Am I screwed??
I ran a single cat5 to several switches, everywhere. And then I homeran everything. I didn't run any wires from switch to switch for auxillaries, as I figured I could do that down in the basement.
Because auxillary switches are also punched down in the branch hub, I thought that the aux was affecting the switch via controller commands. In other words, that I WOULDN'T have to connect the aux wires from the master switch, just the + and - wires.
Now looking at the diagrams again, am I seeing it correctly that being connected on the branch hub does nothing more special than just make the same physical connection as if the aux was wired directly to the switch?
So in other words, each aux-controlled switch requires a full 5 of the 8 cat5 wires. So a single cat5 cable will not be able to serve 2 switches that also have aux controllers (3 or 4-way).
if so...then I am totally screwed. Or at the very least, GREATLY screwed.
Am I screwed??
I ran a single cat5 to several switches, everywhere. And then I homeran everything. I didn't run any wires from switch to switch for auxillaries, as I figured I could do that down in the basement.
Because auxillary switches are also punched down in the branch hub, I thought that the aux was affecting the switch via controller commands. In other words, that I WOULDN'T have to connect the aux wires from the master switch, just the + and - wires.
Now looking at the diagrams again, am I seeing it correctly that being connected on the branch hub does nothing more special than just make the same physical connection as if the aux was wired directly to the switch?
So in other words, each aux-controlled switch requires a full 5 of the 8 cat5 wires. So a single cat5 cable will not be able to serve 2 switches that also have aux controllers (3 or 4-way).
if so...then I am totally screwed. Or at the very least, GREATLY screwed.
Ughh :-( I hate to be the bearer of bad news.. And Tony can confirm.. But I think you are right.. I am pretty sure, almost positive, that you need 5 wires for a 3 or 4 way switch for the actual switch
I think that was discussed earlier in this thread - or maybe I read it in the OnQ docs :-(
Are you able to pull more cat5 to any of these locations?
Well, damage control is beginning.
The worst spot is by the front door, which currently has 3 switches in it, 2 are 3-way, 1 is 4-way. Even if I put all AUX switches there and found room for the main switch in another box, that'd still require 9 wires for all the auxs.
*sigh*
With all the mayhem of construction and wiring, I just figured I'd take care of wiring the auxs down in the basement later. I didn't want to have to decide where the main went and where the auxs went (which you'd have to decide if you were to wire them directly). I just figured since the auxs were also wired into the branch panel that they could control the light directly through the ALC controller, instead of from the switch itself. Of course (now) that doesn't make sense, since those auxs wouldn't work if the controller was down then...which we know they do. I just didn't do enough investigation I guess.
The wire for the front door box comes from directly below in the basement, so there's a chance of adding a wire. I think I can make all the other boxes work with some thought about arranging where the main and aux switches go.
I am sure it isn't optimal.. And I am not sure the hardware needed but I would think you could get a device to detect a dry contact and with that and elk or CQC control the switch. Tony says not to use the elk directly because its measurement time for contact is slower than a standard button press. However, I would think someone has made a board that will not dry contacts, and open an output which you could feed into the elk.
Well, damage control is beginning.
The worst spot is by the front door, which currently has 3 switches in it, 2 are 3-way, 1 is 4-way. Even if I put all AUX switches there and found room for the main switch in another box, that'd still require 9 wires for all the auxs.
*sigh*
With all the mayhem of construction and wiring, I just figured I'd take care of wiring the auxs down in the basement later. I didn't want to have to decide where the main went and where the auxs went (which you'd have to decide if you were to wire them directly). I just figured since the auxs were also wired into the branch panel that they could control the light directly through the ALC controller, instead of from the switch itself. Of course (now) that doesn't make sense, since those auxs wouldn't work if the controller was down then...which we know they do. I just didn't do enough investigation I guess.
The wire for the front door box comes from directly below in the basement, so there's a chance of adding a wire. I think I can make all the other boxes work with some thought about arranging where the main and aux switches go.
I am sure it isn't optimal.. And I am not sure the hardware needed but I would think you could get a device to detect a dry contact and with that and elk or CQC control the switch. Tony says not to use the elk directly because its measurement time for contact is slower than a standard button press. However, I would think someone has made a board that will not dry contacts, and open an output which you could feed into the elk.
Your front door would have been a great place for a quad aux. It would have needed to be in a single gang box of it's on, but would have reduced the total number of light switch "acne" points in that location.
If you can learn to press the button and hold it in a little longer than normal (a bump don't register) then you can still use the Elk M1 to read dry contact closures from an aux or any contact closure scene/mode switch.
However in the issue of solving the problem of not running enough conductors, you still need to install an add-on scene switch and run it's cable. So, you may not be much better off.
I will ask Spanky at Elk to think about letting each zone have an adjustable response time. Then you can speed up the response time of scene switch contact closures while keeping alarm zones slower. Maybe they can add this in an upcoming firmware release.
TS
Tony (and others):
When you don't have any Aux's connected to a dimmer, what do you do with the black/red/green? Do you tape them? Cut them?
Since they come pre-stripped leaving them out in the open would probably spell trouble....if you cut them would you still need to tape them?
Started my first ALC install today. Replaced a set of 3 toggled with 3 dimmers (no auxes involved). All the HV is done and no sparks anywhere..so all good. 3 dimmers in a box does make for a LOT of wires in there since the ALC dimmer don't have terminals on them.
And even if your AUX wires never come in contact with the HV...all they have to do is make contact with each other, and you'll be getting really fun and annoying on/off/dims going on. I noticed that several times while making the LV connections with the light on, suddenly it would start dimming and go to off. Sometimes I swear I wasn't actually touching the wires, but it made a connection somehow.
All of my ALC switches and auxs all work great. However, one of the first dimmers I ever got had a rattle in it. Not feeling good about that, I took it apart. I'm not exactly sure what it was that was loose in there...but in the process, some of the plastic that held one of the 4 front screws in came off. so, the front of the switch is held in place with only 3 of the 4 screws now....I'm not concerned.
Oh, and it's true...there ARE no use serviceable parts in there.
