A few good points have been made and I am somewhat on board with TouchCommander in thinking the neutral is shared but this does not explain the problem in the first room disappearing with the new receiver. Ernie brings up another very good point in saying to remove the Monster Power unit and see if there is any change. I can definitely imagine the problem coming from that unit but then again, what fixed the first problem. I keep coming back to RF interference so I think we should turn the system on and kill the control system to see if we can duplicate the problem with the light switch. This would at least put us on a solid path. Don’t leave us hanging on this Scotty. This is a very interesting thread and I really want to know the answer to your problem so I can archive it into my brain for future reference.

I too hope this is followed up as it is a very interesting problem.

I have suffered similair symptoms on a project. Coaxial digital audio from a Sonos ZP80 running about 60 metres along cat5e to an AVR in a rack. When the light switch for the room was operated the sound would drop out and return in a matter of a second or 3. Of course it didn't happen every time but I did know that the cable run for the AV was fairly close to where the cables for the light switch were - the sparkies had run the cables on this project and had a tough time keeping mains and AV apart.

My question to Sc0tty is this; you have not mentioned cabling between components on this job. Perhaps there are none in the fabric of the building - just interconnects between stuff on shelves or whatever - but if there are runs around the house they could be picking up strong RFI from the switches and an alterative connection method may help.

I'm going to test to see if I have really been reinstated....


Install one of the at each fan control AND don't sell sparky up the river

[Link: smarthomeusa.com]

Bump

I will certainly ask. From what I was told he ran a totally new wire from the panel to the outlet location. I was not there when the electrician came out, but there where new electrical outlets cut in behind the AV/ furniture.

Actually due to the zipties, and setup I used the same power cable as the first receiver. Just your standard 3 pin computer style power plug.

LOL. Nole would have us all wacked before we could say that was the problem.


Brand new home. Homeowner has only been in for about 6 months.


The systems back up (Family Room to Master closet) to each other so sparky in his infinite wisdom pulled a new dedicated circuit and continued it to the master closet. I thought nothing of it as we have them do it all the time for plasma, and projector locations so the display device is on the same circuit. My thought was that as long as we eliminated everything else in the home from that circuit we should be good..



Remember though that we have panamax in the family room and that system was doing the same thing before we changed the receiver.


Don't know why I did not think of that. Brain dead I guess. I will cetainly try that, but again I go back to the question of "why did it stop in the family room?"


We wired this home, and we do a good job of "High and Tight".

We are modulating the reciever in the master closet back to the structure panle, and combining that with an off-air antenna. That is the only thing going through the home. We use Genisis Quad shield, and as mentioned before go "High and Tight" with everything.

Scotty, are you back out there today?

No sir. I'm going back tomorrow late.

i will throw my 1.5 pennies worth in here. keep in mind that if you have a circuit that is not grounded properly then the feedback from that circuit is sent throughout the neutral buss in the panel. incandescent lights are terrible sources of noise and an improperly grounded circuit containing those lights can cause a temporary lull in voltage and peak in interference. if you flip on the light and it isn't grounded properly then you get what i would losely describe as a partial brownout. i would check the circuits that are affecting the system for proper grounding and go to the panel and make sure that all the connections are tight, as was stated earlier a spark, or lose connection can cause some trouble with your system.

you ask that if it was the case of bad wiring then why did it stop when you changed out the reciever in one room. you may have said , but is it the same reciever or a different unit, if it is a different unit, then maybe the unit you are using now has a better buss sytem for filtration built into it. it really could be that simple ( example- the high end Denon and Marrantz reciever are very much alike but the Marrantz has a copper buss which is amazing at eliminating noice in the system).

just a little electrical theory troubleshooting, hope this helped

good luck
proaudio

Thanks Pro. I'm not an electrician, but I'll ask sparky to check that the system is grounded properly.I would not feel comfortable checking out the electrical panel. I somehow though can't picture him going..." Oh my Gawwd (we're in FLA remember), I knew I forgot something!" Your right though. A bad ground could affect the whole system.

It was a new receiver. Changed a Z1 to a Z11. The one in the bedroom is a V-3800, so I guess the price I mentioned before should have been $1600 instead of $2500.

just a thought,

electricians have a peice of equipment called a MEGGER, it is used to check for arc faults and GROUNDING ISSUES. call an electrical contractor friend, get his megger, and put on lead in the outlet ground post and one in the dirt. that will tell you real quick if the system is grounded properly. 1 phone call, i favor called in, 10 seconds work, and your question is answered. just a thought , but i can understand your unwillingness to open the panel, so this will help get the same results (almost) as doing a physical connection check.

proaudio

Could you explain this a bit? I don't get it, and have added notes where I'm confuzzed.

What do you mean by feedback?

Incandescents are supposed to be just resistance, but it's a kind that is low resistance when cold, then increases greatly when hot but doesn't change rapidly enough for the resistance to fluctuate at 60 Hz. What kind of noise do you really get from these? I saw one once that buzzed -- you could hear it -- and it actually interfered with one UHF channel! But you're making a blanket statement.

I don't get this at all. Are you talking about the connection between the neutral and ground at the panel, or the ground of the panel (which would be many improperly grounded circuits). What is the action that causes a temporary lull in voltage? Do you mean a lull in voltage across the lamp? I would think that if that's what you mean, an improperly connected hot would be just a likely to cause a problem!

Again, what part grounded? Partial brownout. Hmmm. A brownout is a condition where line voltage is low over several cycles, over the entire cycle...how does that compare with what you're talking about?

But if the GROUND is good but the neutrals have lousy connections, you'll totally miss the problem. And yeah, also if the hots have lousy connections. I've seen a new outlet that tests good with a neon light but won't drive a drill. The electrician learned something that day.

A spark would be one tiny instant of arcing. I agree, but arcing may be more of a problem than sparking.

Excellent question! It turns out to be a different unit and a different model, and we have no guarantee that the same engineers used the same techniques throughout both units.

it really could be that simple --wait -- you said that! And you're right.

LOL.. You kill me Ernie.

I'm going there tonight. I'll eliminate the RF recievers, and the Monster surge in the bedroom to confirm that the issue is not related to them.

I'll let you guys know of anything I find.

Waiting patiently. :)

sounds like a neutral problem. probably not a true dedicated circuit.
is the panel balanced? pull out the amprobe.

Scotty, what happened today?