C-Bus, C-Touch with Homevison

hello all,

Im a newbie here but have to say this site is an excellent knowledge base for us newbies.

I see a man by the name of Frank has a very similar set up to me here (i.e. C-Bus integrated with Homevision) I have the homevison unit already but not the CBus equipment.

The project I am currently working on is an Audio Visual System for an interpretive centre in Ireland. Basically it is a big home theatre. However I have all the Audio Visual aspects of it complete. I am now down to the control side of things. I am a demon for reliability so I reckon Im in the right place anyways!

What I plan on doing is having a C-Bus C-Touch SC5000CT just outside the door of the Presentation room to allow the person starting the presentation have automated control. The CBus equipment I'm hoping to get is the C-Touch mono, a multichannel dimmer module and a PC Interface module. I'm planning on using the PC Interface module to work with homevision which will carry out the rest of the work - e.g. lower screens, run timers, turn on projector power, output IR signals to recievers, players etc.

Ok the questions,

1. Does CBus and Homevision Pro systems have full compatilbility? i.e. Can they send and receive commands to one another?

2. Is the 'slowing down/burdening' issue I have heard of, caused by integrating CBus and Homevision, a serious concern?

3. Will I need a powersupply for the above 3 standard modules or will their own (iim sure the interface has one anyhow) internal power supplies be enough to power the other modules?

4. Is it possible for dynamic feedback be displayed on the Touchscreen.

For example, the presentation is always 20 minutes long, so when it is started via touchscreen, lights should dim, presentation starts etc....

After 20 mins lights come back up, presentation ends; amp, projector off etc..


What I would like to have is some sort of dynamic indicator, on the touchscreen, (e.g. countdown timer, slider, percentage value) that lets the user know how many of the 20 minutes are left, so they can organise people who wish to see the next presentation. Is this possible?






I know this is alot to throw out there but I've tried to explain it as best I can. I hope someone who has tried this combination may read this as it would be a massive help. Keep up the excellent site.

Rob

 

Hi Rob

1. Does CBus and Homevision Pro systems have full compatilbility? i.e. Can they >send and receive commands to one another?

You can send CBUS commands from Homevision to CBUS providing you have a CBUS PC Interface connected to Homevision......You can receive CBUS data via the same interface and re act accordingly using HV macros etc.......

2. Is the 'slowing down/burdening' issue I have heard of, caused by integrating CBus and Homevision, a serious concern?

I only use the sending of CBUS commands from Homevision and i use xPL (pc based HA software) for tracking CBUS Loads status and havent noticed any real issues.....

But i will soon be using another hardware device which connects between Homevision and CBUS and it will keep track of the CBUS traffic and passs the info to Homevision when required......I would suggest joining UKHA_D list as theres currently some chat regarding this hardware going on there recently...


3. Will I need a powersupply for the above 3 standard modules or will their own (iim sure the interface has one anyhow) internal power supplies be enough to power the other modules?

Order the 8 channel dimmer with a builtin power supply and that should be suffice..

4. Is it possible for dynamic feedback be displayed on the Touchscreen.

Not sure on this one as i havent played with my B+W Touchscreen in a while..

HTH
Frank

 

Frank,

Many thanks indeed for your very helpful reply. I will go over now and have a look at that hardware. Seems pretty interesting. From what you have told me so far, CBus would suit me pretty well from what I can see.

Hope someone can really throw the bait to me with regards Q4 - dynamic feedback question. Its pretty important for this to work right.


Many thanks again,

Rob

 

Frank,

Thanks for the help. Its really useful that you are using the same set-up as myself. I would like to ask you a few more questions on it.

The piece of hardware you refer to that will interface between cbus and homevision - I have gone over to the site but from what I could see there doesnt seem to be any move to make these boards available due to demand or could I be wrong here?

You say that there was no problems with communicating between homevision and Cbus. After doing more research on this I've came across alot of instances where people are frowning that the Cbus protocol isnt available unless you are a member of the Cbus enabled program. Are you a member or is it just not an issue with homevision?

I'm just about ready to order the items now. I can usually work around problems as they arise. I just don't want to get into the situation where I have equipment that wont integrate under no circumstances. I'm pretty new to this and on the steep learning curve so any advice you can give me is much appreciated.

