UPB and halogen noise

[acheslow]

Did you ever confirm if they were low voltage?

I haven't had the chance to fully unscrew the plates at the ceiling to see if there are transformers underneath but based on the size of the plates and the type of bulbs I'm now pretty sure that these are low voltage.

Edenlights, no phase coupler installed, I think it was just the low voltage transformers.

 

[gduprey]

The other thing to do is look at the bulbs themselves and then check their ratings. They'll probably have a voltage stamped on them. Especially if they look like an MR16 or MR11, they are probably low-volt.

The xformer in the base, if there is one, is most likely electronic (vs magnetic). I've never had a problem with magnetic xformers or about 80% of the electronic ones. But I have run into about 5 electronic xformers that just destroyed everything on the line when they were on (some at any level, others at certain levels). I even had a malfunctioning one that, until I investigated the noise problem, was making me think the fixture was bad (lights were way too dim to be useful).

In 2 cases, where space was at a premium, I replaced them with better quality electronic xformers and they were fine. In the other cases, I replaced them with magnetic xformers.

With better quality electronic xformers, I can dim them pretty well (magnetics are always OK) but there are some strange on/off transition effects that can occur. For example, when I have them ramp up and down, some will ramp up OK, but when ramping down, they get near the end of the ramp (off) and then flicker a few times. There also seems to often be a minimal "on" rate and below that, if off, they won't come on and then when you reach that rate, they snap on.

It is solvable, but a pain.

Once I fixed those issues up, UPB has been rock solid (76 wall switches, 22 appliance/lamp modules and a handful of digital IO sensors).

Gerry

 

[acheslow]

I ended up configuring the swtich as non-dimmable, which kind of sucks as far as setting up nice-looking scenes, but I'm still seeing some reliability issues. It seems that maybe 5% of the time I will have to push a button twice or more before it sends out a command.

Is it possible the switch was damaged by having it initially set to dim the transformer?

Is it difficult to replace the transformer in a pendent light with a magnetic one? I haven't opened up the base of the light yet to see what I'm up against. Are there any particular vendors/stores I should look at to buy a replacement transformer that is UPB friendly?

Thanks,

 

[ano]

You can filter UPB noise with an inductor and possibly a capacitor combination. I installed a filter on a bathroom halogen fixture I had and it solved the problem. If your problem is not too bad, an X10 Leviton inline filter will solve the problem as well. Chances are, you also have a marginal signal, and you should think about adding a UPB bridge if you don't have one.