# Long Range wireless relay



## SCR (Mar 24, 2019)

I'm working on a large farm site with about 10 different Street/yard lights throughout the farm.I plan to retrofit new 300 watt LED fixtures on all light poles. These fixtures have dimming capability, but there is no control wiring run to the poles. I need some kind of 120v wireless receiver with a dry contact to dim the fixtures at midnight. I would like to trigger the recievers with a central transmitter, which would be within 500 meters of all lights.
Any suggestions on how to accomplish this? I'm on a bit of a budget here, so any economical solutions (<$60/fixture) would be greatly appreciated.


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## macmikeman (Jan 23, 2007)

What is the fixture voltage?


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## SCR (Mar 24, 2019)

Fixtures are all 120/277. Can choose either 120 or 208 v.


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## VELOCI3 (Aug 15, 2019)

What is the existing voltage at the poles?
What are the distances between the poles?
What is the layout of the poles in relation to large structures that would obstruct line of sight transmission?
What is the wiring diagram of the light? Is it 0-10V dimming of arranged in two or multiple switchable sections?

Is the pole power constant feed? Are all poles fed from the same source?



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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

I have looked at some wireless relay systems and what's out there for cheap is point to point, not one to many. 

Are you dead set on central control? It would be very easy to just use a timer at each pole and probably the cheapest you're going to get. If you use something electronic with a battery and internal clock, they won't have to ride around and reset them after outages. 

There's a member here with a product, the GPS Lightlock, it almost fits but I don't think it will work - it only has dawn-dusk or preset offsets, I don't think they let you program times. It's more of a dawn / dusk set by GPS clock than it is a timer in the sense you can set a schedule. 

Depending on the lay of the land you could build a wifi network to the poles, and use network time for the devices at each pole, and use programmable devices that use network time for their clock. (Basically this is the same as the GPS Lightlock but you're building your own network rather than using the free GPS network clock.) There may be some additional benefit to having the wireless network in place so it might be the best buy even if it isn't the lowest cost.


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## Cow (Jan 16, 2008)

We do a lot of farm work. We've only ever used photocells or my new personal favorite, astronomic timeclocks, on their exterior lighting. Never dimming.

What is the reason for dimming rather than just on/off control?


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## JoeSparky (Mar 25, 2010)

Paging @MikeFL


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## VELOCI3 (Aug 15, 2019)

RAB lightcloud enabled fixtures







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## NoBot (Oct 12, 2019)

VELOCI3 said:


> RAB lightcloud enabled fixtures
> 
> https://youtu.be/zbPv8OMWZbM
> 
> ...


Brilliant -1000 ft outdoors with repeating signal


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## Kevin (Feb 14, 2017)

Sounds like a GPSlightlock might be the right thing... @MikeFL, thoughts?


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## SCR (Mar 24, 2019)

Sorry for not replying sooner. The Internet was down. I'll just try to answer some of the questions above.
-The existing voltage at poles is 208 vac. (3-wire cable so 120vac is also available at each pole)
-Poles are laid out in a rough circular pattern abot 600-800 feet apart.( 26 Feet high) All surrounding structures are lower than the tops of poles.
- Dimming is 0-10 vdc. Fixture dimming leads supply 24vdc which I will sink down to desired control level with appropriate resistor in series with dimming leads through dry contact.
-All poles are constant fed from different systems throughout the yard.
- I've thought of using timers but, I worry about replacing batteries and having to update the clocks too often.
-There is an existing wi-fi network that would easily reach all the poles.That would be my preferred method if i can find something reliable that is also affordable
-The reason for dimming is simple: money. 300 watts x 10 fixtures x 12 hours=$1500 power cost per year. With dimming that bill can be reduced 50 percent also the fixtures will last alot longer,


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## Cow (Jan 16, 2008)

SCR said:


> -The reason for dimming is simple: money. 300 watts x 10 fixtures x 12 hours=$1500 power cost per year. With dimming that bill can be reduced 50 percent also the fixtures will last alot longer,


If you only need 50 percent of the light, why not use 150 watt LED fixtures and no dimming?


