Timeline from Pergatory to Bliss

[dick collier]

Okay folks, I'm gunna start a log here to
give you an idea of what has happened, what
may be necessary and hopefully you can avoid.

March 11, 2005.  Activehome and my cm11a got
boring, wanted more, ordered AHP (Active
Home Pro) with the cm15a.

March 13, 2005, received order confirmation
email with download and activation
instructions.

March 17, 2005 received cm15a.  Configured
hardware and software and then smiled.

MARCH.... was annoyed that new package was
unreliable.  Tried many upgrades,
workarounds, searched the web for help,
found none.

April 7, 2005.  After being ignored by
email, sat on the phone for tech support.
20 minute hold but finally talked to a
tech.  Tech finally gave me an RMA for the
cm15a.  I mailed it back on April 8, 2005.

April 9, 2005.  I turn 52 today, damn I'm
old.

I will update this thread with my progress.

[X10 Pro]

Dick: Are you returning the CM15A for a
refund, or just getting a replacement? What
was not working?

[dick collier]

Macros didn't work consistantly.  They would
trigger for an hour or two and then no
longer respond.  I could repeat this
sequence by rebooting, pulling the cm15a out
of the wall, pulling the batteries out of
the cm15a... basicly a hard boot of
everthing to give me 2 to 4 more hours of
life.

I look forward to your fix/software
upgrade.  Your product has in the past been
viable, reliable and cost effective.

Viable and reliable relationships are a good
thing...

[dick collier]

Just received email from x10 notifying me of
the shipment of my new cm15a.  It was sent
within the last 2 hours, it is now 9pm CDT,
April 15.  I await it's arrival with
anticipation.

[dick collier]

April 18th, received my new cm15a via
FedEx.  I am playing with it.  My daughter
and I framed a deck this weekend so I am
playing with things slowly and with some
pain.

[SteveRF]

Dick,
Your posts are not going unnoticed.
I too had a flakey unit but received a
diagnostic unit about 7 Mar.  So far teh unit
has performed "ok".  I have found it to be
"somewhat" reliable but have trouble with the
unit if 2 motion detector signals are
received a few seconds apart.  Things go
downhill from there.  I'll keep an eye out
for your posts.  p.s. I built a deck last
year.. I know the pain..smile
Regards,
StgeveRF

[johnn]

Dick,
I too appreciate your posts.  After a fair
amount of effort... actually too much
effort my system is mostly stable.  Like
SteveRF, I still get some flakiness, which
I am now sure is not my programming, but
problems in the hardware.

I have a favor.  Would you post the version
number (round sticker on back of CM-15A) of
your “new” unit?  My unit’s is 05C10.
Since I’m past the 30-day return period, I
would rather wait until X10 releases a
different version, before going to the
expense of simply trading one almost fixed
unit for another identical one.

Thanks and good luck with the deck, I still
have fond memories of building a deck with
my children.

John

[SteveRF]

John,
My diag unit is 04J44.
I think I may have an "early" model.
Maybe I should have waited a bit longer
before complaining. After updating to the new
3.186, my unit is still "somewhat unreliable"
when signals from 2 motion sensors are
detected a few seconds apart. I have a MS in
the master bedroom at the doorway and one in
the master bathroom.  Walking past one to the
bathroom takes about 3 seconds.  That one
sensor in the bedroom made my bathroom
unreliable.  It works but not right when you
walk in.. sometimes I have to wait until the
sensor sees me a second time.  That is not
acceptable... entering a dark bathroom.. or a
dark bedroom.. o well, I really do believe
that their only real solution now is a
hardware upgrade to the CM15A.
Regards,
SteveRF

[Helpful Hints]

Steve RF:  If both sensors are on the same
house code try changig one of them  and see
if the problem persists.

[johnn]

SteveRF,
I have a similar setup including running
3.186, with similar performance issues.  In
my system when the bedroom MS detects
motion a series of lights leading to a
bathroom about 20 feet away are turned on.
I have another MS on route to the
bathroom.  If that sensor triggers then the
lights stay on until the first sensor is
retriggered and an OFF is sent.  If the
second MS doesn’t trigger before the first
MS sends an OFF then the lights go out.  I
estimate that the time between sensors is
around 6 �" 10 seconds.

