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[dhouston]

I plugged my ELK ESM1 in so I could test some switching power supplies sent me by the distributor I'm working with for the Zarduino^TM project.

I left the ESM1 plugged in and just noticed its LED bargraph lights one bar briefly in a rather random pattern. It will flicker on/off with a few seconds interval, then there might be an interval of several seconds before it repeats. A little later, it was showing a near constant one bar and occasionally flickering a second and with the X10 Good LED lighting sometimes. IIRC, Paul Beam told me the bandwidth of the ESM1 was ~!75-150kHz. It doesn't do anything sophisticated to decide good/bad but only looks for a startcode followed by the correct and equal number of 1 and 0 bits.

I unplugged both transceivers so that eliminates a stuck button on a remote. Unless my mini-timer is free lancing there are no other X10 sources.

I have a Parallax USB oscilloscope that I can setup fairly quickly that should be able to see and capture whatever is causing it.

NEVER MIND! It dawned on me that the ESM1 was on the same powerstrip as a Sony NIMH battery charger. When I unplugged the charger, the ESM1 registers nothing.

[acce06t]

I, too, am in West Chester OH (Duke Energy) and have been having the exact same problem  as gga with our X10 lights since the new smart meter was installed on our house.  Duke was here twice today and are now referring it to their engineering department.  The second Duke rep just left and told us that he believes the problem is the new smart meter.  Will post Duke engineering findings after they contact us.

[Noam]

When my neighbor's noisy CFL shut down my system, ONLY my Insteon modules stopped responding to the X10 commands.

That's a different phenomenon - the Insteon module sensitivity is much greater (and the bandwidth is narrower). But I'm only interested in the random turn-ons, not blocked signals.

Ok. I didn't know if it was relevant information, but I figured I'd contribute, anyway.

[Noam]

I, too, am in West Chester OH (Duke Energy) and have been having the exact same problem  as gga with our X10 lights since the new smart meter was installed on our house.  Duke was here twice today and are now referring it to their engineering department.  The second Duke rep just left and told us that he believes the problem is the new smart meter.  Will post Duke engineering findings after they contact us.

Do they think it is specific to YOUR new smart meter (meaning replacing it might solve the issue), or something symptomatic to that particular model?
Can they install a "dumb" meter for testing purposes?

[acce06t]

Noam - the Duke rep talked like it was a problem with smart meters in general, not our specific one.  Because part of the functionality of a smart meter is to receive/send wireless communication to the node located in the electrical box at the street (we have underground wiring) and that could be causing an interference with our wireless automation.  The first Duke rep told us that the new smart meter technology gives Duke more control over individual electric lines.  The example he gave us was that if we would stop paying our bill, Duke could "flip a switch" in North Carolina and shut off our service.  Now having said that, (and please, I am not crazy!) today was the first morning in over a month that none of our X10 lights were on when we awoke.  All the X10 controlled lights were still off.  I know, it sounds crazy to me too.  I will continue to update this post.

[Noam]

Maybe they "flipped a switch" and turned off the remote signalling to your meter or something.

[acce06t]

Well, I spoke too soon.  Both bank of x10 lights just turned on by themselves.   

[gga]

acce06t:  Have you heard back from Duke engineering yet?  I have called Duke several times and they told me someone from the "smart meter" engineering group would contact me but so far they haven't.  My lights still continue to turn on at seemingly random times throughout the day and night.

[JeffVolp]

I have been working with a customer in the Duke service area to develop a fix for the smart meter problem.  What appears to be working fairly well are clamp-on ferrite inductors placed over the two heavy service entrance conductors in the distribution panel, and low-impedance notch filters on each phase to severely load down the incoming smart-meter signal.

Jeff

[gga]

Today I was finally able to talk to an engineer from Duke.  He said that Echelon (the company that makes the Smart-meter) is working on a filter to try to solve the X10 problem.  He expects to get one in the next couple of weeks and he will try on my system as a test case.

[JeffVolp]

We have a solution that involves adding clamshell ferrite filters that snap over the incoming service entrance cables and a shunt filter across the 240V inside the home to attenuate the signal that leaks through the ferrite filters.  You can read more about it here:

http://forums.x10.com/index.php?topic=26056.0

Jeff

[acce06t]

GGA, Sorry for not replying sooner but we are wintering in Florida.  I will deal with this problem after we get back in April.  Keep me posted about the filter and if it is successful.  Good Luck!

[gga]

Talked to the Duke engineer today.  It's been several weeks and still no filter.  He said Echelon was working on it but apparently haven't solved it yet?  He suggested I might want to be removed from the Smartmeter grid.  If they solve the problem later then I can always be turned back on.  So that's what I'm going to do.  He said the "turning off" process itself will take about 2 weeks.  They have to come to your house to verify that you have X10 equipment, etc.

To acce06t:  what did you do about your X10 stuff when you left town.  Were you able to unplug everything?  If you have any X10 wall switches did you just turn off the circuit breaker they were on?  I've been away a few weekends since this all started and I typically come home to find the house all lit up.

[dave w]

  If you have any X10 wall switches did you just turn off the circuit breaker they were on? 

You could use the "safety" ON-OFF slider switch which disconnects power to the switch. It is designed in as a safety measure when changing bulbs.

[JeffVolp]

Talked to the Duke engineer today.  It's been several weeks and still no filter.  He said Echelon was working on it but apparently haven't solved it yet?

I have also been in contact with Duke.  There is a solution that is working well at one home.  I am offering that as a kit, and one of the Duke engineers said they would order a kit from me, but they have not done so yet.

The kit contains 4 special low-frequency clamshell ferrite filters to snap over the "hot" service entrance cables, and a XPNR to go across a 240V circuit to further attenuate the smart meter signal that makes it through the ferrite filters.

Jeff