Lighting Control

Hi,

I have an Allen Bradley MicroLogix 1500 (1764-24BWA) that I purchased a few years ago and would like to use it in a home automation project I am working on in my own home. I would like to use it as a low voltage switch for controlling my lighting (low voltage pot lights). Similar products are lutron grafik eye and Vantage lighting systems. I have 2 problems with what I'm trying to do.

1) Can't seem to find a single gang switch with multiple buttons on it for controlling different loads(gets rid of those 6 gang plates on the wall). There are many different switches available but the ones I've seen are proprietary to those sysems and can't be used as simple momentary switches. All I need to do is send a signal to the plc (low voltage)

2) I've had no problem programming it to turn on my pot lights but I'm not sure if I can dim them. Is there any way to dim pot lights from a plc or is there an attachment that will do it?

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this or not but I figured that Vantage is simply a plc running code so why not use a plc that I've had around for a while to do the same.

Any help would be appreciated

Tim K.

Tim,

To use the PLC to dim your lights wont be worth while. The best reasonable (cost wise) way is to use mutliple outputs to shunt a resistor bank. You'll have to calculate the wattage of the resistor based on the expected load and voltage. This will consume your outputs leaving little for controlling other devices.

Thanks elevmike,

The dedicated lighting systems have dimming modules but I thought I would ask if it could be easily replicated.

Thanks again for your reply

Tim K.

Hello efthimios,

I was wondering if you could use the plc to dim the lights on your project or what did you finally use?

Regards

Juan

Forget the Micrologix. Go to www.x10.com for home automation. (No this isn't a commercial. I have nothing to do with them. But the setup may be a lot less painful.)

Years ago I wired my new home with low voltage switching. The equipment I used was from GE and they made a system with latching relays (24 VAC) and multi-switch gangs. I installed a bank of illuminated on/off switches built into the master bedroom headboard that controlled the entire house. I don't remember the model numbers but I've seen the same system in commercial buildings.

GE still makes lighting control, just more for commercial and industrial rather than residential.

Here is a link: http://www.geindustrial.com/cwc/Dispatcher?REQUEST=PRODUCTS&pnlid=3&famid=18&catid=145&id=tlcover