Re: X10 and VIOM Xap ?

["egelbeertje" <r_d_k@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Marcus,

I actually rewired all my wall switches to momentary ones to be sure
the LD11 get the on/off when I want.
Currently investigating on how to do occupancy detection the smart &
cheap and easy way. Closing a relay (driven by a PIR) parallel to the
momentary switch for about 2 seconds will give you about 50% light
level (if the previous state of the LD11 was 100%) so I did not
figure it out completely yet how to always get it to reset to 100%.
I've experimented with the MS13 sensors but the delay is too long -
I'm halfway the corridor before the lights go on so I'm going to
abandon that option pretty soon I hope.
I'm thinking of putting an Ocelot controller with light level sensor
in between to get some brains into my X10 setup and hopefully not to
induce more delays. Suggestions welcome.

rgds Rob.

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "Marcus Warrington" <marcusw@m...>
wrote:
> I've been slowly wiring our house to allow X10 control of the
lights using DIN mounted modules. I've been running a new T&E wire
from each ceiling rose back to the X10 node 0 consumer unit and then
rewiring the ceiling rose to send the switched live wire to the LD11
and returning the live to the light down the other. Power for the
LD11's was tapped from the lighting circuit in node0.  This has all
been successful , but I now have a couple of issues.
>
> The hallway lights are controlled by 4 , 1 gang switch plates each
with 3 switches (one on each landing, one in downstairs hall and one
in vestibule). I'm having trouble finding 1 gang with 3 momentary
switches, and even if I did how do I "rewire" the current 4 way
switching to allow any of the 4 switches to give a momentary press ?
One option I have thought of is to use an AD10 instead of an LD11,
since these allow normal switches to toggle to light. I could simply
wire the AD10 switch wire to the current switched live feed so that
if any switch toggled the switched live feed the AD10 would toggle. I
think this would work and would be easy to implement BUT it would
mean no dimming.
>
> Another option would be to use a VIOM unit to monitor the switch
and then pulse a relay for .5 of second when the switch changes state
i.e. emulate what the AD10 does. This would effectively convert the
existing light switch into a momentary switch. This would also allow
me to use LD11 instead AD10 units and so retain the dimming facility
(although not via the switch control i.e. no long press). I'd prefer
to keep the dimming facility because I plan on implementing occupancy
detection lighting and like the idea of the light only coming on at
40% brightness if I get out of bed in the middle of the night
>
> It occurs to me that buying some VIOM units may actually also
enable me to overcome a couple of my big concerns with X10. If I
wired the relay board into the top of the LD11 i.e. made it control
the switching the I could have control of the lights via xAP
messages, overcoming the time lag of X10 since the LD11 would
effectively be using local control. I guess it would also be possible
to have the VIOM monitor the "live" feed out from the LD11 and
send a
xAP message when the state changes (or a request is made) thereby
implementing a form of status response ?
>
> Does any of this sound plausible.. safe.. advisable ?
>
> Has anyone done it already  ?
>
> Regards
>
> Marcus