OmniPro 2 no X10 (possibly after battery replacement)

[firepuppy]

I have been helping a friend maintain an OmniPro 2 system for several years now with mostly good results; she has a fairly complex system with a couple consoles, 1 Omnistat, 7-8 shades (RadioRA) & misc X10 units for lights & heaters along with basic alarm zones.  Sometime early this year she lost the ability to control the X10s.  System still responds correctly to consoles, PC Access & NQLink, status lights in OP2 (and expansion box) look normal, all sensors appear to be working correctly and shades go up and down.
 
In April (when the condo was unoccupied) at least one of the backup batteries began to fail and supposedly started beeping (is this correct?).  The maintenance staff noticed it and called the local alarm company, who were NOT familiar with the system at all, and WITHOUT consulting the owner.  They came out and supposedly replaced both batteries (in the OP2 & Expansion box).  The timing of this replacement may or may not have coincided with the inability to control the X10 modules.
 
Can anyone suggest how I might go about debugging this issue?  I am much more of a software guy than hardware, and this is the ONLY HAI system I have messed with, but I have some basic skills with a multimeter.  I did see something about a correct way to power up the system after battery replacement, but not sure if that would apply in this case.
 
Thanks for any replies...
 

 

[pete_c]

Welcome to the Cocoontech forum @firepuppy
 
backup batteries began to fail and supposedly started beeping (is this correct?).
 
You get error beeps when the batteries go low.
 
The timing of this replacement may or may not have coincided with the inability to control the X10 modules.
 
I am doubting that replacing the batteries would have any effect on controlling X10 devices.
 
 
 
Guessing if youi cannot control any X10 modules it could be a bad HAI TW-523 PIM or so much powerline noise that it hampers the transmission of and reception of X-10 device control.
 
In my years of using an HAI TW-523 / OmniPro 2 panel(s) I have not had a bad TW-523.  I have had powerline noise.
 
Fastest way to debug would be replace the TW-523 X10 PIM first.  If the problems remain then next steps is to check for power line noise with a meter.
 
Call or write to Jeff Volp at JV Digital Engineering for help with your endeavor.

Where are you located?

 

[RAL]

Pete_c mentioned power line noise.  I think I would try and eliminate that possibility before I replaced the TW-253.   Noise can be created by a lot of sources, including inexpensive and off-brand LED light bulbs and cheap cell phone chargers.  Pretty much anything with a wall wart type power supply.  So if a bulb or charger added or replaced around the time things stopped working, consider that.
 
Start by turning off circuit breakers for everything but the OmniPro and the X10 device that needs to be controlled.  See if that fixes the problem.  If it does, start turning on other circuit breakers one by one until things stop working.  Then, check what's on that last circuit to see if there is a possible noise source.

 

[firepuppy]

Thanks for the quick replies.
I didn't think noise was the most likely culprit for two reasons:

1. She hadn't replaced any lights or other devices around the time she lost control of the X10's.
2. I was able to use an old Radio Shack X10 61-2690 controller to control the devices successfully.

I ended up replacing the PSC05 PIM with one of Jeff's XTB-523's and it corrected the problem immediately!
Thanks again (especially to Pete for pointing me to Jeff Volp).

 

[pete_c]

Good news @firepuppy.