Need help using MEL command "Xout" with an X-10 PCS-05 bidir pwr-line interface

[guglulenun]

Thank you everyone, so much, for all your responses! It is wonderful to know that I am not all alone on the island of X-10 programming land. To answer some questions, I am using single-phase, 60Hz here in California. I have employed both 4.7K pull-up resistors to 5 volts, as specified in the MEL PBP manual, on the collectors outputs of the opto-isolators of the psc05. In the X-10pro diagram, they show an OEM box on the left and the psc05 on the right side of the rj-11 connection pins, but in the middle, they show the suggested interface circuitry, which includes a pnp transistor that serves as an inverter to the input of an opto-isolator in the psc05 (when base of pnp goes low, the transistor's collector pulls up to 5V, to source current wrt the led inside the opto-isolator). I am thinking that maybe everything is OK, electrically, but maybe I am just sending incorrect codes to activate anything in X-10 land. But, it did seem strange that psc05 led just seemed to dim and stay dimmed, rather than blinking off when valid X-10 codes were going across the link, as when I used a real X-10 remote to do that same job.

[dhouston]

Have you included MODEDEFS.BAS?

[guglulenun]

yes, I have used INCLUDE "modedefs.bas"

[ardhuru]

But, it did seem strange that psc05 led just seemed to dim and stay dimmed, rather than blinking off when valid X-10 codes were going across the link, as when I used a real X-10 remote to do that same job.

Not strange, really. It just reiterates what you have already observed. The fact that it is working well as a receiver. You are having a problem transmitting thru' the PSC05; when you use any other transmitter and find the LED blinking, the PSC05 is actually acknowledging the *receipt* of an X10 signal; the signal it sees on the mains created by another device, not itself. Which again suggests your problem to be related to its transmission circuit, either internal or external.

Could you send us a screen-grab of the actual signal Xout produces taken at the input of the PSC05?

Regards,

Anand

[guglulenun]

Hi Anand,

Here is an attached copy of my code from Notepad, FYI. I'm not sure how to attach files. I did a drag-and-drop as it instructed, but then the menu disappeared and was replaced by my file contents, so I hope it worked.

It won't be until tomorrow afternoon before I get a chance to do the waveform screenshot, but will as soon as I am again available. I'll take it on the send side of the psc05 input, as you said.

Thank you.

[mackrackit]

It did not attach.
Try again but not drag and drop.

[guglulenun]

Well, it seems strange how I had to do it, but it seems to have attached this time.

I just pulled my picoscope 3206 out of mothballs and tried to load the drivers for it, but my computer fails to recognize the usb port to which it is attached. I'll send pictures as soon as I get it going.

G

[guglulenun]

Hi Anand,

This one pdf includes 5 views of my Picoscope model 2306 screenshots (so you don't have to load the picoscope viewer software): 1st is the wide view of what looks like 4 pulse-groups, all on the screen at once [presumably 2 sets of pairs of pulse-groups, with a wider gap in between the pairs]; 2nd is a screenshot of a zoom in on the 1st of 4 sets of pulse-groups; 3rd is a zoom of the 2nd of 4 sets; 4th is the 3rd set of zoomed pulse-groups; and 5th is the 4th set of zoomed pulses in the last group.

Notice that these are all positive pulses with respect to ground. When there is no data traffic, then the PIC output to the psc05's opto-isolator is low (not pulling led current inside the opto-isolator). It seems to me that this is the way it should be, rather than inverted and pulling current without data traffic. If so, then the inverter, shown by x10pro, between the OEM equipment and the input of the psc05 really should not be there. But still, this does not activate any X-10 devices. I bought 3 psc05's, so I am about to build another identical circuit to eavesdrop on the other and compare what a real x10 remote sends to activate/deactivate house-1, module-1. Then, I can see the differences between my signal and the actual x10 remote signals, from the view of another x10 psc05's receive line.

Thanks very much,
G

[ardhuru]

Okay, set your receiver module to House 'A', Unit '1'.

Substitute the XOUT statements from your code to

XOUT PORTB.1,PORTC.5,[0\0,0\unitOn) 'Send an 'ON' to A1
and
XOUT PORTB.1,PORTC.5,[0\0,0\unitOff) 'Send an 'OFF' to A1

Lets see where this gets you; if it doesnt work I'll take a closer look at the waveforms, but I think that might be unnecessary.

BTW, connect your pic XOUT pin directly to the interface; as Dave pointed out the extra components are really not required.

Regards,

Anand