Newbie saying hello... and starting to ask questions :-)

[ludditeal]

Thought I had better de-lurk as I will probably end up asking lots of questions in the near future...

Have been a UKHA subscriber for at least 9 years (looking at the vast mail stash) and attended the meeting in Hatfield where karam and Vivian unveiled Idratek on the HA audience.

Having recently moved into a cottage which requires a total re-wire I have decided to go down the Idratek route for the automation needs. Planning on lighting and heating control as the starting point.

The first sub-project I am planning will be the drive lights and this is based on an idea that Chris proposed in the forum. What I hope to achieve is...

There will be 5 driveway lights fitted with dimmable CFL bulbs. Initially I plan for these to come on at a fixed starting time but hopefully later move to a light sensor triggered start. I will want them to run at a dimmed level say 25%. There will then be 2 PIR's, 1 at the top and one at the bottom of the drive. When these are triggered the light level for the CFLs should go to 100% for a fixed time period, say 15 mins before dropping back to the base level. For the added compexity twist, at 01:00 in the morning the lights should go off all-together, but retain the ability to be triggered by the PIRs if movement is detected.

I have ordered the starter kit from Idratek with the addition of quad dimmer module which was delivered very promptly this morning and I have got a one month demo of Cortex which I will turn into a full licence when I work out which of the options I need/want!

I have ordered the following PIR's http://tinyurl.com/a3wfkw which have a volt free contact but the minimum closure time seems to be 5 seconds.

Anyone see any problems with my plans? From my first play with Cortex I am not sure that I can do the light shut off at 01:00 which wouldn't be the end of the world.

Regards
Allan

[chris_j_hunter]

hello, and good luck ...

thanks for the reminder, too - we need to order those Varilights, 'though before we can we have to choose which sort to go-for - dimmer-dimmable or switch-dimmable (the latter maybe more of a challenge from an Idratek control point of view, but would also allow - IIUC - easier local / manual intervention) ...

looking through the Idratek price list the other day, I noticed the quad dimmer for the first time - is it new, or did I just miss it ?

I'm pretty sure switching-off at 1:00 whilst allowing the PIRs still to do there job must be easy, with Idratek ... even more complicated arrangements, too, I would have thought ...

Hatfield ... we went to the UKHA 2004 do, too ... was when we discovered Idratek (& xAP), 'though I think we missed the Idratek presentation (either that, or it was all so new to us we were punch-drunk) ... funny, just now, we're having a clear-up, and I found the delegate papers for the do deep in a pile of papers that need sorting !

Chris

[ludditeal]

Was in B&Q today and they had some new dimmable CFL's which have just come in (weren't there on Monday)... can't remember what the name was but began with G at £8 each and a label "Packed for B&Q" so the market is expanding (was also interesting that they also claimed to be the 1st dimmable CFL from normal dimmer switches which we know isn't true!!). They looked to be BC fitting only and the bollard I am going for is ES.

I think Idratek have had the quad dimmer for quite some while if always.

I was also hoping to do some of the dimmer smarts by Reflex for times when I am playing with Cortex in the early stages so a good opportunity to learn :-)
Regards
Allan

[ludditeal]

Have just found them...

Govena which look to be Polish

http://www.govena.com/KKen/CFL_DIMM.pdf

Also seems Screwfix are selling dimmable CFLs but more expensive..

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/59891/...immable-BC-20W

Regards
Allan

[jpdw]

Have just found them...

Govena which look to be Polish

http://www.govena.com/KKen/CFL_DIMM.pdf

Also seems Screwfix are selling dimmable CFLs but more expensive..

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/59891/...immable-BC-20W

Regards
Allan

Slightly OT from the main topic but I bought one of these from Screwfix a couple of months ago. It seemed to have a noticable buzz which was rather too annoying. That said, if you dont mind the buzz it did seem to have a reasonable brightness curve. Not the finished article yet, but at least it's proof that at least some manufacturers are trying to answer the dimmable requirement as opposed to govt which seems to be killing the only working solution before there's a replacement.

[Paul_B]

My favourite TLC-Direct have the varilights available as well as some Megaman

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Ind...CFL/index.html

I actually sent an email to Megaman once to ask about the switching capability of their CFLs (I've often found cheap CFL don't like regular switching), they responded with technical details which read very well (something like >100,000 switches) led me to buying some.

You can also get dimmable LEDs but they will be expensive to produce good light, with a good beam spread as this is cutting edge

[jpdw]

Slightly OT from the main topic but I bought one of these from Screwfix a couple of months ago. It seemed to have a noticable buzz which was rather too annoying. That said, if you dont mind the buzz it did seem to have a reasonable brightness curve. Not the finished article yet, but at least it's proof that at least some manufacturers are trying to answer the dimmable requirement as opposed to govt which seems to be killing the only working solution before there's a replacement.

My earlier post reminded me that I wanted to try this device again.

For the unitiated, it's apparently 20w, with light equivalent to a 110w bulb (we're going have to start know 'lumen' values aren't we!).

At full brightness, actually I quite like the light (in the living room ceiling). The room doesn't look like it's lit with a lamp -- if anything perhaps more like daylight.

The buzzing is still there.

In terms of dimming, for dimming-down, I'd say it dims down to about 10%. BUT the dim-up performance is not so good. Turning it on gradually you don't get anything till about 30% (ish). Then you can dim back down.

I guess the problem is that is still needs a certain level of start-up voltage to get the tube working. After that you can dim but before that you get nothing.

Anyway, my 2nd view is more positive, but still they have a way to go.

[n07tv]

Allan,

Cortex is extremely powerful and not all the solutions are immediately obvious.

Apart from a whole range of inbuilt functions, 2 very simple tools I use a lot of are extremely useful. The Event scheduler is simply a calendar in which you can configure virtually anything to do anything when you want anything done, I have mine set up for recycling reminders, test smoke alarms, auto everything off at 2am (just in case), running a small greenhouse for plants (lights and heating) etc etc. the other great tool is the macro where you cn set a sequence of events to play out and then trigger the macro on an event.

I think you will find this forum very useful and everyone has a way of doing something with IDRATEK stuff. The technical support from both Viv and Karam is also very good and they are often the first to reply on the forums.

Hope that helps.
Neil

[chris_j_hunter]

no idea about the G... lamps, but we have found there to be a lot of variation in the quality of CFLs, brand to brand ... many go dim over time (we've been tempted to throw them out well before half-life), some get slower to come-up as time goes on, and a good many have failed before even 1000 hours (eg: half the ones we have in the bollards at the moment) ... while others are just fine ... best we've had have been Philips long-life, but we've far from tried them all ! Recent Which? reports say much as we've found, but SFAIK they've not tested dimmable ones ...

[chris_j_hunter]

the spec' for the Govena lamps looks pretty good, especially for bollard use ...

BTW, our bollards are ES, too ...