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Z-wave'ing my garden lights

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    Z-wave'ing my garden lights

    Hi,

    Currently my garden lights are automatically turned on/off by a timer in combination with a dusk sensor. Because I have quite a few outdoor light fixtures and an ever increasing electricity bill, I want to control these lights in a more controlled way.

    I want the lights to go off when we go to bed, and only on in the morning whenever we get out of bed (till we leave for work).

    At the moment, it works like this: the 'output' line of the dusk sensor is fed to the "input" of the timer.

    On the timer I can set multiple timeslots in which I want the lights to be on (but it only has effect when it is dark). Whenever in a timeslot, the relay is closed and the input of the timer is put on the output. This goes via a contactor in order to switch higher loads.

    From left to right in the diagram:
    - Timer: Legrand 03752 MicroRex T31
    - Contactor: Schneider 15981
    - Dusk sensor: Merlin Gerin IC2000

    What I would like to do:
    - leave the current sensor and timer combination active in case my HS PC fails
    - control the lights with Z-Wave

    I was thinking about putting the Fibaro Relay 2x1,5KW between the contactor and the timer. The output of the timer is connected to S1 on the Fibaro. So whenever the timer brings the line 'high', the Fibaro will turn on the lights by closing O1 (and I have status in HS).

    If I don't turn off the lights manually, the timer will open the relay to S1, which will turn off the lights.
    If however we have a party or something, and I would want the lights to stay on longer, I would close S2 from HomeSeer (even when S1 is closed). If the timer expires, there would be no 'drop' in lights.

    If I wanted to turn of the lights myself, I would have to 'open' S1 AND S2 in HomeSeer myself.

    Does the above (and the schematic) make sense ? Are there any flaws ?

    One question regarding the relay module: The timer will act as a bistable switch for the fibaro. What happens if the timer switches from the ON to the OFF state when I turned the lights OFF manually ? Will this toggle the output ?


    Thx in advance for your replies !
    Attached Files

    #2
    I guess I'm missing why you would want to have the timer if the lights are controllable via Z-Wave? Isn't that the purpose of having HS3?

    Comment


      #3
      I'd like to keep the timer and dusk sensor in place for when e.g. my zwave network is down, HS3 crashed, ...
      Just as a sort of redundancy for turning them on and off automatically.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by kriz83 View Post
        I'd like to keep the timer and dusk sensor in place for when e.g. my zwave network is down, HS3 crashed, ...
        Just as a sort of redundancy for turning them on and off automatically.
        I have something similar setup where I have some thermostats connected to the S1/S2 inputs of a dual Fibaro relay module and the outputs on the control for the heating. It works just fine apart from the slight issues with S1/S2 inputs representing in HS (search and you should find the solution).

        Comment


          #5
          Thanks, i'l search for the problems you mentioned. Though I'll only be using S1.

          But what happens if you configured it as a bistable switch and you turn O1 off when S1 is on? Will it turn back on when S1 goes off?

          Verstuurd vanaf mijn Nexus 7 met Tapatalk

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by kriz83 View Post
            Thanks, i'l search for the problems you mentioned. Though I'll only be using S1.

            But what happens if you configured it as a bistable switch and you turn O1 off when S1 is on? Will it turn back on when S1 goes off?

            Verstuurd vanaf mijn Nexus 7 met Tapatalk
            I'm not sure how it behaves to be honest, I really don't use it all that often and mine is only there as an emergency backup. It might be something where you look at polling to keep the inputs and HS devices in sync with each other.

            Comment

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