X10Reliability

Here's some tips on basic X10 troubleshooting, originally by Tim Gray:

First - power strips if they have ANY kind of power conditioning they will destroy the X10 signal. only the absolute cheapest power strips work with X10. (no filtering at all and only a circuit breaker in them) Most of the time removal of the X10 devices from a power strip and plugging them into the wall solves this problem.

Second - Computers, televisions, computer monitors, and cable boxes can and have for others, put significant amounts of noise onto the powerline which interferes with the X-10 signal. Prescribed solution is to purchase an XPPF powerline filter at about $18.00 from http://www.worthdist.com. To find out the troublesome appliance(s) turn off your breakers when the spouse is not home and try your X10 items as you turn on each breaker in turn. This will give you an idea as to which room the problem might be.

Third - you must bridge your two power phases with an X10 bridge. sometimes a module works sometimes it doesn't... this is usually the indication that you are trying to cross legs of your power with a signal and a 200volt appliance is bridging for you when it is on.

The best solution is to buy and install a signal bridge/repeater.. ($80.00 to $500.00 depending on brand and features) This is the first thing that anyone should buy, before the CM-11, before you buy your first lamp module.. get and install a bridge/repeater.. this eliminates almost 90% of all X10 problems and really is a required item.

Finally.. only install ONE wireless receiver in your home for each housecode you need. If you have multiple wireless receivers for the same X10 housecode, they will cause X10 command collisions and degrade your overall X10 performance. If you need further flexibility or range in your wireless receivers, consider a MR12A modified with the antenna plans from http://www.laser.com/dhouston (links gone, does anyone have a new link? ... http://www.shed.com/tutor/mr26ant.html pretty close). If you want more functionality see the other TWIKI entries for the BX24-AHT which can listen to all X10 RF, X10 Security RF, and some X10 Ninja commands.

Here's one from Neil Cherry:

Are you losing X10 commands when you send a whole lot of them? Is Mr. House pausing for too long? Well typically you would send a number of X10 commands like this:

set $Device1 ON; set $Device2 ON;

set $DeviceN ON;

What you can do is have Mr. House schedule X10 commands. Typically Mr. House takes 1/2 second to send an A1 and another half a second to send an AON. That's 1 second for a full A1AON command. Well you can do this:

set $Device1 ON; # No need to schedule this one it's the first command Timer->new->set(1, sub {set $Device2 ON; });

Timer->new->set(//N//, sub {set $DeviceN ON; });

Where //N// is n seconds later (subtract 1 from the device number and it will be sent n-1 seconds later) This will allow MH to continue with no reported pauses.