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I Ripped Out a £6k Lighting System

robdobson.com

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Re: I Ripped Out a £6k Lighting System

#31

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

thombles wrote: post #11

Good grief... who would sign up for such a thing? The biggest lighting system I worked on was Philips Dynalite. It's a gigantic RS-485 bus - you just make sure all the dimmers and light switch panels are on the segment. It can be over a kilometre long and you can control/reprogram everything from everywhere on that bus. The protocol is simple enough that you can bit-bang subsets of it from dumb devices. Do recommend.

Simple engineering rule applies here... “if you can run a wire, run a wire”.

Notice over the whole article he talks about the how, but not really the why?

Re: I Ripped Out a £6k Lighting System

#32

Post by Xylakant »

lqet wrote: post #12

What is a wireless lighting system? What is the advantage of such a system over a switch next to the door? E: A wireless lighting systems seems to be a light bulb with WiFi capabilities.

There are some reasons to go for a wireless system, for example when you can’t just go and run new wires to have switches in places you’d want to. Either because it’s an old house or a rented unit or something like that. But when planning a refurbishment or new construction, pulling (ethernet) wires is the safe bet.

Re: I Ripped Out a £6k Lighting System

#34

Post by OJFord »

Semaphor wrote: post #22
lqet wrote: post #12

What is a wireless lighting system? What is the advantage of such a system over a switch next to the door? E: A wireless lighting systems seems to be a light bulb with WiFi capabilities.

For example, not having to get up and go to the door. I find that extremely convenient when lying in bed, about to sleep. I usually read for a few hours with dark red light, when I’m ready to sleep I can just turn the lights off.

I've had both a switch for the main light (s) and a lamp bedside the bed all my life, multiple houses, none of them 'smart' or wireless.

Don't get me wrong - I want to use HomeAssistant or similar - but I don't want to ditch physical switches.

Re: I Ripped Out a £6k Lighting System

#35

Post by timthorn »

kristiandupont wrote: post #4

Off-topic, but >Quentin Stafford-Fraser (co-inventor of the webcam). How can you be the inventor of the webcam? What is it even, besides from a digital camera? Did he invent that?

It wasn't even a digital camera for that system - it was an analogue CCTV camera hooked up to a framegrabber. Digital cameras weren't really a thing at that time.

Re: I Ripped Out a £6k Lighting System

#36

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

gbrown_ wrote: post #20
lqet wrote: post #12

What is a wireless lighting system? What is the advantage of such a system over a switch next to the door? E: A wireless lighting systems seems to be a light bulb with WiFi capabilities.

It's solutionism.

Never seen that. I like it.

Providing a solution before the problem exists is exactly what this is.

Re: I Ripped Out a £6k Lighting System

#37

Post by mschuster91 »

brtkdotse wrote: post #28
lqet wrote: post #12

What is a wireless lighting system? What is the advantage of such a system over a switch next to the door? E: A wireless lighting systems seems to be a light bulb with WiFi capabilities.

I’m actually contemplating exchanging all our halogen spotlights (as they’re no longer being sold) to IKEA Trådfri. My rationale for it is that I want to be able to dim them, but exchanging halogens for LEDs would mean the transformer wouldn’t see enough of a load to dim properly. By exchanging everything for IKEA bulbs I save on changing the transformer since the dimming circuit is in each bulb.

Beware, the Tradfri spots are not as bright as regular bulbs by far. Try out one first before committing on a couple hundred dollars.

And if you're hunting for relays and other actuators... the compatibility between IKEA Tradfri products is excellent, but your mileage will vary when going with other Zigbee products.

Re: I Ripped Out a £6k Lighting System

#38

Post by VBprogrammer »

I stayed clear of smart appliances for a long time for the reasons I'm sure we're all well aware of. However, recently we had our central heating boiler changed and my partner was very keen on having Hive. It's almost useless. I can't believe how incompetently it seems to have been designed.

Essentially there are three parts, a receiver connected to the boiler, a network bride connected to the router and the thermostat connected to both.

Within the first week of having it installed we had times when we realised the heating hadn't come on as scheduled. Checking the display on the thermostat would show no signal. In effect the receiver on the boiler had disconnected from the thermostat and as such you have no heating. After several occurrences of this I broke down and moved the thermostat to the closest reasonable place I could.

The thermostat is now in the worst place in the house for taking a temperature reading but at least it vaguely heats the house up when I expect it to. However, it is now almost constantly disconnected from the network bridge which enables the "smart" part. The solution to this if I can ever be bothered is to run a network cable from the router to the same room as the thermostat.

Why it was designed like this is beyond me. Why not have the schedule stored on the receiver, at least in memory. That way if it lost contact with the thermostat at least it could put the heating on full during the schedule.

Why make the wireless bridge a separate part? If I could add my WiFi details to the thermostat I guarantee it would have a reasonable connection.

Re: I Ripped Out a £6k Lighting System

#40

Post by tails4e »

lqet wrote: post #12

What is a wireless lighting system? What is the advantage of such a system over a switch next to the door? E: A wireless lighting systems seems to be a light bulb with WiFi capabilities.

I have a system called KNX, its not wireless but each switch is independent of each actuated function (light, blinds, etc). The main advantage is the wiring is simple, a bus for all switches and all lights go back to a relay board. Switches, sequencing / grouping can be assigned at any time after install, scheduled on/off, easy to extend later, etc. For example I built a garage 10 years after my house and by running a single cat 5 between the buildings, I can now press a button (any button I wish) in the house and turn all garage lights off. I can also see the state of any light or actuator at any time, etc. So there are some nice advantages, but I'm glad it is wired for sure..
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