nytetyme1976 Posted March 30, 2014 Posted March 30, 2014 Hello, Thanks in advance for any help you can give me on this since it technically does not have anything to do with my ISY-994 but i don't know where else to post. I have outfitted my entire home with Insteon products and a new ISY-994 and I love it very much! With help from this forum I can say that I truly have the smartest home on the block and probably the entire city where I live. I have developed one small problem and I have tracked it down to my Insteon/ISY controlled back porch lights. It consists of two Insteon dual band dimmers setup in a three way fashion. This is the ONLY 3 way installation I have however I have 4 more I wish to do in my home. The system works fine turning the lights on 100% at sunset and then dimming to 35% at our bedtime (10PM late i know). They work fine and dandy however this seriously screws with another "hobby" of mine and that is I run a professional weather station with a lightning detector and when the lights dim to 35% (the back porch lights ONLY) the lightning detector which is mounted in my attic starts going completely nuts. It will "detect" up to 3500 "lightning" strikes a second when the lights are dimmed and ONLY when these lights are dimmed. If they are on 100% full it all works just fine. My lightning detector works by "listening" for lightning strikes and "StormTracker detects the low frequency radio signals produced by lightning's electrical discharge. This signal is the crackling you hear on an AM radio when thunderstorms are nearby. These signals travel for hundreds of miles and are detected by StormTracker's antenna." This is a quote from the manufactures web site on how the system works. The manufactures web site is http://www.boltek.com/stormtracker.html which is the exact device I have. Any ideals how I can fix this or what might be causing this would be greatly appreciated as I live in "Tornado Alley" and my system sends alert e-mails to nearby citizens who signup for alerts when my system detects a storm and as of right now it notifies everyone nightly of a HUGE storm. I don't want to be crying wolf all the time if you know what I mean. I'm also attaching a screenshot of the detectors software and have red lines running where the lights are "turned on".
oberkc Posted March 30, 2014 Posted March 30, 2014 What type of bulb do you have in your back porch lights? What happens if you temporarily remove them? Have you tried a different load in the fixtures?
MaddBomber83 Posted March 30, 2014 Posted March 30, 2014 After the above, install the switches at a different location and run the same scenario and see if you get repeats.
Xathros Posted March 31, 2014 Posted March 31, 2014 Have you tested different dim levels? -Xathros Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
nytetyme1976 Posted March 31, 2014 Author Posted March 31, 2014 The bulbs I'm using are standard 60 watt bulbs. Dimmable CFL seem to burn out quickly with Insteon dimmers so I quit using them outside and switched back to good old fashioned light bulbs (This was also to protest the discontinued bulbs as of first of this year). No problem dimming the lights to 90% but any below that and I get this error. Also anything below 25% seems to work just fine too. So my problem area is from 26-89% and 35% is exactly where they need to be to be dim enough to sleep and bright enough for security. My solution for now has been to just turn them off at 10PM but that makes the back side of my house rather dark. What is funny to me is I have SEVERAL other outside lights that dim with no issues but this one is the only one setup as a 3 way.
oberkc Posted March 31, 2014 Posted March 31, 2014 While I don't expect incandescent to be a problem, it is still worth temporarily removing the bulbs to see if this changes anything. The only other thing that comes to mind is proximity to switches. How far away is the lighting sensor to the trouble switches? I was also curious as to the image...is the direction of the perceived cluster of lighting strikes a clue?
nytetyme1976 Posted March 31, 2014 Author Posted March 31, 2014 While I don't expect incandescent to be a problem, it is still worth temporarily removing the bulbs to see if this changes anything. The only other thing that comes to mind is proximity to switches. How far away is the lighting sensor to the trouble switches? I was also curious as to the image...is the direction of the perceived cluster of lighting strikes a clue? oberkc, You know that is some good advice of which I will try tonight. I will let you all know the results as soon as I do it. You also bring to mind another good questions regarding the location on the maps and I have since reviewed all of the historical data and my findings are below. 1. The detector is all the way in the peak of the attic approx. 25 horizontal feet and 20 vertical feet away from switches (long ways away) 2. The map rings indicate miles and the red ring (located at 20 miles away) is the "Danger" ring meaning lightning may very well strike INSIDE that ring. This is a warning alarm that sounds during the summer and essentially "closes" my pool from friends and family. (It's close enough to hit you warning) 3. The strikes are being "detected" entirely to the SOUTH and NORTH (detector points to the NORTH so north would be in front of the detector) of the detector 4. This is the EXACT same location each and every night. 5. It is detecting negatively charged intracould strikes only (not ground to cloud) or positive strike (the dangerous ones) which shows on the map to the south 6. The large cluster it is detecting to the north which is right in-line with the detector is NOISE (just good old fashioned AM noise) Hope this helps and it not too confusing. Robert
gatchel Posted April 1, 2014 Posted April 1, 2014 Is it also possible that the wiring circuit that supplies the switches runs through the attic at any point? Maybe there is another branch of the circuit that is near the detector antenna. Just guessing here but I don't think it would have anything to do with being a 3 way as I don't believe that the switches keep communicating with each other or with the rest of the system once the levels are set. When you say 3 way you are referring to the linking of the switches as a virtual 3-way, right? In other words, you don't have them mis-wired somehow do you? (Just had to ask to be sure)
oberkc Posted April 1, 2014 Posted April 1, 2014 I agree that I also find it unlikely that being a virtual three-way has nothing to do with this.
nytetyme1976 Posted April 2, 2014 Author Posted April 2, 2014 Alright folks sorry for the delay but I had to wait until this evening due to a busy schedule.... The facts are in and the answer is .... drum roll please. IF I UNSCREW THE LIGHT BULBS FROM THE FIXTURE THE PROBLEM GOES AWAY!!!!!! (See screenshot) Now, I'm confused. These lights are simple plain everyday run of the mill 60Watt old fashioned filament bulbs. How can they cause this much of an issue? Thanks for everyone's help
kclenden Posted April 2, 2014 Posted April 2, 2014 Since removing the bulbs made the noise go away, I would try new bulbs. Or use some of the bulbs from your other outside lights that haven't caused a problem before. I have seen incandescent filaments, especially as they age, cause noise before. If new bulbs still cause noise, then as gatchel suggested, perhaps the electrical circuit for the problem switches runs through the attic near the antenna.
Brian H Posted April 2, 2014 Posted April 2, 2014 I would also suggest try new bulbs. When you removed the bulbs you also changed the way the triac used for dimming due to a no load condition acts. It is still possible the switches are generating noise when a load is being driven.
Xathros Posted April 2, 2014 Posted April 2, 2014 I have to agree with Brian on this one. Likely since you have no bulbs in the circuit, no current flows through that circuit and is not "Transmitting" noise as a result. -Xathros
gatchel Posted April 2, 2014 Posted April 2, 2014 I have to agree with Brian on this one. Likely since you have no bulbs in the circuit, no current flows through that circuit and is not "Transmitting" noise as a result. -Xathros Same thoughts here, the problem exists only when the load carrying switch is under load. Is was alluded to in maddbomber83's post above but since this is a 3 way did you try swapping the switch locations to make the other switch the one with the load on it? If changing bulbs doesn't affect anything, this is the next logical step to isolate the problem
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