RE: Possible Clipsal UKHA HA Lighting buy - with xAP gateway

["Kevin Hawkins" <lists@xxxxxxx>]

    Thanks everyone for the replies off list - it 's
encouraging, looks like
I might be getting my PIC assembler software out of the attic !

     Rather than keep two threads going, this will be
the last crosspost & I
am going to try and focus on this project on the xAPAutomation mail list
so
if you are interested please subscribe to that
(xapautomation@xxxxxxx ). I shall keep the UKHA list updated from
time to time though, particularly with regard to the general HA issues
rather than the xAP specifics. Hopefully I'll get a project website up
too.

    There were a lot of interesting questions raised, 
but just to address
the most frequent ones -

    You do not have to use xAP for this to work, although
xAP of course
opens up the flexibility of the system to the HA world. - The Clipsal
system
is a standalone system in its own right, although you will need the
programming software from Clipsal which is a free download off their
site.
You would have to buy the bundle including the xAP gateway though I think
to
get the pricing break. This 'may' be useable as a programming interface
though too -  I will have to confirm this. Likewise you could just use
a
dimmer as a xAP dimmer or a switch as a xAP switch, any Clipsal switch
can
initiate a xAP message which could be interpreted in any way e.g. volume
on
a HiFi system.

    All C-Bus lighting application activity should be
visible on the xAP
network, and all loads controllable and their status 'readable' ( at
last
! ), I am aiming to support the light and temperature sensors although
they
work slightly differently.  IR receive should be supportable too. I
have not
yet got hold of the IR transmit units but I don't believe there is an
ability to receive non C-Bus IR type commands - i.e. I don't think
C-Bus
units can support 'learnable' IR or general IR repeating. It can
transmit
learned commands however. Whatever, I think all these modes should be
supportable although a degree of C-Bus programming may be required to
enable
and map these commands to an action. I am not intending to 'fully'
support
the C-Touch LCD touchscreen panel just at the moment as the panel needs
to
have a more extensive feature set to be really useful. However ON OFF
and
LEVEL states of any device could be displayed and icons can be touched
to
originate xAP messages. The missing bit is the ability to display text
or
graphics on the screen.

   Yes C-Bus is near instantaneous and rock solid in terms of
reliability.
The lamps all use a softstart so the effect is slightly different to a
traditional ON OFF switch but in a very pleasing way. The ramp times of
moving from any level to any other are programmable and yes you can
switch
ON at a preset brightness, no more having to go through 100%. PIR
activation
of a lighting circuit is very possible and is much faster than anything
else
I have seen that does this, however you would still have the occupancy
detection issue to contend with (someone asleep on the couch).

    The xAP firmware code I would hope to make updateable
such that later
versions of xAP can be easily supported, although xAP in it's current
1.2
form with the addition of a 'scenes' and 'groups' functionality (which
is
being discussed at the moment) is amply capable of handling all the
C-Bus
traffic.

    This gateway can be used in conjunction with say the
Comfort C-Bus UCM
interface . It is not based on the Comfort UCM  however and  the
xAP gateway
cannot be connected directly to Comfort, that is not it's purpose.
However
someone else was hard at work on a Comfort to xAP connector / schema so
that
may be an interesting solution.

    When xAP is supported in your favourite HA software then
you will be
able to control all the Clipsal devices too - some vendors are already
hard
at work on this and most of the other names you all know are studying 
the
possibility of supporting xAP. HomeVision will probably not support xAP
natively (within the box) as it has a limited amount of codespace
available
and it is already bursting. However when used in conjunction with your
favourite HA software or with a specific HomeVision to xAP gateway
application this would be possible. Again someone else is looking into
the
latter.

    I will ask about the possibility of getting a good price
on 4 channel
dimmers - in Australia the units are only just slightly more than half
the
price of the 8 channel. However in the UK they are almost the same
price.
The 8 channel are 1A units (240W per channel) the 4 channel are 2A/Ch -
480W
units. I recognise that having something 'less extensive' but at a
better
price is attractive to a lot of people.

    Any questions, useful to all, ask on list -  to
shown an interest & make
this 'happen' email me offlist Clipsal_xAP@xxxxxxx and don't forget to
join the xAPAutomation Yahoo group too if you want to stay in touch on
this.

    Cheers Kevin




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