L-VIS
LOYTEC Visualization
User Manual
LOYTEC electronics GmbH
Contact
LOYTEC
Blumengasse 35
A-1170 Vienna
AUSTRIA/EUROPE
support@loytec.com
http://www.loytec.com
Version 4.2
Document No. 88068514
LOYTEC MAKES AND YOU RECEIVE NO WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS,
EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR IN ANY COMMUNICATION WITH YOU, AND
LOYTEC SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THIS PRODUCT IS NOT
DESIGNED OR INTENDED FOR USE IN EQUIPMEN T INTENDED FOR SURGICAL IMPLANT
INTO THE BODY OR OTH ER APPLICATIONS INTENDED TO SUPPORT OR SUSTAIN LIFE, FOR
USE IN FLIGHT CONTROL OR ENGINE CONTROL EQUIPMENT WITHIN AN AIRCRAFT, OR
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in
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without the prior written permission of LOYTEC.
AST, LC3020, L-Chip, L-Core, L-DALI, L-GATE, L-INX, L-IOB, LIOB Connect, L-IP,
L-MBUS, L-OPC, LPA, L-POW, L-ROC, L-STUDIO, L-Switch, L-Term, L-VIS,
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LonTalk®, LONWORKS®, Neuron®, LONMARK®, LonMaker®, i.LON®, and LNS® are trademarks of Echelon
Corporation registered in the United States and other countries.
L-VIS User Manual 3 LOYTEC
Table of Contents
1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 10
1.1 What is L-VIS? .................................................................................................. 10
1.2 Scope ................................................................................................................... 12
2 Getting Started............................................................................................ 13
2.1 Installing the L-VIS Configuration Application ............................................. 13
2.2 Connecting to the Device .................................................................................. 13
2.2.1 CEA-709 Devices .................................................................................... 13
2.2.2 BACnet Devices ...................................................................................... 16
2.3 Quick Start Tutorial CEA-709 ......................................................................... 16
2.3.1 Add the device to the network ................................................................. 16
2.3.2 Create Dynamic NVs (LNS only) ............................................................ 17
2.3.3 Start the L-VIS Configuration Software .................................................. 17
2.3.4 Create Static NVs (if no dynamic NVs available) ................................... 18
2.3.5 Create Menu Structure and Pages ............................................................ 19
2.3.6 Add Controls to the Page ......................................................................... 19
2.3.7 Connect the Data-Points .......................................................................... 20
2.3.8 Write the Project to the L-VIS device ...................................................... 21
2.3.9 Test the Project ........................................................................................ 21
2.4 Quick Start Tutorial BACnet ........................................................................... 22
2.4.1 Add the device to the network ................................................................. 22
2.4.2 Start the L-VIS Configuration Software .................................................. 22
2.4.3 Create Data Points ................................................................................... 23
2.4.4 Create Menu Structure and Pages ............................................................ 23
2.4.5 Add Controls to the Page ......................................................................... 24
2.4.6 Connect the Data-Points .......................................................................... 24
2.4.7 Write the Project to the L-VIS device ...................................................... 25
2.4.8 Test the Project ........................................................................................ 26
3 Mechanical Installation .............................................................................. 27
3.1 Dimensions and Mounting ................................................................................ 27
3.2 Theft Protection ................................................................................................. 27
4 Electrical Installation ................................................................................. 28
4.1 Connection diagram .......................................................................................... 28
4.2 Electrical Characteristics LVIS-3E100/ME200 .............................................. 28
4.3 Electrical Characteristics LVIS-3E11x/ME21x .............................................. 28
4.4 Touch Panel Cleaning Instructions................................ .................................. 29
4.5 Terminals and Jumpers .................................................................................... 29
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4.6 LEDs and Buttons ............................................................................................. 30
5 Interface Configuration ............................................................................. 32
5.1 Selecting the Interface ...................................................................................... 32
5.2 Configuring the IP-852 interface ..................................................................... 33
6 Operating L-VIS ......................................................................................... 34
6.1 Touch Screen ..................................................................................................... 34
6.1.1 Operation ................................................................................................. 34
6.1.2 Calibration ............................................................................................... 35
6.2 Data Input ......................................................................................................... 36
6.2.1 Simple Schedule Control ......................................................................... 37
6.2.2 Extended Schedule Control ..................................................................... 40
6.3 Setup Menu ....................................................................................................... 44
6.3.1 Custom Setup Menu ................................................................................ 46
7 Configuration Software ............................................................................. 47
7.1 Main Window .................................................................................................... 47
7.2 Context Menus .................................................................................................. 47
7.2.1 Add Objects ............................................................................................. 48
7.2.2 Enable/Disable Access Control ............................................................... 48
7.2.3 Cut / Copy / Paste .................................................................................... 48
7.2.4 XML Export / Import .............................................................................. 49
7.2.5 Manage Data Points................................................................................. 49
7.2.6 Expand / Fold Tree .................................................................................. 51
7.2.7 Lock / Unlock Position ............................................................................ 51
7.2.8 Hide / Show ............................................................................................. 51
7.3 Main Menus....................................................................................................... 52
7.4 Tool Bar ............................................................................................................. 52
7.5 Workflow ........................................................................................................... 52
7.6 Common Property Pages ................................................................................. 53
7.6.1 General .................................................................................................... 53
7.6.2 Common Properties ................................................................................. 54
7.6.3 Color ........................................................................................................ 56
8 Object Description ...................................................................................... 58
8.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 58
8.2 Menu .................................................................................................................. 59
8.2.1 Menu Properties ...................................................................................... 59
8.3 Menu Item ......................................................................................................... 59
8.3.1 Menu Item Properties .............................................................................. 60
8.4 Page .................................................................................................................... 61
8.4.1 Page Properties ........................................................................................ 61
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8.5 Controls .............................................................................................................. 62
8.5.1 Text Control ............................................................................................. 62
8.5.2 Bitmap Control ........................................................................................ 63
8.5.3 Push Button .............................................................................................. 64
8.5.4 Numeric Control ...................................................................................... 64
8.5.5 Bar Control .............................................................................................. 66
8.5.6 Trend Control ........................................................................................... 69
8.5.7 Date Control ............................................................................................. 73
8.5.8 Data Log Control ..................................................................................... 74
8.5.9 Schedule Control ...................................................................................... 75
8.5.10 Alarm-List Control .................................................................................. 80
8.5.11 Vector Drawing Control .......................................................................... 83
8.6 Data Point .......................................................................................................... 85
8.6.1 Data Point Properties ............................................................................... 87
8.7 Mapping Table .................................................................................................. 89
8.7.1 Mapping Table Properties ........................................................................ 89
8.8 Action Objects ................................................................................................... 90
8.8.1 Action Properties ..................................................................................... 91
8.9 Collections .......................................................................................................... 95
8.9.1 Collection Properties ................................................................................ 95
8.9.2 Collection Handling ................................................................................. 96
8.10 Alarm Generators ............................................................................................. 96
8.10.1 Alarm Generator Properties ..................................................................... 97
8.10.2 Application Hints ..................................................................................... 98
8.11 Data Point Connectors ...................................................................................... 99
8.12 Mathematic Objects ........................................................................................ 100
8.12.1 Math Object Properties .......................................................................... 100
8.12.2 Application Hints ................................................................................... 101
8.12.3 Function List .......................................................................................... 102
8.13 Trigger Objects................................................................................................ 103
8.13.1 Trigger Object Properties ....................................................................... 103
8.14 Templates ......................................................................................................... 105
8.14.1 Template Properties ............................................................................... 105
8.14.2 Creating a Template ............................................................................... 106
8.14.3 Instantiating a Template ......................................................................... 107
8.14.4 Nested Templates ................................................................................... 107
8.14.5 Local Changes................................................................ ........................ 108
9 Data Point Management .......................................................................... 110
9.1 Concept ............................................................................................................ 110
9.2 User Interface .................................................................................................. 111
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9.2.1 Folder List ............................................................................................. 111
9.2.2 Data Object List .................................................................................... 112
9.2.3 Property View ....................................................................................... 113
9.2.4 Buttons .................................................................................................. 113
9.3 Object Creation ................................ ............................................................... 113
9.3.1 User Register ......................................................................................... 113
9.3.2 Local Network Variable (CEA-709) ..................................................... 113
9.3.3 Local Server-Object (BACnet) .............................................................. 114
9.3.4 Remote Network Object ........................................................................ 115
9.4 Local Scheduler and Calendar ...................................................................... 117
9.4.1 Point Creation ........................................................................................ 117
9.4.2 Calendar Point Configuration ................................................................ 117
9.4.3 Scheduler Point Configuration .............................................................. 118
9.4.4 Schedule Configuration Data ................................................................ 118
9.4.5 System Resources .................................................................................. 119
9.4.6 Resource allocation ............................................................................... 121
9.4.7 Using the Scheduler............................................................................... 121
9.5 Local Alarm Server ........................................................................................ 121
9.5.1 Intrinsic Reporting ................................................................................. 121
9.5.2 Algorithmic Reporting .......................................................................... 122
9.5.3 System Resources .................................................................................. 122
9.5.4 Using Alarm Servers ............................................................................. 122
9.6 Remote Scheduler and Calendar ................................................................... 122
9.7 Alarm Clients .................................................................................................. 124
9.8 E-Mail Templates ........................................................................................... 124
9.8.1 Common E-Mail Properties ................................................................... 125
9.8.2 E-Mail Trigger ....................................................................................... 125
9.8.3 Attachments ........................................................................................... 126
10 Standard Procedures (CEA-709) ............................................................ 127
10.1 Device Integration ........................................................................................... 127
10.1.1 New Device ........................................................................................... 127
10.1.2 Pre-Programmed Device ....................................................................... 129
10.2 Device Replacement ........................................................................................ 130
10.2.1 Dynamic NV Projects ............................................................................ 130
10.2.2 Static NV Projects ................................................................................. 130
10.2.3 Mixed Projects (static and dynamic) ..................................................... 131
10.3 Configuration Change .................................................................................... 132
10.3.1 Same NV Configuration ........................................................................ 132
10.3.2 Dynamic NV Change ............................................................................ 132
10.3.3 Static NV Change .................................................................................. 133
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10.4 Configuration Recovery .................................................................................. 134
10.4.1 Change Device Configuration ................................................................ 134
10.4.2 Change Network Configuration ............................................................. 135
10.4.3 Recover from a failed Update ................................................................ 135
11 Special Functions (CEA-709)................................................................... 138
11.1 Binding Management ...................................................................................... 138
11.2 XIF Export ....................................................................................................... 138
11.2.1 Offline .................................................................................................... 139
11.2.2 Online .................................................................................................... 139
11.3 CEA-709.1-A Operation ................................................................................. 139
11.4 Dynamic Network Variables .......................................................................... 139
11.4.1 LonMaker® Network Management Tool .............................................. 139
11.4.2 NL220 .................................................................................................... 142
11.4.3 Alex........................................................................................................ 143
11.5 Built-in LONMARK® Objects ....................................................................... 146
11.5.1 Timer Object .......................................................................................... 146
11.5.2 Switch Object ......................................................................................... 146
11.5.3 Relay / LCD Backlight control .............................................................. 147
11.5.4 HVAC Temperature Sensor ................................................................... 148
12 Special Functions (BACnet)..................................................................... 149
12.1 EDE Export of BACnet Objects..................................................................... 149
12.2 BACnet Network Settings ............................................................................... 149
13 Project Settings ......................................................................................... 150
13.1 Basic Settings ................................................................................................... 150
13.1.1 Page Protection ...................................................................................... 150
13.1.2 Timeout Values ...................................................................................... 150
13.1.3 Sound ..................................................................................................... 151
13.1.4 OEM Bitmaps ........................................................................................ 151
13.1.5 System Strings ....................................................................................... 151
13.2 Extended Settings ............................................................................................ 151
13.2.1 System Flags .......................................................................................... 151
13.2.2 System Settings ...................................................................................... 152
13.2.3 System Colors ........................................................................................ 152
13.2.4 Time Zone and DST............................................................................... 152
13.3 Display .............................................................................................................. 153
13.3.1 LCD Backlight ....................................................................................... 153
13.3.2 Display Properties .................................................................................. 153
13.4 Connectivity ..................................................................................................... 153
13.4.1 Remote Display Access ......................................................................... 153
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13.4.2 Remote Data Access (FTP) ................................................................... 154
13.4.3 Default OPC Access .............................................................................. 154
13.5 Mail Account ................................................................................................... 154
13.6 Info ................................................................................................ ................... 155
14 Advanced Topics....................................................................................... 156
14.1 Access Control................................................................................................. 156
14.2 Undo / Redo ..................................................................................................... 157
14.3 Layout Tools .................................................................................................... 157
14.3.1 Alignment Functions ............................................................................. 157
14.3.2 Make Same Size .................................................................................... 157
14.3.3 Space Evenly ......................................................................................... 157
14.4 Find Similar Objects....................................................................................... 158
14.5 Preview and Edit Mode .................................................................................. 158
14.6 Remote Network Interface ............................................................................. 158
14.7 Local Data Point Capacity ............................................................................. 159
14.8 Device Model and Firmware .......................................................................... 159
14.9 Avoiding Update Loops .................................................................................. 160
14.10 User defined Fonts .......................................................................................... 160
14.10.1 Font File Location ............................................................................ 161
14.10.2 Font Recoding .................................................................................. 161
14.10.3 PCF File Format ............................................................................... 162
14.11 XML Support .................................................................................................. 162
14.12 Using Color Bitmaps ...................................................................................... 163
14.13 Using Sounds ................................................................................................... 164
14.14 Format strings ................................................................................................. 165
14.14.1 Number format strings ...................................................................... 165
14.14.2 Date format strings ........................................................................... 167
14.14.3 Regular Expressions ......................................................................... 169
15 Appendix A: Examples ............................................................................ 171
15.1 Example 1: Working with Structured Network Variables ......................... 171
15.1.1 Text control ........................................................................................... 171
15.1.2 Bitmap Control ...................................................................................... 172
15.1.3 Numeric Control .................................................................................... 173
15.2 Example 2: Using Data Point conversion and Hiding of Pages .................. 174
15.3 Example 3: Freeze warning, Alarms and Registers ..................................... 175
15.4 Example 4: Using text mapping and Date Control ...................................... 177
16 Appendix B: Solutions ............................................................................. 180
16.1 Implementing Menus ...................................................................................... 180
16.1.1 Tab Menus ............................................................................................. 180
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16.1.2 Icon Menus ............................................................................................ 182
16.1.3 Taskbar Menu ........................................................................................ 183
16.1.4 Bitmap Menu ......................................................................................... 183
16.2 Light Control ................................................................................................... 184
16.3 Animated Bitmaps ........................................................................................... 185
16.4 Sunblind Demo ................................................................................................ 185
16.5 Split Demo ........................................................................................................ 186
16.6 Counter Demo.................................................................................................. 187
17 Revision History........................................................................................ 189
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1 Introduction
1.1 What is L-VIS?
L-VIS is a highly flexible and easy to configure device to display and control data in
BACnet and CEA-709 networks. The L-VIS configuration software can be run as a
standalone program as well as an LNS® plug-in and supports the use of both static and
dynamic network variables in a project to allow easy integration in any kind of CEA-709
network.
The key features of the L-VIS device family are:
Simple, graphical programming via the supplied configuration software.
Support for alarming, scheduling and trending.
Support for the UCS-2 character set of the Unicode standard (ISO-10646), to
allow for the design of projects in any language, including Chinese, Japanese,
and Korean (CJK).
Display of data as numeric value, user-defined text or graphic elements,
horizontal and vertical bars or trend logs. A special element is available to
display date and time in form of digital or analog clocks.
Input of data via a numeric keypad, direct drag of a bar or selection from a
dropdown list of texts or graphic elements.
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Mapping of values to colors, to allow an element to change color depending on
the current value.
Supports layers and transparency for all display elements. Layering is simply
defined by the order of objects in the tree view, which may be changed easily by
moving the objects around as required.
Support for numeric operations on data points, including a simple if/else
statement.
Input voltage: 24V AC or DC
The LVIS-3E100 and LVIS-3E11x models (CEA-709) also provide:
Up to 1000 network variables and alias variables.
524 address table entries.
Up to 100 LonMark scheduler objects. Each scheduler object may control up to
64 data points in 107 daily schedules and manage up to 1000 entries in the
time/value table. Up to 256 value templates may be defined for each scheduler,
with a total data size of up to 1kB per value template.
An optional LonMark calendar object, defining exception days for the local
schedulers. The calendar object supports up to 100 date patterns with a total of up
to 1000 date entries.
Optional alarm server functionality provided by a SNVT_alarm_2 output NV
contained in the node object of the device.
FT-10/LPT-10 or Ethernet-IP852 operation selectable via a jumper on the device
or via a setting in the device configuration. When in FT-10 mode, the device can
still be reached via its Ethernet port for fast project download.
A lamp actuator object, to control the backlight from the network. This object
was used to control the internal relay on the older LVIS-3ECTB devices.
A switch object to provide a standard switch and dimmer function, as available
on other CEA-709 devices. The switch input for this object is the IN0 connector.
Both IN0 and IN1 inputs are also available as system registers, for internal use.
A temperature sensor object which outputs the current value of the external
temperature sensor (optional).
A real time keeper object, which outputs the current system time.
8 L-VIS functional blocks which can be used to place static or dynamic NVs
related to the data points used in the project.
Network scanning to find other device on the network and help in creating the
required network variables on L-VIS.
The LVIS-ME200 model (BACnet) provides:
Up to 512 server objects, accepting COV subscriptions. Available object types
are analog, binary and multi-state, each as input, output, or value object.
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Model
Network Type
Display
Colors
LVIS-3E100
CEA-709
5.7” 320x240
256 color VGA
LVIS-100-RE
CEA-709 *
5.7” 320x240
256 color VGA
LVIS-3E112
CEA-709
12” 800x600
65k color ARGB
LVIS-3E115
CEA-709
15” 1024x786
65k color ARGB
LVIS-ME200
BACnet
5.7” 320x240
256 color VGA
LVIS-ME212
BACnet
12” 800x600
65k color ARGB
LVIS-ME215
BACnet
15” 1024x786
65k color ARGB
BACnet/IP or MSTP connectivity (selectable via jumper or device configuration
setting).
Network scanning to find other devices and their objects in the network and use
them on the L-VIS device without the need to manually enter device and object
instance numbers.
Supports COV subscription and polling of remote server objects with automatic
selection of the best method (COV if available).
1.2 Scope
This manual covers the L-VIS device family. Currently available are the following models:
*
The LVIS-100-RE model is the same as the LVIS-3E100, but with a fixed static network
interface. Dynamic and external NVs are not supported. A ready-to-go project designed for
room automation is pre-installed on the device (the –RE suffix indicates that this device is
such a room edition device).
This manual also applies to the L-WEB product family, since this configuration software is
also used to design the user interface for L-WEB OPC clients, like the LWEB-800.
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2 Getting Started
2.1 Installing the L-VIS Configuration Application
To install the L-VIS Configuration software, execute the setup program and follow the
instruction of the installation wizard. The setup program adds an entry for the L-VIS
Configuration software to the start menu. For the use with LNS® based network
management tools, it registers the configuration software as LNS® plug-in. Before the
LNS® plug-in can be used in a network management tool it has to be registered in the LNS®
project. Please refer to the documentation of your network management tool how to
register an LNS® plug-in in a network management project. During the registration process
of the L-VIS Configuration software plug-in, LNS® device templates are created for the
FT-10, and IP-10L (Ethernet) versions of the device.
2.2 Connecting to the Device
There are several ways in which the configuration software can be run and used to
configure a device. While this is straight forward for BACnet models, it is important to
know the advantages and limitations of each method for CEA-709 devices.
NOTE: All devices running firmware 4.0 or newer will require a user authentication to allow
connections. The default password for connecting to the device is admin if the device is
running a version 4.0 firmware and loytec4u for firmware 4.1 or newer.
2.2.1 CEA-709 Devices
CEA-709 devices may be configured in several different ways:
Through LNS® (software run as LNS® plug-in).
Via a TCP/IP connection (using FTP/Telnet or SSH).
Via a CEA-709 connection (FT-10 or IP-852).
Each of these methods has some advantages and some limitations in what they can do.
Please see the following detailed description of the individual connection methods.
2.2.1.1 LNS® Connections
This method connects to the device from within the LNS® based network management tool.
The software is run as a plug-in and all communication with the device is done through
LNS®, meaning that you can use any network interface which is supported by LNS®.
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If your device is integrated into the network using an LNS® based tool (your device is
managed by LNS®) and you need to add or remove static network variables from your
project or otherwise change the static interface of the device, you must use this connection
method to download your project, since the configuration software needs to do several
adjustments to the LNS® database during this process.
If your changes to the project do not cause changes to the static network interface, for
example you are just working on the graphics, adding or modifying controls and so on, it is
more efficient to use one of the other connection methods. The configuration software will
detect any change in the static network interface beforehand and display a warning before
you commit to the project download.
Starting with version 4.0.2 of the configuration software, this operating mode can be
combined with a parallel TCP/IP connection to transfer project data efficiently while
maintaining a connection to the LNS database for database updates.
ADVANTAGES:
No need to set up TCP/IP connectivity (optional, to speed up project download).
Easy device selection from within your management software.
Automatically updates the LNS® database and re-commissions the device, if the
static interface of the device changes due to the downloaded project.
Functions are available to export and import current bindings to and from the
device into CSV files.
Any dynamic network variables created on the device will automatically show up
as usable data points in your project, including the name of the functional block
in which they are located.
Network scans can be done in the LNS® database. This scan method is fast and
provides the most complete information about other devices in the network,
compared to other scan methods (see also section 2.2.1.2).
LIMITS:
If no parallel IP connection is used, the transfer of large projects or a firmware
upgrade is slow due to the limits of the communication channel. This is
especially true for devices in FT-10 mode. Use a recent version (3.2.0 or newer)
of the configuration software and the device firmware, to allow the use of ZIP
compression for project files. This will considerably speed up the download
process. If possible (version 4.0.2 and newer), use a parallel IP connection for
project download.
2.2.1.2 TCP / IP (Ethernet) Connections
This method connects to the device through a standard TCP/IP channel. Because data is
transferred using the FTP and telnet protocols, the PC running the configuration software
must be able to establish an FTP and telnet connection to the device. The LVIS-3E11x and
LVIS-ME21x devices also support encrypted connections via SSH. In this case, only one
TCP port (port 22) is used for the entire communication between the PC and the device.
