Has anyone ever installed Wattstopper lighting control?

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kenman215

Senior Member
Location
albany, ny
Shortest story possible:

Installed Wattstopper lighting control system in school. All classrooms (12) have individual 3 zone room controllers, photosensors, dual function occ sensors, and 4 button switches. Every component of the system works fine, holds program, is identified on the individual room networks, except occ sensors do not work at all, neither to turn lights on or off. Led's light up when each type of motion is detected. Sensors are detected on the network. Programming can be accomplished through the occ sensors fine via the handheld remote. Programming has supposedly been checked by techs at Wattstopper; they say it's not their issue. They're trying to tell me that the cat5e terminations are wrong. This would mean that out of the 240 connections we made, that the only ones which failed were those for the occ sensors, and all of them at that. I don't buy it. Any ideas?
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
Shortest story possible:

Installed Wattstopper lighting control system in school. All classrooms (12) have individual 3 zone room controllers, photosensors, dual function occ sensors, and 4 button switches. Every component of the system works fine, holds program, is identified on the individual room networks, except occ sensors do not work at all, neither to turn lights on or off. Led's light up when each type of motion is detected. Sensors are detected on the network. Programming can be accomplished through the occ sensors fine via the handheld remote. Programming has supposedly been checked by techs at Wattstopper; they say it's not their issue. They're trying to tell me that the cat5e terminations are wrong. This would mean that out of the 240 connections we made, that the only ones which failed were those for the occ sensors, and all of them at that. I don't buy it. Any ideas?

yeah. buy a cheap CAT5 cable certifier, and test all the
cables, then tell wattslopper to come fix their broken stuff.

i'm assuming you've got stuff plugged in correctly... this sounds
really stupid to say, but is there any chance the devices sent as
occupancy sensors are in fact photocells only, for daylight harvesting?
you say they are dual function OCC sensors, but what if they are a photocell
by mistake? watttstopper's stuff doesn't look similar from one device
to the other, but there may be ones i've not seen that do look similar.
nLight's got stuff that you have to read the label on the back to know for sure.

i've seen a fair bit of DOA stuff show up as well. maybe it's a bad lot
of occ sensors. they don't do much quality control on this stuff, from
what i've seen.

test the cables, and then it's their problem.
 

kenman215

Senior Member
Location
albany, ny
yeah. buy a cheap CAT5 cable certifier, and test all the
cables, then tell wattslopper to come fix their broken stuff.

i'm assuming you've got stuff plugged in correctly... this sounds
really stupid to say, but is there any chance the devices sent as
occupancy sensors are in fact photocells only, for daylight harvesting?
you say they are dual function OCC sensors, but what if they are a photocell
by mistake?

i've seen a fair bit of DOA stuff show up as well. maybe it's a bad lot
of occ sensors. they don't do much quality control on this stuff, from
what i've seen.

test the cables, and then it's their problem.

We actually had a lot of defective product as well and will never use this crap again. Ultimately,
testing the cables is the last option we have, which is where things are heading. I knew I was in trouble when I had to help the tech get his hoverround out of his trunk.
 

mgookin

Senior Member
Location
Fort Myers, FL
yeah. buy a cheap CAT5 cable certifier, and test all the
cables, then tell wattslopper to come fix their broken stuff.

i'm assuming you've got stuff plugged in correctly... this sounds
really stupid to say, but is there any chance the devices sent as
occupancy sensors are in fact photocells only, for daylight harvesting?
you say they are dual function OCC sensors, but what if they are a photocell
by mistake? watttstopper's stuff doesn't look similar from one device
to the other, but there may be ones i've not seen that do look similar.
nLight's got stuff that you have to read the label on the back to know for sure.

i've seen a fair bit of DOA stuff show up as well. maybe it's a bad lot
of occ sensors. they don't do much quality control on this stuff, from
what i've seen.

test the cables, and then it's their problem.


+1 :lol:
 

kenman215

Senior Member
Location
albany, ny
BTW, their rate to have a tech come back is $2500/day. If I test out the cables, and they prove as they should, I'm going to send them a bill for the overtime.
 

