Loxone kit: Part 1

A couple of people have asked what the Loxone installation actually looks like and I realised that I hadn’t posted any photos since the installation had been completed.

The Loxone kit operates as two “stars” that are linked together.  One of the stars is in the older part of the building and one of the stars is in the new extension.  The main electricity feed comes into the new part of the building, but this then feeds a distribution board in the older part of the building.  While it sounds complex, it is actually straightforward.

To make things a little easier to understand, I will go through the set up of each of the node separately.  Let’s start with the node in the older part of the property. You will find Part 2 of this subject here that covers the newer part of the house.

The Loxone kit is house in two Hagar cabinets.  While they are a little expensive, they fitted in the space that I had and will comply with building and electrical regulations.  The top unit houses a TDK 24v supply, the Loxone miniserver and an extension.  The bottom unit houses another extension, a dimmer unit and an RS-232 module (to connect to the burglar alarm).

The TDK power supply is feed by a switched fuse spur and the power to the Loxone kit is fed by two further switched fuse spurs.  This means that all the Loxone kit can be power up, but the 240v power supplied to the mini-server, extension units and dimmer can be switched off separately.

We are using Cat5 cabling for all of the light switches.  All of the cables from the light switches terminate in a Cat5 patch panel.  It is then a simple case of making up a “fly lead” to go from the patch panel and connect it to the relevant Loxone unit.  The cable at the light switch is terminated using a standard RJ-45 plug.  This means that it is a straight connection from the plug at the light switch through to the patch panel.  This makes it very easy to test and also means that we can easily change the switches at a later date by just making up a new fly lead to connect to the Loxone kit.

All of the network connections are terminated in one of two patch panels.  There is one on top and one below the Netgear switch.  The TP link router connects to the switch and then patch leads are used to connect the relevant network ports to the Netgear switch.  We are using Schneider switches through the property and the stainless steel covers are a push fit.  If you lift the plate off, there is a label on the inside that indicates which port in the patch panel it connects to.

There is a telephone panel underneath.  This takes the incoming telephone line and splits it into 4 outgoing RJ-45 connections.  It is a simple task to connect a network port in one of the rooms to a spare telephone port. You need an adapter at the telephone end to convert the Rj-45 socket into something you can plug a UK telephone into.  This makes it very easy to more the telephone points around.

This shows the 3 distribution boards that house the Loxone kit and the RCDs for the older part of the house. The datacomm cabinet at the bottom houses the patch panels, network switch and telephone distribution panel.

With the covers removed, you can see how the Loxone it is wired up. All of the low voltage connections have crimped ferrules attached; this makes it much easier to get good, reliable connections. This is the lower of the two distribution boards that holds Loxone kit for this part of the house.