TCP/IP connections are possible even when the device operates in FT-10 mode, since the
IP port is always active. The IP address, network mask and gateway must be configured via
the setup menu on the device. The device must be restarted once for the new settings to take
effect.
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In the configuration software, the IP address or DNS name of the device can be used to
establish a connection. Each connection can be named and saved in a connection list, which
is stored in the system so that the list is available when the software is run the next time.
When connecting to devices running firmware version 4.0.0 or newer, the correct admin
password must be entered in this dialog to establish a connection for project up- and
download.
ADVANTAGES:
Very fast data transfer, suitable for large projects.
Best way to update the firmware of a device fast and secure.
Communication is possible even when the device is not commissioned or
otherwise not reachable on the CEA-709 port.
No LNS® or special network interface hardware is required. The standard
Ethernet port which is available on every PC is enough.
LIMITS:
No connection to LNS (if present) and therefore no way to update the database in
case the new project changes the static interface of the device. Projects which add
or remove static network variables or otherwise change the static interface may
not be loaded via this method if the device is part of an LNS database, since the
database will be out of sync after the download and cannot be repaired by the
user (only the configuration software can apply the necessary changes). Use the
LNS connection method in this case (see section 2.2.1.1).
Any dynamic network variables which were created on the device using a
network management tool will show up as usable data points in the project, but
the available information is limited to the data stored in the device. For example,
the functional block in which the NVs were created will be unknown since this
information is only stored in the LNS database and is not available on the device.
Network scans are conducted by the device itself, using a built-in scanner engine.
This scan is slower than an LNS® scan and cannot provide as much information,
for example device names will have to be set manually.
2.2.1.3 CEA-709 (FT-10 / CEA-852) Connections
In this mode, the communication channel is CEA-709 via a LOYTEC NIC such as a NICUSB, NIC-PCI or NIC-852. The device must first be commissioned (assigned a network
address), either by using the same network management tool as used for the other nodes in
the network or by entering a suitable unused address in the CEA-709 setup menu. In the
connection dialog of the configuration software, a suitable unused subnet/node address
must be entered for the network interface card of the PC. The address of the device may
either be entered manually as well, or can be detected automatically by either entering the
unique node ID or by pressing the service pin button on the device. Once the address is
known, the connection can be given a name and saved just like the TCP/IP connections, so
that the procedure is only necessary when the address of the device changes.
Connecting via CEA-709 is most suitable when the device is not connected to the IP
network and a non-LNS network management tool is used for integration.
ADVANTAGES:
Works even when the device is not connected to an IP network, thus no need to
set up TCP/IP settings for the device.
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Download is faster compared to LNS® connections, due to an optimized file
transfer protocol.
Works independent of the used network management tool.
LIMITS:
Only works when the device is commissioned. A download of a new project
which changes the static interface of the device will therefore break the
connection, since the device will have to reset its CEA-709 network
configuration in that case. The device must then be re-commissioned in the
network management tool and the connection must be re-established.
Especially in FT-10 mode, project downloads can still be slow. The same is true
for firmware downloads. If possible, the TCP/IP connection method should be
used for such tasks. Transfer speed is considerably improved when there are no
routers with limited buffer size between the PC and the device. Routers which are
able to handle large packets (254 byte) will have no real impact on the transfer
speed. Routers which allow a maximum packet size of 64 bytes only will degrade
the transfer speed.
Only network interface hardware from LOYTEC can be used for this type of
connection. Any LOYTEC NIC may be used to run the configuration software,
that is, the software is not registered to specific network interface hardware.
There is currently no way to conduct a network scan using this connection
method, since the built-in scanner engine on the device can only be controlled
using a TCP/IP connection.
2.2.2 BACnet Devices
To configure BACnet devices, the software is always run in standalone mode and a
connection to the device is made over TCP/IP. The PC must be able to establish an FTP and
Telnet connection or a single SSH connection to the device. If NAT routers or firewalls are
located between the PC and the device, the SSH protocol is preferred over the FTP/Telnet
connection. Check your firewall rules if necessary. Note that SSH connections are not
possible for the LVIS-3E100 and LVIS-ME200 devices.
2.3 Quick Start Tutorial CEA-709
This tutorial describes the steps to create a first demo project and load the project into a
CEA-709 device, like the LVIS-3E100. The tutorial assumes that the configuration
software is already installed and the LNS® plug-in is registered as described in the prior
section. For the LNS® specific part of this tutorial, the LonMaker® 3.1 network
management tool is used. Other network management tools, which are based on LNS® 3 or
above, which support dynamic network variables and the LNS® Plug-in Interface can be
used as well for this tutorial (e.g. Newron‟s NL220, SPEGA‟s Alex 3 Professional).
2.3.1 Add the device to the network
The first step is to integrate the device into an existing network. Depending on the device
type and the type of network used, this step is either done on the device or on the PC using
network management software. In any case, the device first needs to be physically
connected to the network and a suitable power supply.
2.3.1.1 CEA-709 with LNS: Create the L-VIS device in the LNS database
Add the L-VIS device to your LNS network project. Since the L-VIS configuration plug-in
already creates the device templates, the device configuration can be read from the device
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template. Choose the device template which matches the network interface mode (FT-10 or
IP-10L) of your device. The Node ID of the device can be entered manually. Optionally, a
service pin message can be sent by pressing the status button located at the bottom of the
device, or by selecting the Send Service Pin Message command in the SetupCommands
menu of the L-VIS device (see 6.3).
Set the device configured online during the commission phase, so that the device will be
able to communicate with other nodes on the network and with the configuration software.
NOTE: Do not integrate the device into your project by uploading the device interface properties
from the device before you registered the plug-in. This is important because if you upload
the definitions from the device, you will create a template of your own and the
configuration software will then fail to create the real device template, once you register it.
In this case, you must remove the device and the template from the database and re-run the
plug-in registration.
2.3.1.2 CEA-709 without LNS: Assign a network address
Use your network management tool to add the device to the database and assign a network
address to it. Alternatively, go to the CEA-709 page of the setup menu and enter a suitable
network address manually, then press the button „SET ONLINE‟ to activate the address.
2.3.2 Create Dynamic NVs (LNS only)
In this example, we will create two dynamic network variables of type SNVT_switch on the
device, one input and one output, and bind them together (turnaround binding) to show how
to display and send out data.
NOTE: If your network management tool does not support dynamic NVs, just skip this step. The
required data points will then be created from within the configuration software in a later
step (as static NVs).
First, we need a functional block to place the new network variables in. Create one of the 8
available L-VIS functional blocks (for example L-VIS[0]) to hold the two variables. Next,
create the two switch variables. For the complementary NV required to create the dynamic
NV, browse to the Switch object of your L-VIS device and select one of the two switch
variables available there (the direction does not matter). More information about dynamic
network variables can be found in section 11.4.
NOTE: Make sure to set the poll attribute to CLEAR when you create the output variable,
otherwise you will not be able to send out any values through this NV. Also, the poll
attribute of the input NV should be SET, so that L-VIS is able to fetch an initial value when
it boots up.
Now bind the output NV to the input NV, so that we can send/receive values.
2.3.3 Start the L-VIS Configuration Software
If possible, run the configuration software in plug-in mode from within your network
management tool. Open the context menu of the L-VIS device block in your drawing and
select Configure to start the configuration software.
NOTE: For network management tools which do not support plug-ins, start the program in
standalone mode and connect to your device via TCP/IP or CEA-709 over a LOYTEC NIC.
When started in plug-in mode, a connection dialog will appear and ask for an optional IP
connection to the device. If the device can be reached via TCP/IP, enter the required data
here and press „Connect‟, otherwise just press „Cancel‟ to continue without IP connection.
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The configuration software contacts the device, finds out what model and firmware version
it is, selects the correct settings and disables the corresponding menus, so that you may not
change them. The main window will show an empty L-VIS project.
The list of dynamic network variables available on the device is automatically read in and a
list of corresponding data points to access the NVs is generated. These data points will be
used in a later step. If no dynamic NVs were created in the previous step, the required NVs
and data points will be created in the configuration software later on.
NOTE: In case the device was not commissioned yet, or there are other communication problems,
the plug-in will display a warning message, saying that it could not communicate with the
device and therefore was not able to determine model or firmware version. In this case, you
have to commission the device or find out why it cannot be commissioned. Typical errors
are devices in the wrong mode (jumper set for CEA-852 but connected to FT-10 or vice
versa) or communication problems on the channel itself. Especially on a channel as
complex as CEA-852, there are a number of possible reasons why you may not be able to
communicate with the device.
The main window is divided in tree major sections:
Tree View: On the left side of the main window is a tree view showing all objects you
created so far and how they relate to each other, for example a menu object may have menu
item objects attached to it, a menu item object may have page objects and sub-menu objects
attached, and a page object contains the elements to display and enter data (these elements
are called controls in this manual). You may navigate through this tree and select an object
from it or drag and drop objects to move them around in the hierarchy, for example grab a
control from one page and drop it on another page. An empty project contains only a root
menu and a folder object where global objects can be placed, which are not directly related
to the user interface, for example alarm generators.
Property View: On the top right of the main window is a property view, which shows a
number of property pages, where you can adjust the properties of the currently selected
object. The number and kind of property pages changes according to the selected object,
but some of the more basic property pages are available all the time. Feel free to browse
through the available pages and see what you can adjust there.
LCD Preview: To the lower right of the main window is the preview of the project as seen
on the LCD when the project is downloaded. This is not a functional simulation of the LVIS device, but a layout guide and preview of individual menus and pages. The preview
changes according to the currently selected object. Since the configuration software comes
with a library of the layout code used in the various firmware versions of the device, the
preview is always accurate to the pixel. Should the layout or appearance of controls change
with firmware versions, the configuration software is able to track these changes and
display the page exactly as it will appear on the device you are currently connected to.
NOTE: You may select, move, and resize your controls directly inside the LCD preview. Also, there
are context menus available for each control, which you can open by a right click on the
control in the preview. The cursor keys can be used to move controls one pixel at a time
and to resize the control, when the shift key is held down.
2.3.4 Create Static NVs (if no dynamic NVs available)
In case the network management tool used for the tutorial does not support dynamic
creation of NVs on the device, the NVs required for this tutorial must now be created
manually using the data point manager window. This window is accessible either from the
tool bar (the icon left to the connect button), or from the main menu Edit -> Datapoints….
Please skip forward to section 9.3.2 for a description of how to create local network
variables. Following this description, create one input NV and one output NV, both of type
SNVT_switch.
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2.3.5 Create Menu Structure and Pages
The next step is to design a simple test page for this tutorial and use the two data points.
The empty project shows the root menu with no entries (menu items). You may change the
name of the root menu as well as its colors and other properties, such as the width of the
menu or its scroll-bar, using the property pages to the right of the tree view (make sure the
root menu object is selected, which should be the case right after you started the software).
The menu object is described in detail in section 8.2.
First, add a menu item to the root menu. To do this, right click on the root menu object in
the tree view and select Add Item from the context menu. A new menu item is created and
connected to the menu object. The new menu item is automatically selected, so that you
may browse the property pages and see what you want to change. The name of the item
object can be changed in the Name box of the General property page. This changes the
name of the object in the object tree and has no effect on the appearance of the menu item
on the device. To change the text of the item itself, go to the Common Properties page
and change the contents of the Text box. The display in the preview window changes as you
type, so you can immediately see the results. You may want to change the font to the
12x16-ROM-Fixed-R font, so you get a larger item which is easier to select on the touch
screen. The menu item object is described in detail in section 8.3.
Repeat the steps above to add another menu item and call it „Setup‟. Again, change the Text
of the item to read something like „Setup‟ and change the font to make the item a
comfortable size. This item will be used to enter the devices setup menu.
NOTE: The device will check the last item of the root menu and see if it has any pages or sub-
menus attached to it. If the item has no further objects attached (this is called a return item)
and is located at the last position in the root menu, then the device will connect its setup
menu to this item. If the item is used, the device will create a default item to reach the setup
menu, but this will most likely not fit the design of your other menu items, so it is best to
always add a setup item yourself and configure it the way you want it to look.
Finally, add a page to the first of the two menu items. This page will be displayed when the
user selects the first menu item from the root menu. Open the context menu of the menu
item (right click on the item in the tree view) and select Add Page. In order to see this page
right after the device started, make this page the projects default page. Open the context
menu of the page in the tree view and select Set as Default. The page object is described in
detail in section 8.4.
2.3.6 Add Controls to the Page
The next step is to place some objects on the page to view and control the values of the two
network variables. These objects are called controls in this manual, since they allow the
user to control the data points and display their current value. A number of different control
styles are available to choose from. In this example, we want to display the current status of
the switch input using a text control for the state and a numeric control for the value. To
control the switch output, we use a bitmap control for the state and a bar control for the
value.
To create the required controls, either right-click on the page object in the tree view and
choose the control type you want from the context menu, or select the page in the tree view
and right click in the LCD preview area to reach the same context menu. Add one text
control, one bitmap control, one numeric and one bar control to your page.
Now place the controls on your page so that they do not overlap each other. Grab and drag
them with the mouse or enter position and size in the Screen Coordinates section of the
Common Properties page. To resize the controls with the mouse, move the pointer to the
lower right corner of the controls area in which the value is displayed, that is, disregard any
decorations around the value area, like the scale of a bar control. For most control types, the
value area fills the entire space of the control, except for the selection frame. For more
complex controls, like bars and trend logs, you can view the value area by changing the
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Container color on the Color property page. Then grab the control at the lower right corner
of the container area.
NOTE: The position and size you set on the Common Properties page also refers to the value area
of the control, not to the selection frame around it. This is done so that for example the
width and height of a bar does not change when you enable or disable tick marks or scale.
These are just seen as decoration which can be turned on and off while the area of the
value display remains stable.
Adjust the properties of each control as you like or leave them at the defaults, which should
be fine for this demo. Bitmaps will be added to the bitmap control in a later step.
2.3.7 Connect the Data-Points
At this point, connect data points to the controls. Especially for text and bitmap controls, it
helps to connect the data points early, since the configuration of the controls property will
depend on the data point connected (you will see why this is the case in a minute).
To add a data point to a control, select Add Data Point… from the controls context menu. A
dialog will appear which is used to manage and select data points. This dialog is explained
in detail in chapter 8.13, for now we just use it to select our data points, which should have
been created for us already. Select the folder Local NVs from the tree view at the left of the
dialog. There should be two items, one for the input NV and one for the output NV we
created earlier.
NOTE: In case you created the dynamic NVs after you started the plug-in, the data points will not
be there yet. In this case, close the data point dialog and push the button two positions right
from the connect button. The tool-tip of this button reads ‘Update Data Points’. It will rescan the currently available dynamic NVs on the device and create the required data points
for you. If you added NVs while the plug-in was open, hit the update button to get the
required data points added to your project automatically.
From the two items available in the data point list, select the input data point and expand its
items by a left click on the small plus sign left of the data point. The expanded view will
show two sub-elements, one for the state component of the NV and one for the value
component. A data point is selected by a double click or by selecting one or more points
and clicking the OK button.
Use the above procedure to add the state part of the input NV to the text control, the value
of the input NV to the numeric control, the state of the output NV to the bitmap control and
the value of the output NV to the bar control.
NOTE: When you add the state of the input NV to the text control, another object called a mapping
table will be created automatically and will be initialized to map the three known states of
the switch state to standard state texts. You may select this mapping table and change the
texts as well as assign different colors to the individual texts in the mapping table. Mapping
tables are discussed in detail in section 8.7, for now you can leave the table alone.
All the controls should now have one data point connected, with the text control and the
bitmap control having a data point and a mapping table. The bitmap control needs some
more work, since we need to assign graphics to the individual values of the connected data
point.
To do this, select the mapping table object which was automatically created and attached to
the bitmap control. On the Mapping property page, select one of the entries in the list, for
example the entry for the value -1, which maps to the text SW_NUL. Click on the button
Select… and select a suitable graphic to show for this state. A library of icons in PNG
format is installed together with the configuration software. You may also draw your own
graphics as well. For best results, save them in PNG format for icons including
transparency or JPG format for full-page background images.
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NOTE: Almost any bitmap format like BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG and so on may be used. Vector
graphics cannot be imported directly. Use the export function of your vector graphic
software to generate a bitmap file in a suitable resolution first. Working with graphics is
covered in section 14.11 of the manual.
Once you selected a bitmap file, the bitmap control will resize itself automatically to fit the
selected icon. Repeat the process for the remaining states until all states have a bitmap
assigned to them. Use different bitmaps, so that you can distinguish between the individual
states. The size of the control will always be the width of the widest icon and the height of
the tallest icon.
You can test the look of your bitmap control by selecting the individual states in the
mapping table and watch the LCD preview. The state which is selected when you write the
project to the device will become the default state of the control.
2.3.8 Write the Project to the L-VIS device
We are now ready to write the project to the L-VIS device, but first the project should be
saved in a file on the PC. Although it is possible to read the project back from the device, it
should not be considered a 100% safe place for the project to be, since the device may erase
the project in case it finds a severe error which would otherwise prevent it from booting up
again. If the erase jumper at the back of the device is set, or the Remove Configuration…
command is selected from the File menu, the project in the device may be lost as well, so it
is a good idea to have a backup copy ready on the PC. To save the project, select Save as…
from the File menu and enter a project name. To write the project to the L-VIS device,
press the button with the red down arrow in the toolbar or select Write Project to the
Device… from the Connections menu and confirm the dialog.
NOTE: If you created static NVs, a warning message will appear, stating that the static interface of
the device will change and that the software will need to adjust the definition of the device
in the database. If you commissioned the device in the database already, make sure to
download the project in plug-in mode, otherwise it will be necessary to replace the device
in the database (new program ID) and re-commission. See chapter 10 about standard
procedures for CEA-709 devices for detailed information about this topic.
Once the project file is written to the device, the L-VIS reboots and shows the tutorial
project on the display.
If the NVs were created statically in the project, they should now be available on the device
in the network management tool (a refresh of the display or database in the network
management tool may be required to make them appear). You can now bind the output NV
and the input NV together. In case of dynamic NVs, this was already done earlier.
2.3.9 Test the Project
You should now be able to use the device to set the state and the value of the output switch
NV and immediately see the results on the input NV, since the two were bound together.
To change the state, press the bitmap control. A dropdown list with the tree icons you
assigned to the tree states in the mapping table will appear. Now select the desired icon to
set the state.
NOTE: Whenever an element is selected from a dropdown list of icons or texts, the device will
search the mapping table to find the value associated with the selected element. This value
will then be assigned to the output data points which are connected to the control.
The new state will be sent out and will be received immediately by the input NV. The new
state should now be displayed on the text control, using the texts which you specified in the
mapping table.
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To change the value, select the bar control and move the bar up and down. The current
value will be sent out, received back in, and should be visible immediately on the numeric
control.
2.4 Quick Start Tutorial BACnet
This tutorial describes the steps to create a first demo project and load the project into a
BACnet model, like the LVIS-ME200. The tutorial assumes that the configuration software
is already installed on the PC.
2.4.1 Add the device to the network
The first step is to integrate the device into the network. Power on the device and wait until
the boot process has finished. Open up the menu and go to the TCP/IP setup page to set a
suitable IP address, network mask and gateway for the device or turn on DHCP to enable
automatic IP configuration, if available in your network. Switch to the BACnet setup page
and enter the desired device ID number. If the device is connected via MSTP, set the
correct baud rate and node number, if connected via BACnet/IP set the desired port number
(the default should be OK in most cases).
NOTE: The device can only operate either on MSTP or BACnet/IP. The currently selected interface
is shown at the bottom of the BACnet setup page for your reference. To select the desired
interface, either set the jumper at the back of the device as explained in section 5.1 (LVISME200) or activate the desired interface directly on the BACnet setup page.
Reboot the device for the changes to take effect.
2.4.2 Start the L-VIS Configuration Software
Run the installed L-VIS configuration software from the start menu of your desktop.
Connect to the device by pressing the Connect button from the tool bar, or select the menu
item Connect to the Device… from the Connection menu of the main window.
In the connection dialog, enter the IP address or DNS name of the device, the desired
connection mode (FTP/Telnet or secure connection via SSH if your device is not an LVISME200), adjust the port numbers if necessary and enter the admin password if the device
firmware is 4.0.0 or newer.
The configuration software contacts the device, finds out what model and firmware version
it is, selects the correct settings and disables the corresponding menus, so that you may not
change them. The main window will show an empty L-VIS project.
The main window is divided in tree major sections:
Tree View: On the left side of the main window is a tree view showing all objects you
created so far and how they relate to each other, for example a menu object may have menu
item objects attached to it, a menu item object may have page objects and sub-menu objects
attached, and a page object contains the elements to display and enter data (these elements
are called controls in this manual). You may navigate through this tree and select an object
from it or drag and drop objects to move them around in the hierarchy, for example grab a
control from one page and drop it on another page. An empty project contains only a root
menu and a folder object where global objects can be placed, which are not directly related
to the user interface, for example alarm generators.
Property View: On the top right of the main window is a property view, which shows a
number of property pages, where you can adjust the properties of the currently selected
object. The number and kind of property pages changes according to the selected object,
but some of the more basic property pages are available all the time. Feel free to browse
through the available pages and see what you can adjust there.
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LCD Preview: To the lower right of the main window is the preview of the project as seen
on the LCD when the project is downloaded. This is not a functional simulation of the LVIS device, but a layout guide and preview of individual menus and pages. The preview
changes according to the currently selected object. Since the configuration software comes
with a library of the layout code used in the various firmware versions of the device, the
preview is always accurate to the pixel. Should the layout or appearance of controls change
with firmware versions, the configuration software is able to track these changes and
display the page exactly as it will appear on the device you are currently connected to.
NOTE: You may select, move, and resize your controls directly inside the LCD preview. Also, there
are context menus available for each control, which you can open by a right click on the
control in the preview. The cursor keys can be used to move controls one pixel at a time
and to resize the control, when the shift key is held down.
2.4.3 Create Data Points
In order to have some data points which can be controlled and displayed, it is necessary to
either create some server objects on the L-VIS device or have other BACnet devices
accessible in the network. To keep the tutorial independent of other devices, we use the data
point manager window to create a few local server objects. This window is accessible either
from the tool bar (the icon left to the connect button), or from the main menu Edit ->
Datapoints…. Please skip forward to section 9.3.3 for a description of how to create local
server objects. Following this description, create one analog input object and one binary
input object. You should get one output data point for each of the input server objects.
Using these data points, the value of the server objects can be written.
