Hi everybody,
I have gone through a lot of forums and could't find a similar problem to mine: here it is:
when I try to dim a lamp (connected to a lamp module) with either a Palmpad or an 8in1 remote, the lamp will dim all the way to total darkness (no increments at all) and then I can't turn it on or off at all for a couple of minutes. I can move the transceiver to another location and everything will work fine for a couple days, and then it starts all over again! Can anybody help please?
Thanks a million!

What Brand/model is your lamp module?
What total wattage of light(s) are you having it control? How old of a house are you living in?I'm suspicious that the lamp module is overheating/failing. The Palmpad and 8in1 both use RF sent to a RF transceiver module. Do you have another identical lamp module that works perfectly all the time? There's a small chance the transceiver is flawed, but you can eliminate that from worry if all your other X-10 devices are OK when controlled thru this transceiver.

Dave

Hi David,
These are all regular X-10 stuff. I have two lamp modules (one has a 300W Halogen Torche lamp connected to it and the other one has a 100W incandescent lamp) that are doing exactly the same thing at the same time. I have another transceiver which I have tried and have the same problem!
Thanks for your reply!

The lamp modules are typically not recommended for the following:
- halogen lamps
- lamps with dimmers
- lamps >300W

Although a lamp module may turn ON/OFF those dimmable halogen lamps, I don't think it's safe to "dim" them, so I have read.

I've used an appliance module with a halogen lamp with success, but obviously, no dimming feature available with that module.

Have you tried unplugging the halogen lamp and seeing if the other incandescent lamp works?

If none of these are the case, it almost seems that maybe the DIM button is faulty (not releasing when you let go of the button) and it's sending a constant DIM command causing it to flood the transceiver with the RF signal and blocking out any other commands. Then by unplugging and replugging in the transceiver, you've "flushed-out" the flood of commands and cleared your house of the signal.

Probably a far stretch, but who knows???

The other day, I was programming an X-10 lighting sequence using the Commander-X software and accidentally flooded the transceiver with probably 50-100 quick repetitive commands. I noticed then that nothing in the house worked by PalmPad or by computer -- although locally, the switches worked. When I unplugged the transceiver and replugged it back in, everything was back to normal.

Roland

Someone posted about this at comp.home.automation using the firecracker. I think it turned out to be the transciever.

Both lamp module respond the same way.
Both remotes are RF, and both work the same way.

It's unlikey that two lamp modules would fail the same way at the same time (except in a lightening storm, and totally). It's unlikely both remotes would have a button stick identically.

The only common thread left is the transceiver. Ed is right, I'm afraid. Try replacing it.

Dave