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[DIY_Steve]

When I built my house 16 years ago, I installed about twenty X10 Light Switches made by Stanley.  Over the years whenever one of these light switches ceased to function, I replaced with the latest X10 switch on the market.

A few weeks ago, the lights in my house connected to the old original Stanley switches started turning on and off on what appeared to be random times.  The lights connected to the newer switch models did not have any "abnormal" bahavier.  I have tried the following things to trouble shoot.... I am just about at the point of replacing the old switches, as there are only about six left in my house.

- the only way to prevent the light from turning on/off is to disable the switch with the bottom slide.
- I unplugged the X10 controller in the house... and the lights continued to turn on/off at random times.
- I used the history log on the X10 controller and no outside X10 commands appeared.
- I assigned some of the newer model switches in the house to the same X10 address as the old STanley switches.  The lights connected to the old STanley switches continued to turn on/off randomly... but the lights on the newer switches (with the same address) stayed off.

If anyone has had a similar experience and has any advice... I would appreciate it.

Thanks,
Steve

[Noam]

Many of the older switches were susceptible to line noise causing random turn-ons. Some of the newer models have Automatic Gain Control, which helps to prevent this problem.
Unless you can track down the noise, figure out where it is coming from and prevent it, your best bet may be to replace the remaining older switches.
I had a similar problem a number of years ago with my X10 wall switches, and I ended up replacing them with SmartHome switches. I haven't had the problem come back since.

[DIY_Steve]

Thanks for the reply and advice.   

I was kind of expecting it is time to replace the old switches.  Though, to be honest... I like the old style better than the new, i.e. I have never quite liked the dimming function of the newer switches, because they always get inadvertently dimmed.  I had been "moving" the older style to the places in the house where they are used most.  Oh... time for a change.

[Dan Lawrence]

Thanks for the reply and advice.   

I was kind of expecting it is time to replace the old switches.  Though, to be honest... I like the old style better than the new, i.e. I have never quite liked the dimming function of the newer switches, because they always get inadvertently dimmed.  I had been "moving" the older style to the places in the house where they are used most.  Oh... time for a change.

All the modules X10 is selling are "soft-start" which ramp up slowly in about 5  - 6 seconds.  You need AHP 3.310 or later to use old style modules and soft-start modules together.

[Brian H]

Yes I have seen reports of some not liking the resume dim feature the new one have.

[DIY_Steve]

My family complained about them at first... but have gotten used to them.

But... every time we have a guest in out house they "double tap" the the switch and get the light "stuck" in an almost off setting. 

Uggh.   

[dave w]

My family complained about them at first... but have gotten used to them.

But... every time we have a guest in out house they "double tap" the the switch and get the light "stuck" in an almost off setting. 

Uggh.   

FWIW
I fixed my "creeping dim" problem by having home controller turn on each light controlled by newer wall switches, brighten to 100%,  then turn the light off. The controller performs the fix every night after we are asleep. Naturally it does not do it for bedrooms that are occipied. But the next "tap" will always be at 100% (or what ever level you set in the "creeping dim fix macro".