To demonstrate how to display the value of remote server objects (usually located on other
devices in the network), we will use our own server objects and pretend they are located on
a different device. To do so, we first need to download the project to the device, so that the
server objects are actually created on the device. Press the button with the red down arrow
in the toolbar or select Write Project to the Device… from the Connections menu and
confirm the dialog. After the device rebooted, open the data point manager window again,
right-click on the folder named BACnet Network Scan and select the item Scan BACnet
Network…. Discover the devices on the network, select the L-VIS device, and scan it for
objects. Close the scan dialog and use the two server objects found by the scanner to create
corresponding client mappings. Please see section 9.3.4 for a detailed description.
At this point, there should be two data points in the folder called Server Objects and two
data points in the folder called Client Mappings. The client mapping points are input points
which basically refer to the current value of the server objects located on our own device,
but the same procedure can be used to refer to any other server objects on other devices.
2.4.4 Create Menu Structure and Pages
The next step is to design a simple test page for this tutorial and use the data points to set
and display values. The empty project shows the root menu with no entries (menu items).
You may change the name of the root menu as well as its colors and other properties, such
as the width of the menu or its scroll-bar, using the property pages to the right of the tree
view (make sure the root menu object is selected, which should be the case right after you
started the software). The menu object is described in detail in section 8.2.
First, add a menu item to the root menu. To do this, right click on the root menu object in
the tree view and select Add Item from the context menu. A new menu item is created and
connected to the menu object. The new menu item is automatically selected, so that you
may browse the property pages and see what you want to change. The name of the item
object can be changed in the Name box of the General property page. This changes the
name of the object in the object tree and has no effect on the appearance of the menu item
on the device. To change the text of the item itself, go to the Common Properties page
and change the contents of the Text box. The display in the preview window changes as you
type, so you can immediately see the results. You may want to change the font to the
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12x16-ROM-Fixed-R font, so you get a larger item which is easier to select on the touch
screen. The menu item object is described in detail in section 8.3.
Repeat the steps above to add another menu item and call it „Setup‟. Again, change the Text
of the item to read something like „Setup‟ and change the font to make the item a
comfortable size. This item will be used to enter the devices setup menu.
NOTE: The device will check the last item of the root menu and see if it has any pages or sub-
menus attached to it. If the item has no further objects attached (this is called a return item)
and is located at the last position in the root menu, then the device will connect its setup
menu to this item. If the item is used, the device will create a default item to reach the setup
menu, but this will most likely not fit the design of your other menu items, so it is best to
always add a setup item yourself and configure it the way you want it to look.
Finally, add a page to the first of the two menu items. This page will be displayed when the
user selects the first menu item from the root menu. Open the context menu of the menu
item (right click on the item in the tree view) and select Add Page. In order to see this page
right after the device started, make this page the projects default page. Open the context
menu of the page in the tree view and select Set as Default. The page object is described in
detail in section 8.4.
2.4.5 Add Controls to the Page
The next step is to place some objects on the page to view and control the values of the two
local server objects. The objects on the page are called controls in this manual, since they
allow the user to control the data points and display their current value. A number of
different control styles are available to choose from. In this example, we want to display the
current status of the binary object using a text control and the value of the analog object
using a numeric control. To control the binary objects value, we use a bitmap control and
for the analog objects value a bar control.
To create the required controls, either right-click on the page object in the tree view and
choose the control type you want from the context menu, or select the page in the tree view
and right click in the LCD preview area to reach the same context menu. Add one text
control, one bitmap control, one numeric and one bar control to your page.
Now place the controls on your page so that they do not overlap each other. Grab and drag
them with the mouse or enter position and size in the Screen Coordinates section of the
Common Properties page. To resize the controls with the mouse, move the pointer to the
lower right corner of the controls area in which the value is displayed, that is, disregard any
decorations around the value area, like the scale of a bar control. For most control types, the
value area fills the entire space of the control, except for the selection frame. For more
complex controls, like bars and trend logs, you can view the value area by changing the
Container color on the Color property page. Then grab the control at the lower right corner
of the container area.
NOTE: The position and size you set on the Common Properties page also refers to the value area
of the control, not to the selection frame around it. This is done so that for example the
width and height of a bar does not change when you enable or disable tick marks or scale.
These are just seen as decoration which can be turned on and off while the area of the
value display remains stable.
Adjust the properties of each control as you like or leave them at the defaults, which should
be fine for this demo. Bitmaps will be added to the bitmap control in a later step.
2.4.6 Connect the Data-Points
At this point, connect data points to the controls. Especially for text and bitmap controls, it
helps to connect the data points early, since the configuration of the controls property will
depend on the data point connected (you will see why this is the case in a minute).
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To add a data point to a control, select Add Data Point… from the controls context menu.
The dialog which was used before to create the required data points will appear for
selection of the desired data points. This dialog is explained in detail in chapter 8.13. For
now we just use it to select the data points which should be connected to the control. A data
point is selected by a double click or by selecting one or more points (multi-select is
possible using the shift key) and using the OK button.
Use the above procedure to add the binary client mapping to the text control, the analog
client mapping to the numeric control, the binary server object to the bitmap control and the
binary client mapping to the bar control.
NOTE: When you add the binary point to the text control, another object called a mapping table
will be created automatically and will be initialized to map the two known states of the
binary data point to the state texts listed in the objects properties. You may select this
mapping table and change the texts as well as assign different colors to the individual texts
in the mapping table. Mapping tables are discussed in detail in section 8.7, for now you can
leave the table alone.
All the controls should now have one data point connected, with the text control and the
bitmap control having a data point and a mapping table. The bitmap control needs some
more work, since we need to assign graphics to the individual values of the connected data
point.
To do this, select the mapping table object which was automatically created and attached to
the bitmap control. On the Mapping property page, select one of the entries in the list, for
example the entry for the value 0, which maps to the text OFF. Click on the button Select…
and select a suitable graphic to show for this state. A library of icons in PNG format is
installed together with the configuration software. You may also draw your own graphics as
well. For best results, save them in PNG format for icons including transparency or JPG
format for full-page background images.
NOTE: Almost any bitmap format like BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG and so on may be used. Vector
graphics cannot be imported directly. Use the export function of your vector graphic
software to generate a bitmap file in a suitable resolution first. Working with graphics is
covered in section 14.11 of the manual.
Once you selected a bitmap file, the bitmap control will resize itself automatically to fit the
selected icon. Repeat the process for the remaining states until all states have a bitmap
assigned to them. Use different bitmaps, so that you can distinguish between the individual
states. The size of the control will always be the width of the widest icon and the height of
the tallest icon.
You can test the look of your bitmap control by selecting the individual states in the
mapping table and watch the LCD preview. The state which is selected when you write the
project to the device will become the default state of the control.
2.4.7 Write the Project to the L-VIS device
We are now ready to write the project to the L-VIS device, but first the project should be
saved in a file on the PC. Although it is possible to read the project back from the device, it
should not be considered a 100% safe place for the project to be, since the device may erase
the project in case it finds a severe error which would otherwise prevent it from booting up
again. If the erase jumper at the back of the device is set, or the Remove Configuration…
command is selected from the File menu, the project in the device may be lost as well, so it
is a good idea to have a backup copy ready on the PC. To save the project, select Save as…
from the File menu and enter a project name. To write the project to the L-VIS device,
press the button with the red down arrow in the toolbar or select Write Project to the
Device… from the Connections menu and confirm the dialog.
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Once the project file is written to the device, the L-VIS reboots and shows the tutorial
project on the display.
2.4.8 Test the Project
You should now be able to use the device to set the state and the value of the two server
objects and immediately see the results on the client mapping input points, since they refer
to the local server objects.
To change the binary server object state, press the bitmap control. A dropdown list with the
two icons you assigned to the ON and OFF states in the mapping table will appear. Now
select the desired icon to set the state.
NOTE: Whenever an element is selected from a dropdown list of icons or texts, the device will
search the mapping table to find the value associated with the selected element. This value
will then be assigned to the output data points which are connected to the control.
The new state will be written to the server object and will be received immediately by the
client mapping input. The new state should now also be displayed on the text control, using
the texts which you specified in the mapping table.
To change the value of the analog server object, select the bar control and move the bar up
and down. The current value will be written to the object, received back in through the
client mapping, and should be visible immediately on the numeric control.
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3 Mechanical Installation
3.1 Dimensions and Mounting
For information about unit installation, please refer to the installation sheet that came with
your unit. This document is also available for download from the LOYTEC website.
3.2 Theft Protection
To protect devices of type LVIS-3E100 and LVIS-ME200, they can be fixed to the wall
mount frame with the supplied chain as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Connecting L-VIS to the wall mount frame.
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Characteristics
Value
Operating voltage
24 VDC or 24 VAC ± 10%
Power consumption
8 W (backlight on), 3W (backlight off)
In-rush current
Up to 1000 mA @ 24 VAC
Operating temperature (ambient)
10°C to +40°C
Storage temperature
-10°C to +50°C
Humidity (non-condensing) operating
10 to 90 % RH @ 50°C
Humidity (non-condensing) storage
10 to 90 % RH @ 50°C
Switch input
Floating contact
Ethernet connection
100Base-T
CEA-709
FT-10/LPT-10
BACnet/MSTP
RS485, 1 Unit Load
Enclosure
Stainless steel, anodized aluminum front panel E6C0
Electrical Appliance Protection Class
(IEC 61140)
Class I
IP Code (IEC 60529)
Front: IP54 / Back: IP10
LCD display
320x240 pixels, 256 colors
LED backlight
CTFL backlight, 10000 hours / auto off
Installation
Wall mount
4 Electrical Installation
4.1 Connection diagram
For information about unit installation, please refer to the installation sheet that came with
your unit. This document is also available for download from the LOYTEC website.
4.2 Electrical Characteristics LVIS-3E100/ME200
The electrical characteristics of the LVIS-3E100 and LVIS-ME200 devices are shown in
Table 1.
4.3 Electrical Characteristics LVIS-3E11x/ME21x
The electrical characteristics of the LVIS-3E11x and LVIS-ME21x devices are shown in
Table 2.
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Table 1: Electrical characteristics 3E100/ME200
L-VIS User Manual 29 LOYTEC
Characteristics
Value
Operating voltage
24 VDC ± 10%, or with 90-265 VAC
Power consumption
12 inch: 14W, 15 inch: 17W, idle: 3.5W
In-rush current
Up to 3.7A @ 24 VAC, max. 40ms
Operating temperature (ambient)
10°C to +40°C
Storage temperature
-10°C to +50°C
Humidity (non-condensing) operating
10 to 90 % RH @ 50°C
Humidity (non-condensing) storage
10 to 90 % RH @ 50°C
Switch input
Floating contact
Ethernet connection
2x 100Base-T, integrated Ethernet switch
CEA-709
FT-10/LPT-10
BACnet/MSTP
RS485, 1 Unit Load
Enclosure
Stainless steel, anodized aluminum front panel E6C0
Electrical Appliance Protection Class
(IEC 61140)
Class I
IP Code (IEC 60529)
Front: IP54 / Back: IP10
LCD display
12 inch: 800x600 pixel, 15 inch: 1024x768 pixel,
65k color TFT
LED backlight
50 000 hours / auto off
Installation
Wall mount
Table 2: Electrical characteristics 3E11x/ME21x
4.4 Touch Panel Cleaning Instructions
Clean and soft clothes with neutral detergent or with ethanol may be used for cleaning. Do
not use any chemical solvent, acidic or alkali solution.
4.5 Terminals and Jumpers
All connectors and configuration jumpers are accessible from the rear of the device. Check
the installation instructions that came with your unit. The following is a short summary of
the most important terminals:
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LVIS-3E100: Select IP-852
or FT-10 channel first.
LVIS-ME200: Select BIP or
MSTP mode first.
The unit can be operated on an IP-852 (IP-10) channel as well as on an
FT-10 or LPT-10 channel (BIP or MSTP for BACnet devices). The
jumper labeled FT/IP or BIP/MSTP distinguishes between the 2 modes
of operation. Please set Jumper in order to operate the device on an
IP-852 or BIP channel (IP mode) and remove the Jumper in order to
operate the device on an FT-10 / LPT-10 or MSTP channel.
Connect the Earth Ground
wire to the earth ground stud.
Power is connected to the 3 position terminal labeled POWER. Please
use only power supplies with the characteristics shown in Table 1.
Connect earth ground to the stud labeled with the earth ground
symbol. Loosen the top nut and attach the earth ground wire to this
location.
FT-10, LPT-10 connection
(LVIS-3E100/3E11x)
The FT-10 or LP-10 network is connected to the terminal labeled
FT/LPT. The signal wires are connected to terminals A and B, the
shield if available is connected to terminal EARTH. This EARTH
terminal is internally connected to the main earth terminal.
BACnet MSTP connection
(LVIS-ME200/ME21x)
When in MSTP mode, the RS485 bus is connected to the terminal
labeled MSTP.
External temp sensor
Up to four external temperature sensors can be connected to the
terminal labeled TEMP. Compatible temperature sensors are available
from LOYTEC under the part number L-TEMP1. The temperature
range of this electronic sensor specified as -55 to +125°C and the
accuracy is +/-0.5°Celsius within the range from -10 to +85°C. The
resolution of the sensor is 0.0625°C. The sensor device contains an
integrated circuit which is connected via a digital interface to the main
unit so that no further calibration is needed. Multiple sensor devices
are connected in parallel (bus topology).
The measured temperature is available in four internal system registers
(Sensor 1 Temp. to Sensor 4 Temp.) where the sensors are assigned to
the registers by increasing serial numbers of the sensor hardware.
The terminal cannot be used for direct connection of passive NTC or
PTC elements. DO NOT CONNECT ANY DEVICES OTHER THAN
L-TEMP1 SENSORS to this terminal.
External switch inputs
Two external switches (push button or open-close) can be connected
between terminals IN0 and GND as well as IN1 and GND on the
connector labeled SWITCH. The status of the switches is available on
the device in two system registers Switch Input 1 and Switch Input 2.
On the LVIS-3E100 device, IN0 is also used to control the integrated
Lamp Actuator object which is always present as part of the static
interface of the device.
TCP/IP connection
In case a CEA-709 unit is connected to an IP-852 channel or a BACnet
unit is connected via BACnet/IP, connect the Ethernet cable to the
connector labeled 100Base-T. The device also accepts 10Base-T
connections via this port. All 12 inch and 15 inch devices have two
Ethernet ports which are internally connected through a switch.
CLEAR jumper
(LVIS-3E100/ME200)
To remove the currently stored project from the device, set the jumper
labeled CLEAR, disconnect power and connect power again. Wait
until the unit has started and remove the jumper again.
Table 3: Terminals and Jumpers
4.6 LEDs and Buttons
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All LEDs and buttons are either located at the bottom side of the unit enclosure (LVIS3E100 and LVIS-ME200) or at the top side (12 inch and 15 inch models). Please see the
descriptions below for their functionality.
L-VIS User Manual 31 LOYTEC
Status button
Pressing the Status button sends out a service pin message on the IP852 or the FT-10/LPT-10 channel (CEA-709 models) or send out an
„I Am‟ message (BACnet models).
To reset the device to factory defaults, hold the service pin button
pressed while the unit boots and release the button within a few
seconds when all interface LEDs light up orange.
Reset button
Behind the small hole next to the status button is the reset button.
Use a pin to reach the reset button in order to hard-reset the device.
Doing this may cause trend log data or other persistent data to be
lost or reverted back to earlier data. To avoid data loss, reset the
device via the configuration software or the setup menu (command
page).
Power LED
The power LED lights up green as soon as power is connected.
Status LED
The status LED lights up red when the internal persistent storage
device is accessed. Also, on CEA-709 models operated on an FT10/LPT-10 channel, this LED indicates the node status. The LED is
off if the node is configured online and flashing red with a period of
1 Hz if the node is in the un-configured state.
ACT 709 LED
ACT BAC LED
This LED indicates incoming and outgoing data packets on the
currently active communications channel. Only packets which are
addressed to the device are shown.
LINK Ethernet LED
The LINK ETH. LED indicates a successful Ethernet link.
ACT Ethernet LED
The ACT ETH LED shows activity on the Ethernet network.
ONLINE LED
(LVIS-3E100)
The ONLINE LED lights-up green if the node is in the configured
online state (CEA-709 models before firmware 4.0.0 only). Starting
with firmware 4.0.0, this LED indicates an active connection to the
built-in OPC server.
CNIP LED
(LVIS-3E100)
This LED either shows the current status of the IP-852 interface (in
IP-852 mode) or the status or the remote network interface, RNI (in
FT-10 mode).
IP-852: The LED lights green if the device is properly configured
and member of an IP-852 channel. The LED lights orange when the
device is configured in a channel but is waiting for updated channel
information from the configuration server. In case of errors, the
LED lights red.
RNI: The LED is dark if RNI is not supported by this device (older
devices do not have enough node IDs to support RNI). The LED is
green if the remote network interface is ready for connections and
orange if the device is currently in use. In case of errors, the LED is
red.
MSTP LED
(LVIS-ME200)
This LED shows the status of the MSTP interface, if the device is
operating in BACnet/MSTP mode. The LED is green for normal
operation, orange if there is no token and red if there are
communication errors.
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Table 4: LEDs and Buttons
L-VIS User Manual 32 LOYTEC
5 Interface Configuration
5.1 Selecting the Interface
Both the CEA-709 units and the BACnet units have two network interfaces and two
different types of communication going on, which should be clearly distinguished:
Communications with the configuration software, to read and write configuration
data, upgrade the firmware, and retrieve diagnostic data from the device
(configuration).
Communication with other devices on the control network, to send out new data
the user entered through the device and to receive new data which is then
displayed (operation).
One of the two interfaces is the IP interface (Ethernet 10/100Base-T) which is always
available for configuration and may also be used for operation, although different protocols
will be used for the two tasks as shown in the table below.
The second interface is a specialized control network interface, like FT-10 for the CEA-709
devices and MSTP for the BACnet devices. Only the CEA-709 models are currently able to
use their control network interface for configuration as well. The BACnet models need the
IP interface for configuration.
The interface to use for normal operation is normally selected directly on the panel or
through the web interface starting with firmware version 4.0.0. For LVIS-3E100 and LVISME200 devices, there is also the option to set the IP jumper. The following table either lists
the required jumper setting (SET/NOT SET) or the interface mode to select on the panel.
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Model
Interface
Task
Protocol
IP Jumper
LVIS-3E100
10/100Base-T
Configuration
FTP
Any Pos.
Operation
CEA-852
SET
FT-10
Configuration
CEA-709
NOT SET
Operation
CEA-709
NOT SET
LVIS-ME200
10/100Base-T
Configuration
FTP
Any Pos.
Operation
BIP
SET
MSTP
Operation
MSTP
NOT SET
LVIS-3E11x
10/100Base-T
Configuration
FTP/SSH
Any
Operation
CEA-852
Mode IP852
FT-10
Configuration
CEA-709
Mode FT-10
Operation
CEA-709
Mode FT-10
LVIS-ME21x
10/100Base-T
Configuration
FTP/SSH
Any
Operation
BIP
Mode BACnet/IP
MSTP
Operation
MSTP
Mode MS/TP
Table 5: Available interfaces
5.2 Configuring the IP-852 interface
Before the L-VIS device can be used on an IP-852 channel, the following things have to be
configured in the setup menu of the device (see also section 6.3):
1. CEA-709 Settings: If not controlled by the IP jumper, select the IP852 interface
mode on the CEA-709 settings page. The currently active interface is listed at the
bottom of this page and the corresponding button is green, the button of the
currently inactive interface is red.
2. IP Settings: Configure the IP configuration of the L-VIS device. In the setup
menu of the device, configure the IP-Address, Net mask and Standard Gateway.
Reset the device when the IP configuration and interface mode selection is
finished.
3. CEA-852 configuration: After reboot, set the Escrow time, Aggregation time
and the MD5 key on the CEA-852/RNI page of the setup menu. The CNIP port
setting should normally be set to 1628 and the NAT mode should be set to
automatic.
4. Configuration Server: Add the L-VIS device to an IP-852 channel. To do this,
either enter the IP address of the desired configuration server on the CEA-852/RNI
setup page or add the IP address of the L-VIS device to the channel list in a
configuration server, e.g. on an L-IP. In order to add the device by entering the
configuration server address, the server must have the auto-member option
enabled. No additional reboot is required.
5. Check configuration server: To check if the L-VIS device was correctly added
to the channel, enter the CEA-852/RNI page in the setup menu. The configuration
server field should now display the IP address of the configuration server.
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6 Operating L-VIS
6.1 Touch Screen
6.1.1 Operation
This section describes how to operate the touch display of the L-VIS device. Most
operations should be fairly intuitive, so that users of the device do not need to read a
manual before they are able to operate the device.
L-VIS devices use a resistive touch screen. This type of screen can only detect one touch
position at a time, that is, you cannot press two buttons at once. The screen delivers raw
data which must be converted to LCD pixel positions before it can be used; therefore a
touch screen of this type needs calibration. All devices come pre-calibrated from the factory
and should be accurate enough to operate the device out of the box. To operate a device
using very small control elements or from an unusual viewing angle, it may be necessary
for the user to re-calibrate the screen, using the built-in calibration function which is
available in the setup menu (section commands). The procedure is explained in more detail
in the next section.
The touch pressure is currently not measured and has no effect on the operation.
The touch display is able to detect three different input actions::
Touch (one point at a time)
Touch and hold (long press)
Touch and move
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The simple and intuitive touch operation is used to select menus, select controls and enter
data on the input keypad. This is straight forward. A short touch on a control will also
trigger touch, release, short press, and selection actions connected to it.
The touch and hold operation opens the navigation menu after a configurable time (0 to 5
seconds) when done on a free sport on the display. If the area of a normal input control is
touched, the control enters input mode and all further input is processed by the control. If
the control has an action object which is set to trigger on a long press, the action will be
executed by a touch and hold on the control.
The touch and move operation can be used to adjust values on a bar graph control or move
the cursor in a trend control. If executed in a free space on the page, there are tree touch
gestures which the device can react to:
Touch and move up: This will immediately bring up the navigation menu, so
the user does not have to wait for the timeout, as is the case with the touch and
hold action.
Touch and move right: This switches to the next page connected to the
currently selected menu item. If there is only one page connected, this gesture
does nothing (it does not move forward to the next menu item).
Touch and move left: As above, but switches to the previous page connected to
the active menu item.
NOTE: Touch gestures may be disabled in the project configuration, in case the project uses a
button-only navigation through the pages.
