Lighting

[strickers]

Hi,
I have a basic alarm and fire set-up with comfort but am now at the stage where I would like some
home automation. I would like to start with lighting.
I did post a while ago asking similar questions but that was for simple on-off of my exterior lights
when a PIR triggered.
This time I am looking at lights for the interior of my extension. I still don’t have the drywall on so a wired solution would still be easy to install.
I would like the following
LED spot lights,
Be dim-able, controlled by my phone,
Can be over-ridden by the light switch,
Can be turned on when a perimeter sensor is triggered
Expandable,
would like the solution to be cheap.
As I am not all that good at programming or using the comfort programming so the easier the better! maybe one with a dedicated UCM
Is this something I could do with products from Cytech or would zwave or Rako be better?
Thanks in advance,
Chris.

[ident]

If you want to use a dedicated UCM, the most popular choices are Zwave, Cbus, KNX, Velbus

Rako, Lutron and others are interfaced through the Universal UCM

Programming of the dedicated UCMs are simple in Comfort. It consists of mapping Comfort registers to the addresses of the other device

However selection of the lighting system depends on budget and programming may require special training. Zwave and Velbus are the less expensive choices.


Control and monitoring from comfort apps is possible for any of these
Overriding by a light switch can be done using the switch provided by the 3rd party system, however unlike a Two way switch which can be always controlled by the manual switch, the electronic switches do not work if the lighting system has a central failure

[strickers]

Thanks for your reply.

I\'ve had a look at your recommendations and feel velbus is the way to go.

I need to start off with something simple so am going use to velbus to control lighting in my bedroom and living room.

Just a few questions....

Can anyone please give me list of velbus modules I\'ll need? I want all lighting to be dimmable
Do I still use normal dimmable light switches? Will these override any other setting?

Any other advice would be well received!

Thanks in advance

[wexfordman]

Stickers,

Velbus is great have it a few years myself and never looked back. Just so you are aware, vekbus needs twisted pair wiring between the light switch and the velbis module, do you have this already or can you rewire for it?

[strickers]

Hi Wexfordman

Thank you for your reply. I\'ve not even brought the switches yet or put the drywall on so I can wire anyway its needs to be done. When you say twisted pair could that be done with standard alarm cable or does it need to be CAT5? I can use either but alarm cable is slightly cheaper.

I did a quick search on your posts and found a excellent document you had put together on your set-up. It sounds like exactly the same as I want to do, all being controlled by comfort albeit mine will be only be controlling 3 sets of lights to start with. I will be renovating the rest of my bungalow at some point so will just expand the system then.

Could you please give me some advice on what I would need to purchase to get me going?
As there are so many modules I cant work out which ones I need!
All sets of lights will need to be dimmable (and will be LED GU10) so do I just buy a standard dimmable switch and wire a twisted pair to that? (although I cant see how that would work as it would have 2 devices trying to control the dimming?)

Thanks
Strickers.

[wexfordman]

Hi Strickers,

I would run cat5 to each light switch, which gives you up to 4 pairs alolowing you up to 4 buttons per wall switch. You can see them here


My wall switches (all must be momentary switches) were clipsal type origionaly but after my velbus install I managed to get some lovely brushed steel, screwless minigrid switches which really look the part, you can see them here

https://docs.google.com/a/glenegare.com/...edit?pli=1

For the dimmer, I used a the vmbdmi module which is a 1 channel dimmer, so you would need 1 of these for each dimming circuit. You dont need any external dimmer to use with this unit. I have dimmable gu10 leds on them, and am happy enough, although perhaps a 12v led system might be better.

What you will need

Velbus modules
You will need a vmdmi for each dimmable circuit. These modules come with a PB (push button) input, which is wired to your momentary light switch via cat5.

If you dont want to dim all circuits, then you can use a vmb4ryno which will do 4 circuits for you.However, this unit does not contain PB inputs, so you will need to buy a PB module such as the VMB7in which gives you 7 pb inputs, and these can be configured to control any velbus channel.

When I did mine, I only had 1 dimming circuit, so I used VMB4RY modules which had 4 PB inputs already, so I didnt need to purchase additional PB modules. However, velbus dont supply this module any more.

You will also need a Power supply for velbus, and either a usb interface or rs232 for the initial configuration of velbus.

For Comfort you will need as a minimum
Main board
UCM/ETH03 (from connection to BB for smartphone app)
UCM/Velbus for connection to velbus
Keypads etc.

Depending on how many inputs you want on comfort, for example, connecting door sensors and PIR\'s you may need to expand the numer of inputs above the 8 standrad on the main board.

[strickers]

Hi Wexfordman

OK I\'ll order some cat5e and wire that to each switch. Your switches look great but dont understand how they dim the light? Do they just switch the light on and off and the dimming needs to be done via a phone app?

I have been looking at http://www.quasarelectronics.co.uk/Categ...r-stockist for the parts but couldn’t see the vmbdmi only the VelbusVMB1DM are they the same?

So I\'ll need to order 3 of them one for each circuit, a rail, a power supply and a USB interface? Is that it

Could you send me link to where I could buy the switches?

I\'ll be using 240v GU10\'s. I have comfort all setup but will be ordering another slave, as need it for my extension anyway.

Thanks so much for your help really appreciate it.

Strickers.

[wexfordman]

Hi strickers

The dimmers work by holding the switch in place and it dims down or up as you hold it in.

I got my units from quasar also. The switchs I got from.another crowd, will send a link shortly

[wexfordman]

http://www.alertelectrical.com/prod/1813...shed-steel

Link above to the crowd I got my light switches from.

Regards,
Eamon