- Posted on
Thu Jun 24, 2004 4:32 pm
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matt (support)
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From what I can tell, we have an unfortunate intersection of hardware features and module anomalies occuring. This a bit complicated, but here are some details:
1132CU hardware characteristic: The 1132CU, when it is working in stand-alone mode, does not know or track the current brightness state of devices. Indigo, when it is controlling your logic, does track the current brightness state.
Types of dimming (Absolute vs. Relative): There are two different techniques to do dimming: one relative (by %), one absolute (set to %). The LampLinc, SwitchLinc, ToggleLinc, and some of the Leviton modules all support absolute dimming (referred to as preset or extended dimming). Absolute dimming is much more accurate than relative dimming. X10 signal problems can seriously mess up how accurate relative dimming is, for example. When you do a "dim by %" from within Indigo, Indigo is smart enough to always use absolute dimming if the module supports it, even though you requested a relative dim. Indigo can do this because it tracks the brightness state of the light. For example, say your light is at 75% and you have an action that does a dim down 10%. Instead of sending a relative 10% dim to the module, Indigo will send a more accurate absolute dim of 65%.
The gotcha is, the PowerLinc USB cannot do this more complex but accurate logic. Because of this, you will notice, especially if the X10 signal path isn't excellent, that relative dimming is not accurate.
SwitchLinc/LampLinc/ToggleLinc dimming: Lastly, it seems that the *Linc line of modules does not respond to normal (non-preset) dims the same as generic X10 modules. So when the 1132CU sends out a normal relative dim command, a SwitchLinc will respond to a lesser degree (much lesser) than a generic X10 module. I've verified this using a non-1132 controller as well -- this isn't a problem with the 1132CU sending the dims, but the SwitchLine modules barely dim at all in response to the commands. Normally, if you are using Indigo to control the logic you won't see this because only absolute preset dims will be used, which the SwitchLinc handles fine.
So now what? If you can change your logic to instead send an absolute dim (use a "Set Brightness" Action instead of a "Dim by %" or "Brighten by %" Action), then it should work better because the 1132CU will always send preset dims. Of course, this may not be possible depending on what you are doing. I'm going to investigate artificially increasing the number of dim/brightens sent by the 1132CU when the module receiving them is defined as a SwitchLinc (or LampLinc) module. I'm not thrilled about doing this because it might have unwanted consequences, but I'll at least look into it.
Regards,
Matt