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[dizzyfins]

I hope someone can help.  I programmed six lights to come on using the dusk feature (not using a macro).  Outdoor lights on at dusk, foyer light on 40 minutes before dusk, dining room light on 35 minutes before dusk, bedroom light on 30 minutes before dusk, etc.  Off times are specific e.g., outdoor lights off at 11:30 pm; foyer off at 10:30 pm; dining room off at 10:20 pm; bedroom off at 10:15 pm.  Dusk is set to my locality, repeat is checked and everything is downloaded to my CM15A, which is plugged in to computer's USB and an electric outlet and has fresh batteries installed.  I'm using version 3.306 version updated 2/14/2011.  This works perfectly for several days, then unexpectedly, after the lights came on and went off as desired, they come on again, only this time it is in the middle of the night (unwanted), which wakes me up, etc.  This is the second time that that sequence has happened.  This is in a second home.  In my other home, I have used X10 successfully to turn lights on and off.  The only difference is I don't use the dusk feature in my other home, where the on times are set to specific times.  I would really like to get the dusk feature working properly, without these midnight surprises.  Thank you.

[Dan Lawrence]

Do you have any soft-start modules?   Did you apply 3.306 over an older version?    3.306 is a version that supports both regular (non soft-start) and soft-start modules. Also what housecodes are you using?  You need to be more exact when problems occur.

I use 3.306 and had to convert all my .ahx files as I have ONE soft-start module all the rest are standard modules in use since the late 1980's. I have 13 different .ahx files for different times of the year.

[Noam]

From my experience, it is probably one of a few possibilities:

1) Your CM15A is not keeping accurate time, and the program is shifting. This is easy to check. If all of your timers are happening at the wrong times, then that is the likely culprit.
Differences in power systems can cause the CM15A's clock to drift. When it is connected to a running PC (the PC must be on for this - but AHP can be closed), it syncs the time to the PC every 2 hours.

2) Your CM15A is keeping accurate time, but has some "extra" timers in there somewhere, that were not disabled or deleted.
You might want to go through all of your timers to be sure, and then make sure to empty the trash within AHP, and try clearing the interface and re-downloading.

3) One of your neighbors (on the same power transformer outside) might have X10, and be using the same HouseCode as you. Their system might be sending those stray timers. Check for this in your Activity Monitor.
If you see commands showing up at that time, and you have verified that they aren't coming from your system, try changing housecodes and see if that helps.

4) Other electrical noise can cause funny things to happen with X10. Most of the time, noise causes stuff NOT to work. However, there are times when noise can actually trick the modules into turning on (it happened to me). If that's the case, your best bet would be to track down the source of the noise, and either eliminate it or filter it.

[Dave4720]

Here’s my method on time-checking …

I have a macro that pings a remote chime every hour.  That lets me know if I’m “to the hour” accurate.

I also chose one select hour of the day I’ll most likely always be home, and I’ll ping the remote chime  - then again one minute later.  That lets me know if I’m 24-hr synced.

This method once caught a 20-minute error in my dusk-dawn lighting.  The error was not so great for me to notice the lights, but I really noticed the hourly chime being off.  I think power was off for a while that day, and the CM11A keeps lousy time with no AC.

Yeah, I’m only on the CM11A, but the concept still works.