6.1.2 Calibration
In case the touch screen has to be re-calibrated, select the command Calibrate Touch
Screen from the command dropdown list in the setup menu. This will show a black screen
with a white cross at the top-left corner of the display. Touch the middle of the cross using
a touch pen or other suitable device. Look at the display from the same viewing angle as the
user would during normal operation of the device. Once the touch is detected, the cross
moves to the next corner. The procedure repeats until all four corners were measured.
Following the measurements is a verification pass. A white filled circle appears at the same
locations as the cross. Again, touch inside the circle to let the device verify the data from
the measurement pass. If the data is OK, the screen lights up green, if verification fails, the
screen lights up red. The last position for verification is a circle in the middle of the screen,
which must be touched as well for the calibration process to complete.
If the verification pass was successful, the new calibration data is stored in non-volatile
memory so that it is retained across a power cycle or reboot.
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NOTE: If you are unsure about the viewing angle at which the device will be used, it is best to
calibrate for a direct front view, at a right angle to the display surface. This is the most
likely position and will also provide enough margin for error in all possible directions. For
normal control sizes, the small errors introduced by differing viewing angles are not
noticeable.
6.2 Data Input
As shown in the tutorial, L-VIS uses configurable control elements to display and input
data. Whether a control is selectable for data input depends on the data points connected to
it as well as on the current access level of the user:
Data Points: If at least one output data point is connected to a control, the
control becomes an input control, meaning the user may select the control and
input new data, which is then assigned to all connected output data points, unless
they are marked as Constant Value. If only input data points are connected, the
control is not selectable and will only display the most recent value received from
any of the connected input data points. Some controls, like trend log controls,
may not be used to input new data but may still be selectable, to navigate through
the recorded data.
Access Level: If a control is an input control, it will only enter input mode if the
current access level of the user is equal to or greater than the level defined for the
control on the Common Properties page (option „Access Level for Data Input‟).
To change the access level, a suitable PIN code must be written to the system
register called Pin Code Enter (for normal login) or the new access level can be
set directly by writing the register Access Level.
NOTE: It is valid to connect input and output data points to the same control at the same time. This
is often done when the control should display the current state of a network value (for
example the current light level) and also allow the user to modify this value, using the
current value as the starting point. The control will ignore any values coming in from the
input data points while the user inputs data, so that incoming data does not interfere with
the users actions, but resume displaying the incoming values when input mode is left.
If a control is selected, it enters a special input mode, in which all further touch actions are
routed to and processed by the control. Depending on the control type, different data input
methods are available:
Numeric Keypad: For number controls and bar graph controls, a numeric
keypad can be displayed when the input control is selected. New values can then
be entered on this keypad, just like on a phone or a calculator.
Keyboard: For text controls without a mapping table, a free text can be entered
on a simple keyboard which provides the most important ASCII characters for
basic strings (numbers, letters, and some punctuation). The entered string can be
assigned directly to a connected string data point.
Touch and move: For bar graph controls, the bar may be directly moved to the
desired position by touching the bar and moving it to the desired height. While
doing this, the control can be instructed to send periodic updates to the connected
output data points, so the user gets immediate feedback (useful for light control).
Drop down selection: For text controls and bitmap controls, a drop down list is
displayed when the input control is selected. The user can select the desired item
from the list.
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Push button mode: For text controls and bitmap controls, a push button mode
can be activated. This mode assigns a new value to a control whenever the
control is selected. The next value is determined by selecting the next or previous
entry in the mapping table, so the user may cycle through the available values.
Alarm Acknowledge: The alarm list control may draw a push button next to an
alarm entry if the alarm is to be acknowledged. Pressing the button will send the
acknowledgement to the alarm server and change the color of the button. Once
the server received the acknowledgment, the button or the entire alarm entry may
disappear from the list.
Schedule Configuration: Due to the complex nature of schedule configuration
data, the schedule control implements a specialized input method which is
explained in detail in section 6.2.1.
Actions: There is an indirect way of assigning values to output data points using
the Update Data Points action. This is sometimes useful, for example to store a
current value in a register data point when the user selects or touches a control.
These actions are explained in more detail later on.
The control decides when to leave input mode. This is also called loosing the Input Focus,
since the control returns input processing back to the page which is currently shown. Upon
input focus loss, the control usually sends out the final value and stores it in non-volatile
memory, so that it is retained across a power outage or reboot.
Controls usually return the focus when you touch an area outside of the control or when
you leave the device idle for a specified amount of time. Some controls (like the keypad)
have OK and Esc buttons for you to press, to either close and accept the new value or close
and restore the previous value.
Leaving a control idle while in input mode will usually be interpreted by the control as a
cancel action. The control will then leave input mode, return the focus to the page and
restore the value it had when input mode was entered. The idle timeout can be set in the
Project Settings dialog, together with a number of other timeout values.
6.2.1 Simple Schedule Control
This section describes how to operate a schedule control which is set to simple view
(extended UI mode not enabled). A schedule control displays the configuration of one or
more local or remote scheduler units and their respective calendars. In the simple UI mode,
the control consists of three basic areas:
Header: The header displays the name and the effective period of the selected
scheduler. If there is more than one scheduler configuration available (more than
one scheduler data point is connected to the control), a small triangle is drawn
next to the schedule name and touching the name opens a dropdown list of all
available schedules.
Day List: The left side of the control contains a list of days for which schedules
are available. There is one entry for each day of the week, followed by the list of
all exception days defined by the corresponding calendar.
Time Table: The right side of the control shows the time table for the selected
day. The time table starts with its own header line, which shows the selected day
and also acts as a dropdown list of commands available for this day.
The various operations which can be performed on a schedule control in this mode are
explained in more detail in the following sections. Many of the operations may be restricted
to a certain access level by the project designer, so it may be required to enter a PIN code
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before all of the operations are available. For more information on access control setup for
schedule controls refer to section 8.5.9.
NOTE: The update mode used by schedule controls is fixed to Focus Loss, meaning that the new
schedule configuration will be written to the scheduler only at the time the control leaves
edit mode. This avoids intermediate updates while the user is still modifying the schedule,
which could result in temporarily inconsistent configurations.
6.2.1.1 Select a Schedule
If more than one schedule data point is connected to the control, a small triangle is drawn to
the left of the schedule name and touching the schedule name will open a dropdown list of
all available schedules for selection. This action is not restricted by access level settings, so
the dropdown box is always available to select one of the connected schedules.
6.2.1.2 Select a Day
Touching one of the day names in the left column will show the corresponding time table
for that day in the right column. If the day is inactive, its name will be drawn in the same
color as the background of the header lines instead of the normal text color. Selecting a day
for display is not restricted by access level settings.
6.2.1.3 Set Exception Day Priority
If the day is an exception day, a number is displayed next to the day name. This number
defines the priority of the exception schedule relative to other exception schedules which
may become active on the same day. To set the priority, touch the number and enter the
desired value on the keypad. This operation may be restricted by access level, in which case
the control will not react to a touch of the priority field.
6.2.1.4 Change Time of Events
To change the time at which a certain value is scheduled, touch the hour or minute number
in the time table and enter the desired value. The hour is entered in 24 hour format (0-23) or
can be used to enter hour and minute in one operation (HHMM). For example touching the
hour and entering 1254 will set the time to 12:54.
NOTE: Entries in the time table are always displayed in chronological order. If this order changes
as a result of modifying the time of an entry, the entry will immediately move to its new
position in the time table to maintain the correct order of events.
This operation may be restricted by access level, in which case the control will not react to
a touch of the hour or minute fields.
6.2.1.5 Select Value Preset
To select a different value for an entry in the time table, touch the value name to open a
dropdown box. This box contains a list of available values, followed by some commands
which will be explained later. Select the desired value from the list. This operation may be
restricted by access level, in which case the control will not react to a touch of the value
name.
6.2.1.6 Set Effective Period
If shown in the header line, the effective period of the schedule may be changed by
touching the individual elements of the start and end date and setting new values for day,
month and year using the keypad. To clear the start or end date (no restriction), select any
of the fields (day, month, or year), press the Clr button in the keypad to delete the value and
press OK to close the keypad. This operation may be restricted by access level, in which
case the control will not react to a touch of the effective period.
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6.2.1.7 Edit Values of a Preset
To change the physical values assigned to a value preset, touch the preset name to open the
dropdown box. From the box, select the command edit to open a small window showing the
current values of the preset. If the value preset consists of multiple individual values, each
value is shown on a separate line with the value name to the left and the current value to the
right. Touch the value to open the keypad and enter a new value. When done, close the
window by touching the close symbol in the top right corner of the window.
NOTE: Changing the values of a value preset will automatically affect all entries in all time tables
which reference this value set. If for example the fan speed assigned to the value preset
NORMAL is changed from 60% to 75%, all time table entries which set the output to
NORMAL will use the new speed setting.
This operation may be restricted by access level, in which case the edit command in the
dropdown box is not selectable.
6.2.1.8 Define new Presets
If the scheduler controls only a single value, it is possible to create new value templates
though the schedule control. Touch the preset name on the time table entry for which you
want a new preset and select the command value from the dropdown box. Enter the desired
value for the new preset using the keypad. A new preset will be created for the given value
and assigned to the entry on which the operation was executed.
NOTE: Do not confuse this operation with the operation of changing the values assigned to an
existing value preset. This operation will actually create a new, independent value preset
and assign it to the selected time table entry, not affecting any other entries. Only if a preset
for the requested value already exists, the existing preset is used.
This operation may be restricted by access level, in which case the value command in the
dropdown box is not selectable.
6.2.1.9 Add and Remove Entries
To add a new entry to a time table, select the insert command on the last line (after the last
entry in the list). A new entry will appear with the default time 23:00 and the first available
value preset. Now edit the new entry as described earlier (change the time and the value
preset). This operation may be restricted by access level, in which case the control does not
react to a touch of the insert line.
NOTE: The scheduler unit may report a restricted capacity for entries in the time table. If this limit
is reached, the control will not allow any further insert operations.
To remove an entry from the time table, touch the value preset name of the entry which is
to be removed and select the remove command from the dropdown box. If this operation is
restricted, the remove command will not be selectable.
6.2.1.10 Activate/Deactivate Days
To activate or deactivate individual days, select the desired day from the left column and
touch the headline of the time table to open a dropdown menu. From this menu, select
activate or deactivate (only one of the two commands will be shown). If this operation is
restricted, the time table menu will not open.
6.2.1.11 Clear or Copy Time Tables
To clear all entries in a time table or copy them to a different day, select the day to clear or
to copy from in the left column and touch the headline of the time table to open a dropdown
menu. From this menu, use the clear or the various copy commands to perform the desired
operations. If this operation is restricted, the time table menu will not open.
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6.2.1.12 Edit Exception Days
To change the days on which a certain exception schedule is active, select the exception
day in the left column and touch the headline of the time table to open a dropdown menu.
From this menu, select the edit command to open a new window in which the definition of
the active days may be modified. The window has two columns to show the type of entry
and the data. The following entry types are possible.
Single Date: This type of entry defines a single date pattern consisting of a day,
month and year specification. Each of them may be specified or left unset
(wildcard), so that this type of entry is suitable to define anything from a single
day of a specific year (all parts given) up to every day of every month in every
year (all parts set to wildcard).
Date Range: This type of entry defines a number of successive days given a start
date and an end date. Depending on the use of wildcards for the year or the
month, the range may apply only once, once a year or every month.
Week and Day: This type of entry defines a specific day in a specific week of a
specific month, for example every second Friday in April. Again, using wildcards
for the individual components allows specifying more than one specific day of
the year (for example the first Monday of every month or any Monday in April).
To insert a new entry, either touch the insert line in the left column (append at the end of
the list) or touch the entry at the position where the new entry should be inserted (the
selected entry and all following entries will be moved down).
NOTE: Insert may not be possible if the calendar object reports that the limit of entries is reached
or if the calendar does not allow insertion of new entries at all (for example embedded
BACnet calendar objects may be fixed to exactly one entry).
The new entry will be a single date entry. If the type should be changed, touch the type and
select the desired type from the dropdown menu. To remove the entry, select the remove
command from the same menu.
To edit the data of the entry, touch the individual components of the dates to open up a
dropdown list with various choices. One of the choices will always be value to open a
keypad and enter a value. Other choices may be available depending on the selected
element. For most entries, the choice any will be available to set this component to the
wildcard. For months, the choices odd and even may be available to specify all odd or all
even months. For days, the option last may be available to specify the last day of the
month.
To save the changes done to the exception day patterns, close the window using the close
button in the top right corner of the window. This will update the calendar object with the
new data. Note that this will also affect all other schedules running on the same calendar.
6.2.2 Extended Schedule Control
This section describes how to operate a schedule control which is set to extended UI mode,
which is available on devices running firmware 4.2.0 or newer. In this mode, the control
displays a calendar and event based preview of the schedule instead of a list of daily
schedules. There are a number of different pages between which the user can navigate:
Weekly Overview: This is the default page, which is displayed after a system
start. It shows an overview of the effective schedule for one week, organized in
seven columns, one for each day of the week.
Time Table: This page shows the effective time table for a selected day. Starting
at midnight, it lists the presets which will be scheduled. Each line consists of the
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following information: The time at which the preset becomes active, the time
until this preset stays active, and the name of the scheduled preset.
Event List: This page shows a list of all events applicable to a selected day. Note
that this list does not exactly represent the presets that will be in effect on that
day. Events may overlap and it depends on the event priority which preset will
actually be scheduled.
Global Event List: This page shows a listing of all events currently stored in the
scheduler unit. It is similar to the event list, but it is not filtered by a certain date.
Each of the pages consists of a header line with navigation buttons and a heading,
followed by the contents of the page. How these individual pages are used, is explained in
the next sections.
6.2.2.1 Weekly Overview
This page displays one week worth of schedule preview on one page. The following areas
of the page can be selected by the user to execute certain actions:
Single and double arrow buttons: These buttons are used to navigate to the
preview of a different week. The single arrow buttons switch to the next or
previous week, whereas the double arrow buttons move by four weeks.
The schedule control can be configured to switch back to this page and show the preview of
the current week, whenever the device enters idle mode (the display is dimmed after the
user did not use the device for a while).
6.2.2.2 Time Table
This page displays a list of scheduled preset values for the selected day. The page header
contains buttons to navigate back and forth by one day (single arrow) or one week (double
arrow). The pen button opens the event list for the selected day, the button with the arrow
pointing to the top left goes back to the weekly overview.
Plus Button: This button is used to add a new event to the scheduler unit. A new
dialog window appears which allows the user to define the desired event. This
dialog is explained later on.
Pen Button: This button opens the global event list.
Page Title: Touching the page title will switch the preview to the current week.
Day Columns: Touching one of the seven day columns switches to a detailed
view of that day. Depending on the configuration of the scheduler control, this
can be either the time table, or the event list.
Day Column Headings: Touching the heading of a certain day column switches
to a detailed view of that day. Depending on the configuration of the control, this
will be the event list or the time table. In any case, it will be the opposite from the
page that is shown by a touch of the day column.
The information shown on this page represents the sequence of preset values which will be
scheduled on that day as a result of individual events that are applicable. Each line contains
a start time, an end time, and the name of the value preset which will be in effect during this
period of the day. The list covers the entire day, starting at midnight.
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6.2.2.3 Event List
This page displays a list of all events which are applicable to the selected day. Note that an
event which is generally applicable to a certain day may not yield to a new value being
scheduled, since the event may partially or fully overlap with other, higher priority events.
Partially overlapped events may cause the start and/or end times of the actual time table to
be different from the start and end times of the individual events.
The event list is normally used to modify, add, or delete events. The following areas of the
page can be selected to execute various operations:
Single and double arrow buttons: These buttons can be used to navigate back
and forth by one day (single arrow) or one week (double arrow) without leaving
the event list page.
Plus Button: This button is used to add a new event. The event editor will be
opened and the new event can be entered. Note that the currently selected day has
no influence on the new event, since all data for the new event can be modified in
the event editor window.
Back Button: The button with the arrow pointing to the top left is used to go
back to the previous page. This can be the time table or the weekly overview,
depending on how the event list was reached.
Lines in the event list: Each line of the event list may be selected anywhere on
the line (not just the edit buttons), to open the event editor for the selected event.
This way, existing events can be modified or deleted.
Each entry in the event list can show the following information:
Start and End Time: The start and end time of the event.
Preset Name: The name of the value preset which should be scheduled.
Priority: Optionally, the priority of the event (depending on available space and
the setup of the scheduler control).
Date Specification: The dates on which this event will be active, as well as a
name for this event, if available (not supported by BACnet at the moment).
Events are sorted by their start time. In case of overlapping events, the actual sequence of
scheduled values may be different from the sequence in which the events are displayed.
NOTE: In case of overlapping events scheduled at the same priority but with different values, it
cannot be guaranteed which of the two conflicting values will be scheduled.
6.2.2.4 Global Event List
This page is almost the same as the normal event list. The only difference is that this page
shows all events which are currently stored in the scheduler unit. Since this list is not
related to a specific date, there are no navigation buttons. Only the buttons to add a new
event and to navigate back to the previous page are available. The page can be reached
directly from the weekly overview by pressing the edit button.
6.2.2.5 Event Editor
To modify existing events and add new events, a separate editor window is opened in front
of the scheduler. The following settings can be adjusted in this editor:
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Name: A custom name for this event. If supported by the underlying scheduler
unit, a name can be entered here. Note that even if this field is available, a length
limit for the name may apply.
Value: The value which should be scheduled when this event is active.
Depending on the type of data points controlled by the scheduler unit, this field
may be a dropdown list of all the available value presets or a field to enter an
arbitrary number via the keypad. If supported by the scheduler, an additional edit
button will be displayed to the right of the value field, to open the value template
editor for modifying or adding/removing value templates.
Priority: The priority of this event. Depending on the configuration of the
schedule control, this can be a numeric priority value as used by the native
implementation of schedules in this system, for example 0 to 15 for BACnet or 0
to 127 in case of CEA709 networks, or a dropdown list of discrete priority levels
(low/normal/high).
Start: The time of day at which the given value should become active.
End: The time of day at which the value should be taken back. The value of the
next lower event applicable at this time will apply next. If no other event applies,
it depends on the underlying network technology what the next output value will
be. To guarantee a well defined behavior independent of network technology, a
default event should be defined, which applies to all days and schedules a desired
default value at the lowest priority (see note below).
Duration: The time duration for which this event will be active. This is
calculated from the start and end times. If the duration is set via this field, the end
time of the event will be adjusted to match the desired total duration. If this
would move the end time past midnight, the desired duration is archived by
additionally shifting the start time forward.
Event Type: The type of event defines how often it will be repeated. There are a
number of different event types to choose from, for example one-time events,
events that are active daily within a defined start and end date, events that are
scheduled on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis, events which are scheduled
whenever a certain global calendar event applies, or events which are defined by
special date patterns.
Event Details: Depending on the event type selected, different input fields are
shown here to enter the specific information required to define when exactly the
event should apply.
In the bottom area of the event details are some push buttons to cancel the editor without
making any changes, to close and save the changes or add the new event, as well as to
delete the event currently open in the editor.
NOTE: If applicable, a default button will be shown. This button can be used to easily set the
correct definitions for a default background event, which is scheduled at the lowest priority
on every day. It is normally used to control the outputs of the scheduler whenever no other
event applies. There can only be one default event per schedule. If present, the default event
will always be listed as the first event in the event list and it will be marked as default.
6.2.2.6 Value Template Editor
If the scheduler unit uses value templates and allows the user to change them, the event
editor will display an edit button next to the value template field. Pressing this button will
open the value template editor, where a list of all value templates is shown. Currently
unused templates show a small X button via which the template may be deleted. At the end
of the list, a new value template may be added. Touching the name of the template allows
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the user to enter a new name via the keyboard. To close the template editor, press the close
button in the top right corner of the window.
6.2.2.7 Calendar Pattern Editor
If an event references a global calendar pattern and the calendar allows the user to edit the
pattern definition, an edit button will be shown next to the dropdown list from which a
calendar pattern is selected. Pressing this button will open the calendar pattern editor. This
is the same editor which is also used by the simple view of the scheduler control.
If the calendar allows adding of new calendar patterns, an additional + button will be
displayed. Pressing this button will add a new calendar pattern, which can then be edited
via the edit button.
To change the name of a calendar pattern, select the headline of the editor window, where
the current name of the calendar pattern is displayed.
6.2.2.8 Technical Notes
When using the extended schedule control, data input is no longer based on different daily
schedules and calendar patterns. Instead, the user defines individual events, which are
independent of each other. Since each of these events may have its own name and priority
and may overlap with other events, it must be implemented in the underlying scheduler unit
by using so called exception schedules.
Each event will be stored as an independent exception schedule, whereas the fixed weekly
schedules (one for each day of the week) are not used. However, if data is found in the
weekly schedules of a device, it will be visible in the schedule control and displayed as
weekly events at priority 255. Such events, when edited, will be converted to individual
exception schedules.
Note that some devices may lack support for exception schedules or the number of possible
exception schedules may be limited. In such cases, either the simple UI mode must be used,
or the user needs to remove older events which are no longer needed, to free some capacity
of the device for adding new events.
NOTE: To make sure that the capacity for events in local CEA709 schedules is high enough, set the
maximum number of daily schedules in the network settings dialog to a high value when
using the extended UI mode. This number defines the maximum number of events which can
be stored in the CEA709 LonMark scheduler unit, since each event will consume one entry
in the table of daily schedules.
Also note that a default event is implemented as an exception schedule as well, and that it
will apply for all days. Since the weekly schedules have a fixed priority which is lower than
the lowest priority of an exception schedule, such a default event will immediately mask
out all data which might still be present in weekly schedules. If this is the case, the user will
see the available weekly schedule data at priority 255, but since they will not apply, there
will be no value names shown for these events until the user converts them to events using
exception schedules.
6.3 Setup Menu
All devices come with a built-in setup menu, which is used to set device specific
parameters, such as the devices IP address, control network settings, or date and time zone.
These settings are related to the installation of the device and are usually configured at
installation time.
Once the device is installed and a project is downloaded to the device, the built-in setup
menu may be hidden, so that it is no longer accessible to the users of the device.
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Command
Description
Send Service Pin Message
CEA-709 models only. Send out a service pin
message.
Send I-Am Message
BACnet models only. Send out an I-Am message.
Un-configure Node
CEA-709 models only. Set the device back to unconfigured state (forget network address).
Clear System Log
Clear the system log of all entries.
Dump IP Statistics
Dump the current IP statistics to the system log, useful
to debug IP connectivity problems.
