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techno Groupie


Joined: 19 June 2009 Location: United Kingdom
Online Status: Offline Posts: 56
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Posted: 01 December 2010 at 8:35pm | IP Logged
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Hi All,
Im looking for advice and suggestions for my lighting.
At the moment i have a number of LD11's mounted in a consumer unit for each lights. a few have the required terminals connected to relevant momentary switches.
However the operation of the switches does not update the harmoy interface. In order to over come this i was thining of connecting each momentary switch to a SM10E power flash module and set these up with independant address. i could then configure harmony to turn the respective light modules on when a signal from a powerflash module has been recived. The downside to this is i will need to use harmony or some other X10 controler to set the DIM / BRIGHT level.
So i just wondered how others had implemented their light and how you use it. ill hopefully get the lights finished before the new year 
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lenny Senior Member


Joined: 18 June 2006 Location: United Kingdom
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Posted: 02 December 2010 at 1:30pm | IP Logged
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Hi techno
From what I gather in reading between the lines its just a simple matter of getting a new CM12 unit that will request an update on the status of your DIN rail mounted X-10 units.
Now the question is whether Harmony is presently able to request a stautus update... Rob may have designs on the additional code needed.
Lenny
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techno Groupie


Joined: 19 June 2009 Location: United Kingdom
Online Status: Offline Posts: 56
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Posted: 02 December 2010 at 2:02pm | IP Logged
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Hi Lenny,
The thought of a CM12 never crossed my mind, should Harmony be able to request a status, are the LD11's capabable of responding to a status request?
Also i would then loose the ability to disable individual lights through harmony.
Thanks
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lenny Senior Member


Joined: 18 June 2006 Location: United Kingdom
Online Status: Offline Posts: 173
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Posted: 07 December 2010 at 4:57pm | IP Logged
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Hi Techno,
I'm hoping Homer will respond to this thread he is the hardware guru I have a full set of LD11's in my installation and these are swithched by Harmony or my momentary switches which use a pulse to change the status. I cna't remember which post I saw it on but there was some discussion of getting a status update on devices. *Earth Calling Homer - Come in Homer* (in "Mork and Mindy" fashion - for those old enough to remember the series)
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Guest

Joined: 01 October 2003
Online Status: Online Posts: 25
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Posted: 07 December 2010 at 6:05pm | IP Logged
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Hi techno,
We are indeed going to have a look at getting Harmony to poll the status's of X10 devices, but it's on the wish list at least until the beta tests have been completed. Since most X10 devices cannot be polled for a status request, it has not been very high up on the importance list ! Buying a CM12 will not make any difference at the moment, since you already have Harmony control of the LD11's.
The questions for today are therefore:
1. Can an LD11 be polled for its status ?
2. If not, is there a similar DIN rail device that does ?
As for the momentary switches, I would wire them up to a hacked BBS rf remote control rather than spend so much money on Powerflash units. The BBS commands can then be interpreted by Harmony to turn lights on and off. This still doesn't give you dimming though.
Lets have a look for answers to the questions above
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Guest

Joined: 01 October 2003
Online Status: Online Posts: 25
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Posted: 07 December 2010 at 6:23pm | IP Logged
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Hmm,
A quick Google search later, and:
1. No it can't. It is not possible to get an X10 status response from this device.
2. I can't find one
More thought required on this one methinks
I do have a bodge-tastic method of finding out if a 240V device is active, and I have done it in two ways (For using 240VAC PIRs with Harmony):
3. Switched output of PIR went to a 240V socket. A small phone charger transformer with a low voltage output was then connected to the sensing input of the Powerflash.
4. Switched output of PIR went to a 240V relay coil. Contacts of relay coil connect to a hacked BBS rf remote control.
Both of these methods let you know that a switched 240V is ON or OFF, but clearly they would drop out with a dimmer on a low setting....
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techno Groupie


Joined: 19 June 2009 Location: United Kingdom
Online Status: Offline Posts: 56
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Posted: 07 December 2010 at 6:31pm | IP Logged
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Hi Homer,
Thanks for the response's As i dont have that many rooms to play with i may go down the powerflash route just for the rooms where i already have momentary switchs. This will then allow me to inform harmony that the room is in use. On exitiing the room all devices in the room can then be powered down. Indiviualy devices can be controlled via MCE 
Rooms that do't have switches yet, well i suppose i'll have to see how important those rooms are for a powerflash module. Kitchen, Bathroom, Hallway may just go down the PIR route for these.
I would prefer harmony to be in control and action all request, that way my events will rule the house 
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Guest

Joined: 01 October 2003
Online Status: Online Posts: 25
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Posted: 07 December 2010 at 9:05pm | IP Logged
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Hi techno,
Note with my examples above that the Powerflash can only handle low voltage inputs. Don't be tempted to connect the input of the Powerflash to the LD11 momentary switches, as they are at 240VAC
During my searches tonight, I have come across the possible solution of using a multi input '1-wire' voltage sensor. This again would require voltage step down and isolation, but the device itself would be small and cheap. It would also require Rob to add it to the 1-wire interface ! The advantages of that are that many other variable voltage devices could then be interfaced - Light dependant resistor etc ?
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Rob Iles Admin Group


Joined: 10 August 2005 Location: United Kingdom
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Posted: 09 December 2010 at 12:31pm | IP Logged
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Let's get 1-Wire Temperature, and InfraRed IO wrapped up first, then I'll look into additional 1-Wire device support (Homer - can you send me a link to the 1-wire voltage sensor please?).
Cheers,
Rob
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