KNX

KNXKNX is a communication protocol for building automation, which has been standardized internationally as ISO/‌IEC 14543-3 “Home Electronic Systems”. KNX is used in the field of home automation and commercial building automation as well. In a KNX network, sensors and actuators are assigned to a set of communication objects. A communication object represents a value of a given type, for instance a temperature, a switch state, or a set point. The communication objects communicate via group addresses. Sensors transmit a message containing the current value to all actuators, which are member of the same group. In order to make devices of different manufacturers interoperable, the communication objects use a pre-defined set of standardized data point types (DPTs). Network integration in a KNX system is accomplished by a vendor-independent installation tool based on a database (ETS – Engineering Tool Software).

LOYTEC devices are integrated into the KNX system by exporting the database of communication objects from the Engineering Tool Software (ETS4). ETS projects are imported by the LOYTEC Configurator tool. After the import of the KNX project, an overview of all available KNX data points is displayed. The desired data points for use can be chosen from this list. Later changes to the ETS project can be tracked and synchronized the same way. Once KNX data points have been integrated, they can be used for AST™ functions. The alarming (alarm management) is based on generic alarm servers. Scheduling of KNX data points is done using generic schedulers. Historic trend data of KNX data points can be logged by generic trend logs. The device communicates with the KNX system on KNX TP1 (twisted pair using an external KNX coupler) and on KNXnet/‌IP (Ethernet).

More details on the communication behavior in KNX systems can be found in the respective product manuals, which are available for download.