What hardware for lightning do I need :-) ?

Hi everybody

I am about to replace all my light switches in the house with C4 wireless light switches.

I have read a pdf with installation instructions for the dimmer including the different wireing scenarios, however I didnt fully understand it and I have totally no clue how my lighs are wired (power to the lightning switch or directly to the light itsself!?) - and in addition I have no way to check this because I wont be at the house for a couple of month :-)

So if anyone here can give me a brief introduction on what kind of hardware I need to order I will be glad - here are the scenarios:

1) For the "easy stuff" where one switch controls one light it is very obvious that I need a "normal" switch -> LSZ-102 - right :-) ?

2) What do I need for a light that is controlled by two or three light switches !? 3x LSZ-102 or do I need 1x LSZ-102 and 2/3 Button Keypads (LSZ-3W1-W)

3) What for a light that has one dimmer switch and one regular switch / or 2 regular switches?

thx guys ;-)

You can choose dimmers or switches....personal preference. Dimmers should not be used for flourescents, and a few other types of lights. Dimmer SHOULD be used on incandescent (sp?) bulbs.

In three + way scenarios (multiple switches controlling one light) you will use a switch or dimmer at one point, and keypads at the rest.

With regards as to how to wire them...I would get an electrician. All it takes is frying one or two of those dimmers and you could have paid the electrician and saved some frustration. If those diagrams don't explain it clear enough for you, I would say you probably shouldn't wire them. I'm not taking a shot at you by saying that, I just don't want you to get hurt or destroy any expensive dimmers/switches/keypads.

For standard 1 switch light fixutre locations, you can use either a dimmer or a switch.

Personally, I use dimmer everywhere possible.

In locations where you have 3 or 4 way switches (multiple switches to control the same light fixture), you use a dimmer/switch where the load is controlled and a keypad in the other switched locations.

2 button keypads look just like the dimmer/switch, but the 3/6 button keypads give you more options and control.

If you want to be a bit more "future resistant" (not future-proof) you can spend a few more bucks per location and use the ELV dimmers. These tend to work better with LED and some CFL fixutures and don't have any known issues with standard incandescent lights. So you have to ability to upgrade the lamp in the future without having to change out the switch/dimmers again.

If you don't understand high voltage, then hire an electrician to swap them out for you. Your dealer should be able to help you out since they will be needed to add the devices into the system.

Sorry but can't resist.. Hardware for lightning woud be a town clock, lots of wire, a Deloren modified to time travel, and a storm to create 1.21 gigawatts of electricity from a lightning strike!!! :D

And a flux capacitor.

I saw that...but I resisted this time.

thx guys, I will go for the Flux Compensator then, seems worth the risk and money

In principle my questions have been answered, thyk you very much :-) !! - and yes I will get an electrician ;-) - The reason I am asking is simply that this is a place where we are only a couple of times a year, and just dropping buy to see how the lights are wired would involve a pretty long flight :-)

jberger wrote:

2 button keypads look just like the dimmer/switch, but the 3/6 button keypads give you more options and control.

Could you please give me a little more detail on this :-), what do you mean by option/control - just hints ;-)

thx a lot

thx guys, I will go for the Flux Compensator then, seems worth the risk and money

In principle my questions have been answered, thyk you very much :-) !! - and yes I will get an electrician ;-) - The reason I am asking is simply that this is a place where we are only a couple of times a year, and just dropping buy to see how the lights are wired would involve a pretty long flight :-)

jberger wrote:

2 button keypads look just like the dimmer/switch, but the 3/6 button keypads give you more options and control.

Could you please give me a little more detail on this :-), what do you mean by option/control - just hints ;-)

thx a lot

The difference between a two button keypad and the dimmer/switch, is that the dimmer/switch can actually control a load, whereas the two button does not. You will never get a two button keypad to control a load (light fixture, etc) without a switch or dimmer on the other end (for a three way). Or, you can put a two button keypad anywhere, and use it to kick off programming events and not have it related to turning anything on/off.

and the 3/6 button keypads give you more buttons to program with, you can use the extra buttons for music control, lighting scenes, to raise and lower the temp, anything you can do with C4 can be programmed into a button (most things)

Control4 Switches and Dimmers are LOAD controlling.

