DC4 Command Pass Through Issue

[original-reefland]

Is a DC4 able to pass on X10 commands to other DC4 devices if it loses power? This happened to me:

I have three dedicated circuits powering my tank room with even distribution so if any one circuit fails I will not lose total lighting or water movement.

I had a breaker trip on one of the circuits two days ago. The actinics, skimmer pump, sump cooling fan, room ventilation fan and one of the tunze streams went off line. (Still had the halides, main return pump and second tuze running fine). Overall the design worked as planned however I had issues with the Aquacontroller Pro talking to a DC4HD that still had power.

The AquaController Pro did not lose power, however it was directly connected to a DC4 box that did lose power. Since the sump cooling fan and room vent fan lost power yet the halides were working I obviously had heat issues. I was expecting the Aquacontroller Pro to still be able to send commands downline passing through the DC4 with no power to turn off the halides on a DC4HD when the tank reached 85*F. However that did not happen as I found the tank past 86*F.

I then tried to manually control the device via the Aquacontroller interface. Setting the halides manually to OFF did nothing. I tried several times. Nothing happened and I was not able to hear the relay click.

Since I don't have easy access to mounted DC4 and the circuit breaker box was near by I killed power to the DC4HD controlling the halides and reset the circuit powering the DC4 that originally tripped. Once power was reset both boxes worked as expected. This was 2 days ago and everything has been fine since.

I'm a bit worried that my flawless plan is now flawed with the DC4 unable to relay commands when it does not have power.

[Member No. 1]

Rich...
If this is the case and un-powered DC4's can't pass the signal thru, how about if you put the most important devices on the first DC4, the next important on the second, and least important on the last DC4. This what if it happens again, and the last DC4 doesn't get commands, it wouldn't matter if say your sump light didn't come on.
Follow me?

[original-reefland]

Yes, that is exactly what I was planning to do. But I wanted to see from Neptune if this is expected behavior as I don't recall this being documented.

[collins]

Another option might be testing a telephone cable splitter, running directly from the controller to each DC unit, bypassing the daisy chain. I'm not sure if it would work, but it's worth a look

[Aquaduck]

BUMP.

I'd like to know if this is possible too. I have DC4's that I want on separate circuits but I still want the other DC4's to respond to on/off commands should one of the breakers or GFI's trip.

[brentj]

OK, way old thread, but I use DC8. I have 3, on different circuits so hopefully with 2 return pumps from the basement, each on a separate DC8 on a different AC circuit, if one breaker trips, one pump will still work.

But I didn't realize this behavior. So if circuit 1 trips, circuit 2 won't get any commands. Hopefully the pump will stay on.... hopefully other things like calcium dosing won't!

Too bad there aren't multiple control ports so I don't have to daisy chain them and have the failure of one compromise the whole setup!