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Author Topic: Activehome turns on, but not off  (Read 3196 times)

niki

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Activehome turns on, but not off
« on: December 12, 2018, 01:35:24 PM »
The past year, i have had problems but never got around to them. Some modules work great, others turn on but not off, and some plug in controllers only work on some units. I do have a phase coupler repeater. Can it go bad? I have added solar panels and inverter since.
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Tuicemen

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Re: Activehome turns on, but not off
« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2018, 01:56:12 PM »
Turning on but not off is a sign of noise or your light module is set to the wrong type.
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dhouston

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Re: Activehome turns on, but not off
« Reply #2 on: December 12, 2018, 02:07:54 PM »
Does your inverter supply true 60Hz sine wave?
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niki

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Re: Activehome turns on, but not off
« Reply #3 on: December 12, 2018, 03:48:28 PM »
Not sure on the sine wave. One particular item is the outside Christmas lights. One part is on an x10 outlet module and the other on an appliance module. The appliance module had been used prior to the holiday for rope lighting and worked fine. Could the outlet be causing a problem? Also, does the phase coupler repeater go bad? When I first installed it years ago everything in the house worked great. Now sometimes I can't even manually turn off some stuff from the activehome program on the computer.
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Tuicemen

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Re: Activehome turns on, but not off
« Reply #4 on: December 12, 2018, 03:52:52 PM »
you should check your inverter, if it isn't a pure sinewave you could damage all your electical stuff and shorten its life the phase coupler repeater would likely be the first to go.
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dhouston

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Re: Activehome turns on, but not off
« Reply #5 on: December 12, 2018, 04:32:53 PM »
Does your solar system, inverter connect to your utility power lines? If so, it's likely outputting a clean 60Hz sinewave.
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brobin

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Re: Activehome turns on, but not off
« Reply #6 on: December 12, 2018, 05:35:42 PM »
When a module turns ON but not OFF it's generally an indication that the thing you turned on is generating noise/sucking signal that prevents the module from hearing the X10 commands. It turns on because the thing is off and not generating the noise.  That thing is typically an LED light - but could be anything that's plugged in.  One solution might be to plug an X10 filter into the module and the lights into the filter. Another is to add a hash choke to the load after the module. See this article:  http://jvde.us/x10/x10_cfl.pdf

 Which phase coupler/repeater do you have? Anything can go bad but it's more likely just not doing enough to get the job done anymore. The ABSOLUTE BEST solution is to install an XTB-IIR to solve signal issues. In the past I've tried various coupler repeaters from X10, Leviton, Smarthome and ACT but none of those come close to the XTB-IIR. See: http://jvde.us/xtb-iir.htm
I'm not affiliated with JVDE but I'm one of Jeff's biggest fans - his products are awesome.

 Even with the XTB-IIR certain loads may still require a filter or hash choke. When I upgraded a pool light to LED, I had the same issue - it turn on but not off. I added a hash choke ($1 cost) to the circuit and all is well.
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niki

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Re: Activehome turns on, but not off
« Reply #7 on: December 12, 2018, 08:46:03 PM »
Thanks. I am connected to sdge so sine wave probably ok. I do have led lights on these. I can try a filter first, or look into the choke. Does make sense of why it turns on, but not off. Only thing I found strange is that in the history on activehome, I did not see an off signal last night at the assigned time. Not sure why. I will check tonight.
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brobin

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Re: Activehome turns on, but not off
« Reply #8 on: December 12, 2018, 08:50:36 PM »
To see if the LED lights are the cause, unplug them and, if it's an Appliance Module send the off and on to see (hear) if it works. If it's a Lamp module you'll need an incandescent light plugged in to see.
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petera

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Re: Activehome turns on, but not off
« Reply #9 on: December 12, 2018, 09:37:47 PM »
It's amazing the amount of queries on other forums pop up around Christmas time. It's always X10 and Christmas lights.

Folks, X10 is for life not just for Christmas  rofl
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