N
Nigel
Any recommendations on smart switching for the home? Would like it Alexa compatible.
Discuss Smart Switching for the home. in the UK Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net
Rako. It’s not cheap though once you start buying rak 4’s, switches, bridge and cloud gateway. I’ve done about 5 houses with Rako lighting and blind controls. I never bothered with the course as it’s self explanatory when it comes to wiring and connecting it all up . I then pay Rako 200 odd quid for half a day to come out and program it all. I obviously just include the cost of the programming in the job. Once it’s set up it’s easy to make any changes to scenes etc via the app. I get their engineer to email me the file so if there are any significant changes that need doing I just send their engineer the file and he can can connect remotely via the bridge and carry out any changes.
No it’s not really overly complicated. The hardest part is getting your head around that you are setting scenes....For it to work you really need multiple zones of lighting. For example I think I’ve got a 10 button switch, up and down for blinds, all off and 7 lighting scenes in a open plan kitchen/diner/living room. It would be pointless having it if you only had a pendant on it. So I can hit one of the scene buttons, the blinds come down and all the lights come on at 50%, another one where just the under cupboard, roof lantern Led strip and 5A sockets come on. The easiest way to think about it I suppose would be to set different scenes like cleaning, movie, entertaining, dinner, evening, cooking etc. If it wasn’t done like this then I would have to have a bank of dimmers and adjust everyone every time they were switched on. You can tell Alexa to select different scenes....I know what you mean about bespoke manufactures but in reality that’s what they all are Lutron, crestron, loxone, control4 etc.Had a look at their website. Seems really overly complicated no? Also I am always worried with these bespoke manufacturers about what happens if they fold?
Crestron is good stuff, used to have to support it in various offices.No it’s not really overly complicated. The hardest part is getting your head around that you are setting scenes....For it to work you really need multiple zones of lighting. For example I think I’ve got a 10 button switch, up and down for blinds, all off and 7 lighting scenes in a open plan kitchen/diner/living room. It would be pointless having it if you only had a pendant on it. So I can hit one of the scene buttons, the blinds come down and all the lights come on at 50%, another one where just the under cupboard, roof lantern Led strip and 5A sockets come on. The easiest way to think about it I suppose would be to set different scenes like cleaning, movie, entertaining, dinner, evening, cooking etc. If it wasn’t done like this then I would have to have a bank of dimmers and adjust everyone every time they were switched on. You can tell Alexa to select different scenes....I know what you mean about bespoke manufactures but in reality that’s what they all are Lutron, crestron, loxone, control4 etc.
IMO Lutron is behind the times when it comes to LED, crestron is for multi millionaires, loxone is good but they take the pee out of installers, control 4 is rubbish...So Rako gets my vote, plus they are based in Rochester This video might explain it better about the scenes.
Wiring is simple take each zone of lighting back to a central point like a mains cupboard where you can fit the rak 4’s in, run a cat5/6 out and loop in and out at each switch position, chuck another couple of Cat 5/6 in from this cupboard to router position, 4 zones of lighting per rack, 1 x 10A feed per rack 4 from the board.
Connection wise the raks are linked by an Ethernet cable and you punch down the cat 5/6 on to one of the raks, the bridge plugs into the rak and the cloud gateway plugs into the bridge.
She just kicked me in the ghoulies and told me Foxtrot Oscar.......I would also agree ^^^ about consideration of the Lightwave stuff. Never used it myself, but seen it recommended by some on other forums.
Was gonna give SWD a agree or like, but didn't want to get involved up with misogynist sexist remarks
She just kicked me in the ghoulies and told me Foxtrot Oscar.......
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