I understand that the original vision for inputs was to use Push-to-make.
I have on-off switches working fine, and from my PC all controls work fine.

For switch users to control dimmers I deduce that the standard solution is to have two push-to-make switches connected to two digital inputs, one of which triggers Next and the other triggers Prev.
One can replace the two PTM switches with a SPDT that has On(1)-Off-On(2) ("2.5 throw"?) and the logic remains the same.

However, for each of my 4 webbricks I have 4 dimmable outputs (to Soundlab G018VA) and 4 triac outputs, so if I use 2 DIs per dimmable output I will use up all my (4 + 4*2 = 12) DIs for the individual switches leaving nothing over for PIRs, Master-off etc.
So, how best to use one Analogue Input to control one Analogue output?

I created an experiment using a "2.5 throw"SPDT with 5V and Ground on the two throws, and the single pole being the input to the AI.
After some tuning I set the thresholds at 15% (Prev) and 60% (Next).
When I connected the switch to Ground or 5V, about 70% of the time the lights went appropriately up or down, but there was a delay involved.
When I left the switch on Off (Open) the lights changed randomly.

To address the latter issue I set up a 3V supply through a 470k resistor to the AI (a sort of "pull to middle")
This suppressed the random changes, but made the wanted changes less reliable.
Approximately 40% of the time I push the button one way the light responds the way I expect; 55% of the time it does nothing, and 5% it goes the other way.

Is this approach feasible?
If so, what do I need to make it more reliable?

Do I need a diode (and if so could you suggest an order code) somewhere on the 3V input - as otherwise when the 5V is live, power seems to be going into the 3V transformer.
Is there any issue that my 3V transformer says it is regulated?

If this approach is not feasible, how else can I get more inputs?

There's no "right answer" here - it's just what works for you, in your chosen type of switches environment. 

Analog Inputs are polled about once every four seconds. They're designed for heating sensors, water tank levels - things which don't change fast. Rotary encoders are what you want to dim lights directly, if you're not using scenes.

In "West Country Retreat" case study, we used MK-type switches and rotary encoders with push-to-make throughout. We wanted "100% old fashioned"/"no learning required" (depending on your outlook on life) switches. The rotary encoders dim & toggle the AO's, and the MK switches toggle the DO's.

We ended up using a 3 dim + 7 switched pattern, quite often. As you're getting to know the WebBrick Controller, so you'll derive a few patterns of resource useage, but as you'll see, if you use 4 rotary encoders on a 'brick to dim 4 analog outputs, you've used up all your DIs and yet got a lot of functionality left over. The 3 rotary + 7 switched with 1 Solid State Relay uses 3 * 3 + 7 = 16 DIs (some pull-up resistors required), and switches DO0 - DO5 with an SSR required on either DO6 or DO7.

 -- Alistair

Can you point me to some documentation to expand on your last paragraph. The only mention I can find in the downloads about how to connect to the Rotary Encoder is on p87 of the Manual v6.4 which is very brief!

I'm on v6.1 hardware in case that affects anything (the non-electrical part of the renovation took longer than planned!)

 Many thanks, Richard
 

WebBrick Controller V6.1 only supported 1 rotary encoder, connected to the ROTA/ROTB connections, whereas V6.3 & V6.4 support 4 rotary encoders, connected to sequential pairs of digital inputs that start "even", i.e. D0+D1 for the first, D2+D3, D4+D5, D6+D7. So my "3+7" suggestion won't work for your first 'brick.

I have no secret documentation to offer (!), nor do I claim to all knowledgeable, but I have wired up a good few rotary encoders to 'bricks and thence to dimmers! So otherwise, please ask the questions, and we'll all work on getting answers to you.

-- thanks, Alistair

Could you post a link to a wiring diagram using the rotary encoders.

Actually, having investigated the Monitor inputs, it seems my resource conflict is even greater than I thought: The Monitor inputs work fine for simple On-off "MK" type switches, but as I want some of my inputs to be overriding individual controls (E.g. "wake up", "go out") I think the lights need to be pure Push-to-make. I have found some lovely brass PTM "vandal -resistant" switches at RS. But I seem to have only 8 digital inputs per Webbrick, so 4 on-off and 2 up-down.

The only solution I can think of at the moment is to use just the DIs for old fashioned local switching and something else for the overriding instructions, to issue UDPs to the 4 local webbricks. Is the something else another webbrick or two withjust DIs in and UDPs out? That seems a little excessive, but I can see programming a chip directly being a huge time sink.

Is there something obviously better? 

I don't go as far back as the V6.1 devices, so can't help on those, but for my V6.3 & V6.4 'bricks, I'm using what were previously called Monitor Inputs, but are now just also called Digital Inputs, and using those with pull-down resistors for the full range of switching functionality like MK-style switching & rotary encoder use. I do know we have an upgrade/swap program for V6.1 hardware, which might well be your simplest route. (We can re-use quite a few parts of the V6.1 brick when we swap it for a V6.4 'brick, so you get "a nice price!). Please email guy.reece@webbricksystems.com about that, and quote me & this thread... -- thanks, Alistair

 Ok. Getting mixed information here. You have said that you can connect 4 rotary encoders to one WebBrick bu tthe latest manual says:

"12.10 Rotary encoder
This is a 3 wire device with a common connection and two signal wires that is used to
adjust analogue output 0."

 and also

"Configure rotary encoder. SR<chn>;<Steps>:
Steps should be between 2-254, Analogue outputs are set in the raw range 0-1023, where
1023 is 5V, Steps controls how far the output is indexed 'up' or 'down' for each step turn
of the rotary encoder. There is currently only a single rotary encoder and chn should be
0."

 Both of these points imply that only analogue output 0 can be controlled. So are we saying that you can connect 4 rotary encoders but they will only control AO0 or is this just something that has been missed in the WebBrick Manual?
 

Yes, I can confirm that I have used 4 rotary encoders to drive A0, A1, A2 & A3 individually and separately, on WebBrick Controller 6.4 hardware & firmware. I don't have the manual in front of me, but please point me to the page & paragraph in the manual that's wrong, and I'll get it recorded as a documentation bug -- thanks, Alistair

Just trying to configure a rotary encoder and niot having much success. I have "A" connected to DI0, "B" to DI1 and Common to ground. I have issued the manual command CR0;0 but nothing has happened. Is there something else to it?

 Rotary Encoders work on even/odd adjacent chan pairs:

   0-1, 2-3,4-5,6-7,8-9,10-11

You can have up to 6, remember to set options 4 on the inputs.

I *really* *really* don't recommend using REs to drive scenes !!!

 Andy