Planning out the wiring

[RM C]

Hi all

Thanks for all the help so far in understanding this system. I need to next plan out the wiring. A lot of you have said that miniserver + dmx + 1 wire sensors will cover like 90% of my home automation needs. Sounds great to me.

What I'm trying to understand about DMX is what exactly I need to buy.

Say I want to control these three items

1. 240V GU10 dimmable leds wired in series - a standard light circuit.

2. RGBW LED strip. Ideally an individualy addressable one, like those off the 5050SMD/W2812B chips.

3. Some actuator?

4. A light switch that can server as a virtual input to loxone.  What's the cheapest one I can buy so I can show the electrician the principles. Nice looking ones can wait.

I think I need

1  Lloxone miniserver

2. dmx extension.

3. How do I connect this to the above 2 circuits. I think I need another PWM dimmer device (if so, anything specific recommended, and do I need to buy one per light circuit)

4. It looks like it's possible to use a simpler 12V GU10s instead but I'm reticent based on their reliability.

Thanks for any help

Ronnie

[RM C]

Just to add, I know the DMX RGBW Dimmer is available, but that's 66 for each circuit, which seems really high. Especially when a 16 channel DMX dimmer is around 100 on ebay

I think I've realized since writing this post, that one can do the following

1. Miniserver

2. DMX extension

3. 16 channel DMX dimmer -> link to 16 individual LED strips in a star topology

4. Loxone dimmer -> 4 channels , each circuit linked in star topology. A circuit is a set of 240v GU10s wired up in series.

[Duncan]

240v gu10 lamps are wired in parallel not series, so each fitting sees all 240v, and they are all controlled as a single circuit or group

if you wish, you can split the gu10 lamps into smaller groups - eg a ceiling may have 1 or more central downlight, with a wider group around the room, each group wired back to loxone for either a relay (on/off) or dimmer to control

led rgbw strip comes in 2 forms - dmx and particularly loxone has a limited number of channels, so you usually use constant voltage strip where all the leds on each strip are controlled as a group for each colour - rgbw has 4 groups, each individually dimmable, using a single rgbw 4 channel dmx dimmer

individually adressable led strips use a different interface technology where every single led is switchable on/off but these arent directly compatible with loxone or dmx and are not usually used for lighting, more usually complex light displays

12v gu10 leds dont exist, normal 12v 50mm lamps are called mr16, and they have their own dimmable circuitry inside which isnt compatible with dmx rgbw dimmers, and cant be driven by 240v dimmers either - you end up having to use a 240v dimmer with a transformer to drop the 240v to 12v and its messy, complex and unreliable. you can get 'bare' 12v or 24v 50mm modules that will fit into a standard gu10/mr16 downlight which can then be dimmed using dmx, but they tend to be expensive and difficult to source compared to normal led gu10 bulbs.

alternatively downlight fittings with integrated leds are available in both dimmable and non-dimmable, but the problem with these is that as led lighting improves, you are stuck with fittings/leds which would all need changing at the same time. as led lghts vary so much in their brightness, light quality and dimmability you would have to buy some samples and test them to make sure they meet your requirements

gu10 led dimmable bulbs have the advantage of being easily replaceable as the technology improves, but their biggest problem is compatibility with dimmers from both a flicker and dimming range point of view - expensive bulbs and expensive dimmers are no guarantee of compatibility unfortunately.