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cruelkix
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Posted: May 04 2009 at 11:53 | IP Logged Quote cruelkix

So overall I seem to have a lot of noise in my system. Saturday morningat 6:30 a.m. I woke up and started working on writing some code for my new venstar thermostat. I was amazed at how well the commands were working on everything. If I sent a request for the current temp, I got it and it was reallly accurate, as well as if I sent any command to the thermostat. I would say I worked until about 11 a.m. and had absolutley no issues with commands to the thermostat. The next day I woke up later and tried to refresh my Control Center screen to see what my Tstat was up to and suddenly I began to get really crappy numbers and I havent gotten any good ones since.

What is the best way to try and find out what is causing noise in my system? Could other peoples houses be affecting my house? I ask because when I was up really early on a saturday I had no problems and then the next day I had issues? I changed nothing in my hosue and I have filter links on any major appliances.

Sorry for the long post. Anything helps!
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BeachBum
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Posted: May 04 2009 at 12:04 | IP Logged Quote BeachBum

To isolate it the old tried and true method is to start killing circuits. This can be done by either circuit breakers or the individual devices. I have not seen other houses causing a problem unless it was X10 which could bleed over. Most likely something in your house has gone bad. Over the years I’ve heard, and myself saying the same thing, “nothing has changed” but something did. Sorry I’m not much help but I don’t know of any magical way to point the finger.

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cruelkix
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Posted: May 04 2009 at 12:37 | IP Logged Quote cruelkix

BeachBum wrote:
To isolate it the old tried and true method is to start killing circuits. This can be done by either circuit breakers or the individual devices. I have not seen other houses causing a problem unless it was X10 which could bleed over. Most likely something in your house has gone bad. Over the years I’ve heard, and myself saying the same thing, “nothing has changed” but something did. Sorry I’m not much help but I don’t know of any magical way to point the finger.


I guess I could try killing circuits. It'll be fun to see how quickly that pisses the wife off. I was reading some of your older posts and I think I'll try plugging one of my access points into my PLC as well.
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nadler
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Posted: May 04 2009 at 16:13 | IP Logged Quote nadler

Just for a point of reference, these are the things that
affected my installation.

In order of importance:

  1. Computer Power Supply
  2. Laptop Power
    Supply
  3. Cell Phone Power Supply
  4. Vacuum
    Cleaner
  5. CFL


When I moved from the PLC to the PLM I seemed to have
some noise issues. I moved my PC to a different circuit
and put it behind a filterlinc and that seemed to help a
great deal. Whenever my kids came over and plugged in
their various laptops and phones I seemed to have a
problem with noise. We traced it to a bad power supply
with one of my son's laptops. I have since installed a
'charging station' behind a filterlinc into which we
plug all our various chargers. I also think old X-10
devices affected line noise. I'm totally Insteon now
and would say I am 99.99% insteon reliable.

I have 2 Venstar thermostats which work for months at a
time without problems. Occasionally I get a -1 reading
on one or the other thermostat. If I unplug the insteon
module to the thermostat and then reset it by holding
down the side button and replug it into the thermostat
it works again. I have version 1.0 of the insteon
module which I probably should return and get the
latest. From what I can tell it is a module issue and
not a communication issue.

Hope this gives you some things to check.
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cruelkix
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Posted: May 04 2009 at 17:29 | IP Logged Quote cruelkix

nadler wrote:

In order of importance:

  1. Computer Power Supply
  2. Laptop Power
    Supply
  3. Cell Phone Power Supply
  4. Vacuum
    Cleaner
  5. CFL




When you say CFL, I'm assuming you mean Compact Florescent Lights. Are you talking the gas filled tube kind? I have 4 Four Foot Long ones in my basement that are the main lighting for that area. I also have like 9 of them in my garage. I keep my server in the basement (Thing is loud!). Do you think that that could be cuasing a lot of the interference? How did you resolve it?

Thanks,
Craig

Edited by cruelkix - May 04 2009 at 17:37
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BeachBum
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Posted: May 04 2009 at 17:37 | IP Logged Quote BeachBum

I have heard that some people are experiencing problems with the CFLs but I have not had the problem and it may be more to who the manufacture is rather than CFLs in general. About 85% of my house has them and they are the dimmable variety. You can check if they are the problem by switching them off.

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nadler
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Posted: May 05 2009 at 19:17 | IP Logged Quote nadler

I have the long ones in my basement also. They don't
seem to be a problem. But I think Pete is right, though
about certain brands. I've had trouble with the high
hat types that are supposedly dimmable. I don't recall
the brand though.
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RichardL
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Posted: September 23 2009 at 23:32 | IP Logged Quote RichardL

I have a decent amount of fluorescent lights and low voltage lights. In the fluorescent fixtures (the one closest to the feed for multiples) I have installed the in-line Levitton noise blocks. I have to imagine that these help. I still have noise though (KPL buttons flash). I do have to perform some due diligence on misc chargers that roam around the house...
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