It defaults to 256 addresses.16 House Codes X 16 Unit Codes.
Some users here have put the receiver in a central location and used a longer piece of coaxial cable to mount the external antenna in the attic or higher in the home.