Need a Suggestion

Hello all,

Looking for suggestions perform the following task.

Scope: Three(3) Exterior light sconces at front porch, side and garage is requested to be dimmed to 50% at dusk and upon a trigger from either a Contact Closure or a X10 Signal go to full 100% and then when Contact Open or X10 return to 50% dim and off at Dawn.

Signals will come from a NX-8E security panel thru either a NX-507/508 module.

The question or suggestion I need is what single pole X10 switch or other that will perform in this way??? That is from a single Contact Closure or a X10 signal from the NX-507/508 go to the 50% preset and then to 100% and back to 50% and then off???

Do I need a programmable module to receive the triggers and then perform the dim to 50% and so forth???

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

Les

While I can't address your NX8E directly, I can tell you that I did a similar thing with my front house "coach" and perimeter lights for a few years using the X-10 motion floodlight sensor and a standard X10 dimmer to control the coach light brightness. Automation control was using a X-10 CM-11A programmable controller. It worked OK, but the nasty thing about the CM-11 was that it has no logic if/then capabilities.

I then moved up to the Smarthome PowerLinc USB and their SmartHome Manager Plus software (to program the controller) which worked really well. After

23h00, the front lights turn off completely. Any motion would turn them back on for 5 minutes, then off under PowerLinc control. There are many other nice things about the PowerLinc. Great product.

However, X-10 protocol and their switches have proven unreliable under a variety of noise conditions. The switches also break their internal push-button contacts, they go deaf, not 2-way... Look at the Smarthome X-10 or Insteon switches. Much better quality, function, and reliability.

My justification for dimming the lights was to save on electricity consumption. I also got a kick out of watching the lights get brighter when I walked up to the house. Unfortunately, none of my guests ever noticed it enough to mention. It was pretty obvious too, but people take this for granted of have other things on their mind when walking up to your house.

End result after the experience: I changed the dimmer for a Smarthome SwitchLinc Relay and changed all the incandescent bulbs with CF lamps. Much easier on the electricity that the dimmed incandescents and brighter too. But you didn't want to hear this did you?