C-Bus Cinema Room HELP!

Hey Guys,

So i did the C-Bus Basic programmers course about a year ago and naturally everything has left my brain.

In my cinema i have 6 downlights, setup into 3 groups (Front, Middle and Back).

I have a 4 channel dimmer and an 8way Neo switch and a occupancy/light level sensor (5753PEIRL).

What i have achieved so far is, walk into the room, All 3 groups come on to desired LUX level. (Which is great).

Since this is going to be a cinema room, id like to have to ability to turn off the 'Front' lights and dim them separately. Is this possible while using light level management to control the lights?

So basically id like to have all the lights come on upon walking into the room, then when i put on a movie on the projector screen, id like to be able to push a button and have the front lights TURN OFF and the ability to overide 'Light Level Management' and dimmer both the 'BACK' and 'MIDDLE' lights.

Any help on this would be fantastic.

Thanks in advance!

Justin

 

Use the spare buttons on the NEO to create combinations as scenes.

 

Thanks Tobex for the prompt reply.

So simply setting up a button as on/off for 'FRONT' is not adequate?

 

Tobex,

I have created a scene (scene 4) that has 'MIDDLE, BACK' dimming to 50% and 'FRONT' dimming to 5% and when pushing the set button it still does nothing.


Any ideas?

 

ok so by creating a scene and running the scene, it appears to do nothing until the timer cycle of the sensor times out, then the scene runs UNTIL the sensor activates on motion again and all lights come back on..

 

What you need to do is disable the sensor while the movie is playing, so create a new group called say 'Theatre sensor disable' and assign it to the sensors enable/disable group. Create a scene that sets the lights to the desired level and also sets the 'Theatre sensor disable' group on. Create another scene that sets the disable group off.

If you want to be able to keep the Front lights off and still allow the sensor to operate the remaining lights you can use the logic functions in the dimmer. Create a new group called say 'Front Lights Off' and assign as on/off on a Neo switch. On the dimmer channel for the Front lights, under the logic selection, enter the group 'Front Lights Off' and select the check box for the front light channel and then the Min option. When the Neo switch is off, the lights will be off, when it's on the light will be controlled by the sensor.

 

thanks Ashley, your theory worked great. Its doing as it should.
However one minor little issue;
If i have set a 5 minute timer upon sensing movement, after i press neo button that disables sensor and dims lights, the dimming action still doesn't occur until after the timing process has ended. Another little quirk is that when i press the neo button to enable the sensor again (After a movie has finished etc) the sensor starts backup and senses movement and brings the lights back up to set level however once that instance of timing has finished the lights stay on 'movie mode (front off and middle, back dimmed)

Is there anyway to disable the timer as well via the press of a neo button?

Is there a way to have the lights switch off with the sensor after this whole process has been put through the sequence?

 

ok sorry that was a blonde moment.

Edited the second scene that enables the sensor again and before enabling sensor i set the 3 groups to 0%.

Ok beginning to get my grasp back on c-bus.

Thanks all very much for your help, i hope this thread helps out someone else also.

 

Sorry, only thing remaining is this timer issue after neo button is pressed.
Is there a way to also disable timer on sensor?

If not i guess i can live with it, though i do have to have the sensor timing around 1 minute, so have to wait that time for any scenes to start

 

The timer will be cancelled by any other device changing the group address that initiated the timer (i.e. the movement group). If it's assigned to a lighting group then setting a scene with that lighting group in it will cancel the timer. If you have the sensor controlling a scene via a trigger group then you will probably need to change the action selector to cancel the timer (perhaps someone from Clipsal can confirm this

Another option is to forgo the scene in the sensor and use the dimmer logic. Create a new 'Theatre Sensor' group, select it in one of the logic rows then check the 3 lighting groups and MAX. If the lights are off by the Neo and the sensor is enabled, it will control all 3 lights. When you set the lighting scene, disable the sensor and set 'Theatre Sensor' group to 0 which will disable the timer and stop it turning off your scene.

 

How do i change the group address of the switched loads when both the sensor and the neo are controlling the same load?

 

Timers are always associated with a particular group address. When the sensor detects movement it will set the group address to the value you have specified and start the timer. If any other device sets that group address to a different value the sensor will see that and cancel the timer. If both the Sensor and Neo are controlling the same group address, operating the Neo will cancel any running timer.

Generally I find having a Sensor and a switch controlling the same group is never very satisfactory. If the sensor turns the light on, you can turn it off with the switch, but if the switch is anywhere near the sensor, as soon as you move the light comes back on. If you turn the light on with the switch, as soon as you move near the sensor it will start a timer and turn the light off. Neither of these options are very useful. That's why I tend to use different groups and logic in the dimmer to select either and AND (MIN) (if I want the switch to keep the light off) or an OR (MAX) if I want the switch to keep the light on.

If you could describe how you have set up the sensor and Neo in more detail (maybe post a screen shot) we could see exactly what was going on.

 

G'day Ashley,

I think i tried to send you a PM but not sure if this forum actually supports it.

Would it be easier for me to somehow send the project to you?

If you would still prefer screen prints, what would you like to see?

http://sdrv.ms/PTpAA8 - Thats the link to my prject

 

Ok. So the sensor is controlling group 'Theatre Sensor' which switches on all the lights via a logic group in the dimmer which is fine. When the sensor is triggered it will turn on 'Theatre Sensor' and start the 59s timer. This timer will currently always run to completion (and turn off the lights) as nothing else changes that group. All you need to do is set 'Theatre Sensor' to 0 in your scenes and that will cancel the timer.

You haven't quite understood how the logic groups in the dimmer work either. The logic (MAX or MIN) works between the group in the 'logic group' drop down and the groups already assigned to the channels you have checked. So in your first group the logic you have selected is MIDDLE MAX MIDDLE and MIDDLE MAX BACK which is probably not what you want. MIDDLE MAX MIDDLE is redundant and MIDDLE MAX BACK will turn BACK on to the same level as MIDDLE whenever MIDDLE is greater than BACK. What I think you need is a single line with 'Theatre Sensor' in the logic group and channels 1,2,and 3 checked. Not really sure what 'Cinema' is doing in there as it appears to only disable the light level maintenance and nothing ever sets that group, which means light level maintenance is permanantly off. I've never had much luck getting light level maintenance to work reliably for such low light levels. In my theatre I just have the sensor set the light to preset level so you can see enough not to trip over anything. Just change the ON KEY in the sensor key functions to RECALL 1 and in the blocks tab for the 'Theatre Sensor' group set RECALL 1 to the appropriate level.

PM's should work fine too.

 

Thank you for your guidance. Its all fixed and bugs all ironed out now. Thanks very much!