Electric Awning Question

[beach]

I have an awning over my deck that opens and closes with an electric switch. I was wondering if anyone else has an electric awning, and if so, do you have it hooked up to homeseer to open and close under certain conditions? I would like to know the type of switch I would need to buy to make this happen. I use x10 in the house. Thanks.

[wpiman]

Interesting....

What type of switch is it? I would open it up and that a DVM and poke around. You might be able to use X10 or maybe some sort of relay..

[beach]

Well, it was just installed, and they did not install the switch yet. Since I am basically an electrician, I can see that there are 5 wires hanging that need to be hooked up. Red, black, white, green and copper. My curiousity led me to hook up the red and white to a regular hot light switch, and the awning opened! Then I hooked up the black and white to the light switch, and, as I assumed, the awning closed. I don't know what kind of switch they will install, so that's why I wanted to know if anyone had a retractable electric motor awning because maybe they could tell me what switch I can use for automation.

[PaulH]

What is the voltage on the wires?

If under 30V. and less than 5A. you could perhaps use two X10 universal modules (PUM01).

[rocco]

A three way switch?

It sounds like the white is Neutral, and the black and red are hots for closed and open. Does the motor stop on it's own when it reaches the end? If so, it sounds like a regular 3-way wall switch will work. The power comes to the switch common, and the red and black connect to the two (mutually exclusive) sides of the switch. I don't know what the green might be, but the copper should be earth ground.

I don't know of a simple X10 solution, though.

[BraveSirRobbin]

Off the top of my head, you could just use a SPDT relay with a 120 VAC coil and "toggle" that relay with an appliance module (connect the coil to the appliance module).
Then wire the "NC" contact to the Black, the "NO" to the Red, and the "C" (Swinger) to the "Hot" AC. Just make sure you put the relay in a small enclosure so AC leads are not exposed.

[beach]

Thanks for the responses, guys. The motor does stop on its own when it opens and closes. I misspoke before. There are only 4 wires. The green is the ground. There is no copper. Is there a 3-way x10 switch? I was thinking of two x10 switches together, but I can't do that because if you forget to turn the power off in one position, and turn it on in the other position, that would not be good!

Brave sir robbin, I'm not so sure I know what you mean?

[BraveSirRobbin]

Let me throw this schematic up for review so others can confirm if this will work.
You can use a relay such as THIS (its a DPDT, just don't use one of the poles).

I might have the NO and NC nomenclature wrong, but you get the idea (just follow the labeling).

When the appliance module is "OFF" 120 VAC is fed to the Black wire and nothing to the Red wire so the awning will close.

When the appliance module is "ON", the relay will toggle (swinger will move from the NC to the NO position) 120 VAC is fed to the Red wire and nothing to the Black wire so the awning will open. You can just leave the appliance module on since you said the awning will stop on its own.

[beach]

I'm trying to understand, but I have some questions. I still want to be able to manually control the awning with a switch, so I guess I can use an x10 slimline wall switch and set it to the code of the appliance module. I'm not sure how you are hooking up the appliance module to the whole thing though. What is powering the motor? The x10 appliance module? If so, where are the black, red and white wires going to in your diagram with the arrows? My other concern is that although the awning does stop on its own, is it ok to have constant power running to it?

[beach]

How about this?

x10 universal module




I also found this article:

click here

Paul H, I know you suggested this, but you said to use 2 of these. Why can't I just use one? What if I did this: I want to keep this hidden, so I would install a 110 receptacle outlet in my attic near the awning wires. I would attach the red wire to the Normally Open spot and the black wire to the Normally Closed spot on the universal module. I'm not sure what I would do with the green ground, maybe attach it to the receptacle box. I would plug in the universal module to the new outlet I just installed, and set the house and unit codes. Then, if I use a remote to turn x10 on, it would close, and x10 off it would open, or vice versa, depending. Would this work? I'm not sure of the voltage the motor takes, but the wires are very thin.

Ok, wait a minute, I'm losing my mind. I forgot about the white wire. I guess my idea won't work.

[Stevech]

A friend has an electic awning. He has it automated - to close at night, and to close if the wind speed is too high. He uses a simple relay.

[beach]

What is the simple relay? That is what I am trying to figure out.

[beach]

Ok, I think I understand. I found this article:

http://www.hometoys.com/htinews/feb9...n/x10relay.htm

So Brave Sir Robbin, you have the right idea. From reading I am assuming that the x10 appliance module does not power the awning motor at all, but merely provides the charge to toggle the coil from NO to NC or vice versa. You still have to hook up another live feed and tie the white wires and ground wires together, and hook the black (hot) wire to the relay. The relay will determine which wire (black or red) will get power to either open or close the awning, and the appliance module will set this in motion. Am I on the right track? I would like to pick one of these up at Radio Shack and give it a try. Thanks a lot for all of your help. I learned a lot today.

[beach]

I am going to try this tomorrow. Does anyone know exactly where the wires should be connected? There are 8 positions on the relay. I think the x10 module connects to #7 and #8, but I'm not sure where the black and red wires from the awning motor go, as well as the hot wire from the electric feed. I need to know position #'s. Thanks.

[JLehnert]

There should be a diagram on the package showing how the relay lugs are connected internally, ie which ones connect to the coil and which ones are NO and NC. It also might be printed right on the relay.