RE: DIY HA bus

[Keith Doxey <keith.doxey@xxxxxxx>]

Hi James,

To quote you from your original message.....
"Its already been done" .....well sort of.

Most commercial architectural lighting systems follow that kind of model.
Low voltage keypads, touchscreens or other sensors, connected via an RS485
serial network to communicate with the central controller. This then
communicates with the dimmer packs or switch packs to control the lighting
or other loads. (Blinds, AirCon, Heating etc). The control packs can be all
in one place or distributed around the building.

It is by far the most reliable method as everything is hardwired (something
that Nigel and myself both prefer). One of the big benefits is the
centralised control racks to make servicing easier. Wiring is all homerun
to one or more control pack locations and a low voltage data cable is
daisychained to all the user interface points.

>From a retrofit point of view it is not easy. Typically the points
where
you want the user interface have lightswitches wired to the actual fixture
to be controlled and the mains supply is daisy chained to all the light
fixtures. This means serious if not complete rewiring to install such a
system.

Having said that, I intend to follow that route when I move to my next
house.

Keith

-----Original Message-----
From:	James Hoye [SMTP:jhoye@xxxxxxx]

Reading a short article on automation in a magazine over the weekend
(either
Self-Build, Homes and Home Renovations or another one I can't think of)
there was mention of lighting controllers and how you could have a switch
to
turn all lights on/off etc.

It got me thinking how this could be achieved without spending masses of
money and I offer my ramblings...

Why not modify momentary push light switches?  You could use one of the
Dallas id chips (the size of a pinhead if you want) and 1-wire bus
technology to signal (over a simple twisted pair bus) a PC which switch was
activated.  Some clever software (well, not too clever) could then map
these
ids to some DIN mounted relays via some serial interface.  Each relay would
be connected to a single light.  This would give the ability to have
different scenes, all programmable via a PC.

Of course, you could use a triac? and be able to program the brightness
level for particular scenes.

With a touch screen too, you could choose the dim level and do many other
things too (like reprogram scenes) but that would involve (probably) a
serial bus.

As I said, just some thoughts.....  So tell me it's already been
done/wouldn't work and I'll shut up!!!

James (H)

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