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
BTW, their rate to have a tech come back is $2500/day. If I test out the cables, and they prove as they should, I'm going to send them a bill for the overtime.

i got one of these after my cable certifier tanked.

http://www.amazon.com/Triplett-Byte-Brothers-RWC1000K-Printable/dp/B000J157WQ

there isn't any frills about it, but it works. $318, and that's an excellent price.
some observations about lighting systems in general.......

if nothing else, get a $80 cable checker, and check ALL the cables before you install them.
sit a minion down in the corner, and have him check all of them. then use them.

the stuff is getting better and easier to use, but there are still hairballs. there are systems
that use purple and gray both for 0-10 dimming voltage, AND for the 16 bit digital bus that
addresses the interface modules. i've seen people mix them. it's not pretty.

there's a learning curve going on thru the industry now, as people try to get this stuff sorted.
it's at the engineering level as well. electrical engineers will specify stuff that doesn't need to
be done, out of fear of an errors and omissions claim, if they blow the design. then they paint
everyone into a corner trying to comply with what they designed.

the only clear winners that seem to be around are the manufacturers of the lighting controls.
everyone else is just dealing with it the best they can.
 

highlegdelta

Member
Location
US
I'm guessing the the loads aren't bound to the occupancy sensor. Do you have a remote?

Go to load configuration off the main menu. When a load is selected, all the buttons and sensors that control that load should have a blue light come on. If there is no blue light on your sensor, point the remote at it and push bind. Do this to every sensor you need to control that load then push send.

Sent from my SD4930UR using Tapatalk
 

kenman215

Senior Member
Location
albany, ny
I'm guessing the the loads aren't bound to the occupancy sensor. Do you have a remote?

Go to load configuration off the main menu. When a load is selected, all the buttons and sensors that control that load should have a blue light come on. If there is no blue light on your sensor, point the remote at it and push bind. Do this to every sensor you need to control that load then push send.

Sent from my SD4930UR using Tapatalk
Nope, loads are all bound. 4 button switches are set up for zone 1 on/off, zone 2 on/off, zone 3 on/off, all on/off. Blue led lights up on occ sensor for all of them. I ended up having to become intimately familiar with the programming side to the incompetence of the tech. Thanks for the suggestion though.

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highlegdelta

Member
Location
US
Nope, loads are all bound. 4 button switches are set up for zone 1 on/off, zone 2 on/off, zone 3 on/off, all on/off. Blue led lights up on occ sensor for all of them. I ended up having to become intimately familiar with the programming side to the incompetence of the tech. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
The only reason I know any programming is because of an incompetent programmer also. Going back to a closed out job tomorrow for the same reason.

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kenman215

Senior Member
Location
albany, ny
I'm scheduled to work a double shift on wednesday to go a shoot a video of myself testing every cat 5e connection to and from the occ sensors to room controllers. My job is closed out too, so I feel your pain.

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majorminotaur

Member
Location
Buffalo, NY, USA
Occupation
Electrical Engineer
Shortest story possible:

Installed Wattstopper lighting control system in school. All classrooms (12) have individual 3 zone room controllers, photosensors, dual function occ sensors, and 4 button switches. Every component of the system works fine, holds program, is identified on the individual room networks, except occ sensors do not work at all, neither to turn lights on or off. Led's light up when each type of motion is detected. Sensors are detected on the network. Programming can be accomplished through the occ sensors fine via the handheld remote. Programming has supposedly been checked by techs at Wattstopper; they say it's not their issue. They're trying to tell me that the cat5e terminations are wrong. This would mean that out of the 240 connections we made, that the only ones which failed were those for the occ sensors, and all of them at that. I don't buy it. Any ideas?


Are the occupancy sensors programmed to be 'vacancy' sensors? That is, they will not automatically turn the lights on, someone has to manually do that. However, when they sense no one has been in the room for a set amount of time they will turn the load off. Newer energy codes are requiring this in my state. Obviously its a bit harder to test for as you need to manually turn it on and then wait...
 

kenman215

Senior Member
Location
albany, ny
Are the occupancy sensors programmed to be 'vacancy' sensors? That is, they will not automatically turn the lights on, someone has to manually do that. However, when they sense no one has been in the room for a set amount of time they will turn the load off. Newer energy codes are requiring this in my state. Obviously its a bit harder to test for as you need to manually turn it on and then wait...
Supposedly, the programming has been checked and verified, and we did test them foe both on and off. Next step is me working a double shift three days/nights this week to document via video us verifying all of the cat5e connections, a mere 250 of them. Don't be jealous...

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kenman215

Senior Member
Location
albany, ny
Update!

Update!

Email came in today. A different tech took a closer look at the software and realized that no commands were loaded into the base programming for any control via the occ sensors, rendering them merely decorative. Since they threatened us with a $2500/day charge for a tech to come back out for our mistake, we have decided that a $300/HR charge for myself and one of my company's principles to surpervise the re-programming and re-certification of the system seems more than fair. Sweet justice.
 
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