Re: EIB versus CBUS

["Tim Hawes" <timsyahoo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Alan,

I can answer a couple of points :-)

On 10/4/07, shieldsauk <ha@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> I'm building an extension and am trying to decide between EIB and CBUS
and also possibly
> upgrading the LD11's in the rest of the house.
>
> I feel that I have a pretty good idea of the capabilities and
requirements of CBUS having
> spent numerous hours reading the installation and configuration
documentation, however
> I don't know much about EIB.
>
> Does anybody have any experience of this and ideally CBUS as a
comparison?

IIRC Chris Hunter looked at this in a fair bit of detail, and decided
on Idratek :-)

> A few specific questions I have regarding EIB are:
>
> 1) The bus cable appears quite expensive compared to CBUS cable so I'm
guessing this
> means it's not cat 5, Is this the case?  I had cat 5 run to each light
switch when we rewired
> some years ago and l'd like to be able to use it!

AIUI the EIB protocol is an adaptation of RS485 and the cable is very
similar to the Profibus cable used for industrial control. It will be
robust, both physically & electrically, but that comes at a price...

Remember with the Cat5 though, if it is to share a back box with a
mains cable its outer sheath must be rated for mains voltage. The pink
CBus cable *is* thus rated and other cat5 cable maybe, but you need to
check, or sleeve the exposed part with suitably rated heat-shrink.

> 2) Is programming of devices covered by the EIB standard or unique to
each manufacturer?
> It's all very well having kit from several sources interoperate but
not so good if I have to
> keep buying programming tools. Ideally I'd like to be able to purchase
an ethernet gateway
> and do all the programming via that from my PC.

AIUI, you can program the EIB modules from a single tool.

> 3) The CBUS literature makes a lot of noise about soft start on
dimmers, I would have
> thought that this would be pretty much standard these days - after all
LD11's have it at
> less then 30 quid a throw. Or do I need to check for each device.
>
> 4)  I'm currently looking at the Hager TEBIS TX range. Anyone know if
these are any good
> or can recommend somebody else that does multi channel dimmers?
>
> TIA
> Alan Shields

The other benefit of Cbus is that there's a reasonable installed
user-base here on UKHA so it's arguably easier/quicker to get support
:-)

HTH,

Tim.