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[Boogy]

Greetings,

Brand new X10 customer here.  Still trying to learn everything so I'll probably have lots of questions.  Hopefully someday down the road I'll gain enough knowledge to be able to return the favor to the community and be on the helping side.

I just received my order and thought that I'd start by saying that when I first hooked everything up, everything worked fine.  Now, about a week later, things are not working like they did.  There have been no changes on my part that I know of.

For instance, I have a Decorator Wall Switch (Part # WS12A).  Controlling the switch manually from the wall continues to work fine.  That light is set to my Lightcode on my SC1200 Console.  Now, when I arm the system the light comes on but does not turn off.  The light just stays on until I manually turn it off using the wall switch.  Obviously I don't want to arm my system when I leave in the morning, only to have the light stay on all day. 

Going to my SC1200, if I punch in 13 "on", the light turns on as expected.  But if I punch 13 "off", nothing happens.  My system also came with a Security Remote Control (Part # SH624).  Same problem here as with the SC1200, the remote will turn the light on but turning it off does nothing.  Arming the system with this remote results in the same problem where the lights stay on.

Like I said, when I first set everything up about a week ago everything worked fine.

Thanks in advance for any help that can be offered.

[dave w]

Is it a standard incandescent bulb in the fixture?
Do you have a Lamp Module that you could plug in to same outlet as SC1200 and re-test?

[Boogy]

Dave,

First of all, Thank You for your reply. 

The fixture is a chandelier that houses five small incandescent bulbs.

So I do have a lamp module and tried your suggestion.  With all the lights in an off state, I punch in 13 "on" and the chandelier as well as the lamp both turn on.  Punching in 13 "off' turns off the lamp but still does not turn off the chandelier.  Using the Remote Control receives the same exact results as the SC1200.  I tried the lamp module in a few other outlets and noticed that it works in some outlets, but not in others.  The outlets that it does work in, gives me full on and off control.  But the few outlets that it doesn't work in don't allow me to even turn the lamp on.

Thanks again.
-Boogy

[Boogy]

I may have figured it out.  Let me try a few things and I'll report back here.  Please let me know if my findings make sense and could be the cause.
Thanks.

[dave w]

Please let me know if my findings make sense and could be the cause.
Thanks.

Boomer, your findings make perfect sense. You have described phase coupling, or noise, or marginal signal problems.

http://jvde.us/x10_troubleshooting.htm

First just for giggles I would make sure every bulb in the chandelier is finger tight. A lose bulb can creat noise, although I suspect your problem is marginal signal strength at the WS12A. Either problem can make the signal hard to get through.

One solution is a repeater which will boost the X10 signal on both phases in your home and may help with noise. Personnally I like the XTBIIR (also can be found on the URL above) or the ACT CR234. A very low cost alternative is the XPCR from X10 (<$20 on Ebay).

[Boogy]

The Wall Switch has a dimmer.  When you press the switch instead of the light coming to a full on state, it ramps it's way up to full on.  And when you press it again, the light dims to a full off state.  However, messing with switch I realized that the switch wasn't set to a 100% on state.  So when I would press the switch, it would ramp on but, as I didn't find out until now, it wasn't actually turning on 100%. (maybe 80-90%).  So my thinking was that maybe it doesn't function properly unless the dim control is set to 100%.  I set it to 100% it it now works properly.  So to test my theory, I intentionally set the switch to only ramp up to around 90% (estimation).  WRONG!!  My theory doesn't hold up because it's is currently working properly, even though the dim isn't set to 100%.  Now I'm more confused.  

Anyway, is it possible that when I initially set it back to 100% during my troubleshooting, it "reset" something and that's the reason that it now works?  I don't know, just grasping for straws at this point...

Thanks.

[dave w]

I set it to 100% it it now works properly.  

Still a description of marginal signal level at the WS12A. Dim the light back down to the point it will not turn OFF again. Now move the SC1200 to differnt rooms. What happens? If you have any outlets on the same breaker ast the chandelier use one of them as a test.

[Brian H]

Soft start with preset dim.
http://kbase.x10.com/wiki/Newer_Wall_Switches_and_Preset_Dim