x10 and LED bulbs

[spike5884]

I started down the path of switching out the old lightbulbs to the newer LED ones. To see how it goes, I started with some night lights. These night lights are controlled with x10 Lamp modules. They were working fine with the normal 4 and 7 watt bulbs.
Imagine my surprise when I go to turn off the nightlight in HB, and it just dims. The light does not turn off. Put a normal bulb back in and it switches off and on just fine. Put the LED bulb back in and it just dims instead of turning off.

Any one know what is up with this? Is there a solution for it?
I have some Insteon stuff that I have not installed yet. Will they turn the bulb off all the way?

[roussell]

My guess is that it is due to the trickle current that flows through the x10 module that allows for local control. This current, while low, is still enough to light the extremely low power LED lights. I think you'll have the same problem with Insteon as they have similar circuitry. I do remember seeing a hack to disable local control on X10 devices. I don't have the link anymore, but some creative googling should turn it up.

Terry

[spike5884]

'local control' were the keywords I was missing. I found lots of information with some suggestions on how to solve this 'problem'. I took a module and clipped a wire like in one suggestion. Guess what the LED bulb still glows. There appears to be no real solution for this.

This is just crappy. I kinda get the need to have the 'local control', but come on, at least have a way to disable it.

Does anybody have anything that works with x10 modules and LED bulbs.

OR is there some other lighting control option that works with HouseBot that fully turns off LEDs. If so, what is it?

[roussell]

Here is a link on SmartHome's Insteon forum about LED rope lighting where they seem to be having the same problem. Some solved it by adding some type of resistance (wall wart, resistor, regular bulb, etc) to the circuit to help dissipate the residual current. While that will work to eliminate the problem, it will make the LED bulbs somewhat less efficient because you're having to burn off the trickle current.

http://www.smarthome.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2614

Terry

[Philipa]

I guess the connection of the wire that goes on the LED is exchanged with a switch off line. Check the wiring of the bulb and see if you need to replace them with newer LED bulbs. I am sure you can do this.