Newbie Questions

Excellent - these forums are a good idea.

Q1) How do I add additional addresses to CBUS? I have 2X 12 Channel relays and 2X 8 channel dimmers. Of these, I have 5 spare relay channels and 6 spare dimmers.

But I have run out of addresses. For example, I click into my DIMDN8 second dimmer module, and under the 'channel setup' tab I see the addresses of the channels. The addresses available in the drop down box are 00 through 1B. That's only 29 addresses. So how do I add an address?

I am using the supplied C-BUS V2 Installation Software.

Q2) At the moment I have I/R sensors all over the house. It works well, you walk into the bathroom and the lights come on and time out after 1 minute of no movement. The lights in the bathroom are also controlled by my funky Saturn key switches. But the problem is, when the shower screen fogs up, the IR can't see me showing (perhaps a good thing?!?) and the light goes out.

If I walk in, switch on the light using the key input, eventually the IR times out anyway and turn the light off.

So I guess what I need here is to have the relay channel that runs the bathroom lights controlled by two addresses. 1 for the key input switch, which will latch on the lights until I turn them off, and the other for the I/R - correct?

Q3) Have you thought about an I/R code learning service or rental of your IR code learner? I have bought an IR output module to control my split air cons. But the IR learner is awfully expensive just for me to teach it 4 IR codes. Its a long shot but worth it.

Thanks in advance.

 

Right click over a Group in any of Channel Setup screens, a small popup menu will appear which will include an options to "Add new group"..

Yes this is currently under discussion internally.

 

Thankyou for your input.

How about the IR / key inputs in the bathroom?

 

I'll get one of the Hardware/Support guys to follow up.. sounds like using some of the logic functions on your relay might be appropriate.

 

In regards to learening 4 codes into an IR Learner it is possible to borrow a learner from Clipsal branch in your state

 

DJC, your problem with the PIR in the shower isn't somthing that could be easily fixed. PIR's in a simple fashion work on detecting movement in heat and the simple process of having a shower (unless its a cold one) will generate heat (that isn't moving per se) and the result as you found out is that it will not 'see' you amongst the heat. I guess the only real way around it is to extend the time delay that you set the PIR to so you can have your shower without the lights going out. But I guess in doing that you would then not be able to have the 1 minute delay when you are showering.

One other solution though if you have a minder system would be to change the sensor from a PIR to an ultrasonic or microwave type sensor and do the controlling of the light in the minder system rather than on the C-Bus. But guess that assumes you have minder and want to change the sensor out. Also ultrasonic and microwave sensors are a lot more work to set up properly and may well suffer interfearance from other sources. Guess its a bit of a pickle for you.

Maybe the best solution would be to have the PIR for general movement, but to use an old fashion switch for long term use!

 

You need to disable the PIR as well as turning the light on..... this involves creating a new group address to disable the pir, and altering the key assignments so the one key controls both addresses

 

Yes this sounds like what i need. I'm happy to have the PIR activate the light for the short period like it does now, for when I walk in and out of there, but I want to use the light switch to latch the light on - which it currently does, but the PIR then kills the latch once it times out.

Michael - could you point me in the right direction to creating the new group addy - and gaving it disable the PIR & activate the light?

 

Try this......

In the PIR GUI:
--Global tab--
1. Select "Disable"
2. Right Click on the Group address and select "Create new group"
This is where you create your PIR control group address....

In the key unit GUI:
--Blocks tab--
*if we wanted key1 to control the load....... *
1. Insert both the load group address and the PIR control address
2. Remove any tick assignments currently associated with either of these addresses and key1.
3. Place ticks in the column '1' on the same lines as the as the PIR control and load group addresses.....

Probably sounds a little confusing .... if you have any troubles ring Tech Support and they'll be able to help you out

Michael

 

Nah, all good - thanks v. much.

 

To control your lights by PIR and switch, have the PIR control one group address, say 'Bathroom light PIR' and the switch another 'Bathroom light Sw'. Go the channel controlling the light and have one group on the main page and the other on the same channel on the Logic page. Now either the switch or PIR will control the light. The only problem is you will have to manually turn off the light.
PIR's won't see through glass which could be causing the problem, somoetimes very handy, others a pain.

 

Another good tip is (if the lights are on a dimmer channel) to set the PIR to turn the bathroom lights on @ say 50% and have the switch control it as per normal @ 100% (asuming that you are using the CBus logic). This way you will always know which device is actually controling the lights and at the same time being practical when you walk into the bathroom @ 4am...


PSC.

 

Okay I did as Michael suggested, and it works fine - except:

If you walk in the room, and the PIR turns the light on, THEN you hit the switch to latch it, the PIR is still active and turns the light off.

But if you hit the switch BEFORE the PIR spots you, then the PIR is disabled and all is well. It would seem that the key input only disables the PIR if the PIR is already off. If the PIR has already seen me and is counting down, then it doesn't activate

 

DJC
If you follow Gavins instructions it will work fine.
You can disable the pir in the on or off mode.

 

Yea but then the PIR never turns the light off.

I like how I can walk around my whole house and not need to touch a switch.

I guess I can't have my cake and eat it too.

 

I know this is old and it might have lready been adressed but it looks like you are likeminded to me. My solution would be to use a sensor that the shower is running (water flow or moisture ciontent) which could then also be used to switch an extraction fan (or increase the effectiveness of one)

 

Roundhouse,

How many times do you shower in the dark?

If your answer is 0 why not simply turn the fan on when the lights are on, and turn the fan off 3-5 minutes after the lights are off.

However this would not be any good to you if you prefer to do a $#!+ (let's just call it number 2's) in the dark, maybe then under the right conditions the moisture sensor would come in handy

 

But Peter, many people have a shower (and/or #2) during the DAYTIME ?

In my bathroom there is a skylight, and more than sufficient light to read, unless it's a very rainy dull day.

So there is often a need for a fan, even if lights are off.

 

My comment was based on the understanding that the problem was that the pir could not detect occupancy thru all the fog. If the fan and the light were both dependant on the movement detection (which I presume it is) then both are going to fail in the fog. From my experience of No 2's not a whole lot of fog is created but I dont know if that applys to everybody

 

First of all JohnC, you are very unique so you don't count

Secondly, Roundhouse the idea of a C-Bus PIR in the bathroom (in my experience) is to turn the lights on to a low level for a short period of time. This feature is very handing when you get up in the middle of the night and need to use the facilities. When combined with a logic device you could even set the light to different levels depending on the time of day i.e. between

sunset - 9pm = 50%
9pm - 12am 40%
12am - sunrise 30%
sunrise - sunset = 0%

However, having a shower is a far more deliberate act, you want the lights to stay on and not turn off if you shower more than 5 minutes. So all you need to do is turn the lights on via a C-Bus switch; have the fan turn on automatically with the lights and turn off 3-5 (any period) minutes after you have turned the lights off.

By adding moisture sensors etc you are simply over complicating a very straight forward solution.

And in JohnC's case you could just have a button for the fan as he has a skylight and candles