Signal bridge

Hi.

I have a signal bridge on two breakers. The system works most of the time but sometimes, the signal doesn't seem to cross over to the other breaker phase. The problem seems to be the signal bridge cause when I turn on the electric dryer, the system works fine. The bridge I have now is a X10 Pro XPCP which is about 5 years old. Do these things go bad? Is there a better one that is recommended? I was just looking at the Leviton 6299. Any suggestions?

Thanks

[matt (support)]

I have a signal bridge on two breakers. The system works most of the time but sometimes, the signal doesn't seem to cross over to the other breaker phase. The problem seems to be the signal bridge cause when I turn on the electric dryer, the system works fine. The bridge I have now is a X10 Pro XPCP which is about 5 years old. Do these things go bad? Is there a better one that is recommended? I was just looking at the Leviton 6299. Any suggestions?

It does sound like it went belly-up on you, although I haven't read many complaints about couplers going bad.

Since you know a bridge will work at the dryer, you might want to consider one of the SmartHome SignalLinc PlugIn couplers:

http://www.smarthome.com/4816.html

Looks like they are on sale for $30, which seems like a good price.

Or you might want to use an at-the-breaker repeater which will also bridge the signals across the phases for you. I've heard grumblings on comp.home.automation about the Leviton HCA02 repeater causing signal storms that will render your X10 automation useless until either the repeater or the colliding X10 device are power cycled. According to the newsgroup, the ACT brand repeaters (not sure the model number) do not have this problem.

regards,
matt