RE: Re: Lighting Control (was Re: Adverts)

["Dr John Tankard" <jtankard@xxxxxxx>]

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>
> > >My best solution so far is IR control.
> >
> >IR control of what type of circuit Nigel?  How are you going to
> switch/dim?
>
> I'm thinking of a PIC running directly off the mains, via a dropper
> resistor, with a sense input from the existing lightswitch, another
input
> so it can detect the zero crossing, an IR input, IR output, and an
output
> to drive a triac.  The PIC can easily handle all the IR stuff and
drive a
> triac, so there's not much else required except some suppression.
>

I am sort of doing this, I don't have wall switches. each room has a
minimum
of 4 channels of triac controlled lighting, all of which is driven by a PIC
16C65. these talk across RS485, to a master. Each PIC also can have a
keypad
which can locally control the lights although I have only one room wired up
with a keypad. The others a run by a pronto -> homevision. When I have
my
prototypes in bits I temporally replace the modules with some SSR's which
work fine. I am also looking into a link with comfort at the moment, which
I
am evaluating at the moment.

The keypad is at the moment home run wired in CAT5 to the PIC controller,
but the design idea is that the wall switches will talk to the PIC
controller on a second RS485 network (I say network, but in reality there
will only be two or three keypads in a large room, most will only have one
keypad) (it does not sound clear, each controller will talk to the others
on
CAN (or RS485), but each controller will have a second RS485 network to the
keypads in that room)

What I relay want it to replace the RS485 with CAN. I have got the
development board from microchip but I have never had enough time to get on
with it.

It idea of two levels of network, is to allow for failure this would mean
that if the main CAN fails there will still be local control of the room
from the keypads

My wife is worried that if I pop my clogs before I have made a commercial
version she will the task of rewiring the house !!

John.