Sometimes the first motion sensor takes a
long time to respond to motion… a very long
time.  More recently, the second sensor is
not reliably being detected, so the lights
are going out when they shouldn’t.  I had
to install a third sensor in the bathroom,
on the same house/unit code as the second,
to make sure that motion is detected on
route to the bathroom.  However,
performance varies greatly.  Sometime the
sensors works quickly, more often they work
slowly or not at all.

I have replaced the sensors, tried various
house and unit code combinations and
verified my code.  So, I’m sure that the
problem isn’t a defective MS or poor
logic.  It’s in the design somewhere and it
doesn’t appear that waiting for a later
version would have made much difference.
Hopefully, a hardware upgrade is in the
offing.

Well I’ll be traveling for a while so, I’ll
have spare time to do something other than
fiddle with AHP.

John

[SteveRF]

JohnN, Thanks for the insight !
HelpFul Hints,  Good idea, however, I was
trying to keep all motion sensors on the
same code. Well, 4 of them, the other is
outside and on a different housecode now.
I'll change the offending (pain in the rear
MS) tomorrow and see if it helps any.  It
just appears that motion sensor signals
within 2 -4 seconds from each other cannot
be resolved quick enough with teh current
model of teh CM15A.  I'll try your idea and
see how it goes tomorrow. Many THANKS !
SteveRF

[dick collier]

JohnN:

Number on the back of the cm15a is... drum
roll please...  05c10.  The power plug is
not polorized.

[dick collier]

It's been 2 weeks and things are going
well.  Still have some issues with macros
but I am taking my time to diagnose each one
before I comment.  RF is much more
reliable.  This house is 70' long, 2
stories.  CM15a is on top floor, dead center
of house and all RF transmitters and
receivers are functioning well.  Running 95%
success rate, the 5% miss I am currently
blaming on the cheap motion sensors.

[johnn]

Dick and SteveRF,

I'm back from travels, rested and ready
to “go at it again”.

It looks like Dick and I have exactly the
same unit.   I like the concept of AHP and,
I suspect, like both of you, would like to
find ways to help it meet it’s potential.
It’s certainly is not there right now.  X10
seems to be trying to work the issues, and
I’m truly impressed with X10Pro’s patience
and willingness to work with all kinds of
folks.

Dick, now that you have your system “up and
running” I would be interested in hearing
if, you are experiencing the “slow
responding” motion sensor problems that
SeveRF identified  I would also like to
know if either of you have noticed any
instances of inconsistent operation; such
as modules not operating properly.  While
my system is “mostly” reliable I have
notice that occasionally simple macros that
control several (2-7) modules and timers
malfunction so that some modules either
don’t respond or respond differently than
programmed in the macro.

I know that these issues could be power
line noise, but, my power seems to be clean
and I am able to operate modules on either
phase without using a coupler.  Besides
this issue appears to be more of an
occasional random malfunction, rather than
a consistent problem.  Also, none of my
neighbors have any X10 devices; so, I don’t
think my modules are responding to commands
from another system.

I have enjoyed this thread and look forward
to reading more about Dick’s adventure.

John

[dick collier]

Motion sensor response is approximately 2
seconds from when I see the LED flash.  This
is the same response time I had with the
cm11.

My diagnostics window is now dropping
because we have a couple new houses being
built up here close by and I already see the
line noise on the TV from their generators.
I won't grouse to X10 because I have dirty
power.

I am feeling incouraged that my macro that:
30 minutes before sunset turns on 2 circuits
at 100% bright (leviton high end switches),
one circuit at 60% bright, wait 30 minutes
and turn on outside coach lights at 100% (1
circuit)... is so far reliable.  Date of
last hard reboot is April 22 (not because of
AHP).

Odd note though.  When I leave AHP running
and minimized, my pc clock loses approx. 1.5
hours per day.  Windows 98SE on an AMD k6,
320M RAM.  Yes, I know, old... but it works.

By the way, last weekend we planked the deck
and had celebatory beers afterward on it in
a feable attempt to rehydrate ourselves.
That didn't work but hanging out with your
daughter is still priceless.