Light control options, dimming downlights and on/off ropelight

[museumsteve]

I'm happy to take suggestions(fairly cost effective) to control downlights and a ropelight.
I have a 1 gang varilight for the downlights (8 x 50w) which I want to control with my Harmony One but would also like a remote on/off IR switch for the ropelight (not dimming). Ideally I'd like them in one unit if poss. I could take a gamble and use a 2 gang varilight but dont want to risk dimming the ropelights (I assume this wouldn;t necessarily be a good thing).

[swordjo]

I was going ask the same thing about controling the rope lights via a Harmony One. I was looking at the remote sockets you get (Byron Home easy from B&Q). Just plug the lights into the socket and you can control them that way, but this is a quite a bulky option and was looking and something neater.

[museumsteve]

I have some simple plug in on/off switches but they are RF and I'd rather have an IR option..

[swordjo]

Originally Posted by museumsteve

I have some simple plug in on/off switches but they are RF and I'd rather have an IR option..

i just noticed they are RF! That spoils my simple route for the mean time. May just have to wire in some vairlight gangs when i'm doing my floating wall.

[museumsteve]

I'm opting for a 3 x 600w varilight, one for downlighters, one for ropelight and one for LEDs (by stage).
I was suprised I couldn't actually find an IR on/off switch without dimming. I'm hoping that the harmony behaves when programmed and I dont end up diming the ropelight feed.

[J4YP34]

I could take a gamble and use a 2 gang varilight but dont want to risk dimming the ropelights (I assume this wouldn;t necessarily be a good thing).

I have a 3 way varilight dimmer switch and the middle switch is wired into my ropelights which are behind my projector screen. I dim the ropelights all the time depending on what I'm watching etc. No problems there...The lights I have are the Duralite ones from TLC which work just fine. Not sure if this applies to all ropelights...SEE HERE...

Originally Posted by museumsteve

I'm opting for a 3 x 600w varilight, one for downlighters, one for ropelight and one for LEDs (by stage).
I was suprised I couldn't actually find an IR on/off switch without dimming. I'm hoping that the harmony behaves when programmed and I dont end up diming the ropelight feed.

I still havn't got my Harmony yet, im waiting for the price of the 1100 to come down a bit so I can't confirm how this works yet...

[museumsteve]

I ended up with a 3 x 400w and it controls the ropelight and halogens perfectly with my Harmony One but I couldn't use them with the LEDs as there is constant power so the LEDs wont turn off..grrr. I'm still working on a solution for the LEDs.