Clipsal Premise Gateway & Wiser

DaveDagr8 & Damaxx
What is your problem with where clipsal sell the product. You both can still buy it and use it if you need, you just can't buy it through a normal wholesaler.......so what The price would be the same either way, Clipsal only trying to make sure that the product is being supported better then standard C-bus due to it being a little more in-depth to install.

 

FigJam,

I really really really like my supplier.

If i choose not to go through a point one professional, that should be my choice, not Clipsals.

I would also like to do a preliminary evaluation on this product so that i can complete a risk assessment for the hardware for 2 sites ( if it passes and i selected it). Without the eval i can't do a risk assessment, without the risk assessment i can't install it or recommend it. Simple as that.

I am extremely worried that the next version of homegate or touchscreens will not be readily accessible to me.

 

Whoever you are ???

I have tried to get one from a few Point Oners. I Failed.

Don't know how you can get one but i've wasted too much time on it now. This is just becoming a dead end.

 

Thanks for the reply Dave. I understand that you like your supplier. I too feel the same about my supplier(s) but I also understand they offer me absolutely no technical support or advice. Clipsal will not always supply their products through the traditional channel if there is good reason not to. I can see this is one such reason. it really doesn't bother me. I'm paying the same and I'm getting advice from my supplier which I don't normally get. I might consider buying all of my C-Bus from them as they will assist me (technically)whereas my wholesaler doesn't.

I would suggest (if you haven't done so already), to create a Wiser project in PICED which will give you a very good idea as to what is possible. This should satisfy your evaluation questions... it did for me.

I can't speak for Clipsal, but I can't see why Homegate or Touchscreens will change. They are not as complex as Wiser (from an install perspective) from what I can see.

BTW, where are you located? You don't have it on your profile. This can help a lot given this is a global forum.

 

DaveDagr8

If you are having trouble getting a favorable response from a PointOne company, PM me and I'll see what I can do to assist.

Cheers

 

The problem i have is that I have spent a week making phone calls to people trying to see what can be done. I have had to set up a new account which is the reason why I use a wholesaler, they have the accounts not me. I have also got a mixed response when it comes to pricing too! and not by a small amount. I can buy a contactor from the electrical wholesalers and not expect them to explain to me how to wire it up. I understand that port forwarding and static IP's may be out of the realm of an average sparkie but I cannot see how this is the answer. If I feel I don't know how to install it, I should go and get formal training. I have just found it a frustrating the amount of time that I have had to spend on tracking one down and all the hoop jumping required to purchase this unit. But I have one on order so I hope its worth it.

And I hope there isn't a thousand posts from me two days after buying it looking for help!

 

I hope there isn't too (a thousand posts). The PointOne Professional who is selling it to you has an obligation to support you. But... by your own admission, if you need to make a thousand posts after buying it, you need to get formal training.

This is not an official support forum for Clipsal... so don't complain if support is not forthcoming from here

 

Not entirely true. Are you talking mid-span, or end-span?

A fully-conforming 802.3af device will work either way, but a mid-span (only) device frequently won't work with an end-span switch.

 

I agree and understand this on both counts conformist and you will hear no complaints from me about lack of support. If i could convince the boss to part with 1K to send me to melb for the training believe me I would. I acutally did a cbus install in his new place because he knew I had done my own! Drive u $)#@ing mad. The whole run around as stated before was my biggest problem with the wiser unit. Just got it this afternoon and I must say that I am stoked with how easy it was to set up for my media centre pc to control. onto the mpbile phone and touchscreen next.......

 

Thanks for the feedback Damaxx.... good to hear you like the product and set it up without any dramas. Of course, please provide any feedback on the product as I know the product development team, monitor posts on this forum

Cheers

 

if they read this - could you please make cyrillic fonts support for Wiser, as done in Homegate and mono C-Touch (and not yet done in CCtouch...)?

 

I am currently working on embedding all unicode characters, specifically for chinese support and cyrillic will be included.

Lots of issues for now though....

 

Thanks a lot! At least I know that it is being done, so the product may be considered for future use.

Another question a lot of my installers interested in. Is there a plan to make a logic module, which will make Wiser a ModBus TCP/IP interface? I remember this was a plan for Premise Gateway?

 

No, there is no plan to have any interface into ModBus in the current roadmap.

 

Couple of suggestions for the wiser unit......... I dont know if its just me, but I stripped my wiser like a $2 hooer. No wifi, no cni, no router. Just the wiser interface as I had all the other items.... I understand for a new install of network, c-bus, etc it would be perfect but a retrofit means that I have pay a heap of coin for a lot of items that I just dont need. Also, a USB interface for the orginal programming would be great so that there is no requirement to change the programming pc's ip address and subnet to configure it.

Other than that the wiser interface is great. As stated on another forum, it is still the best option from all the software options that I have trialed. A hell of a lot cheaper too ironically.

 

Thanks for the feedback...

The CNI (new inline model) is important as it backs up the real-time clock for C-Bus (the old CNI won't do this). The Wiser is built on the fairly low cost router platform which includes the router (of course) and the Wi-Fi. This product would be no cheaper if it was provided on a new purpose built platform without the router or Wi-Fi. The cost of such an investment needs to be recuperated. This would not be feasible in such a low volume product.

This would also need a new platform. There is also the time to market issue too. That being said, if there is a second generation product developed, I'm sure your feedback will be incorporated.

Thanks for that. There is on-going development on future software/firmware so anything you can contribute back, will be appreciated.

 

How much current does the Wiser draw from the cbus network?

I cannot find this info in the support documents that were originally sent to me when the product was released.

I assume this is electrically isolated from the cbus network so that would mean that the CNI module would draw power. The old CNI's draw 32mA (according to your C-Bus Calculator) but as the CNI in the Wiser is new I dont want to assume that it draws the same.

 

Wholesalers

Try Middy's (wholesalers) they have stock in over 20 of their branches and also have a team of specialists that look after C-Bus, amongst other things.

 

Let's just clarify this> Wiser is ONLY available through C-Bus pointOne and C-Bus Platinum integrators. Elecvision is part of the Middy's group, HOWEVER only Elecvision can sell Wiser, and they can NOT onsell to any of the individual Middy's branches to resell.

If Elecvision or any other pointOne or platinum member sells a Wiser to an C-Bus Approved Installer, then under the terms of their contract they are obligated to provide programming and support as part of the sale.

This is done for two reasons, the first is to ensure that the project is not compromised by an unqualified person, the second is to prevent pointOne and platinum members from competing against wholesalers by simply moving boxes.

Bottom line is this ... if they don't add value, then we may as well open up access to everyone ... and we don't want that.