Installation experience. Smart Home with Loxone Miniserver Controller
A few words about the controller for the "smart home" Loxone Miniserver and personal experience connecting light groups.
The controller can control extensions and directly connected equipment. It allows you to control everything in and around your home. It provides an EIB / KNX connector, a LAN port, a microSD card slot, an integrated WEB server and much more. The controller from Loxone supports flexible configuration of work scenarios. Consider several options and understand what the concept of “work scenario” means.
So, in films or videos, we all saw how the lighting in the room or in the adjoining territory turns on / off, say, by clapping your hands or at a certain point in time. Such "tricks" are called work scenarios. Their variability is completely dependent on the selected controller.
Consider some of the possible light scenarios that can be run through the controller.
The scenario of turning off the lights in the whole house with one button
Imagine that you live in a big house. Evening, you are late for an important meeting, and at several levels of the house the light remained on. Using this scenario, which is one of the main ones, you can turn off the lights in the entire house / office with the press of just one button. In addition, this can be done even remotely, which will be very useful for those who constantly forget to turn off the lights behind them or are used to being late.
Motion Sensor Operation Scenario
Lighting devices with motion sensors can now easily be found in the entrance of an ordinary high-rise building. However, the smart home controller allows you to expand the functions of such a work scheme. For example, the light can be configured so that the motion sensor does not work at night and does not interfere with your sleep. Or you can divide the lighting in the room into several groups, some of which will be turned off, and some will give only dim light, without straining the eyes of a newly awakened person.
Also in this scenario it is possible to turn on and off the light in zones: the light can turn on and off in a certain zone / room at the very moment when you enter / exit it. Or you can configure on and off by activity. For example, you fell asleep while reading a book and do not move, and then the light turns off on its own.
Time-based work
scenario The name of the script speaks for itself: the user sets a strict schedule for the lighting, which depends on the set time. Lighting in one room can be divided into several groups: for example, as the evening approaches, the sconces and lights will turn on in the kitchen, after 18:00 only the main light will turn on, and at 00:00 only the lights will turn on. The same scenario can be established for other rooms: a bathroom, hallway, bedroom, etc. If you follow the clear daily routine for years, this solution may be ideal.
Connecting light groups and switches to a smart home
In theory, everything seems clear. And how in practice? Connecting light groups and switches to the controller is not so difficult. Power is supplied to the feed-through terminal blocks. In this case, these modules are used to distribute power to light groups.
Power to a specific group of lights at the beginning passes through a circuit breaker. After the machine, the power is connected to the Miniserver relay output, and then passes to the 2-level terminal module. Such modules are used to connect cables to the shield.
As when connecting a group of lights, the cable from the switch at the beginning is connected to the intermediate terminal, which is required for ease of installation. During installation, it is worth considering the potential possibility of connecting a 2-button switch, even if you are currently working with a 1-button switch.
By the way, about the switches themselves: it is necessary to use push-button switches, also known as switches with a return mechanism or without locking (i.e., after pressing them, the keys return to their previous state). From the switches, we only need a signal for pressing a key, and directly the switching is performed by the controller. Normal switches will not work.
In principle, in all the above steps, the basic principle of connecting a group of lights and switches to the controller is given. More details on the connection can be found in the above diagrams and photographs.
They planned to implement this as follows. Why did they draw up a diagram.
In practice, it turned out like this.
We applied the following revision. Using the three-position automatic switches, the light groups can be switched on manually. Which gives direct control, for example, in the event of a system failure. (this machine was used here )
The conclusion can be drawn as follows: with the apparent complexity, everything turned out to be not so critical, and you can build such a system yourself. If you installed this or a similar system at home and you have questions, then contact us in the comments - we will share our experience.
You can deliver this or another device from the USA with LiteMF . You will receive a profitable express delivery to points of delivery , as well as free storage of goods in a warehouse.
