C-Bus v1 questions

Firstly please let me say I am greatful for such a forum. I installed my C-Bus system pretty much on my own (with the electrician for electrical wiring) in 1998. I am located in the Western Suburbs in Melbourne Australia.

I have some troubles and questions that I hope fellow users can help me with.

1. When my power goes out, even if it's just for 2 seconds, all my lights on relays come on when the power is restored. I have changed the jumper settings on the relay boxes and tried the different "on/off" settings via C-Bus software but nothing seems to work. Even though the lights come on the switches on the wall don't glow red to say the light is on. I have to go around to all the switches and press the button twice to make it think the light is on, and then off to switch the light off.

2. I have the problem with C-Bus not picking up my controls consistantly when doing a network scan. Some will come up, others won't, and if I do it again some of the ones that didn't get picked up last time will do so this time and vice-versa.
I have downloaded the latest version of C-Bus software and have that installed but still get the same problem.
I think this is a problem with C-Bus v1 hardware but are there any workarounds to this?

3. I understand this is NOT a Minder forum, but, I have Minder version 2.2.1. Are there any upgrades to this software that can be downloaded and that will work with C-Bus v1 hardware. Otherwise, is it expensive to upgrade my firmware to work with the latest version of Minder and can that be downloaded from anywhere?

4. I doubt this very much, but, is there any special upgrade or trade-in price from C-Bus v1 to MK2? Perhaps there is a later version, i'm not sure.

A really big thankyou to anyone that can help.

 

Similar boat

I am in a similar boat to you although I got my system in 2000.

As for not detecting modules on the c-bus network. My system does that also, but if you click on the empty slot in the list my system happly shows the devices which you can then modify.

I don't have your problem with power loss so I cannot comment about that.

Tony

 

I have similar setup circa 1998. CBUSv1 with Minder.

I had the same problem you describe, all lights come on after a blackout. Had to walk around and ON/OFF each switch. I fixed it a few years ago, Im trying to recall what I did....

What version of the CBUS programming software are you using?

My memory is not great, but I think there some extra config options for the blackout/power-on status of the switches in CBUS Installation software v2.x onwards. If you are still using CBUS v1.x installation software that came with the modules back in 1998, upgrade to v2.7.7 available from the CIS website.

I will check my config at home again, I have intentionally setup a few channels to come on after blackout (stairwell, kitchen, hallway) as a safety feature of the house. So I will see what is different on these channels.

PK

 

check the "power up" settings under the Graphical User Interface for EACH device that controls you lighting. It is on a tab by itself. The settings sound like they are set to something else rather than 'power up in off'. Some lights (for security reasons) you may wish to leave 'power up as ON' and manually switch them off under a power out situation.

Might be wrong, but worth a check. You can access all this with the C-Bus software you have.

 

re turn on

in the GUI for relay go to power fail mark restore to present level

 

thankyou very much to all with your help.

I have installed v2.x for a long time and just recently instaled v2.7.7. Even with the 2.x the same thing has occurred.

I have never tried the "restore to previous level". I've always had it set to "Restore to preset level" with 0%. I will try the other - perhaps it will remember that the light was off previously and not come back on.

 

Well, did a lot of playing around tonight and some of the lights attached to a relay box come on and others don't.

Admitedly, a long time ago ALL lights attached to the relay controls used to come on, now it's only some.

I have made ALL units Power Fail set to "Restore to preset level - 0%". This includes relays, dimmers, and switches. I have tried other combinations of settings with no luck.

I have 5 4 channel relays....

One of them for example includes my Roof Lights, Back Spotlight, Toilet Light, and Laundry Light. Following a power shutdown the roof light didn't come on but the other 3 did come on.

On another 4 channel relay I have Front Downlights, Garage Light, Walk-In-Robe Light, and Side Downlights. The front downlights and garage light DO NOT come on, but the other two do.

To close the lights that come on after a power fail I have to press the wall switch twice to for CBus to recognise a turn on and then turn off. I tried to set one of the relays to turn on 100% after a power fail and this worked - I only needed to press the switch once to turn the light off.

It's only affecting the relays, not the dimmers.

Could there be any bug/problem with the hardware? Any problems with early versions of the relay boxes?

I'd really like to be able to control the lights rather than them controlling me.

Thanks again for any further comments!

 

could there be a tag (group or logical AND/OR type relationship) that is common to the lights that come on? Like a global shutdown of 'living area lights' or something.

 

Have you tried contacting Tech support for help with your problem.
They would probably require the .CB2 file for the particular project.
email them at [email protected].