CBUS Home Automation

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Originally Posted by silentC

I suppose it depends on the 'granularity' you want. You probably wouldn't wire every single light back to the bus, they'd be in banks eg. half the downlights in the lounge to one switch and half to another, so you can switch them off and on in groups. If you want individual control over each light, you probably need to see someone about your obsessive/compulsive syndrome.

Is the programming done through the controller itself, or do you plug in a laptop?

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We run all lights back individually, but switch/dim in banks as necessary.

That's one of the tricks, you can then change which lights are in which banks at a future time. You don't have to have individual control, but it's nice knowing you can :rolleyes: . Actually the spark won't give you any money back for saving him the effort, you still get charged by the fitting, so you'd only be short changing yourself. (I tried that argument!)

Plug in the laptop. I was thinking for a time of getting a $100 PC (shudder :eek: ) box just to sit there and log in through remote desktop from anywhere. Still am, but since I haven't touched a control in two years it would seem to be just a gimmick.

Every now and then I get a bright idea about doing something gee whizz and run for a laptop to programme it, but forget what it was by the time I plug in.

I do have a switch in the garage that turns a few lights on through the house so one can navigate at night without having to turn on any others, but haven't got around to running it off the door controller with a light sensor over-ride. See! It's just endless!

Cheers,

P

Come on ..... nobody has approached the real big question here .....

How can CBUS help me out in the shed?

I like to think of myself as a bit of a gadget freak, but this stuff just makes my head hurt. I think it sounds great, but I'm buggered if I understand much of this thread at all. :confused:

Not that I don't think it is useful or interesting - quite the opposite. I guess I need to do some more reading/cogitating on it. :D

I'm replacing the ceiling in the lounge/dining/kitchen in my new house (well, installing a new ceiling over the pink-painted exposed beams) and I was going to get a sparkie to run new wiring so that I could use downlights throughout this area, rather than the uber-70s wagon-wheel light fitting that is currently in place.

Might be a hard question to answer given you haven't seen it, but is it worth using this c-bus stuff for only part of the house? Or do I really need to do it for the whole bang lot to make it worthwhile.

I like the idea of most of the things you've all suggested, but I can't justify the cost of retrofitting the wiring to the rest of the house at this point.

Interested in your views.

Trav

OK last couple of questions:

Turning things off and on is one thing but how do you get it to adjust the volume on your stereo or change the temperature setting on your air conditioner?

Do you have one of the touch screen thingies?

I can just see the pile of roughsawn stacked by hte jointer/planer with a sophisitcated power feed system. You call up and say "I"m on the way home, joint and thickness the pile to X and Y). You tell the power sharpener to turn on and sharpen the plane blade for 2 minutes and then 1 minute at microbevel and finally you get the trolobyte to sweep the floor ready for your arrival.

The way I see it, all this CBUS stuff is a bit well, outdated before its begun. It will be looked back upon like the briefcase sized mobile phones of the 80s.

There wil lcome a day where we wont have "PC's" on a desk but a "central house computer" that is built in to the structure no different from a theatre room or walk in pantry. Everything is wired to it form the begining and you just have any number of terminals around the house.......yet to come?

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Originally Posted by silentC

OK last couple of questions:

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You think?? :D :D

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Turning things off and on is one thing but how do you get it to adjust the volume on your stereo or change the temperature setting on your air conditioner?

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Why do you want to?
Changing the temp is easy, of course you need one with an electronic controller and then set up the interface, but if you are using a properly installed air conditioning unit it won't need to have the temp adjusted EVER ;).

As for the stereo, what's wrong with the remote? At some point you have to be near something to input data into it, I don't understand why (the marketing guys obviously do) you need to make things so complicated.

Our solution (which cost only slightly more than all my tools combined :eek: was to use a Bose Lifestyle system, which controls all devices, and is clever enough to remember the volume you turned off each component in which zone as well. One remote covers all, at about 2/3 the price of doing it through the CBus, and with a nice bit of kit to boot.

Some less costly solutions will do it all, but not with the same simplicity(as far as I have found). We have provided the smallest Bose System in some of our apartments just for the easy one-remote feature.

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Do you have one of the touch screen thingies?

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Yep, mines the early version, I got it thrown in for nix, and it isn' t worth the price I paid. I have seen systems using a 12 or 15" LCD screen and proper web interface and they work very well. "One day" I might have a crack at producing one out of interest.

They are able to be used to programme controls apparently, but not worth the bother.

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Originally Posted by Trav

I'm buggered if I understand much of this thread at all.

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I spent a couple of years trying to understand it. Couldn't see what all the fuss was about, which was why I did it. Had it not been of professional interest to me, I doubt that I would have installed it.

