LinuxMCE Forums

General => Users => Topic started by: mathieu on January 17, 2012, 08:37:11 am

Title: Weederboard or knx
Post by: mathieu on January 17, 2012, 08:37:11 am

Hi all,

I am ready to use lmce to automate some lights.
All of my lights are now wired to a central point in THE closet and are operated by relays and momentary switches.
So a really cheap sollution would be to use a weederboard with digital inputs to drive the existing relays.
There is allready some info in THE wiki: http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/GSD_to_drive_a_Weeder_I/O_WTDIO-M.
Making a fulltime functioning GSD device looks like a nice little project.

However, can you Guys think of reasons not to use it and go for an other solution like KNX?
I am asking because there is so little mentioning of weederboards on THE forums.

Best regards
Mathieu

Title: Re: Weederboard or knx
Post by: Marie.O on January 19, 2012, 12:22:36 pm

Well, KNX is something that can be maintained by a good electrician. Weederboards are something that can be maintained by you only. If you are okay with that, weeder boards are probably way less pricey than a KNX solution.

Title: Re: Weederboard or knx
Post by: DragonK on January 19, 2012, 12:56:56 pm

Quote from: posde on January 19, 2012, 12:22:36 pm

Well, KNX is something that can be maintained by a good electrician. Weederboards are something that can be maintained by you only. If you are okay with that, weeder boards are probably way less pricey than a KNX solution.

But is it as reliable as a KNX solution?

Title: Re: Weederboard or knx
Post by: Marie.O on January 21, 2012, 01:09:07 pm

DragonK,

I do not have hands on experience with the weederboard solutions out there. But I don't see where it could easily fails.

Title: Re: Weederboard or knx
Post by: merkur2k on January 21, 2012, 05:59:26 pm

probably at least as reliable.
another advantage of knx is the ability to use dimmers.

Title: Re: Weederboard or knx
Post by: Marie.O on January 21, 2012, 06:25:20 pm

merkur2k,

afaict there are at least PWM modules available from weedtech.com. Probably enough to drive some LED stripes.

Title: Re: Weederboard or knx
Post by: mathieu on January 21, 2012, 06:34:56 pm

Not sure but I was hoping to control my din mounted dimmers in the closet, by immitating the manual operation of the 24vac buttons. One push turns on lights @100%, push and hold x seconds reduces light intensity with y ... something.

Regards
Mathieu