Looking for C BUS 2 programmer in South London

Hi , I am in Croydon S London. I am struggling to find a technician/electrician who can help be reprogramme and maintain C Bus 2 units. We have mostly dimmer switches (clipseal) around the house. Thanks.
Could someone please point me in the right direction. I have phoned Schneider and emailed them . They were unhelpful. Essentially they simply told me to contact the installer who is not around anymore.

 

Hi

Would recommend having ago yourself. Taught myself. Software is free. Do you have a wiser product and is that all the blue cbus modules you have in the picture or are there more? Reason I ask is that I'm looking to see if youve a communication module/ wiser that either connects to ethernet, 9 pin RS232 or usb.? This will allow you to configure via PC. Some product information is here including the software and training manuals if your interested.

https://www.cbusdirect.co.uk/cbus-downloads/

If you don't want to take the above route then give cbus direct a call and they will be able to provide someone.

https://www.cbusdirect.co.uk/contact-us/

Hope this helps.

Gareth

 

Dear Gareth,
Thanks for your response. I have more cubs units and I know it connects to a laptop via a usb. I also have the software on the laptop. I am not very computer savvy so would like someone to show me and help me fist time. I know that will incur fees. Happy with that. My main problem is that two chandeliers turn off after 30 min and then after a few minutes they come back. None of the local electricians can understand this.

 

May not be cbus related. If they are low voltage ,the transformer overheat protection may be activating to turn them off, then when it cools down they come back on again.

 

Dear Ashley. It is very interesting that you say that. That was exactly my first thought although I am no electrician. I am a humble 73 yr old dentist still working. I have had two qualified electricians who dismissed the overheating issue over the telephone. The only gentleman I have found in N London who understands Schneider system (spoke to me at great length over the telephone although he is not prepared to commute to S London) initially asked me to remove half of the lamps to reassess the over heating issue then suggested “resetting “ the switches in case it accidentally set to a timed mode. He very kindly sent me the pdf. I have not been unsuccessful “resetting” probably because it has been disabled at the output? I think I am going to remove half of the bulbs to see what happens. Thanks for the suggestion which makes sense as both chandeliers are affected and also another standalone lamp plugged into the same circuit continues to work. Thanks

 

Hello Manny
I'm sure you can find someone with CBus experience in London.
In the long term it will be handy to have someone to assist ongoing maintenance eg led lamp selection for dimming.
Until then maybe this can help.

The top two dimmers in the picture are non power supply units and the lower dimmer unit has a built in CBus power supply (it's written on the front).
CBus uses approx 30VDC on the pink cat5 cabling to deliver power and data over the same conductors to all the units eg relays, dimmers, key inputs, motion sensors.

CBus Din mounted units have two leds on the left hand side to indicate the status of the CBus network..
In your picture the top dimmer has both status leds off.
This could be a broken connection in the pink CBus cabling to the unit, a problem with the CBus power supplies or a faulty unit.
The channels of this dimmer will not operate while the CBus and Unit indicator leds are off.
The dimmers installation manual describes the led indicator status conditions in section 8.0
https://www.noushouse.com.au/brochures/Clipsal/Output Units/5508D1A Installation Instructions2.pdf

 

Dear DarylMc,
Thanks for your response.
After Ashleigh’s suggestion that it may be an over heating issue, I removed 8 of the 20 halogen M91 12v 10 w bulbs from the chandeliers and all is working well. I wonder what will happen if I change to LEDs? Will the dimmer still work?

As regards the to dimmer at the top (supplies kitchen) has the LEDs lit up but are slightly dimmer. Sorry about the poor quality photo - I have retaken now. Also the top LED is flashing. I wonder why? The lights in the kitchen seem to be working fine though, although in the dining area adjacent to the kitchen, I cannot switch on 3 downlights. I cannot even work out which is the control switch for this. They test positive ( powered) with a tester. I wonder if this is a kitchen Could the flashing LED be connected to this issue?

Thanks for your very helpful input. This forum has inspired me to have a go at the programming with a laptop.

 

Dear Ashley,
I have posted a separate thanks to you. Your suggestion that it may be CBus related issue was very helpful. As mentioned having removed some of th W bulbs all is working well. I will keep you guys posted what happens if I change to LEDs. Any advice is welcome.

 

The unit light flashing means it in local override mode. i.e. you pressed one of the switches on the unit. It will return to solid when it receives a cbus command on the overridden channels.

Running lots of leds on a leading edge dimmer (I doesn't look lie you have any universal dimmers from the picture) can be problematic as you may exceed the capacitance drive limit for the dimmer. If you use a single driver for multiple low voltage leds it may be ok, but if each led has a separate driver you would definitely need some form of load correction. You would need to get all the specs and calculate this properly to be sure.

If you have a universal dimmer this would not be an issue, however if you want to dim them successfully you need to get quality dimmable leds. Low voltage leds generally dim poorly.

 

Thanks Ashley for the useful education. I will look into it.

 

This may be of interest to anyone with similar problems when the light turn off. I replaced some of the bulbs with LEDs so now I have about 10 Halogens and 10 LEDs. Works great and sorted overheating and hence switching off issues. Lovely effects also with the mix of bulbs. Thanks Ashley for the suggestion that it may not be the switch. You were right.

 

Hi Manny,

we are in Sheffield, but cover the Uk.

I will be in Wimbledon a week on Monday. And we have a Electrican in Bromley that has a basic understanding of cbus that has been working with us for over 10 years now.

 

Hi Manny

The following is copied from https://www.cbusshop.com/installers/ I have used cbusshop over the years to buy CBUS units from.

HTH

Phil

LONDON & SOUTH

• AK Electrics, Hampton Hill, Greater London Tel: 0208 288 9950
• Artemis, Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire. Tel: 07793 679433
• Commercial Automation, Horsham, West Sussex. Tel: 03302 232 103
• Household Automation, Horsham, West Sussex. Tel: 03302 232 101
• Masar UK Ltd, Oxted, Surrey. Tel: 01883 732394
• More Solutions Ltd, Peterborough Tel: 0844 2511450
• Nethaus Ltd, Southampton, Hampshire. Tel: 01534 707272
• ReTech Custom Installations, Hazlemere, Bucks. Tel: 01494 611100

MIDLANDS & NORTH

• Discrete Solutions Ltd, Penistone. Tel: 07973348612
• Easylife Automation, Stocksfield, Northumberland. Tel: 07968 945728
• Home Lighting Systems, Leeds, Yorkshire. Tel: 0113 268 9681 Mobile: 0787 9633396

SCOTLAND & NORTHERN IRELAND

• GMS Intelligent Systems, Lurgan, Co Armagh. Tel: 0800 2985009

 

Hi there,

We’re Schneider C-Bus approved EcoXpert based in London and we’re happy to assist in any CBUS2 repairs.
Drop as an email to [email protected]

Best wishes

Luke from Techsist

 

Hi,
Did this ever get sorted as we are cbus installers and travel all over the uk.

 

Hi,
Lots of help so far, have you tried youtube, lots of vids on how to do things there, also a good cbus technician can log in remotely and reconfigure your system that way.