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Might be a hard question to answer given you haven't seen it, but is it worth using this c-bus stuff for only part of the house? Or do I really need to do it for the whole bang lot to make it worthwhile.

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I would not bother for just two rooms, but to confuse the issue further our neighbours did, and are quite happy. There again they also went the whole TV/Sound control thing, that I hope I have "clearly" explained my reason for not doing!

I think the base infrastructure required would be enough to do the whole house so the cost would be even more exhorbitant!

Cheers,
P

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The way I see it, all this CBUS stuff is a bit well, outdated before its begun. It will be looked back upon like the briefcase sized mobile phones of the 80s.

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Yes, like my Pentium III 450 was 3 weeks after I bought. However at the time it was top of the range and better than the Pentium 100 it replaced. So if we take your argument to it's logical conclusion, we would never buy anything because it will be outdated one day.

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Why do you want to?

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I don't really, but they say it can be done so I'm curious to know how. It's obviously not going to work on my old National Panasonic freestanding air conditioner with the slide control on the front, is it?

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They are able to be used to programme controls apparently, but not worth the bother.

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They show a pic of the screen and it has these lovely virtual slider controls to dim the lights with.

I need to get some prices and see if it's worthwhile. Bose Lifestyle huh? Will it play my scratchy old Eric Clapton LPs?

No, but did I mention this great new EC DVD that you can buy nowadays?

Ask Col if you don't believe me :D

Just checked out the price of the BOSE Lifestyle 48. Try $8000 :eek: It had better sound like Eric is in the room with you for that :cool:

The only gizmo I have is a remote controlled light switch hooked up to a 3hp rated relay, so I can turn my dust extractor on from anywhere in the workshop. Saves walking from whichever machine I'm using each time I want to switch on/off. :D

Don't confuse the system with the controller.

One of the electrical gurus may correct me here, but the "BUS" is just that, a bit of the switch board that allows you to connect the smart bits to. Unless someone finds a wireless way of getting electricity to a globe without killing anyone who gets in the way, for the forseeable future at least, we are going to need wire.

If you wire back to a point where it can be electronically controlled, you have provided the framework for future developments.

I am at a bit of a loss to invent more things to do with light fittings other than turn them on, off or dim them in a particular sequence though? :confused:

The brains we already have can actually do that, I'm guessing new ones will just get smaller, controls wireless (already here), and new interfaces with equipment (make up your own minds how necessary!)

If on the other hand, you wire traditionally, the yet to be invented interface will have to happen at each switch.

Cheers,

P ;)

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Originally Posted by silentC

They show a pic of the screen and it has these lovely virtual slider controls to dim the lights with.

I need to get some prices and see if it's worthwhile. Bose Lifestyle huh? Will it play my scratchy old Eric Clapton LPs?

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Got the virtual slides. Lovely virtually, pain in the patoota reality. The normal switches; touch to turn on/off, hold to dim are every bit as lovely to use as the virtual sliders look.

No need for top shelf, the 3.2.1 is a lot cooler than it looks. It's a bit like planes really, the LV will do the job, but the LN is cooler.

The first demo I saw with the 3.2.1 which is a three speaker virtual surround system (?) the guys set up in our boardroom with the usual five speaker array, and played the flash boom boom 3D Surround sound DVD on the tele.

"Yes yes that's fantastic"....yawn

Then they showed us the rear speaker were hollow fakes. :eek: :eek: :eek:

After the first couple of grand, every dollar spent makes you feel better not hear better!

cheers,

P

Sod all this technology!!

Have just been on the phone to the wife and the phone line at home is playing up (get someone elses fax machine everytime I try and phone home) and the damn ASDL is down. Wifes mobile isnt setup properly and shes lost the handbook. Telstra tech called and couldnt find anything wrong with the line. Tried to trouble shoot the problem from out here in the Timor Sea but gave up.

To make matters worse here I am sitting out on a high tech oil rig where we havent been able to do anything for 3 days while we wait for parts from the US to get all the wonderful technology working again. A 4 week hitch has just had a couple of weeks added to it......

(rant mode off)

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One of the electrical gurus may correct me here, but the "BUS" is just that, a bit of the switch board that allows you to connect the smart bits to. Unless someone finds a wireless way of getting electricity to a globe without killing anyone who gets in the way, for the forseeable future at least, we are going to need wire.

If you wire back to a point where it can be electronically controlled, you have provided the framework for future developments.

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Imagine a light fitting that has a wireless receiver in it. You can switch it off and on and dim it through a wireless connection. Then the only cabling you need is the 240v for the globe. You run a single cable all the way around your house and connect all the lights up in parallel, then you can control each one from a central location. No need for switch wires.

What's that buzzing in my head?