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<\/a>Week 33, Day 1<\/p><\/div>\n
I should probably write a Technical Article<\/a> about the Home Automation solution sometime but for now these and the other similar notes will have to suffice. In summary, I’m using KNX<\/a> as the high-level control protocol but this hands off to DALI<\/a> for (most of) the lighting – on the basis that there’s much more choice of LED dimmers that support DALI than KNX, and they tend to be cheaper.<\/p>\n The original plan was to use DALI relays for the non-dimmable lights (e.g. some internal wall lights and the outdoor floodlights) but there actually seems to be less choice of DALI relays than KNX relays and a single 16-way KNX relay will switch all the lights and is much cheaper than multiple DALI relays. There are also some trade-offs with respect to the limits that apply to each protocol:<\/p>\n Since I’m no expert in either KNX or DALI I wanted to bench-test the main components before hiding away all the first-fix wiring. That testing has gone well and I’m now happy I understand enough about these systems to proceed.<\/p>\n I also had good results testing openHAB<\/a> which is currently my preferred solution for extending the control options to include web browsers, tablets and smart phones. In particular, the openHAB KNX “binding”<\/a> is working very well so I can use that to control all the KNX devices (including the lights, via the KNX-to-DALI interface) from a smart phone or tablet as well as from the fixed switches in the house. I find it particularly pleasing that when you use one of the fixed switches the smart phone app updates the status immediately, showing that e.g. a light has been turned on or off. (The fixed switches will be momentary-action so they return to the “off” position, likely to be these MK Logic ones marked “press”<\/a>. They will be configured to work in a “toggle” mode – press once to turn on, press again to turn off.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Week 33, Day 1: Bank Holiday Monday so no proper work on site today, just me tidying up a few bits and pieces – like running the cables for the ceiling speakers in the open plan area I also got … Continue reading \n