Technical Info

 

Features

When coupled with dimmable lighting fixtures, an – zone controller can be used out-of-the box to turn your office or home into a full featured, intelligent lighting control system that can greatly reduce energy consumption, and meet the most stringent energy code requirements.

Features:

  • Continuous 0-10V Dimming and On/Off relay control (ZC001) or Direct TRIAC Dimming (ZC002).
  • Energy Saving Functions:
    • Programmable Occupany-On and Vacancy-Off time out.
    • Daylight Harvesting control: To meet energy code e.g ASHRAE 90.1-2010, IEC2009/2012, LEED
    • Programmable Scheduling: Turn On the lights at different brightness depending on the time-of-the-day. Control settings (e.g motion On/Off
      enabled/disabled and the time-out) can also change from time to time automatically.
  • Power Consumption Data: Log hourly and daily energy consumption using built-in kWh meter.
  • Works standalone and does not rely on communications with other devices.
  • IoT Ready: Connect them to a gateway and control them via computers or smart device over the LAN or the Internet.
csaMark.png CERTIFIED TO CSA C22.2 250.0-08 & C22.2 250.13-14
CERTIFIED TO UL 1598 3rd Ed. & 8750 2nd Ed.
By TRi, Inc.

 

Each zone controller can be installed as standalone system.

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Daisy-chain each zone controller’s RS485 port via low cost twisted-pair cable.

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Intelligent, Connected Lighting Control System!

 

Components

Each Alec Zone Controller model ZC001 or ZC002 is a fully standalone, smart lighting control system in a box and can be easily installed in a standard 4” round or octagonal shape electrical junction box. Every ZC001/ZC002 has a 32-bit microcomputer on board controlling the following hardware:

  • A highly sensitive Passive Infra-Red (PIR) motion sensor
  • A light meter that accurately measures the amount of light under its aperture
  • A relay that can switch up to 10A of 120V to 240VAC load (ZC001 only)
  • A TRIAC dimmer that directly switch or dim up to 2.5A of 120 to 240VAC load (ZC002 only)
  • A 0-10V dimming output with 20mA current capacity (on both ZC001 and ZC002 models)
  • A low voltage push button switch input for manual ON/OFF and dimming
  • A 12VDC output for LED indicator around push button switch for status reporting
  • A 12VDC auxiliary motion sensor input to cover larger zone area
  • A kWh metering system that measures the AC voltage, current and the energy consumption of the connected lighting loads
  • Large amount of non-volatile EEPROM memory to store program schedules, controller settings, and 1 year of 1/4 hourly energy consumption and 20 years of daily energy consumption (!)
  • An industrial grade, isolated RS485 communication port that can be daisy-chained via twisted pair wires to an -IoT Gateway
  • A micro-USB port that allows local programming if it used standalone and not networked

 

Using ZC001/ZC002 For Stand-alone Applications

In any lighting zone that needs a separate lighting control, you can simply install a ZC001 or ZC002 unit for fully operable standalone controls. Just a few taps on the Alec Mobile Config app is all it takes to make any changes to the factory default settings. *

The ZC001 can be used as a motion-On/vacancy Off, or just vacancy Off switch; or even as a manual push button ON but timer-Off switch.   The very low voltage push button manual switch costs much less to install than traditional power switches and may even be optional in places that are automatically controlled at all time.

Regardless of location or installation choice, all the time-outs are precisely controlled to the second. Furthermore, the time-off functions can be temporarily disabled to cater to exceptional circumstances with a few presses of the push button switch (Forced Manual Mode).

Daylight harvesting can be enabled to dim the light proportionally in the presence of daylight.

By default a ZC001/ZC002 is setup to detect vacancy (i.e. no motion) for 10 minutes and will fade the light to 10% brightness. When an occupant triggers the motion sensor it will brighten up the light to full brightness (or the last user-set brightness level).  Therefore the area is always lighted at minimum light level when unoccupied but still provide full brightness when it detects the occupants. I.e. Right out of the box a ZC001/ZC002 is already ready to be used standalone and without any programming to save energy for lighting zones that requires 24/7 of automatic lightings but is not always occupied – e.g. walkways, emergency exit routes, garages, bike rooms etc.
Scan the following QR code using any barcode scanner to download the app:

 

– The Internet of Things

By daisy-chaining the built-in isolated RS485 ports of all ZC001/ZC002 to an Alec IoT-Gateway, all the lights in your premises become IoT products in an instant, and can be programmed, controlled and monitored via the network using your computer or other smart devices!

The Alec IoT-Gateway:

  • Connects up to 128 units of  ZC001/ZC002 via its isolated RS485 interface.
  • Connects via Ethernet port to your LAN   and enables all connected ZC001/ZC002 units  to be accessible from the TCP/IP network
  • Synchronizes the Real Time Clocks (RTC) of all connected ZC001/ZC002 to its own battery-backed RTC.
  • Auto-synchronizes its RTC via Internet time with auto-adjustments for daylight saving time (if enabled)
  • Displays its IP address , current time and status via a backlit LED screen.
  • May use low cost CAT-5 cable for the RS485 wiring. Note: only a single twisted pair and a common reference wire are required.