Old X-10

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chris kennedy

chris kennedy

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Location
Miami Fla.
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60 yr old tool twisting electrician
This is a pic of contactors and ice cubes from an X-10 system being replaced with a Radio Ra type system. Look at the box on the left. Any idea what the orange and white things are?
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Bob Kraemer said:
The orange thing look like encapsulated capacitors or resistors & the white cubes look like relays to me. :confused:
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The orange things are hooked up across the contactor, relay control wires. A little big for resistors and no point for capacitors.

Side note: NHRA at 11PM. Past my bed time!:grin:
 
These caps tend to smooth out the spikes caused when the coils are first energized. Caps and R-C circuits are commonly used an relays that feed electronic boards.
 
Yes, the orange things are R/C snubbers. I think the white ones are also, if they have only two leads.

We put them on the coils of all A/C relay inside our control panels.

Can we get the mfg & part #'s of them ? The photo posted doesn't ahve enough resolution.
 
You Said ;
This is a pic of contactors and ice cubes from an X-10 system being replaced with a Radio Ra type system. Look at the box on the left. Any idea what the orange and white things are?

Whats an x-10 system, what does an X-10 much less a Radio RA system
do?

Looks like the system kept geting added too.
You going to have a self contained box ? Looks Like You might have trouble with short lengths from blue tubes... !?

Enjoy that hornets nest ...:roll:
 
X-10, unlike the Radio system, uses Carrier Current communications. The RF signal is impressed into the 60 cycle house wiring. It is necessary to transmit the RF throughout the house. The caps are used to bridge various house circuits, the capacitors acting as a pass filter for the RF, while ignoring the 60 cycle waveforms. All the systems I installed had this 'bridging' in the instructions.

The orange parts at the ice cubes appear to be caps. Snubber circuits here would be intended to lengthen the lifetime of the relay contacts - where are the resistors? The little white boxes would make me think of additional relays, like Bob, except that the ones I can see look like two terminal devices - in which case, my guess would be RF caps. If you get a closeup, you can probably look up the numbers on the internet.
 
peteo said:
The caps are used to bridge various house circuits, the capacitors acting as a pass filter for the RF, while ignoring the 60 cycle waveforms. All the systems I installed had this 'bridging' in the instructions.
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Of course! Why didn't I think of that.:confused: Because I never installed one.
 
stickboy1375 said:
I've never seen an X-10 system this old...
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They are telling me its 20 yrs old. This is only 1 of the 2 locations with contactors. The whole thing has 1000 wires and I only need 100 to make the new system work. Nightmare! I'm the third sent out to deal with this.
 
stickboy1375 said:
Chris, was this system installed in residential? And what do you have any pictures of the switches they used?
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Yes its resi. I'm going back today. I'll get some pics.
 
The orange blocks are Vishay/Sprague "Orange Drop" capacitors. We use them quite a bit around here.
 
Stick, the dates on these devices ranged from 85 to 88. After two days and some attic crawling, I can tell they were installed by 2 guys in a station wagon with an AL. step ladder tied to the top.

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chris kennedy said:
. . . I can tell they were installed by 2 guys in a station wagon with an AL. step ladder tied to the top.
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I'm amazed you can tell what kind of ladder they used! :wink:
 
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