Thanks for the reply. You understood correctly what I intended to do.
I guessed I was going to have to go with Lutron or something similar
but just wanted to check with the experts.

I've not heard of dimtek so will take a look into them later today.

best regards
Ian


On Wed, 16 Jul 2003 10:58:34 +0100, Martin Angove
wrote:

In message ,
IanJ wrote:

I have a bedroom lighting system I would like to cable up as follows.
=20
1) A set of 4 mains powered downlighters in the ceiling for general
lighting
2) two mains powered bedside table lights to hang over bed side
cabinets on each side of the bed.
=20
I'd like a single dimmer switch on the wall near the door to control
the ceiling lighting.
A dimmer capable of controlling both bed side lights, and ceiling
lights on each side of the bed.
=20
If the switch near the wall was turned on upon entry to the room,
could I turn the ceiling lights off from the bedside controls?
=20
Does anybody know of a product to accomplish this?
=20

If I have understood you correctly what you want is:

1: ceiling lights, dimmable from the door and from each side of the bed.

2: bedside lights, dimmable from either side of the bed, presumably in
case one occupant drops off with the light still on.

You *can* have a dimmer and (any number of) ordinary switches in a two
or three or more-way setup so that you could have a dimmer switch by the
door to switch on and dim the ceiling lights and an ordinary switch
either side of the bed to switch them off, but the one thing you *can't*
do is to have two or more dimmer switches controlling the same set of
lights.

Likewise with the bedside lamps; if you have a dimmer on one side you
could have an ordinary switch the other, but not two dimmers controling
the same bedside lamp.

Now, there is a way you can accomplish all you have suggested, and a
whole lot more, but it is very expensive. What you would need to do
would be to install a system from someone like Dimtek
(http://www.dimtek.co.uk/ ) or iLight, or possibly some X10 gear (there
are others here who know more about X10).

Each set of lamps could then be on its own addressable dimmer and
instead of fitting light switches you would fit control panels which
communicate with the dimmer via a data network. It is up to you what
facilities are available at the control panels, and you can have as many
as you like, but as I said it is a very expensive option when compared
with standard switches and dimmers.

Or prehaps I've misunderstood and it's not really as complicated as I
thought.

Hwyl!

M.