X10 SS13a question..

[Rotech]

Hello guys, I am trying to setup a X10 ss13a to turn on some lamps that I have. So far, I got them turning them on and off, but I cant get them to dim. The instruction says to press any of the 3 buttons above and the press the dim button, but this doesn't work. whats the trick for these things?

[Rotech]

Do I need to make a device in the status page so it could dim??

[nightwalker]

It's been awhile since i used those but as i recall they worked just fine when they were set to the same house/unit code as the device you were trying to control. When you get away from that and are using them as triggers the dim/bright feature either didn't work at all or was erratic.

They work pretty much the same way the palmpads do, you push one of the three top buttons to let it know which house/unit code you are trying to effect and the bottom one to send the dim/bright command.

[fran_joel]

It's been awhile since i used those but as i recall they worked just fine when they were set to the same house/unit code as the device you were trying to control. When you get away from that and are using them as triggers the dim/bright feature either didn't work at all or was erratic.

They work pretty much the same way the palmpads do, you push one of the three top buttons to let it know which house/unit code you are trying to effect and the bottom one to send the dim/bright command.

I second that. They don't work well for dimming purposes. I have several at home and refrain from dimming the lights with them at all, because there is a big time lag. Without instant feedback, you never know if they will dim too much or too little depending on how long you keep the button depressed.

[Rupp]

The dim button controls the last selected button, so if you turn on the top button and that is A1 then the Dim button sends and A1 dim. If you turn on the second button down and that is A2 then the dim button sends an A2 dim.

[Rotech]

The dim button controls the last selected button, so if you turn on the top button and that is A1 then the Dim button sends and A1 dim. If you turn on the second button down and that is A2 then the dim button sends an A2 dim.

Aim doing exactly what your saying Rupp, but it does not dim. I have the capability to to turn on/off. Is there a extra step you have to accomplish in order to dim? How about in the event? in the action tab, I have the device set to "on" is this rigth?

[nightwalker]

If i remember right those switches were designed to control the devices directly, as soon as you put an event in the mix to interrupt it, all bets are off and you will probably lose the dim capability.

The only way I ever got them to work well was if I had devices, say A1, A2, and A3 with the switch set for A1, A2, and A3. This was all before I was using HS, long, long ago. At that time the switch was the controller, there wasn't anything else, we're talking 70's here.

[Rotech]

I cant really do that because aim controlling zwave modules that have the lamps connected to them.

[nightwalker]

OK, i see your problem, it's really not solvable as far as I know. You're using the switch as a trigger to turn on/off those zwave modules. I never found a way to transfer the x10 command for dim in an event that works in the way you want.

When I switched to UPB i had the same problem. I finally got rid of those switches and put in UPB keypads that are able to dim the UPB switches. I still have that same problem with palmpads, they work the same way and the two or three that i still have around are not able to dim the way they are intended to.

I tried setting up an event once that used the trigger of received x10 command but to be honest it didn't work very well so i finally gave up trying to dim from them and strictly use them as on/off switches.

[Rotech]

Well, I feel a little better, knowing it wasn't me...Let me ask you about the palmpads. I just got an order of them, you can only assign one house code to them is that rigth? if so, that means you can not have several house codes to control different things on the same remote rigth?

[TrOjAn]

Yes the palmpads are SINGLE code devices, however, here is a script (not written by me but someone on this forum) that allows you to control all housecodes and devices up to 16.

EDIT: heres the link http://board.homeseer.com/showthread...=super_palmpad and it was by Fran Joel

TrOjAn

[rmasonjr]

Well, I feel a little better, knowing it wasn't me...Let me ask you about the palmpads. I just got an order of them, you can only assign one house code to them is that rigth? if so, that means you can not have several house codes to control different things on the same remote rigth?

Palmpads have a little dial so you can turn it to a different housecode.
Someone even sold a little 'key' to make it easier to switch housecodes - I cant remember where I saw it, though - it was a long while back.

[Rotech]

how do you install this and what events are needed? and thanks for sharing it...

[Rotech]

Sorry, did not see the instructions..