Lock Pages (Logout)
Consider all protected pages to be locked again, after
the PIN code was entered and the pages were unlocked
before. This basically sets the current access level back
to zero.
Calibrate Touch Screen
Start the touch calibration routine.
Send Test E-Mail
Sends a short mail message to the recipient specified
as the test receiver in the project settings.
Clear Data and Reset
Clear all persistent data (user data points forget their
stored value).
Reset Device
Perform a clean shutdown and reboot. All persistent
data will be saved before the device restarts.
Alternatively, access to the setup pages may be protected by a PIN code. Both options are
available in the Project Settings dialog, which can be accessed from the File menu in the
configuration software.
The standard setup menu always contains the following pages:
TCP/IP: On this page, the IP address, network mask, gateway, and optionally
NTP server addresses for time synchronization can be configured. Alternatively,
the device can be instructed to get the required settings from a DHCP server in
the network (automatic IP configuration). Changes on this page will not be
effective until the device is restarted.
Date/Time: This page is used to set date and time, as well as the current time
zone. Always adjust the time zone first and then set date and time to the local
time. There are various ways to synchronize the time with external time sources.
The current time source is defined by the loaded project and is displayed at the
bottom of the page. If an external time source is used, only the time zone needs to
be adjusted here.
Commands: This page contains a dropdown list of the commands which can be
executed. Some commands are available on all devices, while others are specific
to a device family. The following commands are defined:
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Storage: This page is available on devices which support external data storage
like USB and SD card memory. The buttons on this page can be used to save and
restore device backups, L-Vis project files, and to write current trend log data to
the external memory.
Info: This page contains some basic status information of the device, to check
CPU load and temperature, available memory, and also the status of externally
connected switches and temperature sensors (verify device installation).
About: Show the about page (default title page).
Exit: Exit the setup menu and return to the main menu.
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The CEA-709 models provide the following additional pages:
CEA-709: On this page, the device can be given a CEA-709 address
(domain/subnet/node) and can be set online. This is useful to connect to the
device in standalone mode, before the device is actually commissioned in a
network, for example because the project needs to be downloaded first to define
the static interface of the device and there is no TCP/IP connectivity available.
CEA-852/RNI: On this page, the IP-852 parameters or RNI parameters
(depending on the mode of operation) can be specified. Supported parameters are
the escrow and aggregation timeout, the IP-852 port number, the MD5 key, and
the NAT support mode. Please refer to the documentation of your configuration
server for more information about these parameters. The defaults should
normally be OK, unless your channel uses MD5 encryption, in which case you
need to enter the MD5 key and activate it by selecting Enable with new key ->
from the dropdown list after the key was entered. Starting with firmware 4.0.2, it
is also possible to enter the address of the configuration server on this page.
NOTE: The key is displayed as 8 groups of 4-digit hex values, which is a common representation of
MD5 key values. The order to read the key is from left to right and top to bottom.
To add the device to an IP852 channel, you can either enter the address of the desired
configuration server on the device or add the devices IP address to the channel on your
configuration server, which will then contact the device and set the channel-wide
parameters such as the time server addresses automatically. If the configuration server
address is entered on the device, the server should have the auto-member option turned on,
so that the device may add itself to the channel automatically. In any case, the result is
displayed at the bottom of the CEA-852 setup page, where the IP address of the current
configuration server is displayed.
NOTE: For security reasons, enabling MD5 with a new key will store and activate the key and then
reset the input fields to all 0000, so that the current key can not be seen on the display.
Once the key is stored that way, it may be enabled and disabled using the dropdown list,
even though the input fields always show 0000. Consider these fields to be used for input of
a new key only.
The BACnet models provide the following additional page:
BACnet: On this page, the BACnet device ID, MSTP node address and baud rate
(for MSTP mode only) and the BACnet/IP port number (for BACnet/IP mode
only) can be set. The currently active interface is shown on the bottom of the
page.
6.3.1 Custom Setup Menu
Starting with version 2.0 of the device firmware, the project may use standard controls on
standard project pages to set all system parameters, like IP address, date, time zone and so
on. To do this, create a suitable control and connect the system parameter which it should
modify. This way, a project may provide a completely customized setup menu, matching
the design of the other pages in the project, for example a localized Japanese setup menu
may be provided, or a subset of the complete setup menu, such as specific commands from
the command page, or the setup of date and time only.
NOTE: The example projects that are installed together with the configuration software include
projects for the standard setup menu of the CEA-709 and BACnet models. These projects
should provide a good starting point for a customized setup menu.
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7 Configuration Software
7.1 Main Window
The main window of the configuration software is shown in Figure 2. It is divided up into 3
main areas, as explained in section 2.3.3 of the tutorial.
Figure 2: Main window of the L-VIS configuration software
7.2 Context Menus
Context menus are an important part of the workflow, since most operations related to the
objects of the L-VIS project are accessible from the context menu of the object in question.
The context menu is usually opened using a right mouse button click on the desired object
in the tree view, but for objects visible in the LCD preview, the same context menu may
also be opened by a right mouse button click on the preview of the desired object.
Commands accessible via the context menus are detailed in the following sections.
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7.2.1 Add Objects
Most context menus contain a number of Add… commands to add new objects to the
selected object. Only those objects which may be added to the selected object are listed in
the context menu.
7.2.2 Enable/Disable Access Control
These commands are available in the context menu of menu objects and menu item objects.
The command Enable Access Control will go through all pages below the selected menu or
menu item and turn on the Locked Page flag for all pages which have a non-public access
level set. The command Disable Access Control executes the inverse operation, turning off
the Locked Page flag on all pages below the selected object. This function is useful for
testing purposes.
7.2.3 Cut / Copy / Paste
Every context menu contains commands to cut, copy, and paste the selected object. Aside
from using the context menu, objects in the tree view can also be copied using the Edit
menu from the main window or the keyboard shortcuts. The commands Cut and Copy will
place a copy of the selected object with all its child objects into the Windows clipboard.
The copy is therefore not only available for paste into the same project but may also be
pasted into another project.
7.2.3.1 Data References
If the copied object tree contains references to data objects, these references (data point
objects) are copied without modification. For example, the copy of an entire page will
reference the same data as the original page. If the new copy should reference other data
objects, use the command Manage Data Points from the context menu of the copied object
and reassign the data point objects to other data sources, as explained in section 7.2.5, or
consider using templates.
If the copy is pasted into a different project, the referenced data sources may not be
available at all. In this case, the required data sources are automatically created in the
destination project, so that the references may be resolved. For example, it is possible to
copy a page which operates on register data only into a completely different project and the
page will function the same way it did in the original project. Registers which exist (for
example system registers) will be used directly, while others will be created as necessary.
NOTE: Not all types of data sources can be created automatically. This is especially true for
complex data sources, such as alarm servers or local scheduler data points. These
references must be resolved manually after the copy was inserted.
7.2.3.2 Fonts
If the copied object uses custom fonts and the object is pasted into another project, these
fonts may or may not be available, depending on the setup of the destination project. The
software will search all loaded fonts in the destination project to find the required fonts
(based on the font size, type and family as displayed in the font dropdown list). If a suitable
font is found, it will be used automatically. If the required font is not loaded, the software
will try to load and use the font from the copied object. If this fails, for example because the
additional font would exceed the capacity of loadable fonts, an alternative font from the
destination project must be assigned by the user.
7.2.3.3 Images and Sounds
If the copied object uses images or sounds and the object is pasted into another project, the
referenced items will be copied to the destination project automatically, if they are not
available yet. This will ensure that the copied object stays fully functional.
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7.2.3.4 Template References
If the copied object contains instances of templates and the object is pasted into another
project, the configuration software will try to identify a suitable template in the destination
project based on the number, type, and order of objects in the template. Template instances,
for which there is no suitable template available, will cause the original template from the
source project to be copied over to the destination project automatically.
NOTE: It is possible to change details of the template like for example the position or other
properties of the contained objects, without causing problems for the software to recognize
the template as suitable for use. If a template is automatically created by a paste operation
and the template is then changed slightly before another paste operation requesting the
same template is executed, the template will not be created again. However, if significant
changes were done to the template in the meantime, the second paste operation will no
longer recognize the edited template as suitable (compared to the template from the source
project) and will therefore create a fresh copy of the template from the source.
7.2.4 XML Export / Import
Using the Export to XML command, objects in the tree view may be exported to an XML
file. The exported object will include all child objects, but there will be no information
about loaded user fonts or data objects included in the XML output, so that importing the
XML file into a different project may lead to unresolved references to fonts or data objects
if the project configuration of the destination project differs from the source project.
The Import from XML command is similar in function to a paste command. The difference
is that it reads the object to paste from a given XML file instead of the windows clipboard.
NOTE: The XML export and import functions are intended to be used for custom tools which may
be able to build a complete project (in XML format) out of basic building blocks, which
were prepared and exported to XML fragments. Based on information in a network
database, a custom tool may read the individual XML building blocks which for example
describe individual pages of the project and put them together into a complete project,
which may be loaded into the configuration software and downloaded to the device. Note
that it is also possible to save an entire project in XML format or export global parts of the
configuration, like the font set, the project settings, or the data point configuration. See
section 14.11 for details about this function.
7.2.5 Manage Data Points
This command is available in the context menu of menus, items, pages and folders. It will
open a new dialog, listing all data point objects below the selected object, which data object
they reference and which type and direction they have. This dialog is useful to organize
data references, do batch renaming of data sources or reassignment of data points to
different data sources, as is often required after copying parts of a project, for example to
add a page for a new room based on the page of an existing room, but referencing the data
objects of the new room.
Depending on the selected objects in the data point list (multi-select is possible), some of
the operations available using the buttons at the bottom of the window may be disabled.
7.2.5.1 Naming Rules
Many of the batch operations open a dialog to set the naming rules for the batch operation.
The dialog provides three different levels of naming rule specification, from very simple to
very complex and powerful. The three options are:
No Custom Naming Rule: This is the most basic setting. It does not apply any
special rules on the source name or the target name. All selected sources will be
processed and the target name will be chosen to be as close to the source name as
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possible. For example the duplicate operation, when run with this naming rule,
will create a data source Test1 from the original source Test.
Search and Replace: This setting is used to specify a simple search and replace
algorithm. All data sources which contain the search string (given in the first
input field) will be processed. The last occurrence of the search string in the
original name will be replaced by the replacement string (given in the second
input field) to form the new name. Most often used in conjunction with the
reassign operation, for example to automatically reassign all data points
referencing xxx_Room001 with xxx_Room002 (replace 001 with 002).
Regular Expression: This is the most powerful setting. The regular expression
given in the first input field is matched against the original name. If the
expression matches, the entry is processed, otherwise ignored. If processed, the
matching groups (if present) are extracted and are used together with the name
template given in the second input field to build the new name. The new name
will be composed of the text in the name template, with all occurrences of \0
replaced by the contents of the first matching group, all \1 replaced by the
contents of the second matching group and so on. For example, the regular
expression {(nvi)|(nvo)}{.*}_{[0-9]} will match the original name
nviRoomTemp_2 and assign the substrings nvi to \0, RoomTemp to \1, and
2 to \2, so that the new name, when using a template of \0\1-3 will become
nviRoomTemp-3. Please refer to section 14.14.3 for a complete description of
the regular expression syntax.
Below the naming rule settings is a preview window, which shows a preview of the
resulting names and the number of matches in real time.
7.2.5.2 Rename Data Source
This operation allows batch renaming of data sources (the actual register, NV, or server
object name). All data sources which are mentioned in the selected entries will be
considered for renaming. If a particular source is actually renamed depends on the given
naming rules, as described in the previous section.
NOTE: Renaming a data source does not reassign any references to that source, that is, all data
point objects which referenced the original data source will reference the same renamed
data source after this operation. To actually reassign data points to different data sources,
use the ‘reassign’ or ‘duplicate and reassign’ operations explained below.
7.2.5.3 Select Data Source
This operation is available if all selected entries reference the same data source. It allows
using the data point manager window to select a replacement source, which must be of
compatible type (same type and direction as the original source).
7.2.5.4 Reassign Data Point
This operation allows reassigning a batch of entries to a new data source, based on the
currently assigned data source. Use the naming rules to construct the desired name of the
new data source from the name of the currently assigned data source.
This is most useful to remap all data points referencing data from one room to similar data
of another room, where the data source name contains the room number for easy remapping
(only the room number from the original name must be replaced by the number of the new
room to construct the name of the new data source).
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NOTE: In contrast to the ‘duplicate and reassign’ operation, this operation only attempts to
reassign the data points to other existing and compatible data sources. New sources will
not be created on the fly. Instead, the reassign operation fails if no compatible data source
can be found using the new name.
7.2.5.5 Duplicate and Reassign
This operation is similar to the normal reassign operation, only that the new name is not
used to search for an existing data source but the new name is used to create a copy of the
original data source and the selected item is reassigned to this copy.
The function keeps track of the copies it creates and ensures that each unique source is
copied only once. For example, if more than one selected entry references the same original
data source, one copy will be made of this source and all entries will be reassigned to this
copy. As a result, data points which referenced the same source before the duplicate
operation will reference the same source after the duplicate as well (only the references will
be to the copy of the original source).
7.2.5.6 Create Static NV / Server Object
This operation allows creating local data objects from remote data objects. Depending on
the network technology used by the device, it is possible to create static NVs which are
complementary to referenced external NVs or to create local server objects which are
complementary to an existing client mapping.
The operation works in the same way as duplicate and reassign, except that it creates new
data sources based on existing remote sources, instead of existing local sources.
7.2.5.7 Remove Data Point
This operation removes the selected data point objects from the project. It is useful to
remove a number of data point objects in one step, instead of going through the object tree
in the tree view and removing each data point individually.
Removing data points may be necessary to be able to remove the referenced data object,
since the data object keeps a reference count and cannot be deleted as long as it is
referenced by a data point in the project.
7.2.6 Expand / Fold Tree
The commands to expand and fold the object tree are available on menu items, pages, and
folders. They can be used to expand or fold the object tree below the selected object.
7.2.7 Lock / Unlock Position
This entry is available on collection objects. It can be used to lock the screen position of all
objects inside the collection, so that these objects are not moved unintentionally, while
working on other objects on the page.
Note that the lock function applies to the LCD preview window only. Locked objects may
still be selected in the tree view and moved to a different position once selected. The lock
only prevents objects from being selected in the LCD view. To quickly move a locked
collection or individual controls, select them in the tree view and move them to their new
position in the LCD view, without the need to first unlock the entire collection.
7.2.8 Hide / Show
These commands are available on pages, groups, and other visible items in the object tree.
They can be used to hide and show the selected object and all of its child objects. Hidden
objects have their name displayed in square brackets in the object tree.
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A hidden object will not be visible on the device after project download, but it can be made
visible during run time via a trigger command.
7.3 Main Menus
Many of the items in the main windows menus do not require additional explanation, as
they are commonly found in modern PC software. Also, a short description of every menu
item can be seen in the bottom left of the main window when moving the mouse over the
menu item in question.
All items specific to this configuration software are referenced from the individual sections
in this manual which explain the items function.
7.4 Tool Bar
The tool bar in the main window contains some of the commands which are used more
often. Pointing the mouse on one of the too bar buttons will open a small bubble help with a
short description of the buttons function. All functions of the tool bar are also accessible
from the main menu. Similar to the menu items, the individual buttons will be mentioned in
the sections where their functionality is described.
7.5 Workflow
Even though there are a lot of things to configure, creating a new project really is not that
complicated. If this is your first attempt to create a project, it might help to concentrate on
one thing at a time to avoid unnecessary confusion caused by switching back and forth
between objects and their different property pages.
A simple workflow is suggested below:
First, build the desired object hierarchy using the tree view at the left. Use the
context menus to add, cut, copy, and paste objects and use drag and drop inside
the tree view to move existing objects around. It is also possible to have a second
instance of the configuration software running and copy/paste objects between
the projects. In the property view, keep the General property page open and enter
names and descriptions for your objects as you create them. Do not get lost in
detailed object configuration at this time!
You should now have an object tree containing at least the hierarchy of menus,
menu items, pages, and the basic controls which will be used to display and enter
data. All objects should be clearly named. Now is a good time to go through the
menus and configure their basic appearance. Select one menu at a time from the
tree view and keep the Common Properties page open in the property view. For
each selected menu, enter a menu title in the Text field and select the desired font.
With the Common Properties still open, go through all menu item objects and
enter each items text in the text field. Choosing a medium sized font, like the
12x16 ROM font, will make it easier to select the menu item on the touch screen.
If the item text does not fit the width of the menu, don‟t worry about it for now.
The required menu width will be set at a later step, when all menu items have
their final text assigned. While you are at the common properties page, you may
also load an icon for the menu item, which will be shown to the left of the item
text.
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Go back once more to the menu objects of your project and open the Menu/Page
property page. For each menu, set the Container Width such that the longest item
text fits the menu. If your items use graphical icons as well, you may need to
adjust the width reserved to the left of the item text such that the widest icon will
fit. In case the menu contains more items than fit on the screen, make the scroll
bar wider, so that the user may easily grab and drag it with the index finger. The
default width of the scroll bar is designed to look good for menus which do not
need a scroll bar.
Now go through your pages and lay out the controls as desired. While a page is
selected, go to the Common Properties page to select a background bitmap for
the page, or go to the Color page to select a background color. That‟s all you
should need to configure for the page itself at this time. Note that each page for
which you set a full-page background image will require an additional 78kB of
memory (RAM). To place small logos or page headers, use a bitmap control
instead and select a suitable background color for the rest of the page. This will
save a large amount of memory.
As you lay out the controls, it is a good idea to also set their properties to modify
their appearance, since this will ultimately change the size of the controls and
may have an impact on their placement on the page. For text and bitmap controls,
you should already have the data points connected and the mapping tables filled
in, bar and trend controls should have their final settings of scale, tick marks and
value range. The individual property pages are discussed in more detail below.
Add actions, alarm generators, mathematical objects, and other global objects
you require to put functionality into your project.
Fine-tune colors and transparency on the Color page and the visibility of objects
(layer stackup) by using drag and drop in the tree view.
This is of course not a complete list of things to do, but should give you an idea where to
start from a blank project.
If objects or complete pages are copied from one project to another project, the copied
objects may contain references to data points or loaded fonts which do not yet exist in the
target project. If possible, any missing data points or fonts will be created automatically in
the destination project. If this is not possible, for example if an object references a data
point from a foreign technology (copy from a BACnet project into a CEA-709 project),
these references will be lost.
7.6 Common Property Pages
The individual property pages visible in the property view will change according to the
currently selected object. Most property pages are directly related to a certain type of object
and will be discussed together with the object itself. Some pages are used to set common
properties and remain visible all the time. These common pages are explained below:
7.6.1 General
This is the page which should be open while creating new objects in the tree view. As you
create new objects, give them a suitable name here, to clearly identify them in the tree view.
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NOTE: The object name specified here has nothing to do with the appearance of the object on the
device, if it is a visible object at all. The name on this page is just the name of the object in
the object hierarchy. The name should be chosen such that looking at the tree view is
enough to understand what an object is used for.
The large area below the name field can be used freely to enter any description which might
be needed for other people to understand what this object does, why it is here, how it
works, and so on. This can be used to store the projects documentation together with the
project, improving reusability and maintainability, in case the project is taken over by
another person later on.
Additional information shown on this page is the unique ID of the object as well as the
estimated memory usage on the target device.
NOTE: The unique ID of the object is used for identification. If the object records data which is
stored in a file (trend log or data log), the file name will include this ID in order to match
the data files to the respective controls. The UID is also used to reference other pages in
the project (action Show Page).
7.6.2 Common Properties
The Text field is used to configure the textual part of an object. This may be just ordinary
text or a format string, instructing the object how to format its text output. For menus and
items, this field holds the menu or item title as it appears on the device, for controls which
display text or a numbers (text, numeric, and date controls) this field contains a C style
format string. The alignment buttons allow to adjust the alignment of the text inside the
display box (left, middle, or right aligned). The font window is used to select the font for
the text. If other than the built-in fonts are needed, additional fonts can be loaded into the
project using the Load button. Unused fonts can be removed from the device via the
Unload button.
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Object Type
Usage of the Text field
Menu
Directly used for the menu title.
Menu Item
Directly used for the menu item text.
Text Control
Format string which may contain one %s placeholder, which will be
replaced by a string taken from a mapping table or a connected string
data point. For static texts, use a text control and fill in the static text in
the text field, without using a %s placeholder. The %s placeholder
conforms to standard C rules and may include additional format
modifiers between the % and the s:
<number> A number following the % sign forces a field with for the
string of at least the given amount of characters. If the string is shorter, it
is padded with white space at the left (right justified within the given
field).
- A dash preceding the field width means the string should be leftjustified inside the field (padded to the right).
.<number> A decimal point followed by a number is interpreted as the
maximum length of the resulting string.
Numeric Control
Format string which may contain one placeholder for a floating point
value, for example %f, %g,, or %e. To display a hexadecimal value, the
placeholder %x may be used together with the option Convert Data Point
Value to Integer which is available on the Numeric Control property
page (detailed below).
There are a number of format modifiers available for the expert user to
tailor the output of the numeric control. Novice users may use the format
string wizard on the Numeric Control property page to construct a
suitable format string without knowledge of the details.
Date Control
Date/Time format string which may contain a number of different
placeholders to display date and time in textual form. The format string
conforms to the ANSI C strftime() function and is detailed in the
appendix of this document. On the property page of the Date/Time
Control, a format string wizard is available for the user to create a
correct date/time format string without knowledge of the details. Expert
users may also look up the available placeholders in a C programmers
manual for the strftime() function.
Table 6: Usage of the common text field for visible objects
Also available on the common properties page are fields to enter the screen position and
size of the selected object, if the object is a control. However, position and size of controls
are usually modified directly in the LCD preview using the mouse or the cursor keys. For
more information about position and size of controls please see step 5 of the tutorial.
The checkbox Auto-Resize is normally turned on, so that controls which support it will
resize themselves automatically to accommodate the largest content they need to display
according to the elements in the mapping table. The checkbox may be turned off for text
controls to prevent automatic resizing and set the desired size manually.
NOTE: Manual size for text controls is most often used when the selection area should be larger
than the longest text. In this case, the text is often also center-aligned, using the buttons to
the right of the text input field. Another case is text received from the network. In this case,
the configuration software does not now the size of the longest text at configuration time,
therefore the user needs to reserve a suitable size for the text manually.
