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[zrock]

Give ya a little background on the situation. I live in a mobile home with alum siding and roof. I have a attached shed i need to monitor with door and motion sensor. im amusing im having a signal issue with the door and window sensors as they will work one day and not the next... i even tried a hard wired door contact joined to a door sensor in the house an it did the same thing.... i have a DS12A door sensor and MS18A motion... i would like to mod the antennas for bothe these units to increase range as i assume im pretty close to working range with them both intermittently working. these are going back to a sc1200 panel

[dhouston]

http://davehouston.org/X10_feng_shui.htm

[zrock]

That will work. Has anyone ever poped one of these things open and soldered in a longer antenna? I can see it on the pc board but not sure if i should use a single antenna strait out or loop it the same way that is on the board and solder both ends to the board.

[dhouston]

Has anyone ever poped one of these things open and soldered in a longer antenna?

That would violate FCC rules about modifying the antenna on a transmitter. Plus, it could detune the device, making range much less than now.

EDIT: There are no FCC prohibitions on changing/improving the receiver antenna or adding a preamp to the receiver antenna as neither do anything to increase the over-the-air power level - they merely do a more efficient job of receiving/amplifying the original signal.

[zrock]

Hehe yep I see that with all the other posts where people have moded the antenas on other equip.

Maby someone can explaine why when I hardwired another door contact to a door sensor inside the trailer it worked fine for a few days and then started acting the same as the other wireless equip in that area yet the sensor it was hooked to still worked fine? That one still has me puzzled

[Brian H]

I agree with dhouston.

Modifying the DS12A and MS18A will be a transmitting device and a FCC violation.
His passive radiators would not be any violation.

X10's transmitters are not overly well designed and soldering an antenna to the unit will probably detune the output.

If you want to see photos of their internal boards and schematics you can find them on the FCC web site.
Just use the FCC number on the back of the units.
Use the details choice for the device.
https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas/reports/GenericSearch.cfm

Modifying the SC1200As receiving antenna is a different case and should be no problem. Others here have done that.

Try mounting them on a spacer like maybe wood. To get then at least 1" to 2" away for the metal.

[zrock]

man really regretting this system.... what a pain in the butt... glad when i can afford the dsc system im looking at hehe... now one of the motion sensors that i just installed is giving me issues had to take it out of the system until i have time to move the control panel to a more central location in the house. This sucks as i have all the wires nicely hidden and had the control panel hidden where by the time someone found it it would have already dialed out. Now ill have to move it closer to the door. But this will put me 20 feet closer to the shed so hopefully the door sensors will work again