Help with setup...

Hi,

I am try to program an E2000 4 Key input, via the C-Bus Toolkey, to control 5 lighting circuits as follows :-

Group 1. Kitchen Ceiling Window
Group 2. Kitchen Ceiling Utility
Group 3. Kitchen Pelmet Worktops
Group 4. Kitchen Pelmet Breakfast Bar
Group 5. Kitchen Shelf Lights

into :-

Key 1: Toggle Groups 1 & 2
Key 2: Toggle Group 3
Key 3: Toggle Group 4
Key 4: Toggle Group 5

I have tried using the "Blocks" to achieve the functionality on Key 1 although as there are only 4 blocks available I am unable to cater for all groups. Is this possible or do I require an input with more keys?

Thanks
Greg...

 

Greg

You can't achieve what you desire with a 4-key E2000 switch alone. There are a few options however:

a) Replace the switch with a 4-Key Neo/Saturn/Reflection
b) Put the Kitchen Ceiling Window and Kitchen Ceiling Utility on the same Group Address
c) Do all the lighting from that keyplate as Scenes and remotely trigger them from the E2000. Store all the scenes in a C-Touch or Neo/Saturn/Reflection somewhere else in the job and set up your E2000 to remotely trigger an "On" Scene for those 2 groups on a Short Press and an "Off" Scene for those 2 groups on a Long Press. The On and Off Scenes for the other 3 groups would consist of 1 Group only.
d) Replace the E2000 with a 4-key Scene Controller and have 4 Kitchen Scenes in lieu of regular group control. One of them would most likely be an "All Off" Scene.
e) Use logic in the output unit to turn On Group 2 whenever Group 1 is On and/or vice versa (depending upon your requirements).

The E2000 series has only 4 blocks and can therefore only control 4 Groups.

 

i am not sure why you could not just set up a group address called "kitchen ceiling" and just turn on output channels 1 & 2 of the same group address?

 

I figure that in this installation it sounds like some independent control of all 5 loads is required from some other location, e.g. C-Touch, other key plates etc. With all options except b) this can be done.

Putting 2 channels of the output unit on the same Group is the obvious solution if no independent control is required.

 

OR logic is the easiest solution, which will require neither hardware changes nor remote triggering of other units.

1/ Create a group address for key 1 and call it "kitchen logic".
2/ Go into your output unit(s) containing the two channels you wish to control.
3/ On the "Logic" page of the form, select your "kitchen logic" group address in one of the available locations.
4/ Then select the tick boxes associated with the desired channels to be controlled (e.g channels 2 & 6).
5/ The last step is to ensure that the "OR" type of logic is selected for both channels. (Radio buttons at the bottom)

(On a dimmer output unit, the "OR" logic is called "MAX", but operates in exactly the same way in its true form).

This will give you a master on effect, so that regardless of what state the individual channel "group addresses" are doing, if "kitchen logic" is on, then those channels will be on.

The OR logic concept is very important in the flexibility of CBus and well worth spending the time to understand.

Another way of putting it is grouping outputs together by "function". i.e. all outside lights, lights you want on if an alarm is triggered (smoke, security, panic etc.), or maybe just to control all the kitchen lights from one key.

Hope this helps.

 

Hi,

Thanks for all the advice. To confirm; the only reason the ceiling lights are on two seperate channels of a relay is to spread the load so they don't exceed the recommended amount per channel. I will always want to switch the two channels together.

I will have a look at the logic settings of the relay to combine the two into one group as it sounds as if this is the solution.

I also another 2xE2000 2 Key inputs in the same room and noticed thay although only having 2 keys they have 4 blocks.

Thanks
Greg...

 

I agree with Brett. If you only want the two channels to always work together then just assign the same Group Address to both channels. This avoids all other kinds of confusion and is one of the great things about C-Bus!!

 

K.I.S.S principle works sooo well @ times.....

 

Oops, I'd assumed that group addresses would need to be unique, this makes it things alot simpler!

Thanks
Greg