How suitable is DMX/RDM for architectural lighting/home automation applications

[sblair]

You're correct. We need to put a clearer link on the site to it. Here's where you can download it from: http://tsp.esta.org/tsp/documents/published_docs.php It will be under E1.20-2010

There are lots of architectural products making use of RDM, particularly color changing fixtures. It is attractive for architectural fixtures, where they need individually addressable fixtures without having to put a UI or DIP Switches that have to be accessed on the fixture itself.

There are messages in Sensors for monitoring contact closures or most any type of sensor you can imagine. You can then take whatever action you want based on those values. Suitability really depends on your application. In cases where you aren't constantly changing intensity values (i.e. a color changing fixture that has a constant color change effect running) and don't need a high refresh rate on the DMX data to maintain a smooth crossfade then you can allocate more time to polling for sensors/switch changes so you can then respond to them with a lower latency.

[gerrysweeney]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the link, very helpful.

I did see the section in RDM.h for sensors but it did not seem comprehensive enough. For example, consider a well known architectural product made by a company called Lutron (Graffik Eye, Homeworks and other ranges) use a similar scheme using EIA-485 signalling scheme. In this system like others a typical wall switch (terminal) for scene selection can contain anything from a single button to 15 or more buttons, each with their own LED indicator etc, possibly even textual displays. The application requirements are maybe more complex than the odd contact type switch/sensor.

I guess I am just curious to know if there is, or likely to be any work on the standards that would seek to expand to support such architectures.

I will have a read of the standards/specs, thanks again for the link

Gerry

[sblair]

Originally Posted by gerrysweeney

Hi Scott,

I guess I am just curious to know if there is, or likely to be any work on the standards that would seek to expand to support such architectures.


Gerry

We are constantly developing new RDM PIDs (messages) to add different functionality. What you're requesting is something that has been discussed in the past, it is certainly something that we are open to, we just haven't had much interest from someone wanting to really get involved in the standards process and help develop the full suite of messages that would be needed in a broad generic way for architectural systems.

As Eric said, you can always easily create your own manufacturer-specific messages within RDM to do it however you want.