What is needed to setup CBus?

Hi all.

I was intersted n CBus for a house I'm building, and was looking around at the various components CBus has. Trying to get a rough idea on cost. As I discovered there are many different CBus components for various different things.

Anyway, what I wanted to know, that was required to get a system running . Too be able to turn lights on and off.

I understand enough the side with the light switches, sensors if you want lights to turn on when you walk into a room etc.


More, I am unsure on the components that go on the DIN rail, the relays, power supply and so on.

 

Relays for Straight On/Off - Upto 12x 10A relays per unit depending on model
Dimmers for Of course Dimmable Lighting (they can do straight on off too but cost more per channel typically) Upto 8x 2.5A dimmers per unit depending on model.

Specialist units like ELV relays for door strikes and reticulation, or Shutter Controllers for shutters/blinds/retracting roof applications.

Someone who is capable of programing the system
USB or network interface to allow a computer to talk to the system to program it.

Possibly a Logic Unit (WISER or Touch Screen) to do the fancy stuff like schedules and logic "If this, then that kind" of programing based on events.


For example, if Pool temp is less than 28C then retract roof to expose it to the sun, if fish tank is too warm, extend roof to cool house more and activate AC.

 

It may be helpful to think in terms of the 3 main C-Bus unit groups.

Input units
(units that initiate actions)
-----------------------------

• Switches (various types)
• General Input Unit
• Bus Coupler
• Auxiliary Input Unit
• Temperature Sensor
• IR Receivers
• Touch Screens
• Scene Controllers
• PIR Motion Detectors

Output Units
(units that react to an action and usually control some sort of light or load)
-----------------------------

• Relay Units
• DIN Rail Dimmers
• DSI Gateway
• Infra-red Output Unit
• 0-10V Analogue Output Unit

System units
(stuff that adds logic, functionality or interfaces to something else)
------------------------------------------

• Power Supply
• PC Interface
• Network Bridge
• Pascal Automation Controller
• Telephone Interface
• Ethernet Interface

Generally speaking a minimum C-Bus system would consist of;

• At least 1 input unit
• At least 1 output unit
• At least 1 power supply (may be part of an output unit or stand alone)

You also need a way of programming it. This can technically be done using learn mode, but the sane way is to use the Toolkit software via a C-Bus interface unit.

Cheers

Rohan

 

Hi thanks for that, I'm getting a clearer idea now of what is required, thank you.
Next main question I have is , with say the 12x relays. Does that mean with that switch you can control 12 different things? Say lights for 12 different rooms/zones (over simplifying I know,), or do things like switches and sensors come into play there

 

A 12x relay has 12 individually controllable channels.
You can put one or more lights on each channel up to the maximum current rating of the channel.

So in simple terms, a 12x relay could control simple lighting in 12 rooms for example.

BTW don't relate the number of switches to the number of relay units, that is a factor of the programming.
By that I mean in simple terms you programmatically assign switch buttons to relay channels.
So to over simplify a single switch unit that has 4 buttons on it can control 4 channels on your 12 channel relay (this is not always true, but start with this for now).

Cheers

Rohan

 

I would recommend downloading and installing the toolkit, then you will be able to open the example files and read the Help file.

The Toolkit Help in this software is an exemplar of how Help should be done, it is extremely helpful, useful and logical (unlike many programs out there).