We are currently finishing a small 2 WebBrick installation. Both bricks are being used to control aspects of the heating. 1 dimmer back is installed controlling lighting and fans.

 When setting up scenes using mimics we put a "mimic up" and "mimic off" using spare dig-out. However as i have said the dig-out are being used for controlling the heating.

Hark i hear you say "map the mimics to an "an-out" then. Low and behold the dimmer pack is utilising the analogue outs.

My question is how can we set the mimics to drive as part of the scenes?

Any ideas much appreciated.

Thanks in anticipation.

John.

Dp installer.

Not currently supported. Mimics are either connected to an analogue channel, a digital channel or disconnected and controlled directly from an external source,i.e. the webbrick gateway

 Hi John,

Sorry this reply is a bit late, but I have just spotted your subject.

We have had the same problem with juggling digital outs to use as mimics and we have decided to extract the mimics from the webbrick and put them on an invertor cct. We can use a 74LS132 invertor Schmidt trigger or one with a Nor input to add a bit of logic.

This approach has the advantage of extracting the mimic allocation from the WebBrick outputs thus simplifying the use of the outputs and also making the mimics independent of the WebBrick outputs because now you can invert an output which is being used wiith a controlled circut and use it as a mimic.

I hope this is clear but this approach does simplify the task of finding mimics especially when the client changes their mind about what mimics they want.

Regards

Chris Musgrave

The Solent Electronic Home
 

 Chris

  The major disadvatage of your approach is that you lose the ability to dim mimics.  This is a key issue in bedrooms for example where the mimics need to be kept very low at night such that they can still be seen but not bright enough to light a room.

  There are various laudable approaches to reducing the number of WebBricks needed for an installation, however these always lead to higher costs and lower profits in the long run.  I'll outline some of the important issues here:

  WebBricks are good value compared to installer time, therefore it makes sense not to over populate them and give yourself cabling issues.  It also leaves room for expansion and copes with te inevitable 'changes of mind' at the customer site.  So here are some rules of thumb:

  a) Try to avoid remapping mimics, it takes time and concentration!  perhaps the only acceptable route is to map onto the 'lead' analogue channel in scenes, personally I wouldn't do it because you have to remember this stuff.

  b) Temperature sensors should be used for local control wherever possible - if you rely on the gateway all the time a customer induced network problem could cause a cold shower -- customers don't like this.

 c) Use the fact that the Gateway (HGA) has multiple Ethernet interfaces, these can be used to separate the WebBricks from the general LAN - thus increasing reliabilty.

  d) If you have got enough outputs for a particular task, tie the inputs of one or more WebBricks together instead of relying on Gateway(HGA) programming -- its quicker and more effecting, you'll get more mimic channels that you can shake a stick at.

  e) Use mimics as mimics, we all know they'll drive a pile of other stuff but the debugging effort is not worth it.

Mimics will be supported as mimics, fault finding configurations for mapped or re-purposed mimics may incur support charges.

 
Regards

Andy

PS I know this sounds tough, but all our reputations are on the line here, repeatable reliable and understandable installations should be our common goal.