Light toggle & fan run-on timer with 1 key?

Dear Brains Trust,


Try as I might, I just can't figure out how to get the bathroom fan to keep running after the light has been turned off.

As per the attached image, I've tried a number of options but still can't figure out how to perform the following (simple?) functionality:

1) Short press of the button toggles the light. (Yes, it's a relay channel - I've run out of dimmers!)
2) After the light has been turned off, the fan stays on for a pre-set time.

I can cheat but I don't want to if there's an easy way to get this working. I already have a 2ch relay unit connected to a 5034AUX which permits me to create some complex logic, so I can use another channel on that if I have to.

Thanks in advance,



Greig.

 

Retrigger

I am no specialist here but for my timers I have used retrig not start. I have a lights that can be toggled on for a length of time or permanently on. For them I use idle/toggle/toggle/retrig. This turns the light on with a timer on a long press and permanently with a short. When I press again the light goes out regardless.

I can certainly use this to turn to lights out at different times but that is not quite what you want. I will try some experients for you (and my interest)

I noticed in their (sparse) documentation they use toggle/retrig/idle/retrig and start/retrig/keyoff/idle.

Your combination does not match any of the above

Tony

 

Hi Tony,


I noticed in their (sparse) documentation they use toggle/retrig/idle/retrig and start/retrig/keyoff/idle.

I tried toggle/retrig/idle/retrig as well as toggle/start/idle/start, but found that when the toggle executed it always turned off the light as well as the fan.

I don't know whether it's relevant at all that the switch is a v2 but the relay unit is the 4ch big black box of days long forgotten.

Thanks for the input.


Greig.

 

You can mix and match C-Bus units without an issue.

In order to get the fan to run after the light has been turned off, program using the example in the help file.
Just search for 31VETF and you'll find exactly what you need...

Michael

 

Yes, look in the manual, there is that exact example

I still can;t work out how to get it to work on a four gang switch. It was netioned before, but I xcould not get it working.

If someone has a screen shot of a working run on timer with a four gang switch please post it

 

I notice in your screen shot, you have zero time selected for the light. The START function makes a special case with zero time and does nothing for that group. This may be your problem.

Use the suggested setup for the 31VETF as recommended above and be sure and set the time for the light to 1 second. It should all work nicely then. For more details about the key functions, please look at the thread starting with "Timer Delay Off(now that's a newbie question)"

For a 4 gang plate, the instructions are the same, just ensure that the groups controlling the fan and the light each have a tick in the column under the selected key.

Don

 

If all 3 other keys are being used on the 4 key unit, then you may want to consider triggering a couple of scenes from a touch screen.

[1] Bathroom on: light and fan to 100%

[2] Bathroom off: Light off instantly, and ramp fan off over (x) seconds.
The relay controlling the fan wont turn off till 0% is reached, therefore, ramp time = fan time

But there may be other ways......

Michael

 

Dear All,

Thanks for your input.

It took me a few minutes of staring before it dawned on me why I wasn't able to turn the light off - I wasn't LONG PRESSing.

So I gather I can't achieve what I want with a short press?

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I have big problems with guests here at home not able to drive the lights, and the bathroom is the one that gets them every time.

The biggest problem in the main bathroom is they all seem naturally inclined to push and hold the button until the light comes on - but it's set as a MEMTOG2 (IDLE/MTOG2/DNCYCLE/ENDRAMP), so starts slowly dimming up from 0%, and when they let go it's usually only barely on... ("Greig, the light's not working...").

Thus, needing a long press to turn off the light in the 2nd bathroom is only going to cause me pain. I think I'll just "twin" the light with one of my relay channels hooked up to the 5034AUX. On a short/long-release (the light turning off), this can fire the run-on timer... (and I have already OR'd the fan and the light on the Channel Setup screen).

Any other tricky ways I can implement this functionality without someone mentioning the M-word or other costly outlays?

 

Sympathy

You have my sympathy. My wife is always abusing me when things don't work the way she would expect . I have also found there is limited things you can do with a short press.

Tony

 

How do you get the fifth group into a four gang wall plate?
ir the other three keys control different loads and the fouth is for the fan and light with run on.

 

I guess you would have to change to a 4 gang NEO or Saturn or Reflections plate... each of these can handle 8 groups.

I don't think that's the answer you were after.

If you only want the fan to run on for 17 minures or less, then you could use:

recall1/idle/rampoff/idle, with stored level 1 set to 100%, ramp2 time set to 17 minutes, and use the threshold setting in the relay to provide the delay. Set the relay controlling the light to go off below 100%, and the fan to go off below 1%. This will only use one group. If you want the fan run-on to only happen sometimes, and to have a 'toggle' functionality otherwise, you could use:

toggle/idle/rampoff/idle.


Hmm.

If you have two groups spare and want the fan and light to turn on together, but when you 'toggle' off the light with a short press, you want the fan to run on, you could use:


retrig/recall1/idle/idle,
and set the timer interval for the light to be 2 seconds, but the interval for the fan to be whatever you want, and the stored level 1 to 100%, and timer expiry command for both groups to be OFFKEY. This way, when the light is turned ON, the retrig will have no effect as the groups were OFF initially, so the recall1 will turn on both fan and light. When the key is pressed while in the ON state, the retrig will start the timers, and within 2 second, the light will turn off.

2 seconds is required for the light because of the way that C-Bus timers work; they count down in synchronisation with a unit internal clock, which is not synchronised with the time the keys are pressed. Using 2 second avoids the possibility that during a key press, the timer expires, then the load would be turned right back on

Don

 

Thanks Don - very clever. What kind of warped mind thinks up these solutions from the available command set?

At least now I can get away with a short press...

I have gone one further and changed the key to retrig/recall1/retrig/idle to better cope with visitors or those inclined to push the button for too long - at least for the turn off phase anyway.


Greig.

 

I guess you have to be a little warped to do this.

I would suggest retrig/recall1/recall1/idle. That way, the lingering finger will see a light turn on if it was off, and the normal "long-press time" of 400ms will still ensure that the timer works.

Don

 

Light toggle & fan run timer

Not sure if this has been covered. My wife complains about the fan blasting her out of the loo. She wanted an option to toggle light on/off and then with another key, turn light off and turn fan on for predesignated time after she has left the W/C. I know a long press is a pain but is there another way?

I came up with this:

Can anyone improve?

Yort

 

Looks good, but I would have put the retrig function of the 'short release' as well, to avoid the need for a long press.

Another way you could do it, would be to use 0nkey/retrig/retrig/idle on the second key, and set the timer interval for the light to 1 second. There will be a slight delay on turning off the light, but I doubt it would be a problem.

Those dunny fans can be especially annoying in winter! Brrr!

Don