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Next to the screen coordinate section is an area where a bitmap can be loaded. A number of
graphic formats are supported, for example BMP, JPG, PNG, TIFF and others. Not
supported are any vector formats. They need to be exported to a bitmap format first.
Pressing the button Select… opens an image manager dialog, where all images of the
project are shown. In this dialog, new images can be loaded, unused images can be
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Object Type
Bitmap is used for…
Menu Item
Icon which is shown to the left of the menu item text.
Page
Page background. The loaded bitmap should match the screen resolution of
the device, for example 320x240 pixels. Smaller background pictures are
placed in the top left corner of the display. For example a 320x20 bitmap
would appear as a page header, while an 80x240 bitmap would appear as a
vertical bar at the left.
On devices supporting true color, the best format for page background
images is JPG. If the original image does not fit the screen resolution, it
may be resized in the image manager dialog.
To place smaller static bitmaps anywhere on a page, use a bitmap control
and assign the bitmap to the control instead of the page, then move the
control to the position where the graphic should be located.
Bitmap Control
Bitmap to show when the control is created. If the control does not have a
mapping table attached to it, this is the only image which is shown by the
control. It is then similar to a text control containing static text. Bitmap
controls may be used in this way to place logos or other graphic elements
anywhere on the screen.
On devices supporting true color, the best format for icons is PNG, since
this format can support alpha blending, which results in a smooth
transition between the icon and the background along the icons edges.
If a mapping table and a data point are attached to the control, the images
from the mapping table may replace the image specified here, when new
values are received or selected by the user.
Bar Control
The bitmap is used to draw a moving handle or indicator, at the center
point of the border line between the empty and the filled area of the bar (at
the edge of the moving bar). Use the bar controls properties to modify the
drawing position for the bitmap.
removed, and existing ones can be replaced by others or resized as necessary. Graphics
import is discussed in detail in section 14.12.
Depending on the object type, the image is used according to the following table:
Table 7: Usage of the common bitmap for visible objects
Below the screen coordinates, the access level required for data input can be specified if the
selected object is an input control. The access level must be equal to or higher than the level
specified here, otherwise the user will see the control but will not be able to select it and
input new data.
The button called Set as Default may be used to save the design of the currently selected
visible object as the default design for new objects of the same type. If a number of similar
objects is to be created, configure the first object, press the default button and then create
the other objects.
NOTE: The set defaults are saved together with the project, so that the same defaults apply the next
time this project is loaded. To change the defaults for an object, change the design as
needed and press the default button again to update the stored default settings.
7.6.3 Color
The color property page is used to configure color and transparency for all visible objects.
To avoid different color property pages for every object, the colors are set through this
common page. Colors which are similar in use appear on the same location, so that multiassignment of for example a text or a background color to controls of different types is
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possible. Not all objects support all colors. When an object is selected, it will report its
color configuration on this page and set all unsupported colors to unset (black cross). To
change a color, click on the corresponding color button and select the new color from the
dialog.
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NOTE: Most colors are named such that it is clear to which element of an object the color applies,
like Text, Background, Selection and similar. Depending on the selected object, the naming
of the colors will change accordingly. How the available colors are used by a particular
object can be found in the objects documentation.
The right side of the color page allows setting the current color scheme for multiple objects
at once. Applying a color scheme to multiple object means that all colors which are set in
the color scheme will be changed in the object, if the object supports this particular color,
while all colors which are unset in the color scheme will remain unchanged.
NOTE: This allows changing individual colors only, for example you may change the background
of all controls on a page without changing any of the other colors
There are two modes of operation available right now:
Apply to all sub-objects: This mode will apply the color scheme to all sub-
objects of the currently selected object. This is used to control the color design of
the whole project (root menu selected) or individual pages (a page selected).
Apply to all objects of this type: This mode will search all objects of the same
type and with the same parent as the currently selected object, for example if you
select an item of a menu and use this mode, you can change the colors of all
items in THIS menu, without affecting other menus. If you select a text control
on a page, you can use this mode to change the color of all text controls on THIS
page, and so on.
NOTE: If the device firmware is older than 4.2.0, all color settings done on this page will be
limited to the 256 color VGA palette, even for RGB capable devices. Starting with firmware
4.2.0 on RGB devices, colors can be selected from a new RGB color selection dialog which
also includes an input field to set the transparency of the color. This field is available as a
numeric value only, where 0 means transparent and 255 opaque. Note that the color setting
of fully transparent black (all values 0) has a special meaning. It indicates that this value is
unset and will be displayed as a black cross.
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8 Object Description
8.1 Introduction
Every L-VIS project is built using a number of different objects. Each of the objects has a
relatively simple function. To build a complex project, the simple objects are put together
and organized in an object tree, which is shown in the tree view of the configuration
software.
Interactions between the objects are defined by their location in this object tree, for
example, a menu item object will always display a menu item on the device, but it depends
on the location of the object in the tree in which menu and at which position in the menu
the item appears.
There are objects to represent menus, menu items, pages, various types of controls to
display and input data, there are objects to perform mathematical operations on data, or
generate alarms. The total number of different object types is kept to a minimum and the
objects are designed as generic as possible, to ensure a steep learning curve and allow
flexible and creative use of the available objects as the building blocks of more complex
applications.
When building the object tree, there are certain limitations in how objects can be connected
to each other. Most of the time, this will be clear from the context, for example it is clear
that you cannot connect a page object to a menu, since a menu would not know what to do
with a page. A menu is used to manage a list of menu items from which the user may
choose. Therefore, a menu object will only accept menu item objects as child objects. A
page object can then be attached to a menu item object, causing the item to show the
attached page, when it is selected from the menu.
NOTE: Such limits are enforced by the configuration software automatically, so you cannot drop
or paste objects into places where they have no meaning.
Some objects may be connected to a number of other objects, for example a data point may
be connected to all kinds of controls, but a trend control only accepts input data points, not
output data points. Mapping table objects may be connected to text, bitmap, number, and
bar controls, but not trend or date controls, and so on. Using the context menu of an
existing object to create a new object automatically will show only the kind of objects
which can be attached to the existing object, so there is no room for error.
The individual objects are explained in more detail in the following sections.
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Color Name
Element to which the color applies
Text
Menu title text.
Frame
Title background and the frame around the scroll bar.
Scrollbar
Scrollbar, color of the filled bar.
Scrollbar Backgr.
Scrollbar container background.
Background
Background of the menu item area. The background of a menu cannot be
set to be transparent.
8.2 Menu
A menu object is used to manage a collection of menu item objects. On the device, a menu
is a window which opens on the left side of the display and shows the items which are
contained in the menu. The menu can handle more items than fit on the screen. If this is the
case, a scroll bar is provided for the user to move the contents of the menu up and down to
see the hidden items.
NOTE: Every project always has a menu object as the top level object. This is called the root menu.
It must always be there and it cannot be deleted. However, you may adjust its properties
just like any other menu.
Apart from the root menu, the only other places where menu objects may be created are as
child objects of menu items. If a menu object is connected to a menu item, selecting the
item will show the connected menu. This is called a sub-menu. To navigate back from the
sub-menu to the parent menu, the sub-menu must contain a return item, which is a menu
item object which has no further objects connected to it (no page and no sub-menu to
show).
8.2.1 Menu Properties
A menu consists of a frame and an area containing the menu items. The frame includes the
menu title and the scroll bar, whereas the item container is the inside space of the menu,
where the menu items are shown. The assignment of colors on the Color property page to
parts of the menu can be seen in the following table.
Table 8: Color assignment for menus
On the Menu/Page property page, the width of the menu item area and the scroll bar can be
entered. The value is specified in LCD pixel (the full screen width being 320 pixels). The
Bitmap Width parameter specifies how much space for icons to the left of the menu item
text should be reserved, if an item uses a bitmap. This is used to have a vertically aligned
text column, even when the icons of individual items do not have the same width.
NOTE: Even though the bitmap width parameter changes the appearance of menu items, it is a
property of the menu because it is the same for all items which are shown in this menu.
Moving an item to a different menu will show the item according to the bitmap with rule of
the new menu.
8.3 Menu Item
Menu item objects are used to build the contents of a menu. They are shown in the menu in
the order in which they appear in the object tree. On the device, each menu item becomes a
selectable area of the menu, which the user may select to open the page or the sub-menu
associated with the item.
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Pages
Menu
Function
None
None
This item is a return item. When the user selects it, the current
menu will close and the parent menu will open.
1
None
A standard item. Upon selection, the menu will close and the page
will be shown.
> 1
None
A multi-page item. Upon selection, the menu will close and the
page which was up when the item was active the last time will be
shown (the first page, if this is the first time the item is selected).
The page flip action touch gesture, and page timeout applies.
None
Yes
A sub-menu item. Upon selection, the connected sub-menu will be
shown for further navigation.
1 or more
Yes
A combined item. The connected page(s) will be shown in the
background, while the connected menu will open in the foreground
for further navigation. This type of item can be confusing for the
user and should be used with care.
Color Name
Element to which the color applies
Text
Menu item text.
Selection Frame
Frame drawn around the selected item.
Icon Bitmap
Color of a monochrome bitmap.
Icon
Background
Color of the bitmaps background. This will be the color which is shown
transparent in the items bitmap, if the bitmap has no alpha channel or the
project is not true color. The background of a menu item is always set to
transparent mode.
Each item object can hold zero or more page objects and zero or one menu object, as shown
in the object hierarchy diagram. It depends on the connected objects, what will happen
when the user selects the menu item.
Table 9: Function modes of a menu item
Always add a return item as the last item of your sub-menu, or the user will not be
able to navigate back to the parent menu.
In the root menu, a return item is used in a different way. If a return item is found in the
root menu, the device will use it to connect the system setup sub-menu to it, making it the
setup menu item. This is done so that the user may provide a menu item for the built-in
setup menu and configure the item through the normal configuration software, just like any
other menu item.
NOTE: If the project does not provide a return item as the last item of the root menu and the built-
in setup menu was not disabled in the project settings, a default setup menu item will be
created automatically. However, this item will most likely not fit the design of the other
items in your root menu, so it is a good idea to always provide this item in your project.
8.3.1 Menu Item Properties
On the Common Properties page, a menu item can be assigned a text as well as an icon
bitmap. Obviously, at least one of them should be set to make a usable menu item. If both
icon and text are set, the icon will appear on the left side, the text on the right side. If the
icon is smaller than the reserved bitmap width of the menu, the icon will be centered inside
the bitmap width.
On the Color property page, the following colors can be set for the menu item:
Table 10: Color assignment for menu items
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8.4 Page
Page objects are simple objects to organize the control elements which are visible on the
device. When a page object is connected to a menu item and the item is selected from the
menu, the page and all the controls on it will be shown on the display. Previously visible
controls will be hidden, but will continue to exist on the device (so that a trend control may
continue to record data, for example). Technically, the function of a page therefore is to
group a number of controls together to show or hide them all at the same time.
8.4.1 Page Properties
On the Common Properties page, a bitmap for the page background may be specified.
Such a bitmap should match the dimensions of the page, for example 320x240 pixels on an
LVIS-3E100. Please also see the information in section 7.6.2 before using a background
bitmap. For a single-color background, select the desired color on the Color property page.
All other properties of a page object are set on the Menu / Page property page.
On this page, the following settings are available:
View Timeout: If this timeout is not zero, and there is no user input for the
specified amount of time, the system automatically switches to the next page
(provided there is more than one page connected to the same menu item). After
the last page was shown, the procedure is restarted from the first page.
Page Access: This defines the minimum access level required to view the page if
it is marked as locked/protected (see below).
Locked Page: If this flag is set, the page may only be displayed if the current
access level is equal to or higher than the level specified for this page (see
above). If the access level is not sufficient, a suitable PIN code must be entered.
Invisible Page: Allows hiding the page on the device, which means that it will
not be accessible for the user until this flag is removed. However, the controls on
a hidden page work as usual, for example a trend control placed on such a page
will still be recording trend data. A hidden page may also be used as the target of
a show page action, so that the page may only be visited through this action and
not directly via the menu.
Default Page: Mark this page as the default page of the device. The default page
is displayed after a configurable amount of idle time and when the device is
started.
Login Page: Mark this page as the login page of the device. The login page is
displayed when the user switches to a protected page for which the current access
level is too low. On the login page, there should be at least one numeric input
field to enter a PIN code (write the value to the PIN Code Enter register). It is
useful to place other information on this page as well, for example the current
access level and the minimum access level required to view the protected page. A
button to execute the back one page action is also useful in case the user does not
have the required PIN code and wants to go back to where he came from.
About Page: Mark this page as the about page of the device. This page is shown
when the user selects the About item in the setup menu or when the device
switches to the default page after the idle timeout and there is no default page set.
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Color Name
Element to which the color applies
Text
Text color. This color may be overridden by color specifications from a
connected mapping table.
Selection Frame
Frame drawn around the text, if the control is selected. Also used to draw
the grid of the drop-down list, from which a new text element is chosen
(input controls only).
Background
Color of the controls background. The background of a text control may be
set to transparent using the check box next to the background color button.
8.5 Controls
All objects which can be displayed on a page are called controls. This is because they are
usually used to provide to user with an interface to control a data point value or trigger
actions. Controls are also used to display the current value of a data point and sometimes
even display just static content, to enhance the visual appearance of a page.
NOTE: There are other objects which are used to control or process data point values and which
are not documented in this section, for example mathematical objects or alarm generators.
These objects are not control objects, because they do not provide a user interface. They
have no position and size coordinates or other visual properties.
Depending on the data point objects connected to the control, the control will either show
static content only, show dynamic content based on values which are received from
connected input data points, or become selectable and accept new values from the user,
which are then written to the connected output data points. Controls which accept user input
are called input controls.
The following sections describe each of the available controls and their properties.
8.5.1 Text Control
Text controls are used to display one or more lines of text. The text is entered on the
Common Properties page in the Text area, as explained in the section about the common
property pages. Dynamic text from a mapping table or from a connected string data point
may be inserted at the %s placeholder, otherwise the text remains static.
On the Color property page, the following colors can be set for the control:
Table 11: Color assignment for text controls
If the text control is an input control, it may be selected by a touch on the controls text field.
A dropdown list will appear, containing all entries of the mapping table which is connected
to the control. From this list, the user may select a new entry. The value which is associated
with this entry in the mapping table will then be assigned to all connected non-constant
output data points.
Instead of opening a dropdown list, text controls may also be used as push buttons, where
each press of the button will change the value. This push button mode can be enabled on
the Text / Bitmap / Drawing property page, which is explained below, since it works the
same for text and bitmap controls.
For the L-WEB model, the text control may be set to web browser mode using the option
Web Browser Mode at the bottom of the property page. In this mode, the L-WEB
application will not just display the contents of the text control, but instead try to interpret
them as web content according to the following rules:
URL: If the contents have the form of a URL, like http://www.host.com, the
specified URL will be followed and displayed in a browser window of the size and
position given by the text control.
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Color Name
Element to which the color applies
Bitmap
Color of the frame which is drawn if no bitmap was assigned, or color in
which a monochrome bitmap is drawn. May be overridden by colors from
the mapping table. For color bitmaps, this color definition is ignored.
Selection Frame
Frame drawn around the text, if the control is selected. Also used to draw
the grid of the drop-down list, from which a new text element is chosen
(input controls only).
Background
Color of the controls background, if no bitmap is shown. Otherwise this is
the color which should be considered the background of the graphic. If the
transparent check box is set, all pixels using this color will be transparent.
In true color projects, transparency is usually controlled by the alpha
channel of the image.
<html>: If the contents start with an <html> tag, they will be parsed as HTML
source and displayed in the browser. Useful if a complete HTML page was created
in a web design tool and pasted into the text control.
<body>: If the contents do not look like a URL and do not start with an <html>
tag, they will be used as the body of an empty web page, that is, the L-WEB
application will generate the required HTML headers around it, including the
<body> tag, and fill the empty body with the contents of the text control. This
mode can be used to display HTML formatted text without having to provide the
full source code of the HTML page.
If web browser mode is enabled, additional options are available to change the way the web
content is displayed.
8.5.2 Bitmap Control
Bitmap controls are very similar to text controls, only that they display graphic elements
instead of text. Otherwise the same behavior applies for input controls.
A static bitmap may be set on the Common Properties page, which is shown when no
mapping table is attached to the control or no value was set, so that the control does not
know which entry from the mapping table to choose.
The bitmap control will automatically adjust and fix its size according to the loaded
bitmaps. If there is no bitmap to display, the size can be set manually and the bitmap
controls area will be empty, with just a frame drawn around it in the selected frame color.
NOTE: Bitmap controls without any bitmap and with the frame color set to the transparent
background color are often used to define clickable areas on a page which uses a
background graphic. In this case, the pages background already provides the graphic
representation of buttons, lamps, building floors, or other elements, which should be
selectable by the user. Using empty transparent bitmap controls, rectangular regions may
be defined on the page, which the user may select. The control itself usually has an action
connected to it, to jump to a new page or update a data point.
The following colors may be set for bitmap controls on the Color property page:
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Table 12: Color assignment for bitmap controls
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NOTE: For best results, use PNG format for your images and embed transparency information as
alpha channel in the image. Using this image in true color projects, transparency will be
fully automatic based on the alpha channel data. When used in VGA color projects, the
image will be converted to VGA palette, all transparent pixels will be set to color index 248
(a duplicate of middle-grey), and the background setting will be color 248 transparent, so
that transparency will be fully automatic in this case as well.
8.5.3 Push Button
Push buttons are not provided as a specialized control object type, but are implemented by a
special mode of operation, which can be activated for text controls and for bitmap controls,
to create push buttons showing text or graphic elements using all the features of these
controls. Push button mode is activated on the Text / Bitmap / Drawing property page
using the Enable Push Button Mode check box. Once enabled, the mode of operation is
selected on the right via three radio buttons. The options are:
Send current value: In this mode, each press of the button will cause all
connected output data points to be updated with the current value of the control.
The current value is defined by the last value received from any of the connected
input data points.
Select and send next value: This mode will instruct the control to find the entry
in the mapping table which corresponds to the current value of the control and
then select the next entry to determine the new value which is sent out.
Select and send previous value: Similar to the above mode, but the previous
entry in the mapping table is selected to determine the next value.
Below the radio buttons is a check box, which, when checked, causes the control to change
direction when either the end of the mapping table is reached, that is, it switches back and
forth between mode 2 and 3, walking through all available entries in the mapping table (up
and down).
NOTE: Obviously, mode 2 and 3 only make sense if a mapping table is attached to the control and
the table contains at least two entries. A typical use is a table with two entries and the
control in mode 2, with direction change enabled. This provides a simple ON/OFF toggle
button. To build a push button which only sends out a fixed value when selected, no
mapping table is required. Set up the control using static properties and connect the output
data point which should be updated with a certain value. Mark the data point to be
Constant Value and enter the desired value as the Default Value of the data point.
Push button mode is very similar to normal input mode, except that the control chooses the
value to send automatically and that it automatically leaves input mode as soon as the push
button is released, whereas normal controls remain in the input mode until another object is
touched or the input idle time is reached.
NOTE: As a consequence, a push button mode sends out two updates on a data point which has its
update mode set to ‘Immediate’. The first update is sent immediately when the control
chooses the next value, the second update is sent when the button is released and leaves
input mode. To prevent this extra update, set the update mode to ‘Focus Loss’.
8.5.4 Numeric Control
These controls are used to display values as numbers. Most properties can be set on the
Common Properties page, as described earlier in this document. Similar to text controls,
the color of the number, the background, and the selection frame can be set on the Color
property page.
The Numeric Control property page provides access to the specialized properties of
numeric controls, like the allowed value range and a wizard to generate a suitable format
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string for your control, if you don‟t want to enter it yourself on the common properties
page.
In the area Input Mode, the properties concerning value input are defined:
Value Range: The values entered in these two fields (min –max) define the limits
for input of new values. The user can not input any value below min or above
max. Values received from input data points are always displayed, even if they are
outside the allowed input value range.
Input Resolution: This value is only used by the older LVIS-3ECTB model,
which has a jog dial instead of a touch screen. The setting defines the amount by
which the value is increased or decreased with each turn of the jog dial.
Acceleration: This setting is only used by the older LVIS-3ECTB model, which
has a jog dial instead of a touch screen. It defines how much the dial speed
increases the amount of value change, starting at the given input resolution for low
speeds and increasing gradually as the jog dial is turned faster.
The Flags area contains the following additional options:
Convert Data Point Value to Integer: This check box needs to be checked, when
you want to use an integer format specifier in the format string, like %x or %d. If
the format string wizard is used to generate the format string, this check box is
also controlled by the wizard as required.
Hexadecimal Input Keypad: This check box can be used together with a %x
format to provide a hexadecimal input keypad matching the way the value is
displayed. It would be confusing to enter a decimal value and then see it converted
into hexadecimal on the control, so the display format and the input keypad should
use the same number system.
Password Input Keypad: This option may be used to enter a PIN code. The
keypad starts out empty instead of showing the current control value and for each
digit entered it only shows a star (*).
The Format String Wizard on the right side of the page allows creating a correct format
string easily by setting a few options:
Style: The basic style of the value display can be selected from this list. Each style
has an example to show how it would look like. The styles dynamic 1and dynamic
2 automatically switch between the floating point format and one of the scientific
formats (1 or 2), based on the value and the selected precision.
Field Width: This value defines the minimum desired number of characters to
output, including sign, leading zero, decimal point and any other characters which
are part of the displayed number. If the number needs more characters to display
than specified here, the field width will be extended as needed, so that no
characters are cut off.
Precision: This value specifies the desired number of digits following the decimal
point. The displayed value is rounded to fit the desired precision. For example, the
value 2.86 is displayed as 2.9 if a precision of 1 is used and as 3 if a precision of 0
is used.
Zero Padding: This option causes the converted number to be padded with
leading zeros rather than blanks, if the number is shorter than the minimum
specified field width. This option has no effect, if the option left justified is used.
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Left Justified: This option causes padding characters to be inserted to the right of
the converted number, so that the number appears left justified within the specified
field width. The option has no effect if the field width is equal to or smaller than
the space occupied by the converted value.
Reserve space for sign: This option adds a blank character in front of positive
values, to act as a place holder for the sign character, which is output as a – if the
number becomes negative.
Always add sign character: This option is an alternative to the preceding option
and outputs a + in front of positive values, instead of a blank. If both options are
checked, the positive sign character is printed.
Press the button Generate Format to automatically generate the format according to the
selected options. The format string will be set as the Text property on the Common
Properties page and the result will be visible immediately on the LCD preview.
