Led on but switch off

And how did it do that? Presumably for X-10 control the appliance is left on. Did it detect you turning the appliance off and then back on again and then apply power? That would make sense.

Because it has that optional circuit that other appliance modules don't have that we just learned about from Mark? IDK now, it's possible they all have that circuit. I know that the appliance modules I had were not capable of lighting a CFL like a wall switch would. Looks like that circuit passes ~25 ma, which may not be enough to light a CFL, but will light an LED.

A disconnected (as in turned off) LED acts as a deity detector. It lights because of the presence of a supreme being :-)

Maybe in a hall or kitchen, useful if you live in the country where it can get really dark. If possible, I don't accept ANY visible light in my bedroom.

I forget why I didn't modify them. Maybe it's time to consider it again. It should be easy (a 1N4004 diode looks different from a 1N4148 which all the others are).

BTW, I don't have any old enough to be identified "BSR".

The 25ma would have a duty cycle a little less than 50% (because of the diode). There should also be a short burst near the beginning of the cycle, because of the capacitor.

IIRC, a CFL itself requires more current than that, although the capacitors in the electronic ballast can store enough to activate it in short bursts.

A LED will produce visible light with very little current (25ma is more than enough). An incandescent won't since 25ma won't heat it enough.

Doesn't on any of mine

True. I don't always know why. The first day after putting out Christmas lights, I need to check that everything really went off.

I accounted for that in the 25ma average. It's about twice that for

I guess that would depends on what size LEDs and how many there are. But I agree, it could explain why I've never seen an appliance module light up a bulb, I only have limited experience with using CFL.

So thanks for setting us straight. The real problem with X-10 is that it's basically low quality, low reliability, cheap stuff. It's OK for something where if it doesn't work sometimes it's no big deal. My most frustrating experience was where I had an appliance module that was working fine, with the controller in another room. Worked fine for a year, then suddenly stopped working. Yet that module would work fine in another receptacle. The controller and the module were on separate legs, which makes it less likely to work, but somehow it worked fine for a year. I even tried putting caps across the two legs, still wouldn't work.

It's simple. If a voltmeter across the output with the switch off reads less than about 15 volts the LEDs will not glow and the current sense is NOT enabled. No arguments required. Mine do not read a high enough voltage to light a line voltage led - period. My lamp modules do

That makes sense, and is about what I calculated.

And no collision detection, which explains why my system became even less reliable as I added more X10 stuff. I remember one thing I read about "recombinant commands" occurring when I tried to control one device and at the same time one of the motion detectors tried to control another. The result was a DIFFERENT device being operated.

I found X10 motion detectors to be worse than useless, since they didn't pay attention to what was going on when they sent their commands.

Yes, I kind of agree. They are OK if reliability isn't essential and unpredictable events like you cite above don't have bad consequences. It's an old, crude, cheap system that came out decades ago and that AFAIK, no one has put any more development into. On the other hand, if you have some simple, non-essential use for it, you can put something together for very little money. But for sure it's unsuitable for any serious home automation applications.

I used it for a motion detector to turn on lights above the garage. It worked OK, pretty reliable, certainly reliable enough for that. But the motion detectors only lasted about two years or less. But being $5 or whatever, that was acceptable too. And then when I tried to go to CFL, well you know what happened there. Three lights and the choice was either to put a regular bulb in one, in which case they don't look right, or not use CFL at all.

I don't have any experience with any other system, but hopefully the more expensive, modern ones work better. That experience I had where the appliance module worked for a couple years in one location, then with nothing identifiable changing in the house, suddenly stopped working. But it would work in some other receptacles. It was the only module I had at the time, would have been interesting to try a new one, possible it was degraded somehow. But I moved on to a different solution, ie putting the light on it's own simple timer.

Scott L is right. My Simpson is way off. No power touching terminals on wall switch. Nice sparks with leads touching neg, bottom wire on switch and skipping off and touching aluminum body of same. No x10.

F. Yous are all correct in that I do not know what I am doing. I will post the fix.

I have 2 that interfere, turn #1 on, no problem. Turn number 2 on and #1 goes off. Turn #2 on first - no problem. Turn #3 off (don't have #3 implemented -) and #1 goes off. Same with #4. Turn #3 off, and #1 goes off too. (using HR12A controller)

It could be acceptable on a simple system (such as ONE X10 transmitter). More complex systems have more trouble. I had a macro that controlled several devices in response to a single button. That I added a motion detector to replace that button, where the motion detector "ON" triggered the macro. Then the stupid motion detector would send an "OFF" right in the middle of the macro. Something went wrong almost 100% of the time.

After that I started using X10 just for a few simple things, rather than the extensive setup I used to have.

BTW, I did consider using "OFF" to trigger the macro. That was also unacceptable, since it meant I COULDN'T MOVE (so as to trigger another motion detector) until the macro finished.

That does sound like the kind of stuff that happened when I used X10 extensively. A similar thing with a later system (Z-wave?).

Fortunately I have virtually nothing invested in the system and I just use it for a few "convenience" items - all accessory lighting so it doesn't matter if it screws up - I just have to keep poking buttons 'till I get the results I'm looking for. It's not the controller because using the RCA HC40TX controller on #1 and #2 gives the same results- - - . The GE system is more reliable and does not interfere with the X10 and RCA (which are compatible systems) Seems today anything with RCA on it is crap.