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## oliquir (Jan 13, 2011)

if wifi signal is good (usable with phone or any wifi devices) you could just use any wifi relay (or wifi socket) that works with google, alexa,.. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=wifi+relay+google&ref=nb_sb_noss_2


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## 460 Delta (May 9, 2018)

Cow said:


> If you only need 50 percent of the light, why not use 150 watt LED fixtures and no dimming?


Like what cow says, or maybe use two 150 fixtures with both on for full lighting and one on for half intensity. Use your 3 wire system at each light to it’s full extent.


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## SCR (Mar 24, 2019)

Remember in the OP I said "Farm" not "city". On a farm 99% of the time, between 10 pm and 6 am there is nothing going on. (except during harvest). We need the full 300 watts when guys are working, specifically in the winter months, not so much after midnight. These fixtures dim right down to nothing,(off) so we can use this system for total control.
I have found a standalone wireless system for $80/pole. But now I'm leaning more towards the wifi option. Thanks for all the tips.


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## Kevin (Feb 14, 2017)

SCR said:


> Remember in the OP I said "Farm" not "city". On a farm 99% of the time, between 10 pm and 6 am there is nothing going on. (except during harvest). We need the full 300 watts when guys are working, specifically in the winter months, not so much after midnight. These fixtures dim right down to nothing,(off) so we can use this system for total control.
> 
> I have found a standalone wireless system for $80/pole. But now I'm leaning more towards the wifi option. Thanks for all the tips.


If the light fixtures use a standard 7 pin photocell (standard with dimming) you could look into a GPSLIGHTLOCK for each fixture. It would be a fixed on-off with dimming during the programmed hours. I don't know much about them, but @MikeFL should.


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## paulengr (Oct 8, 2017)

First off, why are you trying to control at the pole? It is so much easier to do this with a simple lighting controller/contactor arrangement. It might actually be cheaper even if it is already wired up to simply trench in new wiring with a plow and rewire it appropriately for control if it was say daisy-chained so that there is no easy way to individually control poles. Home runs are so much simpler.


Second, if you MUST do this, you are going to run into a wall where radios run around $100 and remote I/O runs around $150, and THEN you have to enclosure that stuff so by the time you figure in labor, you will be bumping up against $500 per pole...rewiring is looking awful cheap. There are all-in-one products but they aren't popular for a reason.



Take a look at the Banner DX70 system. They like DX80 but DX70 is much simpler...just set the address dials and you're "done" with settings. I used this years ago. Simple and effective for conveyors.



Also look at something like this:
https://buy.advantech-bb.com/I-O/Wi-Fi-I-O/BBC13256.products.htm


Also you might want to look at remote I/O off Automation Direct "Click" PLC's or one of their field I/O systems, and Ubiquiti radios. This will be about the same price point as the above products but it's more flexible. This is more complicated but the ridiculous thing is that you can put an entire PLC in for the same price as the remote I/O. There's a reason for this. You need a certain amount of software and a processor which a decent amount of processor horsepower for using wifi. Adding another software module to run an entire PLC off of that is very straightforward.


There is a huge POTENTIAL market for this stuff. The latest version is called "IoT". As an example the City of Virginia Beach has roughly 400 wastewater lift stations and the Norfolk region (Norfolk, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Newport News, etc...) have combined over 4,000 lift stations. That's just one example. These places would love it if they could get say 2 4-20 mA inputs and outputs, 4 digital inputs, and 2-4 relay outputs in a weatherproof box for under $200. But so far the product offerings are cheaply built and expensive for what you get, or well built but might as well be an entire standard PLC. So I see a whole lot of "standard" installations (PLC's with attached radios), not the price range you are looking for.


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## MikeFL (Apr 16, 2016)

Our dimming timers would not give him ability to change dimming level on demand. Everything's preprogrammed on a schedule. But thanks for thinking of us, and sorry for the delay in responding; I was away.


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## VELOCI3 (Aug 15, 2019)

SCR said:


> Sorry for not replying sooner. The Internet was down. I'll just try to answer some of the questions above.
> -The existing voltage at poles is 208 vac. (3-wire cable so 120vac is also available at each pole)
> -Poles are laid out in a rough circular pattern abot 600-800 feet apart.( 26 Feet high) All surrounding structures are lower than the tops of poles.
> - Dimming is 0-10 vdc. Fixture dimming leads supply 24vdc which I will sink down to desired control level with appropriate resistor in series with dimming leads through dry contact.
> ...



