Test Bench Mock-Up for learning

Today I made a portable working mock up test bench with the below components mounted all on a piece of plywood.

BCN4B ? 4 Input Bus Coupler Non-isolated
DIMDN4F ? DIN Rail 4 Channel Dimmer, 4A per Channel
KEYM8 ? 8 Gang NEO Key Input Unit
PCLOCAL4 ? DIN Rail PC Interface

Inputs wired to the Clipsal Bus Coupler:
? 2 single pole maintained switch (common on/off wall switch)
? 1 single pole double throw momentary switch (spring to center)

Loads:
? 1 50W light
? 2 Duplex Outlets (with 2 table top lamps plugged into)
? 1 exhaust bathroom fan

I have a 110V wall plug in cord with a 10A breaker wired in as my main incoming so I can move around as needed to show.

Using my laptop and the RS232 into the PCI prwsently I have a way to to live testing.

Since I am new to Clipsal I wanted a way to learn the functions of the C-Bus Tool-Kit and having a mock-up is very usefull..

A few things I wanted to verify and now after testing here is what I found so far.
1. Using a bathroom exhaust fan wired I hear & see no noticeable humming by using a dimmer unit but then again the fan is LOUD as it is a cheaper unit. There was a lot of Yes & No controversy on the forum on variable fan loads and wanted to see for myself. I am wanting to wire the Dimmer to a Ceiling Fan instead of using a Clipsal relay unit.
2. Using a single pole double throw spring return to center wall switch (Leviton 5657) and having programmed as ?Dimmer Up? on one contact side and ?Dimmer Down? on the other contact side wired into the Bus Coupler it works very nice. A continuous press will dim up as a quick press will put the light at 100% and the other side of the switch will dim down with a continuous press or a quick double click will completely turn off the light. It functions like those expensive high voltage dimmers made by Lutron.
3. A basic wall switch ( single pole maintained) wired into the Bus Coupler need to be programmed as a ?Bell Press? to work and have a output turn on & off. It seems like it should be programmed on/off instead of the bell press but I was mistaken.


Now being new to the C-Bus Tool-Kit I cannot seem to turn on 2 outputs with one keypad (NEO) or a single Bus Coupler input . Not sure if I need to create a trigger control or program within the NEO Scene?s

Thanks to all for the help.
Alan Dobbs
Houston TX USA

 

Attached Toolkit Program

I attached the initial program using on my Mock-Up for review to anyone.
This is my foundation for my full project and still in its infancy.

Thanks
Alan Dobbs

 

Hi Alan,

If you always want the two outputs to be controlled together you can simply set both relays or dimmer channels to the same group address. If you want them to be separately controllable then you can use scenes.

Paul

 

Thanks Paul

I will experiment and see.

BTW here are some images of my mad creation??.

 

Is it just me.. or does it look dangerous?

 

Brother Dunc - Looked a bit dangerous to me as well.

Hey your next post is number 1000 - happy 1000th post

 

The dangerous looking bit aside, there is no better way to understand C-Bus and try different things before going to site than to build a test jig like this. Good one - be careful where you put your fingers though.

 

Here's one I knocked up about 12 years ago

 

I wanted my test bench mock-up to utilize all 4 outputs.
It was made on a pinch to discuss functionality with the city inspector & other electricians on this project as a catalog is hard to explain.
My other reason is I wanted the smallest usable space for portability.
This is so I can tote around in my RV and set up on the small table within the RV to program the C-Bus while at the beach .

Anyone working with LIVE as a profession knows where & were not to put your fingers anyway.
May not look the greatest but the Mock-Up complies with all the NEC rules state-side.

Alan Dobbs

 

I guess it just appears dangerous to us Aussies because our standards dictate that there cant be anything that isnt double-instulated or within an enclosure.

But as you said, the board wouldn't be "played with" by anyone who didn't know what not to touch

 

I think you've all missed that.....

-Alan knows what he is doing. This is not sonmething sitting in a showroom for kiddies to poke at.

-It's not part of fixed wiring! It's as stated... a means to explain how things work.

Gees.... it's not like he's installed it in a customers house

 

Have a look at the top of the circuit breaker (where the wire goes in) in the third picture - not very finger proof - that one bites.

"a means to explain how things work"??? what to people who don't know much about C-Bus ??? How much do you think they might know about how an exposed terminal on a circuit breaker (that's not very easy to see) and how it can hurt when touched Maybe we all didn't miss that.......

 

Its not part of fixed wiring!!!!!!!

 

Fixed wiring or not, electrocution is electrocution which ever way you look at it.

The reason I bought into this thread is because what industeq has done is a great initiative for building understanding and competence on C-Bus technology and its application. Speaking from real experience when you are using a setup like this as part of a learning process, you test, try, poke, prod etc. You will easily get pre occupied with what you are doing. If there is any exposed live point like in the image provided it will bite sooner or later.

As you say It is not part of fixed wiring - that's correct if not painfully obvious, therefore the circuit breaker should not even be there. Plugged in via a flex the setup is essentially an appliance safe or not is another issue.

Have a look at the old clunker I set up over a decade ago. The flex is safely terminated under a Clipsal 413. You cannot get to a live connection anywhere without taking a screwdriver to the arrangement.

For the benefit of new-comers to C-Bus, by all means make up a test jig, but for God's sake make sure it is safe enough for any one to poke around without getting bitten, better still plug the test jig in via a RCD protected powerboard like a 485P2CB30.

 

Thank you for all for the feed-back.

As my true profession & corporate business I troubleshoot multi-million dollar Computerized Controlled Machine Tools (CNC) lathes / Mills / Milling Machines for a living.
It is 2nd nature for me to work with LIVE 480 volt 3 phase industrial power while diagnosing problems on Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC?s) vector drives, servo controls and other latest factory automation electronics on automation equipment.

If I was to poke & prod with my career I would be in a wood casket & 6 foot in the ground by now.
Now grant it that the mock-up may look un-safe to some but it is for my own internal testing purposes only.
It is not a real-world consumer show & tell display to take to job-sites.

I am very new to the C-Bus and a mock-up was the only way I could understand the functionality and I was not trying to make as a trade show exhibit.


Maybe I need to make a 2.0 version soon

 

As you can see, we not only help where we can, but we also care about our forum members safety as well.

I don't need to state the obvious, electricity is an unseen killer so be careful.

I appreciate that the rig is for yourself, but it should be safe. Don't think of making it safe as something for you, but for your family should you happen to get electrocuted from it. The test rig is of not much use to them when your are dead.

There are too many tragic stories of people getting electrocuted that could have easily been prevented.

Mick

(I too work in industrial automation where often you need power to diagnose problems)

 

Old thread I know, but the OP has linked to it in a new thread. As for dangerous yeah everything is insulated, but it certainly isn't a good example of what one would do in real life. In particular the blue cat 5 linking the PC interface to the coupler to the neo switch. Should be C bus pink.

Also aussie sparkies would have a heart attack at seeing those screw on cable joiners on the neutral and active wires. Guess 110V doesn't bite as much as 230v.

 

Test Mock-up

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