NOTE: It is possible to add static text around the value defined by the format string. If you
generate the format string using the wizard, first generate the format string and then switch
to the common properties page and add the static text before and after the format specifier
in the text field. Any text can be entered, with the exception of the percent sign, since this
character starts a format specifier. The exact format of this string is described in section
14.14.1 of this manual. To output a percent sign, enter %% in the format string.
8.5.5 Bar Control
Bar controls are one of the more complex and versatile control types. In combination with
other controls, they can be used for a large number of applications which are not
immediately obvious, such as a moving sunblind or an arbitrary area on the screen which
can be filled with a variable color (useful to mark open windows in a building, for
example).
The basic application of a bar control uses a scale on one side of the bar, including tick
marks. If the value represents a temperature, a small dot is sometimes included at the lower
end of the bar, to make it look like a thermometer. In this configuration, the bar control
consists of the following elements:
Scale: The numbers on one side of the bar, which are evenly spaced out and
calculated to be easy to read. While resizing the bar in the LCD preview, the
scale is constantly updated to show the most suitable scale for the given value
range and size.
Tick Marks: These are the small indicators next to the bar. They are calculated
automatically to be evenly spaced out while representing a round step value
between two tick marks. If the scale is disabled, the tick marks may be much
closer to each other.
Dot: At the lower end of the bar, a dot symbolizes a thermometer.
Frame: The actual bar which displays the current value has a one pixel wide
frame around it.
Bar: Inside the frame is the bar which actually shows the current value. With
increasing values, the bar moves up or to the right.
Knob: A bitmap may be used to display a moving knob or handle, which is
normally shown centered around the current value, but can also be shifted by a
constant offset in X and Y direction.
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Color Name
Element to which the color applies
Labels
Numbers of the scale.
Knob Bitmap
Color used to draw a monochrome handle bitmap. Not used if the loaded
bitmap is a color bitmap (set line color 2 in this case).
Knob Backgr.
Color of the handle bitmap which should be transparent (background
color of the handle bitmap), only used in VGA projects or for color
bitmaps which use VGA colors only and do not provide any transparency
data.
Selection Frame
Frame drawn around the entire control, if the control is selected.
Frame
Tick marks and the bar frame, as described above.
Filled Bar
Bar which represents the value. This color may be overridden by color
specifications from a connected mapping table.
Container
Empty space inside the bar frame, which is currently not filled by the bar
color.
Background
Color of the background outside the bar frame. If the transparent check
box is set, all pixels using this color will be transparent.
Position and size of a bar control, as defined on the common properties page, correspond to
the frame of the bar control, as described above. It does not correspond to the selection
frame drawn around the whole bar control.
NOTE: To move a bar control in the LCD preview, you must grab it somewhere inside the bar
frame, not outside, like the scale or tick marks. Use any of the four corners or the bar frame
to resize the bar, similar to text and number controls.
On the Common Properties page, a font may be selected to be used for the scale. Also on
this page, a static bitmap may be loaded. This bitmap will be displayed at a configurable
position relative to the mid-point of the current bar end (the „fill height‟ of the bar control),
so that the bitmap moves up and down (or left and right) to show the current value.
Color configuration is done as usual on the Color property page. The following colors are
supported by bar controls:
Table 13: Color assignment for bar controls
All other properties are set on the Bar Graph property page:
Value Range: The most important property on this page is the Value Range of the
bar. It must be adjusted to match the actual value range you want to visualize. If
the bar is used to input values, this range also defines what the user may enter.
Values outside the given value range cannot be entered, even using the key pad,
which is optionally available for input bar controls. On the other hand, if the actual
bar height exceeds the desired value range, the extra values may be entered
because the bar may be dragged all the way up to the actual bar top, no matter
what the desired value range is.
NOTE: Set the desired value range, before you determine size and position of the bar, especially if
tick marks and/or a scale is to be drawn. This is important since the scale which best fits
the current size will be determined and drawn as you resize the control. Depending on the
value range, the space requirement of the scale and the optimum size of the bar will vary.
Knob Offset: The X and Y values entered here are added to the coordinates of
the current center point at the top end of the moving bar (the border line between
the filled and empty area of the bar). The resulting position will be used as the
center point to draw a bitmap, if specified on the common properties page or
through a mapping table.
Tick Mark Length: The length of the tick marks in pixel.
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The Flags control which components are drawn and how they are drawn. The following
flags are available:
Horizontal Bar: The bar control is turned by 90 degrees and the bar moves from
left to right (lower values left) instead of up and down.
Tick Marks: Enable or disable drawing of the tick marks next to the bar.
Scale Labels: Enable or disable drawing of the scale labels next to the bar. Note
that leaving out the scale labels usually allows for a narrower placement of the tick
marks, since less space is required between the tick marks.
Flip Side: This option draws scale and tick marks (if enabled) at the opposite side
of the bar (right or bottom instead left or top).
Thermometer Style: This is the option to draw a dot at the lower end of the bar,
to symbolize a thermometer. It is usually used together with a vertical bar which
displays a temperature.
Numeric Input Panel: This option instructs the bar control to open a numeric
input panel if the control is an input control and the user touches the bar. The input
panel is placed on the screen such that it does not overlap the bar, but as close to
the bar as possible. This allows the user to enter an exact value on the input panel
or drag the bar as usual.
Invisible Bar: This option disables drawing of the moving bar (the fill height). If
the control is an input control, it is still possible to touch and drag to enter values,
but the current value will not be visualized as a moving bar.
NOTE: As you may have noticed, not all of the elements of the bar control can actually be disabled.
In particular, there is no flag to disable the bar frame. If the bar graph is used in an
application where the frame is not wanted, it can still be made invisible. Select the same
color for the bar frame as you selected for the background and check the option
‘Transparent background’. The frame will now be invisible.
8.5.5.1 Special Application Hints
A powerful way to use bar controls is provided by colors and transparency. By disabling all
the decoration around the actual bar, it is possible to have a rectangular area on the screen,
which can be filled with a color or made transparent, depending on the value of a data
point. This provides an easy way to selectively hide certain areas of the screen.
Example 1: Define a solid color for the bar and the transparent background color for the
container and the frame. Now you can prepare a page background, showing a sunblind
which is completely rolled down. Place the bar in front of this image and you are able to
cover up parts of the sunblind with the solid bar color, making it look like the sunblind is
going up and down. If you switch color assignments, you can use the moving bar to
selectively uncover parts of the background.
Example 2: In front of the above window showing the moving sunblind, a completely
transparent bar control may be placed (both bar color and container color are set to the
transparent background and drawing of the bar can be disabled using the „Invisible Bar‟
option to increase efficiency). By connecting an output data point to this control, it becomes
selectable and accepts user input. Now the user may touch any position on the window,
which will result in a value update on the output data point. This value may now be used as
a position indicator and the sunblind may be moved to the indicated position automatically,
without the user keeping a down or up button pressed all the time.
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NOTE: The static sunblind image in the background may be replaced by a bitmap control with a
mapping table to show the current rotation of the sunblind.
Example 3: A combined display of a current value and a set point can be created by using
two bar controls. One is a classic bar control to which the input data point is connected,
showing the current value. Next to this bar, a second bar can be placed. Use the layout tools
(see section 14.3) to make this bar the same with, same height and same baseline position
as the first bar. Also, use the same value range, but disable all decorations and make the bar
invisible. Load an indicator bitmap, for example an arrow pointing towards the other bar
control, using the common properties page. Connect the output data point to the indicator
bar to allow defining the desired set point by dragging the indicator bitmap (the arrow) up
and down.
Instead of a static bitmap on the common properties page, it is also possible to connect a
mapping table containing different bitmaps based on the value. This would allow for
example the indicator arrow to change shape or color based on the set value. The bitmap
may also be an animated GIF.
8.5.6 Trend Control
Trend controls record and display data point values over time. This type of control does not
allow inputting new values and therefore can not handle output data points. Only input data
points may be connected to a trend control.
On the device, the control shows a graph with the value on the vertical axis and time on the
horizontal axis. The time axis shows the amount of time which has passed since now, where
the rightmost end of the axis represents the present time, with older data to the left (for
example 10 minutes ago, 20 minutes ago, and so on). As time passes, the recorded data
moves to the left and new data is added to the right. The smaller the time span on the time
axis, the faster the curve moves to the left. When setting the time span, the resulting interval
between two shift operations is calculated and shown on the property page.
The control is able to display three curves per connected data point: the minimum value,
maximum value, and average value. To do this, the control records all incoming value
updates between two shift operations. From this data, it calculates the minimum value, the
maximum value, and a time weighted average value and adds this data to the right end of
each curve.
NOTE: The average value calculated during each shift interval is the time weighted average of all
input values received during that time frame. For example, if the input has a value of 0 for
the duration of 9 seconds and a value of 20 for the duration of 1 second, the time weighted
average value for these 10 seconds will be 2, because (0*9s + 20*1s) / 10s = 2. In contrast,
the time independent arithmetic average value would be 10 (0+20)/2.
The scale labels and tick marks, if enabled, are automatically calculated and laid out. If the
page background already provides a graphic representation of the scale and the control is
only used to fill in the data, the scale and tick marks may be disabled. The best way to lay
out the control is to first enable all required decorations (scale, ticks, and grid) and then
change the size and position of the control to fit the scale.
Regarding color, the trend control is one of the most complex controls to configure, since it
supports a large number of colors. The following colors may be set for trend controls on the
Color property page:
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Color Name
Element to which the color applies
Labels
Numbers of the value scale and the time scale.
Horizontal Grid
Horizontal grid lines (if the grid is enabled).
Vertical Grid
Vertical primary grid lines (if the grid is enabled).
Second. Grid
Vertical secondary grid lines (if the grid is enabled).
Buttons
Foreground color for button symbols.
Button Backgr.
Background color for button symbols.
Selection Frame
Frame drawn around the entire control, if the control is selected.
Axis
Tick marks and axis for value and time.
Container
Background of the graph area, which is the rectangular area spawned by
the value and time axis.
Background
Color of the background outside the graph. If the transparent check box
is set, all pixels using this color will be transparent.
Color Name
Element to which the color applies
Minimum Value
Color for the minimum curve (if enabled).
Average Value
Color for the average curve (if enabled).
Maximum Value
Color for the maximum curve (if enabled).
Out-Of-Range
Color to indicate that the current value of a curve is out of range. If the
value axis is adjusted to fit, the real value will be shown, that is, a limited
value axis does not affect the actual data which is recorded.
Table 14: Color assignment for trend controls
To set the color of the individual curves, select a data point and switch to the Color
property page. You can now set the color of all curves which may be generated by this data
point:
Table 15: Color assignment for trend curves
Apart from the colors and the font for the scale, which can be set on the Common
Properties page, all other properties are set on the Trend Control property page. This
page is divided in 4 sections, which are described below.
On the top left, the Value Axis can be configured. Set the desired Range for this axis and
enable or disable the Tick Marks and/or the Scale Labels. On the right side, the Time Axis
is configured. Select a suitable Time Span, which is given in time per page. For example, if
you set this to one hour per page, the graph will show the values of the last hour together on
one page. To keep older data as well, which is not visible on the first page because it is
older than the given time span, set the desired amount of History Buffer that should be used
by this control. This value is given in pages, that is, if you set the time span to one hour and
configure one history page, the control will store the values of the last two hours. Older
data will be overwritten by new data.
NOTE: After setting the size, time span and history buffer, check the resulting size of the required
data sample buffer at the bottom of the property page. The memory requirements can get
significant if you use a larger number of such controls and set a high number of history
pages.
In the same section, you may set a minimum Shift Interval for the control. The control
normally uses the smallest usable shift interval, which is the time it takes for the graph to
move by one pixel. The graph cannot be shifted earlier than this, because it needs to move
by at least one pixel (can‟t move by half a pixel). If this interval seems unnecessarily small
(each shift will require some processing time), or you want the control to average data over
a longer time frame than this, you may set a minimum time here. The control will then use
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the next higher shift interval which results in an integral shift of the graph (in pixels). The
Flags to enable or disable the tick marks and the scale are the same as for the value axis.
At the bottom left, a small information area shows the resulting update rate (shift rate) of
the graph, the amount of pixels the graph will be shifted each time, and the amount of
memory required for the requested history pages.
The checkbox Absolute Time causes the scale labels on the time axis to display the date and
time of the recorded data instead of a relative time. The label will normally display the time
of day, except when the day changed from one label to the next, in which case the new date
will be displayed. The formatting of the time and date labels can be controlled through the
input fields Time Format and Date Format. The same format strings as used for date
controls are usable in these fields. The format is explained in section 14.14.2 of this
manual.
In the middle of the property page are some additional Flags to be set. Depending on the
selected object, there are different flags available.
With the trend control selected, the following options can be set:
Draw Grid: This option enables a grid which is automatically laid out to fit the
current tick mark spacing and allow easier readout of the displayed data. Set the
final control size after enabling the grid and choose a size which yields a good
looking result for the grid.
Draw Buttons: This option enables the display of standard buttons to mark the
areas of the control which are used to flip through the pages and zoom in and out.
The buttons are not required to operate the control, so they may be hidden
without losing functionality. It is also possible to place custom bitmaps on top of
the trend control to mark the active areas. On true color devices, these bitmaps
may also be semi-transparent.
Enable Cursor: This option causes the control to become selectable. When
selected, a cursor appears which allows navigating through the recorded data (see
the next section).
Preserve Data: When enabled, the Control is instructed to store the recorded
data in non volatile memory, in order to preserve the data across a reboot or
power failure. Saving is done in regular intervals, when enough data was
collected, or when the unit is shut down in a regular way and thus has a chance to
save all unsaved data before shutdown (not possible during a power failure).
Auto save data: The interval given here is the maximum time which may pass
before recorded data is saved. This can be used together with slowly moving
trends, where only a small amount of data is generated over time and thus the
normal save operations, which collect around 4kB of data before saving it, will
not be guarded very well against a sudden power failure.
With a data point selected, the following options are available:
Draw Minimum: Enable recording and display of the minimum curve for the
selected data point.
Draw Average: Enable recording and display of the average curve for the
selected data point.
Draw Maximum: Enable recording and display of the maximum curve for the
selected data point.
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NOTE: Use the preserve data option with care and avoid unnecessary saving of unimportant data,
since these operations may take up a significant amount of system resources and adversely
affect performance and life time of the device in case they are over-used in a project.
NOTE: Even if the preserve data flag is set, a trend control may still discard the stored data when
it reboots. This is the case when the controls properties were changed such that the new
configuration does not match the stored data anymore, for example because new data
points were added to the control or data points were removed, changing the type and
amount of data recorded. Recorded trend data is also removed from the device, if there is
no control matching the recorded data, which is determined by the UID of the control. That
is, if you remove a trend control from the project and reboot the device, the data which
belonged to the removed control will be deleted from the system.
8.5.6.1 Trend Data Access
For every trend control which stores the recorded data in non volatile memory, a file is
created on the file system of the device which holds the data in binary form. This file is not
intended to be used by the end user. Instead, the recorded data is made available in CSV file
format, in order to ease processing on the PC.
The files may be downloaded from the device using an FTP connection or via SCP protocol
on the SSH port, if the device supports secure connections. Valid user names for the
transfer are either admin or operator. The password must be specified as set on the Web-UI
of the device, default passwords are equal to the user name. There are two locations to
access the CSV data. One location is intended for access by a human user, the other one is
intended for automated tools:
/data/trend: This is the location intended for access by a human user. The
file name consists of the object name of the control (as seen on the tree view) and
the unique ID of the control, as displayed on the General property page. This
allows the user to easily identify the data file belonging to a certain control on the
device.
/data/uid/trend: This is the location intended for access by automated
tools. The filename consists only of the unique ID of the control. This allows an
automated tool to easily construct a list of files to access, independent of the
name of the control, which may not be known and which may change.
Example: A project contains a trend control with UID 0x122114B1 and name “Trend 1”.
The data recorded by this control will be accessible in CSV format under the following file
names on the device:
/data/trend/Trend_1_122114B1.csv
/data/uid/trend/122114B1.csv
Spaces in the object name are replaced by underscores to avoid file names containing
spaces, which may be a problem for some FTP clients.
NOTE: Assign good names to your trend control objects, to make it easy to identify the data files
and relate them to the trends which are visible on the device. Consider to add the name of
each trend to the page where the trend is shown, so that the user is able to clearly identify
each control and its data file.
If the trend control object name contains non-ASCII characters, the resulting file name will
be encoded in ISO-10646 (Unicode) and will be transferred to the client in UTF-8
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encoding, according to the FTP protocol extension RFC2640. Clients who support this
extension can then display these file names correctly. Most web-browser based FTP clients
either detect the UTF-8 encoding automatically or provide an option where the user may set
the desired encoding. To maximize compatibility to existing FTP clients, it is desirable to
use only ASCII characters for the name of trend control objects.
An easy way to manually access the files on the device is to use the windows explorer or a
web browser and type the following into the address/URL field:
ftp::<user>@<address>/
Replace <user> with the user name for data access as defined in the project settings and
<address> with the IP address or DNS name of the device, for example:
ftp::data@192.168.1.20/
You will then be asked for the password and the file system contents will be shown. You
can now navigate to the required files and download them to the local hard disk of your PC
for further processing.
NOTE: Since the trend data files are actually symbolic links to a device driver, you cannot directly
open the files on the device. Also, the file size may be shown as 0, because it is not
immediately known (the data is generated on the fly, while you are downloading it). You
may only download the files. Some FTP client software is known to have problems
processing symbolic links to files. They tend to display these files as being directories but
any attempt to open this directory will fail, since it really is a file. Examples for such
programs are FileZilla and Leech-FTP. If you encounter this problem with your FTP client,
use another client or fall back to the windows explorer or the command line FTP client
(which is known to work as well). If your device supports secure connections, programs like
WinSCP may also be used as an alternative to FTP clients. The SCP protocol uses only one
port and is therefore easier to handle in environments where NAT routers and firewalls are
present.
8.5.6.2 Operating Trend Controls
Trend controls do not allow data input, but they can be marked selectable. If the control is
selectable, touching it on the screen will display a vertical line at the touch point and open a
data window, showing the exact data which was recorded for the selected point of time. The
control will show the absolute date and time for the recorded data, as well as the value for
each of the curves displayed. Each value is printed in the same color as the corresponding
curve, to relate the displayed numbers with the curves.
The vertical line may be moved around in the control by dragging it around or touching
another location of the curve. The data in the data window will be updated accordingly.
If there is more than one page (the number of history pages was set to 1 or more), the user
can flip through the pages by moving the cursor to the rightmost or leftmost end or
touching the rightmost or leftmost end of the time axis. Small arrows will appear on both
ends of the time axis to indicate a good place to touch if you want to flip pages.
The control will return to normal operation when another control is selected or the user
touches any other location outside the selected trend control.
8.5.7 Date Control
The date control is a specialized control to display date, time and calendar weeks. In most
cases, the internal system time data point will be connected to the date control. However, it
is possible to assign any scalar data type to the date control. In that case, the received value
will be interpreted as the number of seconds since the first of January 1970.
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Color Name
Element to which the color applies
Text
Text color of the clock in text mode.
Tick Marks
Hour tick marks in graphic style.
Clock Hands
Hour and minute hands.
Second Hand
Second hand (if enabled).
Selection Frame
Frame drawn around the entire control, if the control is selected.
Frame
Circle around the clock face (if enabled).
Container
Background of the clock face.
Background
Color of the background outside the clock face or behind the text.
There are two different display modes for a date control: a text based mode and a graphical
analog clock simulation. Even though one date control can only use one of the two modes
at a time, two or more date controls may be used together to display the time as an analog
clock and the date as text on the same page.
A font for the text mode can be selected on the Common Properties page. All other
settings can be done on the Date/Time Control property page. There is a wizard to
generate a suitable format string for text mode, set the Style of the control (text or graphic)
and modify the look of the Graphic Style. The date format string for text mode can also be
entered directly on the Common Properties page. The exact format to use is described in
section 14.14.2 of this manual.
On the Color page, the following colors may be set:
Output data points may be connected to a date control, in which case the date control
becomes a date input control. The user may then input a date and time using the keypad.
The number of seconds which passed since the first of January 1970 and the given
date/time will be written to the connected output data points. This value is suitable to write
to the system time set register, to update the current system time on the device. However,
note that due to limits of the underlying operating system, the system time of the device
may not be set to a date before 1/1/1988.
8.5.8 Data Log Control
Data log controls are used to record data based on events, as opposed to trend log controls,
which record data continuously over time. The result of a data log is a list of data records
which were recorded at specific points in time. Each data record is composed out of one or
more visible elements to display the recorded data, like text, number, bitmap or date
controls.
The individual data records are created in the folder called Data Fields which is part of
every data log control. To add a new log record, select Add Record from the context menu
of the Data Fields folder. Then add the visible elements required to compose your data
record to the new folder and attach the data point you want to record. As you lay out the
visible elements to build a nice looking data record, the control adjusts its line height to
match the area required by your data record.
You will notice that each added data record already comes with a trigger object which has
similar properties than a math object. Connect the data points you want to monitor to
determine when to store this data record and enter the required formula on the property
page of the trigger object. Then select a trigger mode from the available choices. Refer to
section 8.13 for a complete description of trigger objects.
Table 16: Color assignment for date controls
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Color Name
Element to which the color applies
Highlight
Highlight color of 3D frames.
Shadow
Shadow color of 3D frames.
Horizontal Grid
Grid lines between data records.
Buttons
Button graphics.
Selection Frame
Frame drawn around the entire control, if the control is selected.
Background
Color of the background. If the transparent check box is set, all pixels
using this color will be transparent.
NOTE: If the trigger mode is set to any value update, there is no additional condition to enter in the
formula field, since the trigger will fire as soon as any of the connected input data points
receives an update.
It is possible to add as many data record layouts as needed and define a trigger condition for
each of the data records individually. To work on the layout of a specific data record, first
select the record in the tree view to make it visible in the LCD preview. You can then
continue to work on the record in the LCD view.
Properties specific to the data log control are configured on the Data Log Control page.
The options currently allow to define if the control should save the recorded data in
persistent memory, how often it should save the data and the total number of records to
save (when this number is reached, older data is overwritten with newer data). It is also
possible to enable or disable the navigation bar at the bottom of the control and set the size
of the buttons.
As with trend log controls, the recorded data is available in CSV format for download via
FTP. See the section about trend data access for detailed information about the retrieval of
this data from the device.
The following colors may be set for data log controls on the Color property page:
Table 17: Color assignment for data log controls
8.5.9 Schedule Control
The schedule control is a specialized control to serve as a schedule configuration editor for
local and remote scheduler objects. Starting with version 4.2.0 of the device firmware, there
are two different UI modes available for this control.