The poles have constant feed power? Use a mechanical timer that does not require batteries. Also add an override switch on the outside of the timer to go to full brightness if needed during the dimmed period. 


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## garfield (Jul 30, 2009)

I have spent considerable time trying to do something similar. The cheapest by far and also the most reliable is to trench and run wire unless it would require boring. My guess is the next cheapest is astronomic timers that control 1 150 watt light and a simple switch on the pole for the second light. (I would just use photocells.......no savings payback of never with astronomic where you need one for each pole.) With this setup if something comes along that would make wireless cost effective and reliable you could retrofit it. You could also have 2 fixtures on each pole to aim and make better light distribution.


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## Kevin (Feb 14, 2017)

If there's no suitable devices for wireless interconnection, I'd probably go for the GPSLIGHTLOCK with a manual switch on each pole. You could have the lightlock programmed to be dimmed during midnight hours, and for harvest time, someone goes around and flicks every switch to bypass dimming. 

Nice thing is, the switch could be low voltage for the 0-10 voltage dimming. Not sure what code says, but I'd probably use outdoor cat5e or phone line to drop down each pole and just put a simple weatherproof switch on each pole.

Just my 2 cents.


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## VELOCI3 (Aug 15, 2019)

Running new wires to the poles is not going to work. The drivers won’t be able to send the DC voltage that far. The 0-10VDC dimming has to be done close to the fixture. 

Here is an option for pole mounted dimming. 







But the GPS one seems to be the most cost effective easily deployable solution when you have existing fixtures. 









This works only if the “bypass on” overrides the programmed dimming protocol. 

The RAB lightcloud is a great option too. I don’t know what the yearly cost is to maintain the cloud account with them. The sensors can be used throughout the whole facility and not just the pole lights. They are indoor/outdoor rated. Once you get the system online you can add more of these to existing lights or circuits in the facility. 

https://www.rablighting.com/downloads/instructions/lightcloud_controller.pdf










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## Kevin (Feb 14, 2017)

Kevin_Essiambre said:


> If there's no suitable devices for wireless interconnection, I'd probably go for the GPSLIGHTLOCK with a manual switch on each pole. You could have the lightlock programmed to be dimmed during midnight hours, and for harvest time, someone goes around and flicks every switch to bypass dimming.
> 
> Nice thing is, the switch could be low voltage for the 0-10 voltage dimming. Not sure what code says, but I'd probably use outdoor cat5e or phone line to drop down each pole and just put a simple weatherproof switch on each pole.
> 
> Just my 2 cents.


Here, I drew a diagram. 

L=light
PC=Photocell/GPSLIGHTLOCK 

Black is line
Red is load
Green is neutral (yeah, i know, it should be white but that's kinda hard on a WHITEboard)
Purple and blue are 0-10 dimming

I'd order a GPSLIGHTLOCK programmed to dim during your midnight to 5am (or whenever you want the lights dimmed), and install a SPST switch on each pole to open the dimming circuit. 

**this is based off of the light fixtures having a photocell receptacle with dimming**

Come harvest time when you want the lights on full all night, send a kid or apprentice around to flip every switch. Won't take long, even if there's 100 poles.


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## splatz (May 23, 2015)

Where is the 10V coming from?


Kevin_Essiambre said:


> Here, I drew a diagram.
> 
> L=light
> PC=Photocell/GPSLIGHTLOCK
> ...


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## Kevin (Feb 14, 2017)

splatz said:


> Where is the 10V coming from?


It depends on the fixture. I'm using the assumption that it's the same as the current street light I have to install. The fixture has a driver that has 0-10 volt dimming, i can dim it to 50% just by connecting the grey to purple (it's a street light, not office lighting). No external power source needed.


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## MikeFL (Apr 16, 2016)

On many 0-10V dimmable fixtures, if you drive 0V to the dimming it drives the light at 100% (because it thinks there's no dimming signal?). Often you have to drive around 0.5V for "dim to off". 

Based on the drawing above, you could open a SPST to cause it to drive the light at 100% when that's what you want.


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