Flashing Lights/ Not the good kind

J

jasonmartin1313

New Member
I have had my HAI system installed and operation no major issues for almost a yeasr now. Every once in a while my lights in certain rooms will go crazy. But last night/ today things are out of control. Lights in almost every area are flickering to full intensity like flash cubes. They will be fine fow say 5 minute and then go crazy for 15 seconds and then repeat. They flash so fast it hurts your eyes. I havent done any changes or additions in the past 2 weeks. I can control the lights no problem either remote or locally. I have done some searching and see that most filters are installed at the noise device but I do not know what is causing it or for that matter if that is what it is. I do not have a phase coupler fyi. The house is new, I know I have some noise because i sometimes have trouble getting into my pim to make changes due to noise. Tell me where to look if you can :mellow:
 
HAIJason said:
I have had my HAI system installed and operation no major issues for almost a yeasr now. Every once in a while my lights in certain rooms will go crazy. But last night/ today things are out of control. Lights in almost every area are flickering to full intensity like flash cubes. They will be fine fow say 5 minute and then go crazy for 15 seconds and then repeat. They flash so fast it hurts your eyes. I havent done any changes or additions in the past 2 weeks. I can control the lights no problem either remote or locally. I have done some searching and see that most filters are installed at the noise device but I do not know what is causing it or for that matter if that is what it is. I do not have a phase coupler fyi. The house is new, I know I have some noise because i sometimes have trouble getting into my pim to make changes due to noise. Tell me where to look if you can :mellow:
Click to expand...
Are the devices flashing X10 devices?
 
I am assuming you have an OPII installed.
I would disconnect the PIM from the OPII and see what happens. That way you can at least isolate the problem to either the controller or noise levels in the house. From my personal experience, a high noise level just makes the lights not respond to commands rather than making the lights act on their own.
My first guess would be that there is something in your programming (PC Access) that is triggering your lights to go nuts.
 
HAIJason said:
I have had my HAI system installed and operation no major issues for almost a yeasr now. Every once in a while my lights in certain rooms will go crazy. But last night/ today things are out of control. Lights in almost every area are flickering to full intensity like flash cubes. They will be fine fow say 5 minute and then go crazy for 15 seconds and then repeat. They flash so fast it hurts your eyes. I havent done any changes or additions in the past 2 weeks. I can control the lights no problem either remote or locally. I have done some searching and see that most filters are installed at the noise device but I do not know what is causing it or for that matter if that is what it is. I do not have a phase coupler fyi. The house is new, I know I have some noise because i sometimes have trouble getting into my pim to make changes due to noise. Tell me where to look if you can ;)
Click to expand...

Wow, this is a great puzzler. It really cant be simple noise on the line that is causing it. Unlike X10, UPB commands are complex enough (and have a check sum) that the odds of a random packet actually being valid are really slim. Also, there is no UPB command that I know of that will cause a light to flicker the way you describe. So even a device, like your pim, sending unintended commands is not likely. I suppose that if the "noise" was really bad (like huge voltage spikes) it could overwhelm the electronics... but even that sounds like a stretch, non-UPB devices would also be affected. As others have mentioned, noise usually just causes commands to be missed.

The flickering sounds like the key here. Is there any chance you have a lose wire somewhere? The wind blows, the wall shakes, the wire jiggles, the lights flicker? Were the flickering lights already on when they started to flake out? Are the lights flickering in unison or each randomly? Are the lights CFLs? How long do they flicker for? Do they respond to local control while flickering? Are any non-UPB devices acting oddly?

I'd say you have a couple of bad switches but the chance of many failing at the same time and in the same way is remote. My money is on something common to all of them.
 
After some more observing , I notice that; only light that are on flicker, they flicker for ~10 seconds very fast very random pattern, and then resume to normal for 23 seconds, and repeat. Multiple rooms all at the same time as long as they are on. At first it seemed phase specific but I do notice some rooms that I thought were trouble free are not. Normal lighting (non upb) are fine.
Today I used the noise meter, shut down all breakers and turned one on at a time until the noise went extreme 10+, I noticed the main culprit to be the UPS for my omni. After removing the ups I was able to turn all breakers on and have a medium level noise. yet tonight the level is back to severe. I have to run this test again. It seems the problem is worse at night but that could have to do with the fact it is dark out and much more obvious. The only thing that I can think of now that is on now but wasnt this afternoon is my outdoor lighting transformer. Off to try disconnecting that I guess.
 
It is strange indeed. I sometimes have very high level of noise, like 25+ and while it can affect comm/signals I have never seen any false control (like on/off) due to noise. The only thing I can think of that wasn't mentioned yet is that there is a Blink command in UPB that can be set as low as .25 second interval. But that should be a very fast and steady blink. Maybe somehow the switches are seeing a blink command where the interval changes or they are different types of lights where the fast on/off makes them seem erratic? Hard to imagine that though if the PIM is disconnected. You don't have any other point of control like pc/software? Or another angle - does it ever seem to start after you manually control some other switch in the house? Maybe some switch when activated send out a blink link or something?

I know I am reaching for straws, but it is a very weird problem.
 
Thanks for the ideas, its def not the .25 flash, thats way to slow, we are talking flashing like a camera flash, so fast it seems like a strobe light going off
 
HAIJason said:
pim, unplugged, from the wall, also tried replacing it altogether.
Click to expand...


I have had a HAI dimmer have light flashing probelms. But it was a single dimmer that was defective.

If its multiple HAI switches are behaving in the same way there is obviously something coming across the wire that is impacting the switches. Maybe they are interpreting something as wierd commands? Or could this be related to some kind of over voltage issues that occurs? It would be interesting to see what that power looks like as things cycle between the 10 seconds of crazyness and the 23 seconds of normalcy.
 
I'm beginning to wonder if there isn't some arcing occurring inside the panel or somewhere else in the electrical wiring. I don't think arcing is imitating valid UPB commands -- that seems unlikely. Rather, I think it's having some more direct effect on the dimming circuits, maybe causing the triacs to skip cycles, or messing with the trigger circuits.
 
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