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Home Automation FAQ : HA Equipment : Creative Control Concepts/HCS-II : PL-Link & HCS-PLIX X-10 Gateways : My PL-Link locks up in transmit mode – can this be fixed?

April 26, 2017automation concepts CONTROL creative equipment Ha hcs-ii Home

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Home Automation FAQ : HA Equipment : Creative Control Concepts/HCS-II : PL-Link & HCS-PLIX X-10 Gateways : My PL-Link locks up in transmit mode – can this be fixed?

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Yes The PL-Link uses a simple RC reset circuit. For some reason, during X-10 transmits, the reset circuit can cause a ‘half’ reset where the CPU reset line drifts high but doesn’t cause a complete reset. This can hang the CPU. After much debugging by various HCS-II users, it was determined that the PL-Link reset circuit needed to be replaced. Most people use the MAX813L supervisory IC from Maxim. This device ensures a clean reset pulse is issued to the CPU every time and also has a watchdog function which monitors the CPU and if the heartbeat pin stops toggling, it resets the PL-Link to recover it. You can get the MAX813L plus an IC socket and resistor from Creative Control Concepts. You simply install this IC in the prototype area of the PL-Link board and connect a few pins to the CPU using wire-wrap or hookup wire.