CBus system upgrade

Discussion in 'C-Bus Toolkit and C-Gate Software' started by missing_link, Mar 14, 2021.

  1. missing_link

    missing_link

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    Hello. We have a CBus network throughout our home, with CBus Toolkit (outdated) and previously using a Homeseer GUI (which no longer functions). I've spoken to a few electricians who are telling us we need to strip out all the CBus network and start again / rewire or replace all wall modules with a different system... But I'm not convinced this is necessary. The system also uses Comfigurator for home alarm management, and when I've previously updated that software, the whole thing has crashed and I've had to reinstate via disk recovery.

    I think I just need some reassurance that if I update CBus Toolkit, I can then purchase some software to act as an event management GUI (replacing Homeseer as it doesn't seem to support CBus anymore). Does this sound like a reasonable assumption? The alarm is a Cytech Comfort system. I guess I'm asking if the CBus network is still workable, and is there any advice on rebuilding it with updated software, and which UI would you recommend.

    I may not be saying the right stuff - but any support or suitably probing questions about what we've got and what we're looking for are welcome. All I want to be able to do is set a few timers and sequences for lights and heating. Not much more than that!

    Thanks
     
    missing_link, Mar 14, 2021
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  2. missing_link

    bmerrick

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    Hi Missing Link,

    Welcome to the C-Bus forum.

    I would take note of these electricians.................and never call them again. At best their advice is ill informed and at worse deceptive trying to scam a big job. Unless you've been in a flood or >50% of the system is cooked, there is zero justification to throw out a mostly working C-Bus implementation. It does however need to be maintained.

    Overlay GUIs are easy and reasonably inexpensive to replace in comparison to the original value of the integrated C-Bus implementation. The same can generally be said of alarms and other peripheral systems.

    The best idea is to find a local specialist integrator skilled in C-Bus to get your system back to working order, advise you of current GUI front end systems you could choose to implement and suggestions on your other peripheral system interconnects. At the end if asked to they can give you some skills transfer for Toolkit etc if you want that and leave you to manage your home.

    Where do you live? There's probably someone here from there who can help or otherwise go to search at the Ecoxpert locator.

    https://www.se.com/au/en/locate/321-ecoxpert-locator

    Brad
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2021
    bmerrick, Mar 14, 2021
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  3. missing_link

    chromus

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    Where are you located, 1 of us could probably sort most of this out inexpensively and even integrate voice control for Google/iOS/Alexa for a little more.
     
    chromus, Mar 15, 2021
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  4. missing_link

    missing_link

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    Thank you for your responses. You said pretty much what I've suspected, that the network installation itself is sound and that it's just the interface I need to fix.

    I'm actually based in the UK, and I wonder if this is the problem. I'm not sure how widely known CBus is here. I've emailed Schneider Electric UK to see if they hare a UK list of people I can contact, but if you know of anyone UK based please let me know. Failing that, I think I'll need to work through it myself - which I'm guessing will start with updating the CBus Toolkit as I think this forms the network interface which the GUI ultimately overlays?
     
    missing_link, Mar 15, 2021
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  5. missing_link

    bmerrick

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    Hi M_L,

    There's quite a bit of C-Bus in the UK. You can contact one of the Ecoxperts using the following locator for the UK. The Ecoxperts are integrators experienced with C-Bus who should be able to make your systems talk to each other properly. https://www.se.com/uk/en/locate/66-ecoxpert-partner-locator
    Tick the box for 'Lighting and Room control Ecoxpert'

    If you don't find a suitable resource there, you might try these guys: https://www.laser.com/info.php/information/About_Us/page/about who are in Hertfordshire.

    Whilst if you want to you can feel round in the dark yourself trying to understand how to get it all back to working order(and there are plenty of previous posting on here that you can search for where others have done the same in the past), I would suggest for a first port of call that you get someone who does this all day every day for a living to get it back up quickly for you.

    They can likely quickly fix all your initial issues and then give you some skills transfer whilst they are there so you can take over once working. There's no reason to believe that anything you have can't be made to work as it once did with some proper experience focused on it. An integrator will be able to get it back running or make informed suggestions as to alternative products if something is dead, discontinued or badly supported etc.

    I do note from a quick look on the web I saw that Cytech Comfort alarm, Comfigurator and Homeseer are current products with somewhat active forums dedicated to these products.

    Good Luck in your endeavours,

    Brad

    :eek::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool:
     
    bmerrick, Mar 16, 2021
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  6. missing_link

    MichaelD

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    How did you get on with this, I'm UK based, and using HomeSeer with C-Bus.
     
    MichaelD, Oct 21, 2021
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  7. missing_link

    MichaelD

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    Should have said I have a pretty extensive C-Bus system in my home, and have been using HomeSeer for almost 20 years, now on HS3, and recently replaced a xAP based interface with a Raspberry Pi MQTT interface, as many others have done. Am just working through some glitches now.

    The GUIs I'm using are HSTouch, which is a bit cludgy to build but works very well and looks beautiful on the wall mounted iPad, and is very slick on my iPhone. I also use the default HS GUI interface if I'm away from home and want to do something really unusual with HS.

    If you need any help with your integration, I'm happy to have a conversation
     
    MichaelD, Oct 27, 2021
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