Exactly, X10 operates at 121 kHz and we want to couple as much of that signal as possible. By using a tuned circuit we have the lowest possible loss at the desired frequency. Its the absolute best you can get with passive circuitry.
Sure it will. Its classic AC circuit theory and it works in practice.
Can you get a roll of thin insultated wire that will reach the other building? You only need one conductor.
Can't you connect a vottmeter, set to 500VAC or to 200 VAC (if you have some sort of meter protection, or maybe 220 or 240 won't blow it. What do you use to measure the voltage at the AC, water heater, or stove?)
from the hot side of a receptacle you know works to the hot side of a receptacle you're testing. If they are on the same leg, the meter will read zero. If they are on different legs, it will read 220 (IIRC, not 240)
You can attach one end of the wire to a polarized plug, with just about any kind of stranded insulated wire, and just carry the meter from receptacle to receptacle. It doesn't have to be heavy wire because the voltmeter will prevent all but a trickle of current.
If you test the wrong slot, it will say 220 or 240, so test the other slot. It will either say 220/240 or zero. If it says zero or close** since zero can't be the neutral, that means the receptacle is wired backwards, and it is the hot on the same leg as your baseline receptacle.
Or just start off with one of those 3 LED things that tests if a receptacle is wired correctly.
P&M, Is that a valid address?
**BTW, digital meters (really, high impedance meters) everyone says are subject to stray voltages and might read 40 volts even when there is no connection to hot, so if you get confusing results, do the test again with a low impedance meter, which means an analog meter, also on the 250 VAC scale. (Digital meters are 11megohms/volt. Orr sometimes more?. Analog 20K or maybe 50K per volt, but a lot lower and they drain off the stray voltage without showing anyt hing in the meter. IIUC.
Expanding on this, you only have to find one recepticle in the other building, and then use the method in my long post to find other receptacles in that building on the same leg.
rote:
Not exactly. You only need a tuned circuit if you also seek to
*not* pass the low frequencies. Otherwise a capacitor passes the high frequency X10 signal just as well as a tuned circuit. Since there is nothing to suggest that there is a need to reject low frequencies, the cap is all that is needed.In my world, AC circuit theory says that as the frequency increases, the impedance of a capacitor drops. Do a plot of the signal that makes it across the capacitor that is used as a high pass filter and as the frequency goes up, the signal asymptotically approaches
100%. You can't get more than 100%.With a high pass filter, eg a cap, you have a curve that rises and asymptotically approaches 100% as the freq rises. With a low pass filter, eg an inductor, you have a curve where it passes 100% at low freq and asymptotically declines to zero as the freq increases..
With a tuned circuit, you have a combination of the two, with a bell shaped curve that passes frequencies that it's tuned for, with the curve asymptotically appoaching zero at very high and low freq, away from the tuning point.
None of that says that the tuned circuit is going to pass any more of the X10 signal than a simple cap.
Wrong again. A tuned circuit will work for a CW sine wave. That's not what X10 is.
Nonsense. A cap works fine, unless there is interference on the other leg. If there is, a tank isn't going to do a damned thing either.
It depends on what the freq spectrum of the X10 signal looks like. Typically for any transmission technique like that, the signal is in fact confined to a narrow freq range. As long as the filter is tuned to pass that freq range, it will pass the signal. So unless something very unusual is being done with X10, I don't see why a tuned filter would not work.
Actually, looking at it in more detail now, the X10 transmission scheme is just the presence or absence of a short burst at 120khz that occurs at the zero crossing of the AC power. I thought previously it was in the Mhz range, but that is the X10 freq they use for wireless X10.
So you could either have a high pass filter consisting of just a cap, or a tuned circuit. The key is that either must be passing 120khz. Other than the tuned circuit rejecting any interference that might be present above 120khz, they are going to be performing the same function.
If it is tuned, then the tuned filter will reject frequencies above and below the freq of the filter. So if there was interference at a higher freq, it will not be coupled across.
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You guys keep talking about an X10. What the hell is an X10 anyhow?
As I said, what I have is an Instajack. It's purpose is to transmit a landline phone signal to another location.
This is correct. Separate service panel on same meter and transformer.
The most common carrier current appliance found in homes (by far).
It might have helped if you'd specified this in the beginning instead of left people to guess.
That site has problems, but X10 is not limited to that site or supplier. It you want X10, look elsewhere.
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