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Battery Charger Interference with X10 System


murphy
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I have a Leviton 240 volt 16 amp charger.

I have an X10 system that controls lights and a camera.

 

At the end of the car charging cycle one or more of my X10 controlled lights may turn on.

It doesn't happen every time.

Usually it's the pole lamp in the front yard.

Second most often is the light in the master bathroom.

 

Does anyone have the same configuration of 240 volt charger and X10 lighting control?

 

If you do, have you encountered the same problem.

 

X10 uses 120 kHz pulses during the zero crossing of the AC waveform to do it's signalling.

 

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Come to think of it only wall switches have been turned on.  They are unique in that they don't have a neutral wire.  They depend on a small trickle current through the cold filament of an incandescent lamp bulb to work.

 

I changed the house code yesterday to see if that will have any effect.

 

My suspicion is that when the charger disconnects at the end of charging it is injecting noise onto the AC line.

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I don't have an X10 system, however, I have noticed a significant amount of interference generated on AM radio between 1000khz and 1400khz.  It comes across as a higher pitched noise, especially on weaker stations.  I've noted that it doesn't matter if the car is charging or not... so long as it is plugged in, it generates this noise, but it seems to be more intense while charging.  I have a detatched garage and it's about 70 feet from the house.  Charger is on the back wall which puts it at about 90 feet from the house.  I have the same charger as you - a Leviton 16 amp unit.

 

If you try to use AM radio in the car itself while it's plugged in, it pretty much washes out everything except the strongest stations at the aforementioned frequencies.

 

Never tried it with the 120v cord to see if I experience the same noise or not.

Edited by Russael
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I got a response from a Leviton engineer.

 

            Yes, that is possible that noise will do that. Unfortunately, we use to have filters that can be added to the actual switch/dimmer device, but they are no longer available. It was model 6287. Possibly try searching for X10 filters online or try to procure one through Amazon.

 

This guy has no clue how X10 works since adding a filter to an X10 device would prevent it from working.  The filter gets added to the offending device.

 

That said x10.com is out of business.

 

x10-pro, which apparently is a separate company, is trying to take over the product line.

 

http://x10pro-usa.com/about-us

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I have lots of those plug-in filters.  I also have a couple inline filters sitting in the basement.  It would take two inline filters in the 240 volt feed, one on each leg, to block the noise.  I am taking a different approach first.  I looked up the coding for the house code and as befits my user name I picked J when I got into X10 probably about 10 yeras ago.  The 4 bit code for J is 1111.  That is the worst pick if noise is present.  I have changed to a house code that has some zeros in it and will see if the problem still exists the next time I charge the car.  The best choice would be M (0000) but that is already in use for my macros.

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I'm using E and I have not had an issue so far with lights turning on since using the 240v charger.  The only odd occurrence was when I bought a new clock radio for my master bedroom.  After plugging that in the PalmPad Remote Control stopped working so I have to use a Plug In Remote Control.  I don't know why that is.

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