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Posted by mike on December 13, 2006, 12:29 pm
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I am not sure if this is the place for this.
What I am looking for is a standard 110V light switch, with some sort
of servo inbedded inside, to allow for the switch to be physically
turned on or off.
Basically, I would like to have a switch that I can manually turn
on/off, or through a computer controlled circuit, turn on/off. This
way, I can turn the light on/off as needed, or schedule it through the
computer.
It would also be nice to have a sensor to indicate if this is on/off,
but I can do that through some addon circuits.
This is to be used as part of a home automation project I am working
on.
Mike
mlawrenc(at)gmail.com
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Posted by John Mianowski on December 13, 2006, 1:00 pm
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mike wrote:
> I am not sure if this is the place for this.
> What I am looking for is a standard 110V light switch, with some sort
> of servo inbedded inside, to allow for the switch to be physically
> turned on or off.
> Basically, I would like to have a switch that I can manually turn
> on/off, or through a computer controlled circuit, turn on/off. This
> way, I can turn the light on/off as needed, or schedule it through the
> computer.
> It would also be nice to have a sensor to indicate if this is on/off,
> but I can do that through some addon circuits.
>
> This is to be used as part of a home automation project I am working
> on.
>
> Mike
> mlawrenc(at)gmail.com
I'd think that would be a typical function of home automation systems,
but I don't know for sure since I don't do that.
If I were into home automation, I might solve the problem by using the
physical wall switch as an input to the automation controller rather
than to directly make or break the light circuit itself. The
automation controller, not the physical switch, would activate the
light (or whatever else I choose) according to rules programmed into it
which could include a variety of actions on the wall switch in
combination with other inputs such as timers, sensors, etc.
JM
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Posted by mike on December 14, 2006, 5:25 pm
Please log in for more thread options Your recommendation sounds like a good option.
The reason I was looking at the automation controlling the switch, and
not the switch imputing to the system is that I would like to "The
House" operational, with or without the computer. I would hate to have
a PC failure, and my house crashes as a result.
Mike
John Mianowski wrote:
> mike wrote:
> > I am not sure if this is the place for this.
> > What I am looking for is a standard 110V light switch, with some sort
> > of servo inbedded inside, to allow for the switch to be physically
> > turned on or off.
> > Basically, I would like to have a switch that I can manually turn
> > on/off, or through a computer controlled circuit, turn on/off. This
> > way, I can turn the light on/off as needed, or schedule it through the
> > computer.
> > It would also be nice to have a sensor to indicate if this is on/off,
> > but I can do that through some addon circuits.
> >
> > This is to be used as part of a home automation project I am working
> > on.
> >
> > Mike
> > mlawrenc(at)gmail.com
>
> I'd think that would be a typical function of home automation systems,
> but I don't know for sure since I don't do that.
>
> If I were into home automation, I might solve the problem by using the
> physical wall switch as an input to the automation controller rather
> than to directly make or break the light circuit itself. The
> automation controller, not the physical switch, would activate the
> light (or whatever else I choose) according to rules programmed into it
> which could include a variety of actions on the wall switch in
> combination with other inputs such as timers, sensors, etc.
>
> JM
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Posted by Joe Strout on December 14, 2006, 5:51 pm
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> Your recommendation sounds like a good option.
> The reason I was looking at the automation controlling the switch, and
> not the switch imputing to the system is that I would like to "The
> House" operational, with or without the computer. I would hate to have
> a PC failure, and my house crashes as a result.
Well if that's the only reason, you needn't worry. If you replace your
light switch with (say) an X10 switch module, then it continues to work
without any other computers online. The switch module simply sends a
command onto the house wiring, and the lamp module (or whatever)
responds by turning itself on or off. Your computer can ALSO send
commands to turn it on or off, e.g. on a schedule you define or when you
run some "leaving the house" program. But the computer's just another
input (and output, if you wish) to the system; it's not a critical
component.
Note that switches like these don't have a physical indicator of the
current state. Usually they're just a long button, and you push it on
one side for "on" and push it on the other end for "off." I like your
idea of a physical switch that actually moves to indicate state, but
it's probably not necessary -- most of us have 2-way (or 3-way) switches
in our house, in which case the physical position of one switch doesn't
reflect the state of whatever it controls anyway.
(Though it'd be cool if it did -- imagine flipping one switch, and the
other switch on the same circuit moves accordingly! That'd be nifty,
but doesn't seem high on the list of world's problems to solve.)
Best,
- Joe
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Posted by Curt Welch on December 14, 2006, 8:03 pm
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> (Though it'd be cool if it did -- imagine flipping one switch, and the
> other switch on the same circuit moves accordingly! That'd be nifty,
> but doesn't seem high on the list of world's problems to solve.)
My wife (and myself to some extent) are compulsive about switch positions
for 3-way switches. We like them configured so when they are all down,
the light is off, and we only want one light switch up when the light is on
(we have one string of 3-way and 4-way switches in the house that has 4
switches in it). So we tend to do things so we always turn the light off,
with the same switch we turned it on with, so that the switches always end
up in the all down position when the light is off.
For people like us, switches that moved on their own at all locations so we
wouldn't have to run around and "fix" the switches all the time would be
cool!
I think just having an indicator light showing the status of the circuit
(on or off) and using momentary switches might be just as good (but not as
fun).
--
Curt Welch http://CurtWelch.Com/
curt@kcwc.com http://NewsReader.Com/
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> What I am looking for is a standard 110V light switch, with some sort
> of servo inbedded inside, to allow for the switch to be physically
> turned on or off.
> Basically, I would like to have a switch that I can manually turn
> on/off, or through a computer controlled circuit, turn on/off. This
> way, I can turn the light on/off as needed, or schedule it through the
> computer.
> It would also be nice to have a sensor to indicate if this is on/off,
> but I can do that through some addon circuits.
>
> This is to be used as part of a home automation project I am working
> on.
>
> Mike
> mlawrenc(at)gmail.com