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Best replacement for C4 wireless outlet


tebery

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12 hours ago, VINCELdUB said:

Excellent question. But careful, could also ask, if the ir remote that came with the tv works, why replace it? ;)

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Well, I was wondering if newer options perform better or are faster or something.   I have a room with 15 wireless outlet switches that are normally powered off and it takes a while for them all to power up and connect to the network before I can trigger the devices.

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The time you were experiencing for the devices to come online will be the same for most devices. If I understand you correctly, there is no power going to the outlets switches until you add power. Then they booed up and then you send commands to them for them to turn on and off. Is that correct?

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22 minutes ago, VINCELdUB said:

The time you were experiencing for the devices to come online will be the same for most devices. If I understand you correctly, there is no power going to the outlets switches until you add power. Then they booed up and then you send commands to them for them to turn on and off. Is that correct?

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Yes, correct.  I have an arcade with three 20 amp circuits.  There are C4 switches that control the outlets.  Originally the machines were plugged in directly and would power on with the switches.  But one of the C4 switches blew 3 times, despite having about a 12 amp load on them.

To bypass that, I put a wireless switch in each outlet and plugged the machines into them.  So now I have to use the C4 switches to turn on the outlets, wait for the wireless switches to connect and then power on the machines individually.  A lot less sexy than "All on" :(

 

There has got to be a better way (maybe with a relay), but my dealer has zero interest in coming up with a better solution (especially since they said using the C4 switches on 20 amp circuits would be no problem.  If I had known this, I would have had the electrician wire the outlets so only the top one was switched ...)

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Two thoughts.

1. Why do you need the 3 initial switches still. Why not keep those circuits powered full time.

2. You can (with composer home) or your dealer can write a script. Outlet 1 on wait 1s outlet 2 on etc and then put that script on a button

Just as elegant.

Even with the current set up you could write this but it would be power on 1, 2, 3, wait 30 seconds.

Power on 4 wait 2s and so on.

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8 minutes ago, SMHarman said:

Two thoughts.

1. Why do you need the 3 initial switches still. Why not keep those circuits powered full time.

2. You can (with composer home) or your dealer can write a script. Outlet 1 on wait 1s outlet 2 on etc and then put that script on a button

Just as elegant.

Even with the current set up you could write this but it would be power on 1, 2, 3, wait 30 seconds.

Power on 4 wait 2s and so on.

1) Because there are other devices plugged into the top half of the outlets that I only want on when the room is on.

2) I have a macro that does that.  But it takes about 45 seconds for everything to be ready.   And it's still not as cool as the "everything is on instantly" the original solution provided.

 

 

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59 minutes ago, jfh said:

Yes, correct.  I have an arcade with three 20 amp circuits.  There are C4 switches that control the outlets.  Originally the machines were plugged in directly and would power on with the switches.  But one of the C4 switches blew 3 times, despite having about a 12 amp load on them.

To bypass that, I put a wireless switch in each outlet and plugged the machines into them.  So now I have to use the C4 switches to turn on the outlets, wait for the wireless switches to connect and then power on the machines individually.  A lot less sexy than "All on" :(

 

There has got to be a better way (maybe with a relay), but my dealer has zero interest in coming up with a better solution (especially since they said using the C4 switches on 20 amp circuits would be no problem.  If I had known this, I would have had the electrician wire the outlets so only the top one was switched ...)

What is likely happening is during the power on you are probably pulling more than the maximum 15 amps the switches are allowed. maybe be briefly but enough to fry them.

 The right thing to do want to put in a rely that can handle the load and just have the control4 switch trigger the relay.

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What is likely happening is during the power on you are probably pulling more than the maximum 15 amps the switches are allowed. maybe be briefly but enough to fry them.

 The right thing to do want to put in a rely that can handle the load and just have the control4 switch trigger the relay.

All those arcade machine CRT powering on.

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29 minutes ago, Matt Lowe said:

What is likely happening is during the power on you are probably pulling more than the maximum 15 amps the switches are allowed. maybe be briefly but enough to fry them.

 The right thing to do want to put in a rely that can handle the load and just have the control4 switch trigger the relay.

 

Perhaps.  But a switch would power on one bank for about 30 times, then fry.  And that bank had fewer machines on it than the other switches that never blew.

 

Can I put in a relay at the (interior) junction box that houses those circuits?   There no physical room to add anything new near the existing physical switches.   If I go the relay route, would I then take one of the existing switches and have that control the relay and just replace the other two with a simple switch that was always on (or have the electrician just bypass switches altogether)?

 

18 minutes ago, SMHarman said:

All those arcade machine CRT powering on.

Pinball machines.  Only one has a CRT monitor.  The rest are essentially computer boards.

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I would wire the switch load to toggle a relay at the circuit beginning. That way the control4 switch is only powering a small half amp relay input and then the relay that is rated for 30amps or more. Solid state relay I would recommend.

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6 minutes ago, VINCELdUB said:

I would wire the switch load to toggle a relay at the circuit beginning. That way the control4 switch is only powering a small half amp relay input and then the relay that is rated for 30amps or more. Solid state relay I would recommend.

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Thanks.   One relay per circuit (with a C4 switch to control the relay), not one relay for all three?

 

 

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