RE: Light level monitoring - to add to Homevision/Comfort

["Gary Tall" <gtcs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Paul G, yes no problem. The level is set by the pot on the external
PIR
as Paul has said in his recent mail. You set a virtual group to turn on and
the expiry timer to 18 hours say. The virtual group will turn off either
when the timer expires or when the light level goes above the level set on
the external PIR. I tested it after dark and using the torch app on my
iPhone I was turning the virtual group on and off as the torch was going
off
and on if you see what I mean.



Kevin, I can't see any way of getting the level through C-Bus like you can
with the internal devices.



My plan now is similar to what Paul W has said, I'll use a couple of the
external sensors to turn on virtual groups as the light level drops. I'll
use these groups to determine when the lights should go on in different
parts of the house. The reason for using two is that the house is quite
long
and runs east to west so as the sun is going down one end of the house
needs
lights before the other end does. I'm hoping to have some of this working
over the weekend.



I haven't looked in to Wiser much, is it worth getting?



Regards

Gary



From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Paul Gordon
Sent: 31 May 2012 10:46
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Light level monitoring - to add to Homevision/Comfort





Going to share?

:-)

P.

-----Original Message-----
From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx <mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
] On Behalf
Of
Gary Tall
Sent: 30 May 2012 21:56
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx <mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Light level monitoring - to add to Homevision/Comfort

I've worked out how to do this now

From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx <mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
] On Behalf
Of
Gary Tall
Sent: 29 May 2012 22:31
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx <mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Light level monitoring - to add to Homevision/Comfort

I've done some quick testing of one of the external C-Bus PIR's, I can
setup
a virtual group linked to the sunset/sunrise feature. This turns the
virtual
group on at sunset but I'm a little confused as to how to setup the expiry
as sunrise. All the documentation I've read suggests you can have the C-Bus
PIR do this but in the toolkit I don't see this option, just a standard
expiry timer you can set up.

I'm very rusty with C-Bus as I haven't used Toolkit for a couple of years
now but can anyone give me any pointers as to how to set up the Sunset to
Sunrise feature to turn off at Sunrise rather than a set timer.

Whilst it would be nice to get the levels I can't see any way to do this
via
the gateway so I guess that it is not possible.

Thanks

Gary

From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx <mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
] On Behalf
Of Gary Tall
Sent: 28 May 2012 20:30
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx <mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Light level monitoring - to add to Homevision/Comfort

Thanks Kevin. I don't have any of the internal C-Bus PIR's (SWMBO didn't
want too many things visible on the interior).

It is a good call though as I do have six of the external PIR's though
around the exterior of the house. It's a long while now since I've opened
the C-Bus Toolkit but it appears they have a sunset/sunrise feature too. It
looks like I could create a phantom light group for each of these and use
the state of these to determine whether the lights should turn on on/off in
the appropriate rooms.

I need to have another look though as I can see how I turn the phantom
light
on at "sunset" but not how to turn it off at "sunrise"

Thanks

Gary

From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx <mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>
] On
Behalf Of Kevin Hawkins
Sent: 26 May 2012 13:54
To: UKHA Group
Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Light level monitoring - to add to Homevision/Comfort

>
> Hi Gary,
>
> Is it inside or outside that you wish to monitor ? Do you already have
> by any chance any of the C-Bus sensors with inbuilt light level
> reporting ? Some of the ceiling PIR's include this as a bonus feature
> (5753PEIRL), you never know, you might already have something.
>
> I'd need to check about support within the xAP gateway for these -
> can't remember if they can report or at least control via a lighting
> compatible application or if they're on measurement. I think they are
> compatible as they can be used without logic to achieve much the
> effect you want.
>
> I have played with this and it took a bit of refining to get it
> working acceptably. I use sensors within the room now (xAP reporting
> but IDRANet hardware not C-Bus ) and also have outside light level
> reporting. The lights can vary in brightness to maintain an inside
> minimum lighting level but in practice they were mostly on/off in the
> not brightly illuminated room. Ramp times reduced the switching
> annoyance. I also had to set up some logic to avoid this happening
> when unoccupied and/or at weird times like at dawn if it got brighter
> and then darker again. Hysteresis was important too and I found that
> the lights were not sufficiently bright to avoid the room going a lot
> dimmer in overcast periods. I think you need a lot of reserve
> brightness (wattage) to actually maintain a constant brightness if
> that's your goal.
>
> Here's a couple of graphs for yesterday .. one inside and one outside.
> The shape of the curves is quite different and I was surprised how
> steep the outside light changes were. If you look closely on the
> inside graph at around 8.30PM you'll see the very small difference the
> lights coming on made in their overall contribution, but this was in
> more of a mood lit room (i.e. dimmer lighting).
>
> Inside http://tinyurl.com/ch8qu3m
> Outside http://tinyurl.com/cx4cfhq
>
>
> K
>

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