Very Low Dim Levels Wanted

[mnels...@my-dejanews.com]

I have a requirement (home theater) for very low remote dim levels below the
minimum standard X10 value (3%). The required low levels are available
locally from standard X10/Leviton dimmers but not remotely via X10 dim
commands.

Does anyone know if the PCS Scenemaster or new SwitchLinc dimmers can be
preset to values lower than the minimum X10 level? Is there another solution
out there? I know some Leviton non-X10 dimmers have a trim adjustment to set
the minimum value. Something like this would be ideal if it applied to the
minimum X10 dim level but I'm not aware of any devices that have such a
feature.

Any help would be really appreciated!

Mike

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[Walt]

Have you tried the newer modules like the LM14A?

[mnels...@my-dejanews.com]

It turns out the new Leviton "Intellisense" 2201 wall dimmers are not
responding correctly to the CM11A (ActiveHome) dim commands. Sending 20%
gives the same result as sending 10% or 3%. Older Leviton dimmers dim to the
proper value. I'm sure glad I paid more for that new AGC circuitry...

I'm frankly getting really frustrated with the quality (or complete lack of)
with X10/Leviton hardware. I've tried 3 different new 2201's in the same
location and all 3 behave differently. I hope the new SwitchLinc hardware is
everything promised. I'd gladly pay a little more to get a quality product
instead of paying $30 or $40 for what amounts to a re-packaged $10 switch.
I'm amazed Leviton puts their name on the current junk.

[Dave Houston]

This may not ALL be a Leviton problem. The actual levels sent by ActiveHome
are NOT linear. As I recall, the CM11A protocol says that the levels sent
are 0-22 but I found that sending 0 is the same as sending 2, while sending
1 does nothing. It takes two CM11As to see this. I ran some tests using
ActiveHome to send from one CM11A while receiving with another CM11A and
while I don't recall the exact figures, the pattern was the same. I believe
I found that anything from 1% to 7% did nothing. I recently downloaded
ExactControl's ActiveX control for the CM11A and found the same pattern. As
I recall, sending a 1 with the ActiveX control had no effect on my lamps.

[Dave Houston]

I found the data that I had recorded earlier. As you can see, the problem is
in how the CM11A sends the level not in how Leviton interprets it.

Both machines were running a CM11A but I can duplicate the received levels
using a LynX-10 on one end. (The % column is level/210.)

486->Pentium Pentium->486

received received
sent level % sent level %
---- -------- ---- --------
0 14 7 0 14 7
1 2 1 1 2 1
2 13 6 2 13 6
3 24 11 3 25 12
4 36 17 4 36 17
5 47 22 5 46 22
6 57 27 6 58 28
7 69 33 7 68 32
8 79 38 8 79 38
9 91 43 9 91 43
10 102 49 10 102 49
11 112 53 11 112 53
12 124 59 12 123 59
13 135 64 13 135 64
14 146 70 14 145 69
15 156 74 15 156 74
16 167 80 16 168 80
17 178 85 17 180 86
18 189 90 18 189 90
19 200 95 19 201 96
20 210 100 20 210 100 (anything over 19 sends 210)
21 210 100 21 210 100 "
22 210 100 22 210 100 "

[mnels...@my-dejanews.com]

Thanks for the postings Dave. That's well worth knowing. I've still got an
erratic problem with my new dimmers but this explains part of the problem
anyway. As I mentioned, I have 3 indentical dimmers and wired into the same
circuit, each responds differently to the same dim commands from my CM11A.
They all turn on and off reliably but do not dim the same.

When I say the same circuit, I mean each one wired in turn to the same two
leads in the same junction box controlling the same lights. Obviously, they
should all behave the same and they don't. I think my comments about Leviton
(X10) quality still stand.

In article <361c3001...@nntp.iglou.com>,

dhou...@iglou.com (Dave Houston) wrote:
> I found the data that I had recorded earlier. As you can see, the problem is
> in how the CM11A sends the level not in how Leviton interprets it.

<snip>