Comfort Automation/ Security System Forums > Third Party (interfacing to Comfort) > X10 > X10 Misbehaving |
Moderated by: adlim |
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ellio246p Member
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Hi I have a 17 year old comfort system that been working just fine until recently. My hall and landing zones are programmed to turn on lights for 1 minute if the motion sensors are tripped. I also have commands like all lights on/off programmed on the keypad. Recently the lights are misbehaving. Usually they don't come on at all and sometimes multiple (incorrect) zones come on and never go off. It's like the X10 controller is sending random X10 on messages. The keypad menus are also not working. One physical thing that has changed is I install a BT wifi extender hub that uses the power cables to transmit my network. I've tried uninstalling this and rebooting but it doesn't fix it. My outside lights are also programmed to come on and go off on a timer. These use relays instead of X10 and are working normally. I think this means the comfort board is not sending the correct X10 codes anymore or for some other reason the messages are not delivered properly. What can do to fix this? e.g. can I get a new X10 chip/module? |
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wexfordman UCM Pi Users
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Sounds like noise on your powerline, and if the range extender is using powerline, thats what I would suspect. Remove it altogether, see if the problem persists! |
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ellio246p Member
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Thanks for the reply but I already tried this and it didn't help. I was wondering if the wifi extenders could have permanently damaged the main board but I don't know how to verify that. I recall I paid for an X10 noise filter. There's a white box (looks a bit like a transformer)tucked inside the main case that plugs into the main PCB board. Is this the X10 transmitter or is it a noise filter? Could it be the problem? |
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Swiss-Toni UCM Pi Users
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The white box is the X10 transmiter disconect the X10 for a while and then reconect, give it half hour the noise filter is only there to stop spurious signals from outside of your cable network..... |
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slychiu Administrator
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Try writing the cclx (or ccl) program to comfort again in case it has been corrupted |
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ellio246p Member
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Hi, thanks for your reply. I tried disconnecting and reconnecting the X10 box but that didn't fix it. However, it has yielded some interesting information. What do you make of this: When I disconnected the X10 box I noticed that the red LED was on but as soon as I connect to the PCB the LED goes off. Is that the correct behaviour? If I then press the main panel reset button the LED comes on. If I now use my keypad to turn all lights on it works! However, after that the LED goes off again. If I now use the keypad to turn all lights off it fails. If I reset the panel again, on comes the LED. If I now use the keypad to turn all lights off it works! So it seems I can only send one X10 command but then the LED goes off and my X10 misbehaves. What do think, buy a new X10 transmitter? |
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slychiu Administrator
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If the "white box" is the X10 transceiver XM10E, you can get info here https://www.uk-automation.co.uk/marmitek-x10-two-way-plc-ttl-cmos-interface-xm10-with-trailing-lead/ It says "A red LED will glow when power is being received by the XM10. It will flash slowly when X10 signals are being exchanged." But it does not say what it means when the LED is off I think you need a new X10 transceiver This topic has been moved to X10 forum http://www.comfortforums.com/forum33/ Last edited on Tuesday Nov 7th, 2017 04:39 pm by slychiu |
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ellio246p Member
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Thought I'd update the thread with a final outcome. So I decided to buy a new X10 module from UK Automation. Plugged it in and hey presto, everything working again even with my BT wired network extenders. Thanks to everyone who responded. |
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slychiu Administrator
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Surpising that you can still get them! |