Hi Folks,

I have 3 PCS switches and I love the way they work. Up until now they all have been reliable, the scene lighting is great.

Ok, my problem: The PCS switch in my kitchen occasionally blinks the light on than off when I manually hit the on rocker and then fades up to full brightness like it's programmed to do.

It may just be a coincidence but so far it seems like the problem occurs when the light has been off for a while and I turn it on. In other words, when I turn the light on and it goofs up, I test it by turning the switch off and on a few times and the problem doesn't reappear but a few hours later when the light is off and I turn it on again it may do it again.

It doesn't do it all the time and it so far hasn't blinked off and on than fade down to off when I manually hit the off rocker, it's only doing it going from off to on.

The switch is the 600 watt model and the load consists of 4 60W ceiling recessed flood lights for a total load of just 240W.

Has anyone ever had or heard of a problem like this?

-Tom A.

I've never seen the behavior that you describe but my initial impression is that it could be either noise or a bad switch. Luckily, if it's a bad switch, PCS has a great warrantee.

If you have a noise meter I'd take a few readings to see what's on your line but most folks don't have one handy.

One way to troubleshoot would be to swap this switch with another PCS switch to see if the problem moves with the switch or stays at your kitchen light. Swapping the switches and re-programming will be a pain but, without a test meter, I think it's the easiest first step.

I have two other possible suggestions. I've noticed that Halogen lights are less reliable than regular incandescent bulbs with x10 dimmers. PCS switches seem to handle them better, but I have had issues. A lot of recessed lights are halogen, so it's possible that could be part of it. It could also be that the bulbs are starting to go. Is it all of them that flicker, or just one?

I had a case with a PCS plug in module that had one halogen light as A10 and a separate incandescent as A9 that turning on A9, or even dimming A9 would always turn on A10. I thought for a long time that my module was broken. But just last night I changed out the Halogen lamp for a regular one and the problem went away.

Just my 2 cents.

Cheers,
John

John,

I took Tom's description as saying that the lights were incandescent but you're right, he wasn't that specific. If the lights are other than incandescent then that definitely could be the problem. Lacking a noise meter, swapping the switches around would narrow it down a bit.

Halogen lights ARE incandescent, however, a lot of older/cheaper line voltage halogen lamps have diodes built into them...this is what messes with x-10.

My floods are indeed incandescent and total wattage is only 240 watts.

I took the switch out of the wall today just to make sure all the connections were good and that there was ample room around the switch for heat dissapation and everything appears to be in good order. I touched the back of the switch and while it was warm, it definitely was not hot.

I probably should have checked the load for amps but I didn't, I just confirmed the connections in the wire nuts were good.

I could take Larry's advice and try swapping the switch with one of my other's but as Larry pointed out, reprogramming it is a bit of a pain in the butt so I think before I do that I will contact PCS and see about a replacement.

It appears PCS offers a 5 year warrantee. That sounds quite reasonable to me and my switch is dated November 2000 so I would say that I shouldn't have too much problem getting a new one.

I'll keep everyone posted.

Thanks for the replies btw. :-)

-Tom A.

Just an update. I emailed PCS a few days ago about getting an RMA number but got no reply. I called them today and they told me I needed to go through the distributor to get a replacement.

So I called Worthington Distributors, the company I bought the PCS switch from figuring they might be a little difficult to work with. I bought the switches online so I had never dealt with them before.

I was completely satisfied with their response. When the girl answered the phone I asked for customer service figuring it was a big company (she answered the phone 'Worthington Group') and she would have to transfer my call but she said she could help me. I told her that I had what appeared to be a defective PCS switch and she just needed to know the model number and the serial number on the switch. I gave her that info, she gave me a RA number and said they could wait and send me a new switch once they got my old switch or they could send me out a new replacement today, charge my credit card and credit my card once the old one arrived back at their location.

I told her to ship the new one today. At least I can still use the old switch until the new one comes in. Assuming they credit my card back, I will be totally happy with their service and I have no reason to believe they won't credit my account.

I'll post a message once the new switch is in and if it corrects the quick flicker problem.

-Tom A.

Just wanted to post an update.

I got an RMA from my distributor and they sent me out a replacement switch. It took 5 minutes to replace the switch and 30 minutes to reprogram all my scenes. :-) No, I don't have 1000 scenes but I wasn't wise enough to record all the addresses that I have assigned to various scenes with the 3 PCS switches that I have.

All is working again and the new switch works just fine. I just hope this switch lasts a much longer time than the first one.

I was starting to get a little paranoid that I had done something wrong that made the lights flicker when turned on. I even got an email from PCS after I inquired about how to proceed with the warrantee claim stating that it sounded like an overload condition and that the switch is not designed to work with magnetic transformers.

So even though I got the new switch working, I decided to check the voltage at one of the flood light sockets and it read 115V so I assume that I have no transformer of any sort.

The only purpose of a magnetic transformer is to step the line voltage down to a lower voltage for the newer types of low voltage flood lights, correct? Kind of like the small 20 watt halogen desktop light that we have that has its own wall wart.

-Tom A.

Tom, This is not true, PCS can and does work with magnetic transformers. The problem is, it is quite rare these days to find halogens with magnetic transformers. Most manufacturers have gone to electronic transformers because of price. Electronic transformers spell death to PCS products quite fast. If PCS told you that it would not work with magnetic there must have been a misunderstanding. If you ever need more switches I will beat anything the other guys are offering, just ask.

Bill
www.homeautomationnet.com