Re: Wiring light switches...

["psghome2002" <psghome@xxxxxxx>]

Don't get me wrong - I've got about 40 AD10/LD11's in three 
enclosures. I think they're great with direct momentary switch 
control, especially with soft start/stop (gradually brighten, dim). 
BUT X10 is fairly slow - can take 1 second to transmit the signal to 
turn a unit on/off etc. This means that if you want to use a 
detector like a PIR to trigger lighting, the response time will be 
fairly long i.e. Time to trigger PIR + Time for alarm panel / HA 
controller / Software to receive signal and process it + time to 
send X10 signal. This can add up to 1-3 seconds in my testing. Where 
I've got this system in the hallway, you can actually walk through 
it and the light will come on after you've left the room!

However, if you can get the response time down, it's great for some 
rooms where there's a reasonable amount of movement. If you can live 
with fairly slow response times, it's still pretty good technology.

As you may have seen on previous threads, the LD11 also does not 
have any status reporting i.e. if you manually turn a unit on/off or 
dim, the controlling computer/alarm panel does not know about this 
change. You can overcome this limitation largely by thinking 
carefully when constructing the program/schedule/macro to control 
the unit. I'm part way through programming HomeVision to 
automatically control lights and set them to a certain scene 
depending on time of day, ambient light level, security status i.e. 
away, day, night, holiday mode etc. Working well so far.

I think other technology like the C-Bus system is quicker (but not 
seen it or tried it) but it uses LV wiring to the light switches. 
Anyone got C-Bus here?

Paul.

--- In ukha_d@y..., "Bricknell, Tony" <tony.bricknell@t...>
wrote:
> Paul,
> 
> You say you wish for modules with a quicker response than X10 - 
I'm about to
> install momentary switches controlling a rack of LD11's and, 
understandably,
> I'm now concerned...
> 
> How are you wiring the switches?  Direct to the LD11's (that's
how 
I was
> intending to do it - minimising any lag in the system) or to 
something like
> HV that's sending the X10 command out?
> 
> Thanks,
> Tony
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: psghome2002 [mailto:psghome@h...]
> Sent: 18 July, 2002 09:40
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: [ukha_d] Re: Wiring light switches...
> 
> 
> I recently re-wired my house for momentary switches and LD11's 
(now 
> wish I'd used modules with a quicker response than X10 - but 
that's 
> a different story!). I pretty much left the old cabling and 
ceiling 
> rose structure in place and ran a new 1mm T&E cable to each light
> switch, breaking into the circuit and feeding the LD11's. With 17 
> rooms, even that's a LOT of cabling and even though the house is 
> only 4 years old, it was a real pig to do as a variety of wall 
> construction methods had been used. Works really well though (and 
> first time).
> 
> Paul.

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