New Furnace Room Light adventure

[Steve Hume]

On Jan 8, 2007, at 11:23 AM, James Sentman wrote:

>> Trouble #3) Update
>> I have a registered SAF complaint already! The light went off  
>> after 10 minutes and since the local switches don't seem to turn  
>> the light on, I heard some "queries" emanating from the basement.  
>> I bought the Appliance modules thinking I could use them with CF  
>> lighting, but if they don't allow turning on by local lamp  
>> switches, then they are not too useful other than in full XTension  
>> controlled situations. Maybe that is why the price was so good!
>
> I have lots of regular appliance modules with CF bulbs on them that  
> still allow local control. I haven't experimented a whole lot with  
> the 2 way ones, but I imagine that like the regular appliance  
> modules it depends on the specific kind of CF bulb. I have some  
> that work wonderfully and others that wont work at all and require  
> other more creative solutions.
Update:

I did some more testing and the local sense feature does work on  
these 3-prong 2-way appliance modules. My problem is the lamp I am  
using; from the 1920's probably. It has an up-light in the middle on  
one switch and three bulbs around it with a switch that rotates from  
off, one bulb lit, 2 bulbs lit, 3 bulbs lit and then off. Of course  
now the problem is with no power to the light, it is impossible to  
find the switch rotations (at least exhausting) that turn the lamps  
fully off such that the next on activates the local sense. Under  
controlled conditions (i.e. I remember the switch settings before  
turning of the module) I can get it to work. I'm not sure that  
unplugging the lamp and plugging it back in will fix the SAF  
complaint? I could add yet another switch to the lamp to bring it up  
to 16 combinations!  For now I have left the up-light off, so at  
least if you cycle the other switch a few times it does work.

Now I just need to add more logic and activate iTunes and turn on a  
stereo amp if someone seems to be doing more than just fetching  
something from the basement.

Steve Hume