C2E616101_MB_C1 Schneider Cuadro H KNX Push Button Two Gang Matt Black 15mA Integrated Bus Coupler

The C2E616101_MB_C1 is a two gang KNX push button from the Cuadro H range in a matt black finish. It belongs to a different design family from the Unica panels: Cuadro H is a flat plate with a matte face, and the same mechanism is offered in two, four, six and eight gang versions so that a floor can be equipped with one visual language.

Electrically it is a bus device in the simplest sense. It takes 21 to 30 volts DC from the KNX line at a rated current of 15 milliamperes, connects through a bus terminal, and carries an integrated coupling unit, so there is no separate interface and no mains connection at the wall. The technical type is listed as proximity, which means the plate responds as a hand approaches rather than only when a key is pressed. The body is polycarbonate with a glossy surface, 86 by 86 millimetres and 29 millimetres deep.

Two gang is the configuration where the wall device is still a switch rather than a control station, and that has practical consequences worth knowing before specifying. The plate gives two rockers, which in KNX terms can carry four distinguishable operations once short and long presses are separated, and that is enough for lighting and a curtain in a small room but not enough for a scene-based scheme.

The proximity behaviour should be tested in the actual room, because a plate that reacts to a passing hand in a corridor is helpful while the same behaviour beside a bed is not. The matt black finish shows fingerprints less than gloss but more than a textured surface, and on a dark plate the contrast between the plate and the wall is the design intent, so the surrounding decoration has to be decided before the device is ordered rather than afterwards.

• Hotel guest rooms and residential bedrooms are the natural application, where a two gang plate covers the general lighting and the bedside circuit without introducing a control surface the occupant has to learn.
• Corridors and circulation areas use it where a small number of circuits is switched from several positions and the device has to be repeated many times on one floor, which is where the lower channel count keeps the cost per position sensible.
• Bathrooms and dressing areas apply it because two gangs is the right capacity for a small space and the matte black finish suits a dark scheme.
• Offices use it at the entrance to cellular rooms where the occupant needs the lighting and nothing more.

Where a floor mixes room sizes, the availability of this plate at four, six and eight gangs means the two gang version can be confined to the small rooms while the larger ones take the higher counts in the same finish.