Hello,
I’m a new, novice, not jumped in the Home Automation pool yet, guy building a new ‘house’ in an old industrial warehouse.
I’m a lighting product developer by trade and I’m very into the tactile experience of living… my issue is that NONE of the current wall box controls on the market are appealing to me - except one…
Touchscreens don’t offer a great positive tactile experience and no feedback.
Add this the fact that all of the lighting in the new house will be 90% DMX driven (theatrical control protocols), and I don’t need wallbox dimmers and I’m stuck in this no-mans land of frustrations.
However, I have found a device I THINK could be my personal holy grail…
The EC-4BV wallbox ‘audio’ controller.
Sexy no?
Personally, I like the programmable colored backlights of the buttons and text displays.
Allows for much more intuitive mapping and configuration functions that would be easy to understand at a glance. Yellow buttons for lighting, blue buttons for audio, Orange buttons for HVAC, Cyan for presets…
And they could Tell you what preset the lights were in…
I have reached out to BSS & Harmon (the parent company) and they are not interested in working with me to implement the device.
But I have found a document that defines the internet commands and protocol requirements for the device (on my work computer, so I’ll have to attach it tomorrow).
What are the chances I’d be able to create a driver to interact with it?
I don’t see any reason I can’t use the knob to control lighting or sound or anything else I program it do?
I am not a programmer in the pure sense, but I do write sophisticated scripts for a host of program platforms and I am well versed in variable command structures and building hardware.
My main goal is to use motion sensors as the primary interface for the house and then have these as the primary ‘master stations’ in key locations. Assuming that the lighting would be responding automatically, and these controllers would primarily be audio, but with a button press be able to change the lighting.
While also giving feedback…
(this all SOUNDS like a touchscreen, but the buttons would be so much nicer to press and turning the knob enjoyable)
Or am I just nuts to try and take this on?
I’ve got to give our electrician a plan for wall box locations very soon - but I’ve probably got 6 months to get this working.
Regards,
Sepp.
Some additional info can be found here:
https://audioarchitect.harmanpro.com/aa_help/Audio_Architect_Help.htm#Device_Help_Files/BSS_Soundweb_London/Soundweb_Contrio_Wall_Controllers.htm
and here: