Following are links to products that we recommend, but certainly feel free to shop around.
Surge Suppressor
The Arduino and Raspberry Pi can be effected by power surges. We strongly suggest purchasing a surge protector to plug in our HUB & Controller of the system. This one even allows the ethernet cable from the router to be plugged into it, stopping surges from the router also.
Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse
Monitors are not a necessity for the functionality of the lighting systems, however, hooking one up to the HUB/Raspberry Pi makes viewing the system activity, and controlling your system effortless. Following is a link to a monitor that is compatible with the Raspberry Pi. Many are on the market and will work, just find the size and price that is desirable. The HUB/Raspberry Pi has an HDMI input for the monitor and USB ports that allow a keyboard and mouse to be connected.
Cables
Copper coated aluminum which is half price will NOT work with our system.
Cat 5/6 Patch Cables
Purchase ONLY solid copper Cat5/6 cable.
Links are to Cat5/6 stranded patch cables. These are acceptable to use as long as they are SOLID COPPER. The cables in these links already have the RJ45 connector on them, that is specific to patch cables. IF you have to change out the connector, it is NOT the standard RJ45 connector, but is a connector specific to stranded wire.
Stranded cables should NOT be used for any of the Home Runs, but can be used for jumpers between lights and panel cables like short jumpers from panel to AC interface.
- 4 ft. Patch Cable (use green for switches, yellow for motion sensors, purple for daylight harvesting sensors)
- 5 ft. Patch Cable (use green for switches, yellow for motion sensors, purple for daylight harvesting sensors)
- 6 ft. Patch Cable (use green for switches, yellow for motion sensors, purple for daylight harvesting sensors)
- 7 ft. Patch Cable (use green for switches, yellow for motion sensors, purple for daylight harvesting sensors)
- Plenum Wire – If your build is in an area that requires Plenum Rated wire, the above wire will not meet those specifications. With plenum wire, solid copper is required.
Cat 5/6 Bulk Cables
Links to Cat5/6 are acceptable to use as long as they are SOLID COPPER. These do NOT have the RJ45 connector on them. Bulk cable should be used for ALL cable runs over 7 feet long.
- Bulk Cable, Green, 1000 ft. (use green cable for switches)
- Bulk Cable, Yellow, 1000 ft. (use yellow cable for motion sensors)
- Bulk Cable, Purple, 1000 ft. (use purple cable for daylight harvesting sensors)
Plenum Wire – If your build is in an area that requires Plenum Rated wire, the above wire will not meet those specifications. With plenum wire, solid copper is required.
ProLight Series wiring for all light fixtures
16 or 18 AWG / 2 Conductor Zip Cord or 16 or 18 AWG / 2 Conductor Zip Cord is required to wire all LIGHT fixtures. Connectors needed are provided with the system.
18 AWG Zip Cord can be used if your run is 200′ or less.
16 AWG Zip Cord should be used if your run is in excess of 200′ but less than 750′.
Connectors and Tools
Links are to Cat5 connectors and tools. If other size cable is used, make sure appropriate connectors are ordered. The following are NOT provided by PMMI Lighting.
- Cat5 Cable Tester (a must have to make sure your Cat5 cables are good)
- DC Voltmeter (always a good idea to be able to check voltage)
- RJ45 Cat5 Connectors – Male (necessary to use with bulk cable)
- Heavy Duty Crimp Tool ONLY (necessary to attach RJ45 Cat5 connector to bulk cable)
- EZ-RJ45 Termination Kit, with Nylon Zip Case, EZ-RJ45 Crimp Tool Professional Electrician’s Scissors, and Cat 5 Cable Jacket Stripper (tools that are helpful for installation)
Power
The Lighting & Control Systems by PMMI Lighting, LLC operate on 12, 24, 26, or 48V DC. It can be powered by 120V and 240V AC grid power using an AC-DC power supply, or off-grid using solar or wind.
Solar Installations
- Solar Panels, Charge Controllers, Batteries and Mounts
- DC to DC Converter for 12V DC Power for Electronics – See SD-50B-12 and SD-50C-12 for 24V and 48V solar systems, respectively.
Grid-Based Power
- AC to DC Power Supplies – See RS-50-12 to power 12V DC electronics, and LRS, SE, RSP Series power supplies for V2 (LED Drivers)
UPS Backup
In the event of a power outage, a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) can prevent the lighting control system from an ungraceful shutdown, and allow use of critical or emergency lights during the outage.
A practical solution for most applications is to provide UPS backup for the lighting control electronics and one LED driver board. In the lighting configuration, such an approach implies that:
- critical/emergency lighting is configured to use LED driver channels on the UPS-backed driver board.
- a separate/isolated power supply be used to power the UPS-backed driver board.
- the UPS system would be the power backup for both the 12 V DC power supply used to power control electronics, and the power supply used to power the subject driver board.
If the subject driver board is loaded to capacity and all lights are operating at 100%, the UPS load would be about 750W.
CAUTION: If an UNDERSIZED inverter is used it will NOT work AND will DAMAGE our system VOIDING the warranty.
UPS systems are available from a variety of manufacturers. As an example, the XU1K3LLXXRCC UPS is available from APC. When using this you would then go to the battery select chart and select the time you would like protection for to choose the model.
A runtime graph is available on the APC website that shows runtime vs load condition for variety of UPS & batter pack.
