Basic Omni LTe lighting question

[grawil]

Hi all,
 
Can someone explain what the Leviton/HAI Omni LTe board supports for lighting? The specs list:
 
4 HLC Lighting/Rooms
32 Lighting Scenes
32 Lighting Addresses
 
Alas, I'm a n00b and don't really understand the above. How many independently controlled HPB light switches will this give me? I assume the 32 lighting address corresponds to 32 switches. So, how does 32 independent switches work out to 4 'Rooms' in the first spec?

 

[JonW]

The first device in a room is reserved for a scene controller, so each room supports 1 scene controller and 7 switches.  HLC allocates the units "on the 8's", which is why it says 4 rooms.  You can use a switch in the first position though.  So, 32 switches in total, or 4 scene controllers and 28 switches.

 

[grawil]

So, I have a pretty standard, 3 bedroom house and I was hoping to use a single OmniLte to do some pretty basic lighting automation. I cannot see myself as needing 7 switches and one scene controller in a single room!
 
Could I have my 'rooms' as follows?
1) Upper-floor: Each bedroom has a single light switch that controls LED lights. (3 switches - BR 1, BR 2, MB)
2) Hallways: There is an upstairs and a downstairs hallway lighting (4 switches - a 3-way switch at each end of the hallway)
3) Main-floor: Kitchen, Family room, Dining room (5 switches)
4) Outside: There is outside lighting (4 switches - porch, xmas, driveway, backyard)
 
I am undecided on Leviton HLC switches vs Simply Automated UPB switches. Our house is newer and uses only dimmable LED bulbs/fixtures and I have read that the Leviton switches are prone to flickering (badly) compared with those from Simply Automated.
 
Doing some reading on the forum, I don't seem to be alone in my confusion.

 

[grawil]

Could I have my 'rooms' as follows?
1) Upper-floor: Each bedroom has a single light switch that controls LED lights. (3 switches - BR 1, BR 2, MB)
2) Hallways: There is an upstairs and a downstairs hallway lighting (4 switches - a 3-way switch at each end of the hallway)
3) Main-floor: Kitchen, Family room, Dining room (5 switches)
4) Outside: There is outside lighting (4 switches - porch, xmas, driveway, backyard)

 
Can anyone explain what I loose if I use logical groupings or links with UPB over the Leviton HLC scheme on an OmniLte?

 

[JonW]

Can anyone explain what I loose if I use logical groupings or links with UPB over the Leviton HLC scheme on an OmniLte?

 You lose the accurate status tracking that HLC gives you.  HLC watches for status updates from switches and then polls all the other devices in a room to ensure that the HAI panel knows the status of each device.  If you set the rooms to UPB instead of HLC, then there is no status tracking and the room pre-allocation is not used.

 

[ano]

A room as defined in HLC doesn't need to be a physical room. Leviton sets it up that way for simplicity for larger  installations.  If you use their room and house controllers, they are programmed so if any light in a "room" is on that room button lights up on the house controller.  If you don't use the room or house controllers, then it doesn't matter much.  Just keep in mind the the "scenes" defined in HLC are on a room basis, because the controller has to check the status of each after there is a change which is part of the status tracking.  If you have 3 switches in one room and 4 in another say, that is fine just change the name form a room name to something like southwest corner of downstairs, or something like that. 

 

[grawil]

I appreciate the feedback guys. In terms of 'status', Simplify Automated has a tutorial (PDF) on creating scenes and automation blocks. Beyond being 'easier' to implement/understand in the 1st instance, does HLC offer anything different?

 

[ano]

I appreciate the feedback guys. In terms of 'status', Simplify Automated has a tutorial (PDF) on creating scenes and automation blocks. Beyond being 'easier' to implement/understand in the 1st instance, does HLC offer anything different?

Completely different.  Yes if you manually switch a single light switch it will report its status. Every switch, Simply Automated or Leviton switches do that.  But the beauty of UPB is scenes, where one command can control a room or even houseful of switches.  When switching switches with a scene SWITCHES DO NOT REPORT THEIR STATUS. Leviton ones don't and Simply Automated ones DON'T. If all these switch reported their status at once it would create too much traffic and it would never get through.  Instead the ONLY way to track switch status after a scene command it to poll each switch one by one.
 
HLC tracks which switchs are part of which scenes, and after a scene command is received, the controller polls each switch one by one to track its status.  You could in theory write code to do this, but its lots of work. HLC does it for you automatically. The negative of HLC is that you have to follow rules, since it needs to know which scenes can control which lights so that it can poll them.  That is why scenes are created by room and a room is up to eight switches.
 
If you use HLC, with Leviton switches, the panel can actually program switches for you. This makes it easy to set up a fairly complex system. For example in my house, I just use scenes controlled by the room controller.  I can adjust the scene anytime, WITHOUT UpStart or even a computer because the panel can reprogram all the switches for me. 
 
In the end HLC is a way to setup your house where rooms are controlled by scenes and all light status is tracked. Without HLC your on your own in many respects, and I can guarantee it won't be as nice with HLC. Don't think of HLC about how or what it does, think of it as a well thought out plan on how to use UPB in a house full of switches.
 
I used Simply Automated in my last house and status, even with CQC, was not really tracked, and I never appreciated how powerful scenes could be.  In this house its HLC all the way, Leviton switchs mostly, and the difference is night and day. I would never go back.