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[KDR]

Hi all...

I was wondering if anyone has seen X10 act up during electrical storms. I had a couple of storms roll through a few days ago. The next morning I found one of my lamps on when it should of been off. On another day I found the same thing on a different light and also found one that should have been dimmed but was on full.

I can't say for sure if the storms where the cause but the system has been working with no problems prior and since. I guess the same question goes out for static discharge. Anyone ever have a unit fail from static electricity?

[Dan Lawrence]

Appliance modules retain their status if there's a power failure, lamp modules do not.  I have an SR227 that has 2 lamps plugged into it, and if the lamps are on when an outage occurs, our first way ot know if the power is back is those 2 lamps will be on, nothing else will be, though.

[steven r]

If having your signal strength go to almost nothing after a storm counts, yes.

I've already found 2 signal suckers that weren't a problem before the storm. I've ordered a half dozen or so filters and a signal meter. I'm planning to have a "soldering party" to build filters when my orders arrive.

[KDR]

i'm trying to track down 2 problems right now since the 2 storms that came through. The storms may have nothing to do with it. I have 2 LM465 lamp units that started coming on at 10 pm for the last 2 nights. I can turn them off with the remote but wonder why they are coming on in the first place? Checked activity monitor and there is no activity for those 2 house/unit codes. One is A1 the other A7.

I have 4 motion sensors in my system and just maybe the batteries are going bad in one and the thing reset to default. that might explain the A1 unit. I am planning an overhaul of everything to get off of house code A anyway so we will see what happens.

I don't like changing a bunch of things then have everything work good. I want to know what single thing changes to fix it so it will be a bit longer before the overhaul.

[steven r]

...I have 2 LM465 lamp units that started coming on at 10 pm for the last 2 nights.... ...why they are coming on in the first place? Checked activity monitor and there is no activity for those 2 house/unit codes. One is A1 the other A7....

Any new macros?

One know bug is seemly unrelated lights coming on when a macro has a command immediately following a dim command. I had "C5" in the guest bedroom come on at odd times but never realized it till my mom came over to visit. She let me know the her lights came on in the middle of the night. It also never showed up on activity monitor. It went away when I put a 1 sec delay following my dim comands and before the next command.

To see if you have a stray X10 signal happening at 10pm, try changing a nearby room to "A1" or "A7" and see if it comes on also at 10pm.

[KDR]

Good idea about another unit set to A1 to see if it comes on also. There are no new macros and no macros or timer events at the time the lights go on.

I do have a macro which is triggered by a motion detector and plan to turn it off to see if I still have a problem. I have a virtual switch I can flip to change the conditional to stop the motion detector from bringing up a dimmed light outside.

I run delays in all my macros between events, 5 seconds, just to be sure the line is clear. I should mention that during the storms there was no loss of power just lightning to beat the band. Like I said i will reprogram everything on just to avoid battery operated units defaulting back to A1. All motion sensors had batteries put in new about 2 weeks ago but thats not to say its not the problem. Well off to play with X-10 now. I will update you when I noodle this out.

[steven r]

Good idea about another unit set to A1 to see if it comes on also....

Some have even used a 2nd CM15A or CM11A to monitor the line for signals.

[dave w]

KDR
FWIW
Do you have some older modules? Back in the '80s, south Florida electrical storms would frequently turn ON every Lamp and Appliance module in my home, when power was restored. It was enough of a problem that the HA  controllers of the era (JDS and Enerlogic, etc) allowed you to specify what state you wanted your module to be in after a power failure. I now live in the mid-west and do not experience the severe storms of Florida, however most of my modules which are less than 10 year old do not exhibit problems when we do have an electrical storm.