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PostPosted: Thu Nov 12, 2020 7:18 pm 
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Doing some more digging on line, there are 3 generations of the Telecell.

1. Spike housing. CMS communication via master node, no daylight sensor, no GPS. No dimming.

2. Dome opaque housing. CMS communication via master node, in built GPS and I presume as the dome is not transparent, no daylight sensor. Dimming via DALI or analogue voltage.

3.  Dome clear housing - as my last post. Latest generation. CMS communication via master node, in built GPS and daylight sensor. Dimming via DALI or analogue voltage.

Type 1 will only switch via CMS communication.

For Type 2 and 3, when first powered on, they will dayburn for 50 secs then turn off. If connected to a dimming ballast, they will run the ballast at full power for 25 secs, then dim for 25 secs and then switch off.

After 15 mins, if the node hasn't established comms with the CMS (which can take several hours) and no GPS fix has been established, the node will turn the lamp on.

If a GPS fix has been established, the node will act as a normal dawn/dusk photocell. For Type 2 node, GPS time must use a solar map look up table, to establish local dawn and dusk times.

For Type 3, I suspect GPS/solar map is the primary reversion mode, but backed up by the photocell. This would explain why these nodes are working perfectly well in rural areas of Wiltshire where the CMS doesn't exist yet.

This multi-switching arrangement also has the benefit that dawn dusk operation will still occur prior to the nodes being mapped to the CMS, eliminating (often) days of dayburning that occur with other systems.

If Hemel tries his node without the crisp packet and leaves it powered long enough, it will probably switch off during daytime hours - but using GPS.


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 13, 2020 12:50 am 
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I have 2 nodes. The pointy one, type 1 and the translucent dome one, type 2.

The type 1 that I have has dimming and the dimming function does work as the light it was used on had a dimming ballast and it did dim at 11pm and go back to full at 5am in line with the rest of the lights on that road.
My type 1 node is still in use on my Urbis Sapphire in the garden that I fitted with LEDs. The new LED driver has no dimming function so the 1-10v dimming wires are left floating.

My type 2 node was used inside the house for some lights on my stairs that I wanted to turn on at when it got dark. The node was under a cupboard and never received any light from anything. The stair lights turned on about 15 minutes before the light outside on the Telensa network also with a type 2 node did.

Below are some times I recorded back in May when the lights turned on

16/05 ON
Type 1 node on garden light 21:06:01
Type 2 node for stair lights: 21:04:38
Type 2 node for council street light outside: 21:15:54

17/05 ON
Type 1 node on garden light: 21:08:17
Type 2 node for stair lights: 21:00:48
Type 2 node for council street light outside: 21:18:53

I shall power the type 2 node up again and report back on what happens. I'll also go into the garden and take apart the type 1 node and post images here of it.
I wonder what the person who monitors the lights thinks when I mess with the lights as I've heard the nodes monitor the power used for bulb failure or gear failure.


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 13, 2020 8:46 am 
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The difference in switching times for your Type 2 node and the council Type 2s, seem to suggest yours is switching by GPS and solar map. If it was allocated on the CMS, it would switch at the same time as the council ones. Therefore the council CMS doesn't know about your Type 2.

Nodes are normally allocated against a column number and are switched on that basis. So the CMS software says turn on all columns in Acacia Avenue in Anytown, rather than node number, x, y, z, a, b, c.

So in theory, your Type 1 node should have been de-mapped from the old column as the new column should have had a new node. I wonder if the Type 1 nodes therefore had an option for internal GPS and also an option for dimming? Wiltshire used neither option in their Type 1 nodes. It looks like these functions were made standard in the later nodes.


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 4:48 pm 
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I purchased a Telensa type 2 node off Ebay and have been doing some comparisons with the type 2 node in my street. My node is running off GPS time switching, whilst the street node is CMS switched. The times below are over a 6 week period, and I also made a note of whether it was a bright or dull day.

Street (CMS)     My node (GPS)

1633                    1620   Bright
1627                    1624    Dull
1629                    1625    Bright
1630                   1626     Bright
1626                    1625    Dull
1624                    1620    Bright
1622                    1617      Bright
1624                    1624    Dull
1622                    1615     Dull (23rd Dec)

GPS always switches earlier than CMS, and although the trend is for earlier on times as the shortest day approaches, it isn't linear.


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PostPosted: Tue May 18, 2021 11:37 am 
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The following is an example where CMS control can be used to aid fault finding.

A newly fitted Axia 3 in my village wasn't working last night. I was able to inform the council and they examined the CMS log, which showed a loss of supply between Sunday eve and dawn this morning.

The lantern is now showing "on-line" and they were able to undertake a remote switch on during daylight hours, and the CMS showed normal operation.

It could be an intermittent supply fault to the column, but I've agreed with the council that I'll keep an eye on it. An intermittent fault in an underground cable will be very difficult to pin point - the only option would be to excavate back to the joint on the 3 phase cable and renew all of that - unless the fault is at the cutout or inside the column, which is less likely.


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 5:11 pm 
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It is now dark enough in the mornings for the CMS controlled part night lighting in my village to switch on at 0530. I had expected they would all switch off in unison at dawn,  but it appears that the latest Telensa nodes with the transparent covers from earlier in this topic, may use optical sensing; if it is light enough for the individual lantern to switch off before the "group switch off" signal from the CMS. A few days ago, several lanterns had already switched off, whilst the majority were still on. Those that were off were in the parts of the village with no trees nearby.

Prior to the LED roll out, existing LED casual lanterns had their photocells changed from optical to the Telensa type with opaque covers. Interestingly none of these switch on at the same time as the latest clear cover Telensas; they all switch a few minutes after. This maybe an artefact of how the CMS was set up - perhaps it switches by node type rather than all nodes in one geographic area.


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PostPosted: Wed May 04, 2022 4:38 pm 
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In Winchester city centre there appear to have been a number of replacement RF nodes fitted - same as the original types. Interestingly the columns concerned weren't dayburning or out at night.

Most new nodes from the various manufacturers come with multiple bar code labels, usually for at least one for the node and a 2nd label to be scanned back at base to enter the nodes on the CMS software. For some reason, labels have also been stuck above the column door - they aren't going to be there for long. A better location would have been on the inside of the door. I spotted at least  a dozen labels like this in a few hours in the city centre - all completely random in location.

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PostPosted: Sun Sep 18, 2022 8:19 pm 
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I spotted a strange situation today on a typical Hampshire installation with Iridium, which I'm assuming was a node fault. Approximately every 5 seconds, the lamp switched on and off. This was in daylight hours when nothing else was lit up. The lamp appeared to be fully warmed up when it switched on. Not seen anything like it before.


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