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

[Gene Heskett]

On Thursday, September 23, 2010 09:04:18 pm Sean did opine:

> I had to stop using X10 modules for my living room lights when I
> switched to CFL bulbs.  I noticed that even with them off, in a dark
> room you notice them flickering on and off.  No idea whether it's bad
> for the bulb or not, but it was enough to be annoying.   This was with
> on/off appliance modules, not the light modules with several dimming
> levels.
> 
Get an incandescent night light, the sort that has 2 s4 lamps in it and 
plug it in so its on the switched circuit the CFL's are on.  It will absorb 
the leakage from the module and stop the flicker.  With two S4's in series, 
then run dim when on, and will fail from an earthquake or lightning strike 
long before they normally burn out since and incandescent lamps life is the 
inverse of the 13th power of the applied voltage.  A 120 volt S4, running 
on 60 volts, should last several centuries.

> Although a quick search just resulted in finding that X10 may have re
> engineered new modules to solve this problem.
> 
> On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 5:42 PM, Stephen Castello <zootzoot at cfl.rr.com> 
wrote:
> > 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-Con
> > trol-Keypad-MC10A/p.aspx
> > 
> > 
> > --
> > 
> > Stephen
> > 
> > Beware of low-flying butterflies.
> > 
> > --
> > Coco mailing list
> > Coco at maltedmedia.com
> > http://five.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/coco
> 
> --
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-- 
Cheers, Gene
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