Lighting Control in Remote Building and at Gate

[melconnet]

I have a garage/workshop about 400' from the house, and a gate about 1,700 feet away.  I'd light to be able to turn on and off the exterior lights at the garage, and the lights at the gate, from the house.
 
Is this possible with the OmniPro II system?
 
If so, what is the confirguration and what equipment is needed?
 
Thanks

 

[ano]

Sure.  With a bit of planning it shouldn't be difficult.
 
Now I'm assuming that you don't have a switch in your house that control these two remote lights, But, I'm I'm also assuming that the power for your workshop and gate light come back and are wired through the many breaker panel for your house.  If this is true, Universale Powerline Bus (UPB) switches will likely work for you.  It can travel long distances over the powerline.
 
So you'll need to replace the lightswitch at the garage/workshop with an UPB light switch.  At the gate, what you will use depends on if you have a light switch there or not. If so, just replace that switch with a UPB switch as well.  If there is no switch, you can buy an in-line UPB switch and wire it into the light. 
 
On the HAI OmnPro II side you will need a UPB transceiver, a free serial port, and relatively up-to-date firmware.
 
Now, what type of lights are outside your garage and gate? The switches can control most any kind, but if its a mercury or low-pressure sodium light you might want to add in some noise filters.  Incandescent, compact fluorescent, and LED bulbs are not usually a problem. 
 
Without filters, it all should cost you under maybe $200 with some minor wiring total, depending on the type of switches you buy.

 

[melconnet]

No, the garage/workshop has it's own panel and service feeders.  The gate is powered off this panel.  Is there a way to do it in this situation?

 

[neillt]

Are they on the same transformer on the street?

 

[melconnet]

We're in the country, so we have the utilities' single phase service coming into our switchbox.  From the switchbox, the service feeders go to loadcenters/breaker panels in four locations, including the workshop. 
 
Is there a z-wave or other wireless solution?
 
Thanks for your help.

 

[neillt]

If it's on the same transformer like you describe, UPB will work just fine.
 
Distance is too far for ZWave, or even Zigbee.

 

[az1324]

Some XBee pro long range relay modules could work.

 

[melconnet]

Thanks for your help.
 
What if I was to run an OPII expansion board to the workshop (I believe these can run up to 1000 feet).  Would a wireless solution work then?

 

[tmbrown97]

What you want is doable, but may take some real creativity to bridge the distance gap.
 
I'll let others answer as to what the OPII can do - if it can run multiple lighting sets (even if so, you'd need a z-wave controller at each building)... I wouldn't expect miracles though.
 
If UPB doesn't do the trick as it is now, then I'd probably use some sort of RF signaler and some UPB I/O modules to bridge the gap; I can go into more details if it comes to that.

 

[melconnet]

I'm in the new construction phase and need to select a system within the next 30 days or so.  I like what I hear about HAI, and am trying to understand what it can and can't do.
 
It seems that my desire to control lights (or cameras, door locks, security arming, etc.) in a distributed environment shouldn't be all that unusual.
 
Perhaps the answer is to have a controller in each building and an iPad, other IP device, that can communicate with each controller (ie: building 1 security lights, building 2 security cameras, gate entry access control, etc.) using an integrated GUI.
 
Has anyone dealt with this?

 

[tmbrown97]

If you're in the construction phase, then I would HIGHLY recommend running 1-2 conduit for LV wires and if you're planning ahead, consider pulling fiber now, as both distances are beyond what Ethernet can handle.  When the day comes that you want an intercom and camera at the gate, you'll be very glad you did.
 
Another option for the gate at least is to potentially have the power local, but use an LV trigger to turn it off/on from the house or shop - that could be hooked into an I/O module or relay or just about anything else so distance issues go away.  Same could be done at the workshop even - where the local loads get power from whatever is closest, but a signal wire goes back to the main house and is used for the switching mechanism.  You'd also have a second set of signal wires going from a local switch back to the main house so you could operate at the fixture or nearby (most likely).
 
Using fiber, you can get everything on the same network quite easily.
 
I don't know how HAI handles long distances; Elk can do up to 4000' on the databus but that's more applicable for your workshop; no reason you'd extend that to the gate; if anything, again, you'd extend signal wires to trigger a local gate opener...

 

[az1324]

HAI expansion boards can be mounted up to 1000 ft from the controller.  You can use a simple output zone to control a dumb relay that operates a light.  Or yes you could potentially control a 24V AC relay directly over 2 wires.
 
If you are planning on other connectivity such as IP cameras you should look into a fiber ethernet bridge.  Once you have ethernet at those other locations you have a lot of options for IP based relays and more. 
 
I don't think there is any reason you would have to use the same lighting control technology you choose for the main residence.  The only possible shortcomings would be scene integration (easily solved w/ a separate action) and possibly UI differences?