[Coco] further adventures with plug'n'power/x10

[gene heskett]

On Thursday, September 23, 2010 08:48:33 pm Stephen Castello did opine:

> On Wed, 22 Sep 2010 03:29:58 -0400, Aaron Wolfe <aawolfe at gmail.com>
> 
> had a flock of green cheek conures squawk out:
> >The x10 outlets I ordered finally showed up, so I tried some things
> >with the CoCo today.
> 
> A UPS in the same outlet can block the X10 signal.  The filtering in a
> APC UPS does this.
> 
> A power strip with filtering can block the signal.
> 
> If the module is on one leg and the control signal is on the other,
> the signal may not get there unless something is using 220v. Turn on
> the stove/oven/dryer to test for this.  www.smarthome.com has several
> gadgets that fixes this.
> 
> Do they work with a standard x10 controller like:
> http://www.smarthome.com/4030A/X10-Mini-Controller-X10-X-10-Remote-Contr
> ol-Keypad-MC10A/p.aspx

I might also add that the switching power supplies in a modern computer can 
make enough line noise to make an x10 circuit plugged into the same outlet 
a bit flaky.  I have my cm11a plugged directly into an outlet that is 
several feet of feed line away from the outlet the UPS that runs nearly 
everything in this room is plugged into, and that is quite dependable 
because the UPS isolates all that noise from the house wiring.  Another 
excuse to get a _good_ UPS too. ;-)

Another item that might come into play is that any CCFL lighting you are 
switching, if not loaded with a parallel resistive load, the CCFL's will 
sit and flicker (very hard on them BTW) when they are supposed to be off.  
Because those also need a fully symetrical waveform, they cannot be dimmed 
by a lamp dimmer module, only turned on and off & its better to switch them 
with an appliance module, which is a hard relay switch.  But to stop the 
flicker, a night light with two s4 lamps in series will burn about 2.4 watts 
when on, and by loading the line going to the CCFL's will stop the CCFL 
flickering by absorbing the leakage load the modules need for good function, 
and the CCFL's stay off when off.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
In space, no one can hear you fart.