Fibaro RGBW Z-Wave

JaapPelt

mauriceb said:

@JaapPelt I use a simple push button for turning on/off with a single push. Double push for full brightness and hold to set the brightness. I believe triple click enables the default effect, I am not sure have to try it.

@OGS a wind meter is a nice creative idea. I will keep it in mind.

@mauriceb I read about the extensive possibilities with button combos, but that has a low WAF (wife acceptance factor).

I was hoping a simple potentiometer would work for dimming the lights, but I'm not sure if I can use the same 12v power supply to feed the potentiometer since the input is limited to 10v.

If there is no simple dimmer option, 4 single-press buttons will have to do.

caseda

@mauriceb
How did you do that?
The rgbw controller has no double press for full brightness and hold/release actions

mauriceb

@caseda I use this to light my bed: left, right, top.

I got three white led strips connected to the first three channels, so no RGB(W)! I have on each side two buttons. One controls the left or the right side, depending on which side you are and one button on each side to control the top.

I use this connection scheme:

And set the correct input type in parameter 14. Not sure about this last step since I resetted the RGBW controller several times without setting it...

@JaapPelt I understand. I also preferred the potentio meters but the manual talks about 10v potentio while the ledstrips are 12v. In order to solve this you need a degree which I do not have nor I would like to investigate. I also wonder how this works with a controller like Homey since the potentio meter is fysical value which cannot be changed by the controller.

JaapPelt

I guess it's time to put on my thinkerers caps and start some experiments this weekend

I have an Ikea RGB controller and a regular dimmer laying around which I will both try, hopefully without blowing up the RGBW thingy.
Since the input accepts 12v switches, the chances of breaking something by applying 0-12v should be small. 
I was also thinking to use one of the output channels as a 10v input for the potentiometer.

caseda

If the input is put into analog mode (potiometers) then you won't be able to change the led strip with homey, only controllable with the potentiometers (each input can be set individually though) 

But still changing parameter 14 won't add double press for full power, or hold for dimming only the type of switch that is connected/the way the control acts to homey
There is no documentation of that ability at all for the rgbw controller 
Only for the dimmer 1 and 2
But to be fair.. I never even tried to double press a pulse switch input.

@JaapPelt
Correction, the inputs do not accept/React to 12v, they can only be analog (0-10v) or potential free switches (so connected to the ground)

Yannick

Would be cool if the animations could be set in the device card.

Slofware

Oke maybe a stupid question, but within a flow you can reading all the 4 inputs separate as I read. But can you also control the RGB(W) outputs separately from each other?

caseda

You can set the outputs separate in flows, not the inputs?
Inputs are controlled by.. well..  the inputs them selves

Or am I reading wrong something wrong here.

Slofware

caseda said:

You can set the outputs separate in flows, not the inputs?
Inputs are controlled by.. well..  the inputs them selves

Or am I reading wrong something wrong here.

Maybe or just bad explained, I want to use one input for example to turn on the light and another for the sunscreen. So I want to use every input separate.

caseda

You can change to what is attached to the inputs in the device's settings.
have you seen all the settings that are possible?

Slofware

I don't have a Homey jet, currently I am building a new house and I want to findout the best system. It is 99% sure it's gone be homey. The RGB unit I want a few spread out of my house to control the fireplace boiler, sunscreen etc. So I cann't check the settings and just want to know of I can program the outputs to do a different job.
So maybe stupid questions, sorry. I am also looking to get a demo somewhere.

caseda

Do know that the rgbw controller only works in 12 or 24 volts DC
That is not just the feed, also the outputs
It uses switching to dim (240hz), it doesn't lower the output voltage

It can't dim anything else with the outputs, and the inputs can also only be toggle, Momentary or analog voltage 0 - 10 volts

And are only 1 to 1
So input 1 only controls output 1 but it always changes the output, they are "hot wired" interconnected
So you can't just switch input 1 and see that in any zwave controller and act accordingly
Switch input 1 and it immediately switches output 1 also

Slofware

Oké thanks, So I Will have a look on other IO units from fibaro or maybe another brand.

Bebopper

Looking to buy the Fibaro RGBW but still have a question. I would like to hook up more than 1 LED (5m) strip (these do not need to be controlled separately). Anyone have experience with this? Mainly thinking about the power supply, would that be sufficient? And how would I hook these up to the controller?

caseda

Depends on what you want, with 12v it is only possible if you connect them parallel with 5 meters max, otherwise the power loss at the end is way too high (leds will be less bright if you connect more then 5 meters in 1 line).
For 24 volt de max is longer (I think it was 25m in length)

Myself have 16m 24 volt rgbw led strip attached to the rgbw controller (the longest one) though they are connected paralel (4x4 meter) cause that was in my situation easier, it is possible in one length (tested this before I placed them in their end spot)
Even though the controller can handle it powerwise pretty easily (max wattage is in the manual), they do make a bit of electrical buzzing noise when not on full brightness, the shorter ones are fully silent, not sure what it does on 12 volt, don't have long lengths with 12 volt

Bebopper

caseda said:

 they are connected paralel (4x4 meter) 

Can I ask how you connected the 4 parallel strips to the controller? Did you wire them all directly into the controller?
Still thinking about what would be easiest for my setup:
1) all directly wired into the controller
2) all wired into a 'lasklem' of some sorts and from there one wire to the controller.

So if I stay below 5m each and run them in parallel I could do it with 12v (or for more length go with 24v).

Curious what the (theoretical) max number of strips is that one could connect to one Fibaro connector, will check the manual for that

caseda

It is all based on the wattage used, to what is the max it can handle, as there are different 12v and 24v strips (amount of led's per meter) it is hard to give a length:

for 12 volt it is maximum 144 watt
for 24 volt it is maximum 288 watt

I soldered onto the strip directly, so for going onto the next line it is just 2 wires per channel soldered onto the small pads (not recommended if you don't have any experience soldering)
the connections on the controller are not big enough to have 4 wires in them (3 is maximum, max 2 is recommended), so that is not an option if you would want to think about that

if you have the option and isn't too much more expensive definitely go for 24 volt, as that is a lot more (energie) efficient in power supply area

HomeSystem

Did anyone figured the way to use the RGBW the "old way" so you have 4 separated dimmers? My situation is:

I want to set 4 rooms with white LED strips to one RGBW module. The connection works, I tested it with Fibaro system and there is no problem with that. 

But in Homey if I set parameter 14 to 9999 (according to manual that should do output mode) I still see only one device in Homey. I would need to see 4 devices and I will give one of those devices to differnet room as a separate dimmer.
Can this be achived? Thanks

caseda

Being confined by the build in capabilities (which is only hue, saturation and temperature for color) of homey, it is only as flow cards

HomeSystem

caseda said:

Being confined by the build in capabilities (which is only hue, saturation and temperature for color) of homey, it is only as flow cards

I played with that a little bit and I found kind of solution with virtual switch. Basically, you add virtual switch with dimming (actually those virtual switches are amazing) and then you do a small flow like this:

And basically that is for one Output. At the end, I will have to "hide" somehow the not used RGBW module, but that is ok.
So it set the green output to the same brightness as virtual switch. Works great. 
One thing I can not figure is how to sychronise the manual control. Lets say if I have momentary switch at input 2 which control G output, how do I sync that output to virtual switch? I can not find solution but well, this only took me 2 minutes so probably I need to give more thought to that This Homey is really great.