Hi all --

I have a CM11A and Home Director (same as active home I guess) set up to turn on and dim lights at 20 min before dusk. I programmed the unit, then moved it to another location in the house to get it away from all the interference created by the computer that I programmed it on. The first evening, it turned on and dimmed three of the four modules approx 2 hrs prior to dusk (not 20 minutes as programmed), and the second night nothing happened.

I have gone through all of the settings (time, etc.) five times and nothing that I see is incorrect. I also have this unit on an outlet with a mini controller, so I know the signal path is clean from that outlet to all the modules to be controlled because I tested it with the mini controller.

Any ideas on what is going on here? Why is this thing not sending the proper commands at the proper time? A bad unit?

-- Mike

When you see a problem, plug the CM11A into your computer and check it's internal time setting. You'll probably find that it's off.

The CM11A has a known problem which occurs if you leave the programming cord attached to the CM11A but DON'T leave it attatched to a computer. The CM11A's internal clock will randomly reset itself gaining or losing hours at a time. The fix is to unplug the programming cord from the CM11A whenever you aren't actively programing it.

Another, but less dramtic, issue is that the CM11A's internal clock really isn't a clock. It keeps time by counting the A/C cycles on your powerline with 60 cycles registering as one second. This isn't a terribly accurate method for keeping time so it will drift off requiring periodic resetting.

If you want an accurate clock, and greatly expanded programming flexibility, look at the Ocelot for about $150. For ~$40 you can't beat the capabilities of the CM11A but you have to live with it's limitations.

Larry,

Each time I check/reset the CM11A's internal time clock, its been correct (did this like 5 times 'cause I thought that'd do the trick). Also, I've removed the programming cord immediately in order to move the unit to another location, so I don't think that could be causing this particular problem.

Anyone else? Larry -- any other ideas...

I can think of three possibilities:

1. You have mistakes in your program

2. The CM11A isn't the source of the errant signals

3. The CM11A is bad

jmscott

I don't know if I'll be of help or not, but I can say that I have been using the X-10 stuff for about four years now. I too owned the Home Director unit. I know some people run the X-10 system with good results, according to the posts I see, but I find X-10 in general a horror show.

Some times the system will work for weeks then all of a sudden no lights will come on, lights will come on for know reason, timimg will be off, switches fail. I have used blockers, repeaters and quality switches.

I am now at the point that I am going to take then entire X-10 lot and throw it in the garbage. I am looking at the Lutron systems. I am fed-up with X-10 unreliablity and I have spent far too much time and energy on it. It is more trouble than it is worth, for me anyway.

If you are having problems already, you may want to quit while you have 'invested' very little of your time and money.

I have posted a couple of posts related to recent Leviton purchases only hoping to salvage some face in light of the fact I dropped a couple of hundred dollars on the stuff.

For ME, X-10 is in general, crap.

Glenn

Glenn,

Just because you have had problems with X10 don't condemn it all. You MUST take the time to properly couple AND get noise levels down on your power lines by filtering the noise at the source. If you don't do this, it will be crap, but that not it's fault. Most of the problems with X10 come from a lack of understanding of how and why it works. I put properly installed X10 in multi million dollar homes and very very rarely do I get and service calls, so I know it works reliably years on end.

As for Lutron, it's nice but even their high dollar Radio RA has plenty of problems. I was in a seminar recently of professional installers, and you should have heard the grumbling of these installers when someone mentioned Radio RA, RF reliability. So don’t think Radio RA is going to work magic for you. If you have great RF transmission and no interference from other RF generating devices it works fine, but the same can be said if X10 is set up properly.

Bill
www.homeautomationnet.com

Well for three nights now the unit has turned on and dimmed the lights in the same fashion, so I now have a reproducable problem. The issue is that it turns the units on approx 2 hours earlier than its programmed to do, and only turns on 3 of four devices. The programming and internal time clock are definitely all correct.

Think I have a bad unit? Is it common to have an "out of box" failure for this part?

CM11A’s, which is what the home director is, are very reliable and I have not heard of them just going off and doing things at a regular intervals. Try changing house codes to make sure commands are not coming from another source. Homeseer www.homeseer.com also has some freeware (not their for sale program) on their site. I haven’t used this but have been told it's quite a bit better than the Home Director program. Active Home will also works in your interface. Changing software would eliminate the software glitch possibility, but try house code change first. I have sold hundreds of these kits and this would be the first failure like this and I really don't think this is going top end up a hardware problem.

Bill
www.homeautomationnet.com

Mike : I had a similar problem with the time occur when daylight savings time kicked in. It seems that the home director was compensating for day light savings time on the time that the computer sent to it. The computer already had the correct time so the home director was turning on my lights too early. I can't remember exactly how I got mine to be back in sync but I believe I turned off day light savings time in both the PC and the home director and adjusted the time manually.

from Larry "Another, but less dramtic, issue is that the CM11A's internal clock really isn't a clock. It keeps time by counting the A/C cycles on your powerline with 60 cycles registering as one second. This isn't a terribly accurate method for keeping time so it will drift off requiring periodic resetting."

actually Larry the 60 Hz signal is very accurately controlled by the utilities. In order for all the utility companies to share a common power grid across North America they all have to remain in sync with all of their generators. If one generator is slow for a period of time they will actually increase the frequency for the same amount of time to get back in sync.

The 60Hz frequency of the A/C power may be accurate but the time kept by the CM11A by counting those cycles is not.