Lighting Automation Technologies: If you got to do it all over again

[hucker]

I went with UPB and liked everything but the delay (that is no longer present on newer switches). I've had a few glitches but on the whole I'm very happy with the control and reliability. After the initial install I've added a light here and there and it has been very cool just bringing up UPStart and integrating it in a few minutes.

 

[charliebarns]

I went with UPB and liked everything but the delay (that is no longer present on newer switches). I've had a few glitches but on the whole I'm very happy with the control and reliability. After the initial install I've added a light here and there and it has been very cool just bringing up UPStart and integrating it in a few minutes.

So the operation of the UPB switch is instant? No delay at all in energizing the load? Not even when using the switch manually?

thx

xb

 

[mustangcoupe]

in the Gen II devices you can set the local delay down to 300 Milliseconds. which is almost instant.

 

[hucker]

I don't want this to degrade into a UPB switch delay thread as I've done that several times in the last year or two. I will say I was a very vocal 'I hate the switch delay' voice here. My wife hated it, my kids didn't notice and I found it slightly annoying. Guests also found it confusing, on more than one occasion I had to 'explain' how the switches worked. The new 300ms delay switches switches are just fine and I have no complaints and more importantly my wife doesn't and I no longer have to give a training session on the lights. They just work.

The default for some unknown reason on the last batch I installed was still 700ms so on setup you had to select the 300ms speed. For the life of me I don't understand why it is even an option!

To be entirely pedantic they are NOT instant. At 300ms you can toggle the light on and off about 3 times a second. A regular light switch you can go as fast as you want. UPB will never match that. UPB when configured with dual rockers will be annoying in that you have to press the two switches one at a time instead of together.

These are small annoyances for me and at this time the massive benefits of UPB far outweigh the negatives.

 

[Bressler]

Looking forward, there are now several silicon startups building single chip 802.11 (wireless Ethernet) solutions. Some are looking at the low power end (where 802.15/Zigbee is) and others are going for much higher bandwidth. While there are not any products yet using these technologies, it would seem to me to be a simpler solution to use 802.11 (in a full mesh configuration, of course) for everything - data, audio, video and control. I guess that if I am dreaming, I would also wish for a standard (or at least a consortium) for a lighting control protocol, at least for the basic stuff.

 

[Lershac]

How come the votes dont add up to the number of votes shown in the poll?

 

[mustangcoupe]

How come the votes dont add up to the number of votes shown in the poll?

because some people might have "voted null" (which means their vote wont show up under an item) just to see the results


and now that I look at it that would be alot of people!

 

[kwilcox]

I've had great luck with UPB. Delay was never an issue here because family members rarely have to actually press the switches to turn lights on. My next install would merely be a technology refresh to Gen II and blue LEDs. Not planning on this itnf though. Reliable, high speed technology and excellent, consistent build quality from SAI. What more could I ask for?

 

[sic0048]

I'm surprised at the number of people that said they would go with Insteon if they had to do it over again. I wonder if that is simply due to cost?

 

[Monk]

How come the votes dont add up to the number of votes shown in the poll?

because some people might have "voted null" (which means their vote wont show up under an item) just to see the results


and now that I look at it that would be alot of people!

96 people by my count.... The poll needs to show a category named "Too lazy to actually think about it.."

 

[sic0048]

Well, keep in mind that the majority of people probably don't have automated lighting in their home, so they cannot "Do it all over again" until they do it for the first time. So it's not surprising to see 50% of the people here vote "null" so they can see the results wthout skewing them.

 

[Squintz]

I went with C-Bus although I have never used it. I have heard a lot of good things about it and I like that it can be Hardwired or Wireless. This is of course assuming that money is not a problem and my walls are wide open.

If I had to do it again in my current situation I would probably still go with Z-Wave since the question is only about Automation. Z-Wave does a very good job with lighting control. It's their other products that don't play nicely together such as thermostats, water alarms, ect.

 

[electron]

What happened to your UPB migration plans?

 

[MikeB]

I'm surprised at the number of people that said they would go with Insteon if they had to do it over again. I wonder if that is simply due to cost?

There are a lot of happy Insteon users out there, apparently just not very vocal. B)

 

[pete_c]

Personally I started to use X-10 technology in the late 70's in a house I lived in about 50% of the time and not in this country. Electric was bad so my X-10 switches (maybe had 15-20 of them) would burn out but they were cheap and it was nice to automate. Seeing a technology which would let me upgrade and still utilize X10 was the next logical step for me. (Insteon). This choice was both a monetary / logical choice. My second choice would have been UPB if it was around in the 70's and money wasn't that big of a deal. Money is relative though. Some folks consider a $50k automobile a medium priced vehicle and consider $70-90k good value for their money. These same folks would gladly pay $1000 to automate the switches in one room in their home (with 40 odd rooms or so and with a value of say 2-5 Million).