X10

We've got an X-10 controller, and I think that perhaps the X stands for Usually it'll work....sometimes, it won't.

The way the controller works is, it transmits to a plugged-in transceiver. You push a button to turn a device on or off (it can handle up to 20; we have 1); the signal goes to the transceiver, which recognizes which devices the signal's for, and sends a signal of its own through the house wiring to the receiver that's part of whatever you're controlling. In our case, it's the switch for our outside lights. The switch is down in the garage. The idea of the controller is, we can remotely activate or deactivate it without having to go down into the garage. Very handy, except when it doesn't work. Oh, it'll work if you go down there and press the switch. But remotely? Not always.

According to the forum for X-10, the likely cause of the receiver switch not working is 'interference on the house wiring'. Something is putting a signal on the house wiring, and that's interfering with the transceiver's signal. It never gets to the switch. The only thing that's seemed to work is to move the plugged-in transceiver to a different socket. Why? Why did it work before and suddenly not? No idea. If I was up to it, I could get an oscilloscope, look at the wires on the switch, see what the status of the wire normally is, and then move the transceiver to a spot where it doesn't work, and to where it does, try to see what the difference would be. And, assuming I saw a difference -- I can recognize a sawtooth pattern, and a Lissajous, but as to what they mean, man, that was a long time ago -- do something about it.

Or I could just curse, and try moving the transceiver. Oh, look -- I fixed it!