LW12 Wiring - PLease help

[tmccallion]

Hi All,
I'm new to home automation and have just bought a CM12U, LW12 and a SD10E to start off with but cannot get the LW12 to respond to either "All Lights On" or "All Units Off".

I went through the instructions for the LW12 on setting up these commands but still no joy.

Also sometimes when the light (with the LW12) is switched on (via momentry switch) it comes on but is dimmed really low. It doesn't seem to matter how bright it was when it was switched off.

I am really puzzled and would appreciate your comments
I'm starting to think "have I wired it up properly"

Please help
Tony

[turbine_2]

Re: LW12 Wiring - PLease help

What sort of unit / bulb do you have plugged into it? I've had issues in the past with some low power units on AM12 units like step down transformers.
Is the bulb at least 60w?

[toscal]

Re: LW12 Wiring - PLease help

Assuming the bulb issue is ok. As this unit uses no neutral the bulb type is quite important. I use mine on 230volt halogens.
When you programmed it did you also program the LW12 to except the commands All Lights On and All Lights off, by default this is off.
Also how do you normally control the LW12, via the momentary switch or via the computer interface CM12. If its via the CM12 then do you use a dim command to turn it off as the LW12 remembers its last dim setting, how you switch it off or on is quite important.
From what you have described it sounds like it is wired up correctly.

[tmccallion]

Re: LW12 Wiring - PLease help

Thanks for your comments.

Got it working, I didn't have it in program mode...Duh

I think the reason for it coming on dimmer, than what it was when it was switched off, is because I used the computer interface to switch it off.

Not very impressed with Active Home.

Do you know where I can find an API/SDK for the CM12U

Oh, the bulb i'm using is a normal 60 watt

Thanks again
Tony

[toscal]

Re: LW12 Wiring - PLease help

Active home is a good starter. But like most of us you soon move onto something else. Homeseer is very good if you want a PC based route, and they offer a trial of 30 days (I think). I used to use Homeseer, but for my needs I switched to a non pc based system. The system I use is Homevision, and its excellent. Very expandable and the company is very good. They even give you your first upgrade for free, no matter where you live. Just used mine to get the latest prom chip. After that its $15.00 which is still good value for money.
Homeseer is at www.homeseer.com and Homevision is at ww.csi3.com
As for an SDK for the CM12U all I know of is the RS232 protocol documents which can be found here along with an EPROM decoder routine to read the contents as a text file so this might be useful as well

http://www.intellihome.be/english/softwareindex.asp?menu=12

It might be worth doing a Google as well, as I know there are a few people out there who have written their own programs.

[TimD]

Re: LW12 Wiring - PLease help

If you want to write your own software, Homeseer do a free ActiveX control (including source code) that might be useful. It's at the bottom of this page.

You could also have a look at either xPLCM12 or Medusa.xPLCM11. Both have source code available, if I recall correctly, one is VB.NET, and the other is C#.

Like toscal I also used to use Homeseer, but I've switched to xPLHal as my scripting engine, with xPLCM12 to interface with my, um, CM12. Both of these are available for free, see the xPL Project website for more info.