Re: WARNING re X-10 (again) & computer-modems

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Malcolm Watts by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <m.j.watts-at-massey.ac.nz>

Hi Ken,
        I've also had past problems caused by operating high powered 
electronics in the vicinity of other equipment. Problems caused fell 
into two categories: interface destruction, and sometimes capacitor 
destruction where the caps were bypassing high frequencies from power 
rails to ground. I inferred from those failures that external wiring 
was coupling transients into the equipment and now disconnect all 
cables from equipment in the vicinity (e.g. network cables, both 
ends, printer cables, both ends, etc.

Regards,
malcolm

On 8 Feb 2002, at 16:36, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<Kchdlh-at-aol-dot-com>
> 
> I'll repeat my warning about operating Tesla coils in the vicinity of X-10
> lighting-control units--and also add something about computer modems:  In
> short, WATCH IT!
> 
> I have about 7, X-10 wall-switches installed in my home in locations
varying in
> distance, from where I operate my coil, between 15 and 30 ft. or so.  For
those
> who don't know, X-10 units are radio-controlled triac-regulated wall switches
> operating together with remote controllers.
> 
> Also, my computer is located in the room directly above my workshop,
where the
> coil is.  And unhappily, both mains- and phone-lines cross within the ceiling
> almost directly above the coil.  Do you begin to get my drift?
> 
> Yes...both the X-10 units and the computer have been affected.  Here's what
> I've experienced:
> 
> 1.  All of the X-10 wall units remain operable locally, i.e. by pushing their
> buttons to turn their lights on & off.
> 
> 2.  None of the 5 closest X-10 wall units will any longer turn on
remotely but
> they may be so turned off .  Except: two of them will turn on remotely,
> sometimes, but only in the evening; not during the day (and who can
figure that
> one out?).
> 
> 3.  The closest wall-unit has additional charming problems:  When turned on
> (locally), it often goes off by itself 2 or 3 times--after some minutes each
> time.  Once I caught it dimming itself down to full-off, so maybe that's what
> it does, when I'm not looking.  Usually this unit will not dim when
others, not
> seemingly affected and set to the same "address", are dimmed, but
sometimes it
> does.
> 
> 4.  Those others--two of them--are the farthest away from the coil and
seem not
> to have been affected; they remain responsive to remote turning on & off and
> dimming.
> 
> 5.  One or two wall units, located at an intermediate distance from the coil,
> will very occasionally come on all by themselves, and not when I am operating
> the coil or anything else electrical, except sometimes watching the
nearby TV.
> 
> 6.  I employ 4 remote-controllers, all sending their signals via the power
> line.  I can't be sure that they have not been affected but it seems as
if the
> problems lie only, or mainly, in the wall units.  But I also employed one
> additional sender that was incorporated into my burglar alarm and that
seems no
> longer to function.
> 
> As to the computer (a PC Pentium III running W98), its modem, on the
> motherboard, has malfunctioned several times.  I even had the entire
> motherboard replaced, before I thought about the Tesla coil, and the new one
> still malfunctioned similarly.  But the malfunction (a steady, loud, clicking
> occurring during dialing) has seemingly gone away once I uninstalled, and
then
> re-installed, the modem in Windows.  So maybe that was some baffling kind of
> software problem.  The evidence as to the coil being the source of the
problem
> is only circumstantial but pretty compelling.  I suspect I've been lucky,
> there, in not having had worse problems with the computer.
> 
> So once again:  Everyone with X-10s and/or a computer...take great care with
> them big sparks!
> 
> Ken Herrick
> 
> 
>