X10 Question - Why do these lights work?

[DerbyDad03]

Here's my set up:

1 outside light connected to a WS4777 Three-Way Master and Slave Switch Set 1 outside light connected to a WS467 single switch 1 MS16A motion detector, set to turn the lights off after 10 minutes of no motion 1 RR501, set to communicate with the MS16A and send it's on/off signals to the switches.

This set up has work fairly well for over a year, although I occasionally have an issue where the lights will stay on indefinitely as if the RR501 is not receiving the OFF signal from the MS16A.

Well, last week I needed to use the garage outlet where the RR501 was plugged into, so I unplugged it. I assumed that the outside light setup would no longer work since the RR501 was no longer controlling the system.

Well, much to my surprise, the lights come on when motion is detected and 10 minutes later (assuming no motion) they go off. How is this happening? Does the MS16A communicate directly with the switches, meaning that I never needed the RR501 in the first place?

[trader4]

If I didn't know you better, I'd swear you were a troll. So, have you been drinking?

Seriously, I don't know how that could be happening, unless it's some supernatural thing. The MS16 is wireless and AFAIK, the switches are wireline only. Without the RR501 transceiver, I don't see how the wireless signal gets to the switches. I have a similar settup here and without the RR501 the lights here don't go on. I'll check it when I get a chance and let you know for sure, but I know I've unplugged the RR501 to use the outlet for something else, forgot to put it back, and the lights did not work.

[DerbyDad03]

This is not a troll and I quit drinking many years ago.

Seriously, I'm as surprised as you appear to be. There's no more Clack On/Clack Off from the RR501 (obviously!) yet the lights still do their thing. In fact, they seem to turn OFF more consistently than they did with the RR501 installed.

[JIMMIE]

Cant even imagine using an RR501 in the system now that I checked to see what it is . The motion detector will control the lights without it.

Jimmie

[trader4]

How does a wireless motion sensor control lights on an X10 switch without the RR501 transceiver? The whole point to the RR501 is to receive wireless signals and put them on the wireline. The switches do not have wireless receivers in them, AFAIK. Explain please.

[trader4]

The RR501 is the transceiver that receives the wireless signal from a wireless device and puts in on the wireline as an X10 signal. The switches AFAIK do not receive wireless signals directly. There is nothing in the spec sheet or instructions that I have seen that indicates the switches DerbyDad is using are capable of receiving a wireless signal directly. If you have a link that says otherwise, I'd like to see it.

[DerbyDad03]

I actually tried that last night and I believe that you are right.

With the basement RR501 unplugged, the sensor for the front lights does not turn the lights on.

With basement RR501 plugged in, the relay doesn't fire since the unit codes do not match, but the signal apparently gets sent to the switches.

Based on the location of the outside sensor and the basement RR501, I'm surprised that the wireless signal reaches the basement RR501. Since it turns the lights off more consistently than the one that I had in the garage (much closer to the sensor) I'm just going to stick with the one RR501 in the basement.

However, I'm still confused as to why the basement sensor doesn't turn on the front lights when it fires the relay in the basement RR501. Shouldn't the basement ON signal be passed along to the switches also? That is definitely not happening.

[trader4]

Aren't the front lights on a different code than the basement RR501? If so, that's the reason.

[DerbyDad03]

Yes, the unit code for MS16A for the front lights is set at 1 while the basement is set at 9.

But why does the basement RR501 pass along the ON/OFF signal from the front MS16 to the switches but not pass along the ON/OFF signals from the basement MS16A?

[trader4]

ystem, or at a

I'm confused here. It's not clear exactly what you have and what works and what doesn't. I thought you had:

one RR501, wireless motion detector, X10 switches on front lights upstairs set to code 1

one RR501, wireless motion detector, X10 switches on lights in basement set to code 9?

And that all that worked properly. Then you removed the RR501 upstairs and noticed that the lights upstairs still worked. The reason for that is the codes are still being picked up wirelessly by the basement RR501 and put on the wireline as X10 codes.

What exactly isn't working the way you expect?