Control4 Keypads are Don't control any LOAD; they require a Central brain (IE: HC-300) which is programmed to do any number of things including controlling the Switches and Dimmers. (single tap a button=turn on/off lighting in entire room, double tap same button=turn on/off TV)

In my Home, I have a central "Closet" where all Switches and Dimmers are installed and wired "legs" run out to each light fixture. Keypads are installed in each room where you would normally have an ordinary switch; except there is no wired "leg" running to the fixture, just power for the keypad to communicate to the brain. This sort of installation is impressive looking because all the load switches are together in the equipment closet but sucks if your house is large because if the brain goes out, you have to go to the closet to control your lights (which might be upstairs). I've heard of other installations where the Control4 dimmers/switches are dispursed but grouped throughout multiple "closets" which would be handy if the brain is down.

Do you know how standard electrical wiring works (ie wiring single pole, three-way, and four-way switches)?

If not, or if you dont think you can understand it by reading up on it, hire an electrician. That being said, I hired an electrician and pretty much had to explain it to him, but it was still worth it because for a few hundred dollars he did the whole house a heck of a lot faster than I could have, and I didnt risk electrocuting myself, nor did I fry anything. Given, he fried the first switch he used, but only one I can live with.

If you do understand standard electrical wiring and this is a recently built home then it is pretty easy. Basically you have to take the load wire from the fixture and connect that to your dimmer or switch (Red wire). You also need to connect the hot wire to the dimmer/switch (black wire), and of course connect ground (green) and neutral (white). The blue wire you can choose to leave unconnected or you can use it for the travellers (this is where my electrician got all confused).

Essentially, lets say you have a 3-way situation with one two-button and one dimmer controlling a light. In a non-C4 setup there are two traveler wires going between the two switches, and one switch has the hot input and the other switch has the load output. If both switches have traveller 1 as active the light is on, if both switches have traveller 2 as active the light is on, if each switch has a different traveller as active the light is off.

Now in the C4 setup essentially only ONE switch can control the load, so the load needs to be connected DIRECTLY to that switch. Lets consider a staircase where you have a switch at the top and bottom of the stairs to control the light. It is important to determine where you want the C4 dimmer located and where you want the 2/3/6 button because if the control4 system goes down the dimmer will still control the light but the button keypad wont.

Lets say you want the dimmer at the bottom of the stairs, but the switch at the TOP of the stairs is the one connected to the load/leg/light fixture. You need to get that load wire down to the bottom switch where you want to put the dimmer. Connect one of the travellers from the light switch directly to the load/leg/fixture wire up at the top of the stairs, and at the bottom of the stairs that traveller wire now controls the load and can be connected to the red wire of the dimmer.

Now when installing the button keypad at the top of the stairs you have two options. The first is just to connect the keypad directly to a hot wire (and ground and neutral) and youre done. The other is to connect the black wire of the keypad to the second traveller wire. Then at the bottom of the stairs you can connect that second traveller wire to the blue wire on the dimmer. Personally I just left all the blue wires empty and connected all my keypads directly to the hot wires.

Does that make sense?

When deciding on 2, 3, or 6 button keypads if cost is not the issue then I would consider it this way:

2 button - Use ONLY if you only want that location to control a single light. You can implement double and triple taps to do other functions but the 2 button keypad looks exactly like the dimmers and switches so other people will just figure it is a light switch.

3 button - I like these the best for most locations because they look different from standard switches and give you more flexibility.

6 button - If you are in a central location and need to control a lot of things, this is the way to go, but personally I have like 10 6 buttons in my house and I cant figure out what to do with 2-3 of the buttons on many of them.

Or you ignore the blue wire, and just wire 110V power over the traveller.

RyanE

Hi everybody and thanks for the detailed explanations and sugestions.

I now know waht I need to order and how to make the decisions where the dimmer has to go etc ... :-)

greetz

Hello, New to C4. I bought 2 dimmers and 2 LSZ-3W1 wireless keypad ? Can the keypads be used as an on-off light switch? If so, how do I wire them? Thanks, Dave

No, keypads do *not* control a load.

Only Control4 *Switches* or Control4 *Dimmers* control a load.

RyanE