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    fault finding.

    Hi I have helped a friend automate their new build home. I have expierence of x10 in my own home.

    The build is now complete and I had all the lights in the house set to A1 just a quick test to see if all the lights work etc. But I get nothing when I transmit a A1 on command.

    All my modules are wired up by a third party electration, and the house is 3 phase I have a 3 phase coupler.

    What is the best way of fault finding. I have a little test bed that I demonstrated how it works. I was thinking of taking this to the house and plugging it into a normal socket and see if that works. From their was thinking of turning all the breakers off apart from the lights see if that worked and bring things on until it stopped working is this a reasonable idea or should I try something else?

    thanks
    Techboy.

    #2
    Sounds like a good plan to me. If you can, you might also try moving the power line interface to different circuits too, to see if that makes a difference. Ideally, start by plugging the interface into the same circuit as one of your lights. If you haven't already, you should also test the signal generation hardware in your own house, just to confirm that it is working properly.
    Mike____________________________________________________________ __________________
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      #3
      if you get nothing. There's something dead wrong and it's most likely at the source. I would check the source of the signal first to make sure the X10 gets onto the power line from the source control signal you're using.

      Next, I d check to see if something on the circuit branch you're using as the "feed" is killing the X10 somehow.

      Third, I'd check the coupler.

      Comment


        #4
        Thanks for the replies.

        Over the weekend I created a small test bed a module attached to a bed side lamp. Plugged it into the transmitter and sent a A1 on command and it turned on. Moved to other sockets and nothing so something is killing the signal just to find out what!!

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by techboy View Post
          Thanks for the replies.

          Over the weekend I created a small test bed a module attached to a bed side lamp. Plugged it into the transmitter and sent a A1 on command and it turned on. Moved to other sockets and nothing so something is killing the signal just to find out what!!

          I remember those days of troubleshooting x10, I would check the coupler to make sure it is wired correctly. Unplug whatever you can, and as previously mentioned kill all circuits and bring them online one at a time. Anything with a motor or transformer can eat x10. another possibility is the devices are incorrectly wired. Does the 3rd party who installed the devices have automation experience, sounds like maybe the devices could be incorrectly wired
          Over The Hill
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            #6
            I wrote a troubleshooting series several years ago that may help:

            http://jvde.us/x10_troubleshooting.htm

            Jeff

            Comment


              #7
              what 3 phase coupler?
              if it is the xpcr.. that is what i have...
              it has an led on it...
              when it receives a command from any circuit.. it transmits it back out on all 3 circuits....

              if you have that one.. see if the LED is getting a blink for received then 3 for transmit...

              mine recently died.. i was getting a receive.. and sometimes only 1, 2 or all 3 led flashes out.. mine was kaputz...

              oh yeah.. see what is on that circuit.. seems like you narrowed it down... something maybe killing the signal on that circuit.. or may not...
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                #8
                Thanks for all your feed back, I have done a little more work but unfourunately it's on the evening so I have manually turned the lights on. I used normal din rail app modules for lights they didn't want to dim. This shows that they have been wired correctly!!!

                the 3 phase unit is http://www.letsautomate.com/10437.cf...BE341257A198A8

                The reason the house is on 3 phase is because the heating system is taking the heat from the ground and this requires 3 phase.

                Doing a little work through the course of the week, the 3 bedrooms that are furthest from the house all lights work when I send the A1 command. This is quite a cable run. I turned of the heating system and this made no difference this was my prime suspect for interference.

                I believe the problem is the 3 phase device since, the rooms furthest away work and the heat pump is on all 3 phases if that generated interfernce it would kill everything. I have hired a x10 testing kit and some sections of the house recieve the signal and other area's are completey dead. This again makes me think it's the 3 pahase.

                thanks for assistance my firend is starting to worry, I know there is a cure may take a little time to sort though.

                Techboy

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                  #9
                  I am certain it's the 3 phase device. Spent yesterday working out whats wired to each phase. All lights are now on, but I had to plug into different sockets around the house, to get signals on too the different phases, the furthest parts of the house were on the same phase so signal strength and interference aren't a problem.

                  Their is nothing complex about wiring up the different phases to the unit so I think it must be faulty.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    3 pahse working

                    I have the x10 signal working on all three phases now.

                    The issue I have now is that one circuit breaker is now tripping when I send an x10 command. If I send the on command the lights on that circuit come on and then trip and when I send the off they turn off and then trip.

                    This didn't happen when I transmitted a x10 signal on this phase only.

                    I have narrowed it down to 3 modules on the circuit and have turned them off for now?

                    I shall check the wiring of these 3 modules? But is it more likely to be a power draw issue? should I change the breaker to the next size up? Since it never happened before, at this moment in time the vast majority of the lights are set to A1. I intend to break the lights up into their proper codes at the weekend?

                    thanks
                    Jasemilly

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by techboy View Post

                      should I change the breaker to the next size up?

                      thanks
                      Jasemilly

                      errr only if you want to burn your house down!!!!!!!!!

                      breakers are set to wire size.. so 15A breaker on 14 gauge wire... 20A breaker on 12 gauge wire.. those may not be right but you get my point.. if you put a breaker in.. say a 20A in place of a 15A... and something shorts.... the breaker waits for that 20A to trip... so wires get hot... since they are smaller.. and will fry in your walls!!!!!!!!!!
                      HW - i5 4570T @2.9ghz runs @11w | 8gb ram | 128gb ssd OS - Win10 x64

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                      Hardware - EdgePort/4 DB9 Serial | RFXCOM 433MHz USB Transceiver | Superbus 2000 for Concord 4 | TI103 X-10 Interface | WGL Designs W800 RF | Z-Net Z-Wave Interface

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                        #12
                        I think you might need an electrician, admittedly i'm only on one phase but i've never seen a circuit breaker trip on sending a command and something must be causing that. I'm not an electrician so take my advice with some degree of caution, but my understanding is swapping the breaker for the next size up personally is to be avoided, the cable is probably rated for that size breaker, if you install a larger breaker and then there is a short circuit or overload the cable will fail before the breaker trips (probably resulting in a fire).

                        Checking letsautomate it does say "We do not recommend this product as a phase combiner" Are you trying to join both phases and send X10 across them both at the same time? I've no experience trying X10 on multi phase but that does seem to suggest its not recommended for use in that way...

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                          #13
                          ok, so changing the breaker is a bad move.

                          spoke to letsautmate and it's the right product for getting the signal accross 3 phases, when I plugged my transmitter onto the same phase with the problem breaker. Before I installed my 3 phase splitter, the lights would come on and nothing would trip.

                          I am hoping on sunday when I move all the lights onto their unique codes the problem goes away and it's a draw issue if not I will swop some modules around and see what happens.

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