GE Z-wave switch kills powerline network

Other Devices & Integrations Lighting & Load Control
1

Installed 2 GE switches (binary) on the same electric circuit as my router and the main powerline adapter. Either one of them kills most of my powerline devices (have 5). The switches don’t even have to be on… pulling the air gap restores the powerline network. At first I thought one had a slight short in it, but having either one of them on the circuit does it. Possible I got 2 bad switches, or is this something else?

Thanks,
Roy

2

Why would you think the switches are bad? Do they not work?

Power line networking is highly susceptible to interference. Apparently the switches are adding enough noise, at the frequency that the power line networking uses, to kill the power line adapters.

You may, or may not, have better luck with a different brand switch. You may also get by with a different power line adapters. Only trial and error will tell.

But, more likely you will, like me, give up on power line networking. When plugging in a switching power supply like a cellphone charger kills my ethernet network, I need a better network. I bit the bullet and replaced power line with CAT5 and WiFi. So much frustration gone forever.

3

The switches work fine. Doesn’t matter if the switches are on or off, just being connected kills the network.

Well I can’t change the powerline adapter as it is unique (POE powerline adapter by Logitech). I have ethernet run in my house, but no where near the cameras. So, I moved the powerline adapter to another room that had ethernet. Works. Actually getting 5x the speed after moving it… must be a lot of interference.

4

Glad you got a workable solution. For now.

That’s the thing with power line(HomePNA). Great concept! Great when it works! But super fragile and easy to break/degrade. Line noise, (wire)distance from outlet to outlet making outlets physically 6 feet apart unusable because the wire is 200+ feet, there are so many opportunities for it to stop working or not work at all.

If I had wired cameras but not cabling, I’d consider putting a switch in for the cameras and having a WiFi bridge from the switch to the rest of the network.

5

I’ve found that a good RFI filter inline with major culprits (like switching power supplies) vastly improves things.
I was very close to following Z-Waver’s advice - giving up on powerline and switching to a WiFi bridge along the lines of this thread:
[url=http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,13585.0.html]http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,13585.0.html[/url]