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Infrared controllers for lighting

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
Morning Chaps and Chapesses, 


Has anyone had any experience with infrared lighting controls? I've seen the downlights you can get with a remote control, but this situation is different. The lighting in the space is LED strip recessed in the ceiling coffers, and the client has no mobility so would be turning the lighting on and off with a remote that they also use for other things. Thing is the lighting also needs to be operation by a switch for the other people in the house, and in some rooms they would like it dimmable. Would love to hear if anyone has done something similar.
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    At £85 as opposed to £35? I wonder why?


    Regards


    BOD
  • 0
    Sparkingchip:

    I did the Aico alarms training online a couple of months ago, one point they raised was that devices such as smoke and heat alarms alarms can transfer more information and instructions between the devices when they are connected wirelessly that they can actually share through a length of copper wire.


    So Aico actually recommend wireless connections in preference to hardwired connections.


    I don't doubt Sparkingchip for one moment, but that has to be nonsense. How does the information from whatever chip is in these alarms get to the antennae if it is not by wires? ?


  • 0
    Chris Pearson:

    I don't doubt Sparkingchip for one moment, but that has to be nonsense. How does the information from whatever chip is in these alarms get to the antennae if it is not by wires? ?




    It's actually quite plausible. For example the wired control connection might just use one of a few crude states (e.g. connected to L / connected to N / open circuit) to signal some basic info such as "there is a fire" or "please reset yourself"). Whereas a wireless connection can use off-the-shelf technology to transmit arbitrary binary data, such as ids, commands, queries etc. In theory the wired connection could be used to do similar, except that (a) it might be kept that way for backwards compatibility with existing devices, (b) using a spare conductor in a cable holding other 230V conductors to do "ethernetty" type stuff might be quite difficult. Wired ethernet is normally done using twisted pairs and not at mains voltages.


  • 0
    Sparkingchip:

    I did the Aico alarms training online a couple of months ago, one point they raised was that devices such as smoke and heat alarms alarms can transfer more information and instructions between the devices when they are connected wirelessly that they can actually share through a length of copper wire.


    So Aico actually recommend wireless connections in preference to hardwired connections.


    Yeah rightt ...said Alexa.

    Some say that Samsung had their wrists slapped about 10 years ago for allowing the inbuilt cameras in their TVs to continue recording while left on standby. 

    Legh


  • 0
    (b) using a spare conductor in a cable holding other 230V conductors to do "ethernetty" type stuff might be quite difficult. Wired ethernet is normally done using twisted pairs and not at mains voltages.

    Data doesn't have to be twisted pair - you can send quite sensible data at reasonable rates over many tens of metres using a single wire and a common ground/return (N say) - remember RS-232?

        - Andy.
  • 0
    My dad’s Alexa is paired with my phone, I have his complete playlist.


    “Alexa, play Winifred Atwell”.




  • 0
    You can say that  if you are the only user of the radio channel in the vicinity and you are comparing it with a simple on-off keyed wire link. more generally it is certainly not really true.

    There are some very fast (hundred megabit) protocols for communicating over mains wiring. Personally I do not like the really fast systems  as the signal speeds involved are really radio frequencies , and certain wiring layouts act as accidental aerials so there can be  a problem, of interference, both getting out and in, often in ways that means it will work really well in one house and cause huge grief in another, despite the wring being superficially similar. But for a few hundred kilobits per second, a bit of wire is just fine.

    Any radio system has to stay in it s permitted channelisation, and cope with the channel being blocked for some fraction of the time, and the more nodes and users there are within range of the system  the more time it spends saying "'excuse me, hello "  "ouch - say that again" and "sorry?" and the less actual data is transmitted.


    A wired smoke alarm  is less likely to be jammed when another one of the same model is installed in the neighbouring flats. Unlike wires, radio waves do not really stop at property boundaries.


    I'd take the salesman's pitch with a pinch of salt - and ask why they really need a high speed link anyway  you could sent the full text of the song " London's burning" over the wire in 100 milliseconds at a few hundred kbits/sec, well within reach of 3 core and earth over half a km or so and in this case surely a simple "fire at node 1234"  or "button pressed at node 4567" is nearer the level of message complexity required.


    Mike.
  • 0
    So what sort of natter are three or four smoke alarms going to have?


    I thought that the idea was that if one detects smoke or heat, they all go off, but that may be out of date.
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    The derectors still need to be hard wired though, so I'm not sure I see the point in them being wireless except maybe for retrofit?
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    Chris Pearson:

    So what sort of natter are three or four smoke alarms going to have?


    I thought that the idea was that if one detects smoke or heat, they all go off, but that may be out of date.


    No thats right as for example the unit in the kitchen might not be heard on the top floor bedroom of a townhouse. 


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