Adjustable Max Light Level

Anyone had a client want this?

When they go to bed, they hit a goodnight button. They want certain lights from then on (say toilet, bathroom, walkin) to then only turn on to a max of 30% through the night when they initially turn the group on, but they also want to be able to dim the lights up or down from that 30% if they need to have it brighter etc.

I have been trying things with the PAC to get this to work, and havent come up with a great solution. So far, I have the PAC say that if it detects this light turning on, make the level 30%. This then allows them to dim up or down after that, but when the light initally fires on, it goes to 100%, before the PAC catches is, and sends it to 30%, so its not ideal.

Any ideas?

 

I do similar things myself, was using Minder but now use a PAC as it offers more control.

Before offering any type of solution, how is the light being turned on?
By a switch or a sensor?
If a sensor, what type?

 

Thanks Nick, but just doesnt do what they want.

Lets say at night they have pushed their goodnight button, the lights are max'd at 30% when they go into the bathroom. When they switch the light on, it goes to 30%, but what if they then need more light, and want it at 70%?

They would need to go and turn the goodnight switch off...

This is my problem.

 

I have lived with C-Bus dimmers at home for many years, and am perplexed as to why any customer would voluntarily opt for this level of complexity.

At night, all you have to remember is to turn on the lights with a long press of the one key dimmer (or the up key of a 2 key dimmer). This is very natural, and always ramps up nicely to any level

If you want a 'goodnight' button, I would suggest using PAC to set all (or a preselected set of) ON groups to a defined level and leave it as that.

There are times when you need a lot of light in a hurry (sound of liquid splashing onto a floor), and to quickly turn on the lights without fumbling about with a 'beddy-bye' mode would seem to me to be pretty important.

Don

 

Hey Don, I also have dimmers in my own place, and this seemed complex at the time, but the more I have thought about it, once I have a solution, I think I will use it myself.

They dont want to have to push buttons etc on wake up.


This is what they want... and it seems logical.

When they go to bed and hit Goodnight, or after midnight, the lights in the bedroom all will max out to 30% if they turn a light on. This also drops the DLT backlights beside the beds to 0%.

During this period, if they want more light in say the bathroom, they want to be able to dim it up to say 100% if they need to, but by default, if they just hit the light switch, they dont want to be blinded.

In the morning at sunrise, the goodnight mode is disabled, and the lights can all go back to 100%, DLTS are now on.

This all seems pretty logical to me, and I think it will work well. I think I have a PAC solution with a mixture of code, dimmer logic, and some arrays in the PAC.

If it all works, will post results.

 

lorenthehaloboy,

The best solution is to use a PIR, when they walk into the bathroom it will turn the lights on to 30%.

If they want the lights to be at 100% all they need to do is press the button on the switch; which also disables the PIR.

 

LOL - I was gunna say that Memory Dimmers are good for this kind of stuff... I note that a lot of ppl use Toggle, so every time the lights are switched on then BAMMO 100%. However, that doesn't solve what Loren is requesting, which I also thought was kind of silly.

Then I realised that we manually set up exactly this kinda thing in my non-C-Bus home. We have HPM dimmers and they have a minimum setting (accessable after removing them from the wall). This allows you to set the minimum so it just glows, and also avoids the "snap-on" that C... dimmers suffer from.

Anyway, every night the last person to bed turns the dimmers to minimum and then switches off. In the middle of the night when you switch on the lights it just glows like a nightlight.

The big advantage of a manual dimmer is that you can turn it up instantly... just like the volume control in your car (how annoying were those buttons that you had to press and hold to vary the volume). Well, C-Bus is a bit like that in many ways - it seems like it takes an eternity for that Ramp to happen

Anyway, enough of a rave - I can't think of any way of solving Loren's situation without using Logic. It's basically kinda like having 2 scenes (set for 100% or 30%) and then using a schedule to enable/disable those and link them to a button... and then the normal button is kinda like a toggling scene modify... but I can't get it thru my head how to impliment it

JC

 

Dimmed Levels

Hello Loren.

Just had a quick read of this thread. We have done something similar at home using logic. Basically between 9:00 PM and sunrise, Sunday through Thursday nights the lights come on to preset level of 40% when first turned on, and can then be dimmed up and down. Outside of these times the control is the same as a toggle dimmer.

I'll have to dig the logic out of the home PC and send it through if you like.

Mark

 

The Clipsal C-Thru dimmers have between 1/2 - 1 second of soft-start in them, as do C-Bus dimmers.

 

Thanks Newman,

What I really meant was that the old HPM dimmer mechs allow you to set them so that the minimum level is preset. So, you can switch on the lights at any setting (even fully dimmed) and they come on, and there is no sudden jumps in dimming level.

On the old (non C-tick) Clipsal dimmers I have, winding the knob to minimum turns the light completely off, irrespective of the load. You have to rotate it to maybe 10 o'clock to get the lamps to illuminate, and then they come on at a quite high level. That's "snap-on" effect. Then, after they are illuminating you can turn them down lower, but you have to be careful or the dimmer will go too far and the lights will drop out.

Anyway, I need to take a new Transparent Dimmer home and test it, since you have advised me previously that the new ones are vastly improved.

Cheers, John

 

After Hours dimming levels

Hey Loren,
Found the logic from home...
Night is set up between 9:00 PM and sunrise.

Key input setup as
SP - idle
SR - Recall 1 ( 19% )
LP - Upcycle
LR - Endramp

{ Day control ON }

once (GetCBusState("Net. 253", "Lighting", "Day") = ON) and
(GetCBusState("Net. 253", "Lighting", "Hall Ref") = OFF) and
(GetCBusLevel("Net. 253", "Lighting", "Hallway") = 19%) then
begin
SetCBusLevel("Net. 253", "Lighting", "Hallway", 100%, "0s");;
end;
{********************************************** }
{ Night control ON }

once (GetCBusState("Net. 253", "Lighting", "Day") = OFF) and
(GetCBusState("Net. 253", "Lighting", "Hall Ref") = OFF) and
(GetCBusLevel("Net. 253", "Lighting", "Hallway") = 19%) then
begin
SetCBusLevel("Net. 253", "Lighting", "Hallway", 40%, "0s");;
end;
{ *********************************************** }
{ OFF }

once
(GetCBusLevel("Net. 253", "Lighting", "Hallway") = 19%) and
(GetCBusState("Net. 253", "Lighting", "Hall Ref") = ON) then
begin
SetCBusState("Net. 253", "Lighting", "Hallway", OFF);
SetCBusState("Net. 253", "Lighting", "Hall Ref", OFF);

end;
{ *********************************************** }
{ Dimmer ON }

once (GetCBusLevel("Net. 253", "Lighting", "Hallway") > 1%) then
begin
SetCBusState("Net. 253", "Lighting", "Hall Ref", ON);
end;



You'll have to modify the code to suit as I have a wireless network ( Net, 253 ) with the PAC on Local network. Oh, and 'Day" / "Night" is set by schedules stored in the PAC. "Hall Ref" is a virtual group so you know if the lighting is on or off. If you get stuck with the code, I'll PM you when I get home ( hopefully Saturday ).

Mark

 

Hey Mark,

Been playing with some code of my own. One question, where the hell is UPCYCLE?? I know of downcycle etc, but have not heard of, nor can I find Upcycle...

Thanks!!

 

Upcycle

Loren,

I had a quick look - 'upcycle' is on wireless only at this stage.
The difference in this case is when the the hall light comes on at the preset level and you go to dim it, the level initially goes up not down as per 'downcycle'. Not the first time we've been caught out with the differences between wired and wireless!

Mark