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Art Todesco Art Todesco is offline
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Default X10 with ungrounded Shop Light...Bad idea?

On 9/6/2011 9:32 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On 09/06/11 8:51 PM, Bob wrote:
On 9/6/2011 17:31, DerbyDad03 wrote:
I am trying to control an el-cheapo 2 bulb 4' florescent Shop Light with
an MS16A Motion Sensor and an RR501 Transceiver.

The shop light has a 3 prong plug, but the Transceiver only has a 2
prong receptacle, so I used a 3 prong adapter to plug the shop light
into the Transceiver.

What I'm finding is that (99% of the time) when the sensor sends the
signal to turn off the Shop Light, it turns off and then immediately
comes back on. The Transceiver goes click-off-click-on.


I've experienced this problem with modern fluorescent lights. My
un-elegant solution was to have a plain old incandescent night light on
the same load. As for grounding, in many cases it's important with shop
lights. Run a jumper wire from the outlet ground to the pigtail on the
adapter plug.



Thanks! I tried the incandescent lamp and it solved the problem.

"Run a jumper wire from the outlet ground to the pigtail on the
adapter plug."

You are assuming there's an outlet ground. Bad assumption. :-(


Your fluorescent shop light's starting circuit is probably getting
tickled by the
X10 "local ON" sensing current. Normally, if a lamp, say is off, and
you want it on,
you can either send the appropriate X10 command, or, using the lamp's
switch, turn
it off and then back on. The module will then turn on. CFLs and some
fluorescent
lamps will cause this problem. I had one CFL that wouldn't come on, but
the lamp
would flicker. Also, LED Christmas light will light dimly on the sense
current. Google 'x10 local on sense current' for info on modifying
appliance modules. I've disconnected
the sense current on several lamp modules that I modified into click
free appliance
modules. No problems now with CFLs or LED Christmas lights.