Rob

 

Hi Rob

>The piece of hardware you refer to that will interface between cbus and >homevision - I have gone over to the site but from what I could see there >doesnt seem to be any move to make these boards available due to demand or >could I be wrong here?

Kevin the developer has recently had a batch made up and enquired about beta testers...hes alos mentioned prices so iassum its going ahead... I think he is currently putting the finishing touches to it before sending out to beta testers..
Enquire over at the HV List im sure he will reply.....


>You say that there was no problems with communicating between >homevision and Cbus. After doing more research on this I've came across >alot of instances where people are frowning that the Cbus protocol isnt >available unless you are a member of the Cbus enabled program. Are you a >member or is it just not an issue with homevision?

You can obtain the CBUS Public release Protocol and this is what i have done.....Not sure if this is required for Kevins hardware as i would imagine the protocol would not be exposed but its not a big deal if you require the Publlic release protocol...

HTH
Frank

 

Hi .. Yes I have sent out some boards to beta testers and will be sending some more next week. This isn't a commercial venture as such - just offering something that I designed for my own HA system to others who are interested. The gateway can also provide an Ethernet based control / event interface to C-Bus using the xAP protocol . This allows other devices to interact with C-Bus using a simple protocol should they wish.

It fully integrates C-Bus lighting into HomeVisions Custom Lighting implementation using a standalone hardware gateway that connects directly to C-Bus and a serial port on HomeVision or HomeVision Pro. It handles all C-Bus processing within the gateway and so doesn't 'load' HomeVision with that task. HV's and C-Bus states are constantly synchronised and updated in realtime. C-Bus groups can be directly named and scripted (tested,controlled,scheduled) within HV.

HV's custom lighting implementation doesn't include 'actions' (macros) triggered when custom lights change state but when using the gateway you can regain this most useful feature for C-Bus group changes by sharing them with the X10 actions (which you most likely aren't using). This also nicely allows you to upgrade from an X10 system to a C-Bus sytem painlessly with the possibility of a mixed system as you transition.

I designed this because I have used HV for years at home and have always been pleased with it. When I chose C-Bus as my lighting system and almost entirely replaced X10 I wanted to continue using HV. I didn't want to be dependent on a PC to be running at all.

I use xAP extensively as well and the gateway allows multiple disparate devices to all interact in a true networked fashion, and also allows me to continue to use HomeSeer - the PC based HA software application for managing richer data sources. Other leading HA applications that offer xAP support can now integrate C-Bus as well.

K

 

Kevin,

Many thanks indeed for both this reply and the email, just home now! Just a question for you - am I correct in understanding that this board has a 5500PC interface 'embedded' in it? Just need to know whether to get one with a C-Bus order I'm puttin in this weekend.

One other issue you may be able to put to bed for me, separate to the lighting issue. I'm hoping to use Clipsal's monotouch screen as part of my install. What I would like to be able to do is, is for the screen to issue approx. 15 commands to the homevision-pro, to trigger macros etc. and for the screen to show a warning if homevision-pro had any problems carrying out these macros, (and maybe display a timer but I think this is ok). I guess you could call it dynamic feedback. Basically if there is a problem with homevision turning on an amplifier (e.g), the screen would display some form of a warning. Is this possible in your opinion?

Finally, when do you think you may have a board ready for shipping for an eager HV fan?

Thanks for the comprehensive replies,

Rob

 

The gateway includes a C-Bus serial interface module so you don't need to purchase an extra one. It's not the standalone PC interface though so you can't for example use it to program your C-Bus system - it's dedicated to the gateway.

You can set up any 'custom light' within HV to track the state of a C-Bus group so you could set up a button on the C-Touch to set a group to say OFF. Now when HV sees the group go off it will trigger an HV action (macro) automatically. Dynamic feedback to the mono touch is more awkward, the colour version has enhanced capabilities here I believe , however.... what you could do is run the macro and at the end set the group back to ON to indicate it had run succesfully or leave it OFF to show it had failed . You could use levels too should you wish or also potentially set another separate group to a state to reflect the macro had run or failed - this group could have a separate indicator on the C-Touch. NB however the groups used here must exist on your C-Bus network or they will not report their correct status in the periodic C-Bus state updates and hence would likely not give a correct state indication on the touch screen.

Re unit availability - I'm awaiting some more C-Bus SIM's from Clispal at the moment - as soon as I have some I'll drop you an email.

Kevin