8.5.9.1 Standard Mode
In standard mode, the control displays a list of daily schedules in a very compact format,
suitable for small screens. However, for advanced configurations it may be difficult for the
user to determine the resulting overall time table for a certain date, since the individually
displayed daily schedules must be combined, based on date patterns and priority, to
determine the final events happening on a certain day. In cases where only the basic
weekday schedules and a very small number of exception schedules are used, the standard
UI mode may be appropriate.
NOTE: In this mode, it is possible to connect more than one schedule data point to the same
control. In this case, the title line will allow the user to select the schedule which he wants
to view or edit.
Please see section 6.2.1 for details about operating a schedule control in standard mode on
the running L-VIS device.
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8.5.9.2 Extended Mode
In extended mode, the control provides a calendar and event based view of the schedule
data. There are different pages of information, like for example a weekly overview, a time
table for a certain date, a list of scheduled events for a certain date, or a list of all events
currently stored in the schedule. This mode is suitable for complex schedule configurations,
possibly using an LWEB-801 server together with the Master Schedule Configurator
software.
The user will always see exactly which values are scheduled on a certain date, since the
control combines all the available daily schedules with their date patterns and priorities to
determine the resulting effective schedule. Also, changing the schedule is based on events,
similar to appointments in a calendar, with an effective date (most often repetitive), a start
and end time, a value, and a priority.
NOTE: In this mode, only one schedule data point can be connected to the control. This is because
the UI does not provide a way to display the name of the currently selected schedule or
switch between multiple schedules in the same control. To view and edit multiple schedules,
please use one dedicated control for each schedule. If there are multiple data points
connected to the control, the extended user mode option will be deactivated and cannot be
activated until the excess data points are removed from the control.
Please see section 6.2.2 for detailed information about how to operate a schedule control in
extended UI mode on the running device.
8.5.9.3 Font Settings
For this type of control, it is usually required to load a user defined font. The smallest builtin font is too small to operate the control on the LCD and the medium size built-in font is
too wide to be useful for many applications.
Therefore the configuration software automatically searches the list of loaded fonts for a
suitable font and, if none was found, automatically loads a font which should be a good
choice to get started. A specific font may be selected or loaded any time on the Common
Properties page.
NOTE: In extended UI mode, the control will try to keep all touchable areas large enough to be
usable, even if the selected font is small. In this mode, it is therefore possible to use the
smallest built-in font to save space on the screen and enable the user to see as much
information as possible, especially on the smaller L-Vis devices.
8.5.9.4 Schedule Control Properties
The properties to set on the Schedule Control property page define the basic appearance of
the control and control access to various operations which modify configuration data. If a
local scheduler data point is connected to the control, its configuration will be shown in the
preview as well. If more than one local scheduler point is connected, select the desired
scheduler point in the tree view to see a preview of the corresponding configuration data.
The following options concerning the controls appearance can be set:
Width of scroll bars: This number specifies the width of the scroll bars, if
enabled. The width should be chosen such that the bars are easily selectable by
the user (touch and drag) but not consume too much space.
ISO-8601 date format: This option selects the ISO-8601 specification to display
dates, which is a four digit year, a two digit month, and a two digit day, all
separated by hyphens (YYYY-MM-DD).
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DIN-1355 date format: This option selects the German DIN-1355 specification
to display dates. In this format, the order is day, month, and year, separated by
decimal points (DD.MM.YYYY).
US date format: This option selects the US date format, which uses the order
month, day, and year, separated by slashes (MM/DD/YYYY).
ISO-8601 week: This option instructs the control to adhere to the ISO-8601
specification to display the days of the week in the left column. ISO-8601 defines
Monday to be the first day of the week, so the day list will start with Monday. In
countries which do not use the ISO norm, turn this option off so that the day list
starts out with Sunday as the first day of the week.
Compact header: This option causes the control to generate a one line header,
placing the scheduler name left aligned and the effective period (if enabled) right
aligned. If the font is too large or the scheduler names are too long, there may not
be enough space and the effective period must either be disabled or shown on a
separate line.
Enable extended user interface: This option is available if the device firmware
is 4.2.0 or newer and there is only one data point connected to the control.
Activating this option sets the control to extended user mode.
The following options are available when the control is in standard mode:
Scroll daylist: This option enables a scroll bar for the list of days (left column).
If the number of total days is known and the control is sized such that all days are
visible, the scroll bar may be disabled to save space in horizontal direction.
Scroll time table: This option enables a scroll bar for the time table (right
column). Since the number of entries in this table is usually not known, it is a
good idea to keep this option checked. However, special applications may benefit
from the possibility of removing the scroll bar and gain even more space.
Don’t show effective period: This option can be used to hide the effective
period altogether. Useful to either save space or to make sure that the effective
period is never modified through this control.
The following options are available when the control is in extended UI mode:
Hide priority in event list: This option will hide the priority in the event view to
simplify the view and gain more space for the value and date pattern names.
12 hour time format (am/pm): Changes the display of time from 24 hour to 12
hour format.
Use am/pm as prefix: Available when 12 hour mode is enabled, tells the control
to use the strings for AM and PM as a prefix instead of a suffix. This option is
required for some languages to yield correct 12 hour time representation.
Use year/month/day suffix: This option is available when the date format is set
to ISO-8601. It changes the date format to add the localized strings for year,
month, and day as suffix to each date component, replacing the hyphens. This
option is required for some languages to yield commonly used date
representations, for example Japanese: 2011 年 12 月 14 日
Use hour/minute suffix: This option is available when the date format is set to
ISO-8601. It changes the time format to add the localized strings for hour and
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minute as a suffix. Used for some languages to yield commonly used time
representations, for example Japanese: 5 時 24 分
Use event colors for value: This option changes the way the event colors are
used to draw the weekly overview. Please see section 8.5.9.5 about the two
different modes.
Follow current date: This option causes the control to switch back to the weekly
overview and show the current week, after the device was idle for some time.
The idle time is controlled via the setting „Dim backlight after…‟ in the project
settings, since after this time, the device dims down the backlight and goes into
idle mode. Also, this option will cause the control to follow the current date
while the device is idle, meaning that the weekly overview page will be updated
to show the current day whenever the date changes (for example at midnight).
Use simplified priority scheme: This option hides the numerical priority values
from the user and instead provides a drop-down list of three fixed levels to
choose from (low/normal/high). The mapping is optimized to work together with
the LWEB master schedule Configurator system, which also uses three distinct
priority levels for the entered events. Even in a standalone system it may make
sense to use this option to make the UI easier to read for users which are not
familiar with the numerical priority scheme of the underlying network
technology. When this option is turned off, the technology specific priority
numbers will be used directly, so the user needs to know how they work. Usually,
lower numbers mean higher priority and the allowable range is different for each
network technology (0 to 15 for BACnet, 1 to 127 for CEA709).
Prefer event list over time table: This option changes the navigation on the
weekly overview page. Normally, touching a day column switches to the time
table of the selected day, whereas touching the day column header shows the
event list. Turning this option on, means that the user prefers to go directly to the
event list. Therefore, touching the day column will show the event list, whereas
touching the day column header will show the time table.
The following colors may be set for schedule controls on the Color property page:
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Color Name
Element to which the color applies
Text
Color for all text areas of the control.
Highlight
Highlight color of 3D frames.
Shadow
Shadow color of 3D frames.
Horizontal Grid
Grid line color.
Scrollbar
Scroll bar and scroll arrow graphics, only available when the control is
used in standard UI mode.
Frame
Color for various flat (non-3D) frames, only available when the control
is used in extended UI mode.
Buttons
Foreground color of button symbols.
Button Backgr.
Background color of buttons.
Event 1
First color to use for graphical display of events (extended mode).
Event 2
Second color to use for graphical display of events (extended mode).
Event 3
Third color to use for graphical display of events (extended mode).
Selection Frame
Frame drawn around the entire control, if the control is selected. Not
used when the control is in extended mode.
Header
Background color of the header lines and color for deactivated
schedules (day names in the left column) and menu items. Only
available in standard UI mode.
Dialog Backgr.
Background color for the event dialog. Choose a color on which your
text color is readable and which is different from the container color.
Usually a color slightly darker than the container color works best.
Only available in extended UI mode.
Container
Background of the day list and time table.
Background
Color of the remaining background (only a one pixel wide frame
around the control, where the selection frame will be drawn when the
control is selected). If the transparent check box is set, all pixels using
this color will be transparent.
8.5.9.5 Event Colors
The extended UI mode uses up to three different colors to display individual events
graphically in the weekly overview. There are two different ways these colors can be used,
depending on the setting of the option ‘Use event colors for value’. The two coloring modes
are explained below.
When the option ‘Use event colors for value’ is enabled, the three available event colors are
assigned to the available value presets in a round robin fashion. The first value will use
event color 1, the second value will use event color 2, and the third value is drawn in event
color 3. If there are more values available, the color assignment will start at color 1 again
(value 4 uses color 1 and so on). This mode is especially suitable for schedules where
events do not normally overlap each other or overlapping events typically also use different
values. Also, this mode works best if the number of distinct values is small, for example
occupied/unoccupied/override or other small enumerations. It may cause confusion in
schedules where arbitrary discrete values are entered, like for example a temperature setpoint. In such a system, adding a new value which is lower than another already used value,
the color assignments will change. In this case, the option should be turned off to use the
standard color mode (see below).
When the option is not selected, the colors are used such that events of different priority use
different colors. All events are internally sorted by priority and then drawn in groups of
same priority events. For each new group, a new event color is used. If more than three
different priority levels are used on the same day, the event colors will be re-used in a
round robin fashion. This mode is especially suitable in situations where a large number of
Table 18: Color assignment for schedule controls
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different values are used and frequently changed, for example when a temperature set-point
or other discrete value is scheduled. The color selection in this mode will cause all values
scheduled at standard priority to be drawn in event color 1, with colors 2 and 3 only used
for values scheduled at the same day at higher priorities. In case these events overlap the
lower priority events, the overlapping will be clearly visible because the color of the higher
priority event is different. For schedules which use a small number of fixed output values,
for example occupied/unoccupied/override, this mode may cause confusion because
„unoccupied‟ may be drawn in different colors on different days, depending on the priority,
when the user would expect the same color to be used consistently for the individual
enumerations.
8.5.9.6 Access Levels
The right side of the Schedule Control property page is used to define access levels for
various operations which may need to be restricted because they modify schedule
configuration data. These restrictions apply in addition to the general required access level
for the control, as set on the Common property page. The following operations can be
protected individually:
Change time of existing events: This operation allows the user to change the time
(hour and minute) at which a value presets is scheduled. The entry in the time
table must already be there, since this operation only allows modifying the time
for existing entries.
Change preset selection: This operation allows the user to change the value
preset which is scheduled at a certain time. The entry in the time table must
already exist, the user may select a different preset from the list of available
presets, for example change the air condition from economy to comfort.
Edit values of existing presets: This operation allows changing the physical
values which are assigned to existing value presets. The user may for example
change the light level assigned to the bright setting from 80 to 100 percent.
Define new presets: This operation allows the user to define new value presets, if
the scheduler unit controls only one value.
Add and remove entries: This operation allows the user to add and remove entries
in the time table. Also bound to this operation are the related operations to clear
entire days, copy them to other days, as well as enabling and disabling individual
days.
Change effective period: This operation allows the user to change the effective
period of the schedule, thereby enabling and disabling not only single days but
the entire scheduler unit.
Edit day patterns of exception days: This operation allows write access to the
contents of the calendar which is connected to the scheduler unit. The user may
add, remove, and edit entries in the calendar which define the days on which a
certain exception schedule is active. Also linked to this access right is the setting
of the exception day priority.
To change the minimum required access level to perform one of these operations, select the
operation from the list and select the desired access level from the dropdown box below the
list. Keep in mind that the minimum access level specified for the entire control on the
Common property page must be satisfied in addition to the levels specified here.
8.5.10 Alarm-List Control
The alarm list control is a specialized control to display a list of alarms from an alarm
server or alarm client data point. It is possible to connect more than one alarm data point to
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the same control, in which case the control will display a list of all alarms from all
connected points in chronological order.
The control always displays the newest alarm at the top with older alarms following further
down. At the bottom of the control is a navigation bar which displays the number of pages
the list currently uses and allows to navigate through the pages.
Alarm entries which may be acknowledged are shown with a small ACK button at the right
end of the alarm entry. Pressing this button will send an alarm acknowledgment back to the
reporting alarm server and change the color of the button. Once the server received the
acknowledgment, it may send an updated alarm status and the button or the entire entry
may disappear, depending on the configuration of the control.
The default information displayed for each alarm is the date and time the alarm was first
reported, the type of alarm, the current state of the alarm and, in the second line, an
identification of the alarm source as well as a description and possibly the value which
caused the alarm. The layout and display of the various information fields can be freely
configured using the two lists on the List Entry Setup property page.
The list at the very left contains all available information fields and, at the end of the list, a
special item to insert a line break as well as one item to insert custom text. The buttons
between the two lists are used to add, remove, or change the order of items in the right list.
The list to the right defines the final layout of the entries in the alarm control. While
changing the display list, the effect can be seen immediately on the LCD preview.
Depending on the underlying network technology and the fact if the alarm was reported by
a local or by a remote alarm server, not all of this information may be available, so that
entries may be missing some of the information. Some information items, like the
acknowledge time and source or the clear time become available during the life cycle of an
alarm. If not yet applicable, such fields may be shown as dashes.
On the Alarm Log Control property page, the following options can be set:
ISO-8601 date format: This option selects the ISO-8601 specification to display
dates, which is a four digit year, a two digit month, and a two digit day, all
separated by hyphens (YYYY-MM-DD).
DIN-1355 date format: This option selects the German DIN-1355 specification to
display dates. In this format, the order is day, month, and year, separated by
decimal points (DD.MM.YYYY).
US date format: This option selects the US date format, which uses the order
month, day, and year, separated by slashes (MM/DD/YYYY).
Read only (no ACK buttons): This option, when checked, instructs the control
never to show ACK buttons. It is intended for users who want to create a „view
only‟ alarm list, with no possibility to acknowledge alarms. While a similar effect
may also be obtained by setting the controls access level (for example to level 15),
the result is different. Using access control, the ACK buttons will still be visible,
so there will be less room to show other information. Also, a user with a high
enough access level will still be able to acknowledge alarms in this case.
Enable Navigation Bar: This option enables the navigation bar. This will usually
be enabled to allow the user to navigate to older entries of the list, which do not fit
on the first page.
12 hour time format (am/pm): Changes the display of time from 24 hour to 12
hour format.
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Use am/pm as prefix: Available when 12 hour mode is enabled, tells the control
to use the strings for AM and PM as a prefix instead of a suffix. This option is
required for some languages to yield correct 12 hour time representation.
Use year/month/day suffix: This option is available when the date format is set to
ISO-8601. It changes the date format to add the localized strings for year, month,
and day as suffix to each date component, replacing the hyphens. This option is
required for some languages to yield commonly used date representations, for
example Japanese: 2011 年 12 月 14 日
Use hour/minute suffix: This option is available when the date format is set to
ISO-8601. It changes the time format to add the localized strings for hour and
minute as a suffix. Used for some languages to yield commonly used time
representations, for example Japanese: 5 時 24 分 23 秒
Keep Alarm History: If this checkbox is set, the control will keep alarms even if
they are already cleared and also store the list in non volatile memory, so that it is
not lost when the device restarts. In this mode of operation, the control can
function as an alarm log, showing older, already processed alarms in addition to
the currently pending alarms.
Max. Age of History Entries: This input field specifies the number of days the
occurrence of an alarm must lie in the past, before the entry is removed from the
list. This applies only to alarms which are already cleared and are not pending
acknowledgment (either not acknowledgeable or already acknowledged).
Max. Number of History Entries: This input field specifies the desired
maximum number of entries in the alarm list. If there are inactive alarms in the list
which exceed this number, they may be removed by the control at the next chance
(usually when a new alarm comes in) to make room for new entries. However, like
the age limit, this limit does not apply to currently pending alarms, which are
always visible as long as there is enough memory available on the device.
Height of Navigation Bar: This input field specifies the desired height of the
navigation bar, in pixel. Higher bars mean bigger navigation buttons.
Floating point value field precision: This input field specifies the number of
significant digits to print for alarm values.
NOTE: If an action object is connected to the alarm list control and the action trigger is set to
‘value update’, the action will be executed whenever a new entry is added to the alarm list.
This can be used to switch to a specific page (action ‘show page’) or write a value to a data
point (action ‘update data points’) to notify the user of the new alarm list entry.
The following colors may be set for alarm list controls on the Color property page:
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Color Name
Element to which the color applies
Text
Color for the text printed by the control.
Highlight
Highlight color of 3D frames.
Shadow
Shadow color of 3D frames.
Horizontal Grid
Grid line color.
Buttons
Button graphics and page information in the navigation bar and text color
for the label of the ACK button.
Button Backgr.
Background color of the acknowledge button.
Active Text
Text color for entries which are currently in alarmed state.
Active Backgr.
Background color for entries which are currently in alarmed state.
Selection Frame
Frame drawn around the entire control, if the control is selected.
Container
Background color of the alarm entries in normal state.
Background
Color of the control background. If the transparent check box is set, all
pixels using this color will be transparent. Note that this color is only
visible in areas where no alarm entries are drawn.
Table 19: Color assignment for alarm list controls
8.5.11 Vector Drawing Control
The vector drawing control is similar to a bitmap control (see also section 8.5.2). The main
difference is, that the control displays a vector drawing object instead of a bitmap. The
drawing can be created from within the configuration software and is limited to simple
objects. More complex drawings can be created by combining multiple drawing objects into
one larger object using collection objects (folders). To create a new drawing object, select
Add Drawing from the context menu of the page and choose the desired drawing type from
the list of available choices:
Lines: This adds a line drawing to the page and enters drawing mode. Please see
section 8.5.11.1 below for detailed information on how to use the drawing mode.
Rectangle: This adds a new rectangle to the page and draws it according to the
selected properties, as detailed below.
Circle: This adds a new circle to the page and draws it according to the selected
properties.
Polygon: This adds a new closed polygon drawing. Drawing mode is similar to
line drawing (see also section 8.5.11.1) except that the drawing consists only of a
number of points instead of a number of lines. This makes a difference when
editing the drawing later on. Polygon drawings support shapes which have
crossing lines.
The properties of the drawing object are set on the combined Text / Bitmap / Drawing
property page. For the visual appearance, the following properties are available:
3D Outline: Available for rectangles and circles, defines that the object should be
drawn with a 3D outline. Line color 1 is used as the highlight color, whereas line
color 2 is used as the shadow color, similar to other controls supporting the 3D
effect.
Filled: Available for rectangles, circles, and polygon drawings, defines that the
object should be filled with the color specified as the container color, rather than
the background color. To draw a frame only, leave this option unchecked and
make sure the transparent background option on the Color property page is
checked.
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Color Name
Element to which the color applies
Lines
Line color of lines and normal frames.
Highlight
Highlight color of 3D frames.
Shadow
Shadow color of 3D frames.
Selection Frame
Frame drawn around the entire control, if the control is selected.
Container
Used to fill rectangles and circles, if the fill option is set. This color may be
replaced dynamically by colors in the attached mapping table
Background
Color of the control background. If the transparent check box is set, all
pixels using this color will be transparent.
Line Width: Defines the line with used to draw the lines of a line or polygon
drawing and the outline of a rectangle or circle.
Corner Radius: Available for rectangles, defines the desired corner radius for a
rounded rectangle. Leave this value at zero to disable rounded corners. Note that
this value defines the radius of the outer edge of the rectangles outline. The
resulting inner radius depends on the selected line width.
The following colors may be set for drawing controls on the Color property page:
Table 20: Color assignment for vector drawing controls
For data input, the push button mode can be used. This mode works the same as for text and
bitmap controls (see section 8.5.3 for a description of the push button mode). From the
attached mapping table, drawing objects use the assigned color to fill rectangles, circles,
and polygons, or draw the lines of a line drawing. This can be used to create drawings
which change their color based on the controls value.
NOTE: For polygon drawings, the active area to touch the control is limited to the shape of the
polygon. This includes all areas which would be drawn in the container color if the polygon
is filled.
For input methods which exceed the possibilities of push button mode, overlay the drawing
control with the required type of data input control, for example a number or text control,
and use this control to handle data input.
8.5.11.1 Drawing Mode
Rectangles and circles always fill the entire control. To modify their shape or position on
the screen, just change the size or position of the control as required. To edit a line drawing
object, a special drawing mode is required. This mode is automatically entered for a newly
added line or polygon drawing and can be reactivated later at any time by selection the item
Edit Contents from the context menu of the control.
While in drawing mode, the control occupies the entire screen. New lines or points may
therefore be drawn anywhere on the page. When leaving drawing mode later, the control
will be resized to the smallest possible outline around the drawing.
The following simple operations are currently supported in drawing mode:
Add new lines (line drawing): To add one or more lines, left-click at the desired
start position of the line. Release the left button and drag the line to the desired end
point. If another line segment should be appended, left-click at the desired end of
the first line and beginning of the next line and repeat the process. If no further
line segment should be added, right-click at the desired end position to finish.
Add new points (polygon drawing): To add another point to the polygon, left-click
at the desired position of the point. The new point will be inserted between the last
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and the first point of the drawing and the lines will be drawn according to the new
shape. To add more points, repeat the procedure as needed. Press the right mouse
button to end point insertion mode.
Move points: Start and end points of a line drawing and points of a polygon
drawing may be moved after they were drawn. Move the mouse near the point to
move. The cursor changes shape to indicate that a moveable point was detected.
Now press and hold the left mouse button while dragging the point to its new
location. Release the mouse button when done.
Remove lines (line drawing): Lines may be removed from the drawing by a right-
click anywhere on the line.
Remove points (polygon drawing): Points may be removed from the polygon by a
right-click on the desired point.
Insert points (polygon drawing): New points can be inserted along a line between
two existing points of a polygon by pressing and holding the left mouse button on
the line to which a new point should be added. The new point can then be moved
to the desired position by dragging with the mouse and releasing the left mouse
button when done.
8.6 Data Point
Data point objects control the data transfer between a register or a network value and the
controls or other data processing objects on the device. To archive this data transfer, there
are tree objects involved:
End drawing mode: To exit drawing mode, right-click anywhere on the page,
except over a line (see the remove lines function above). The control will leave
drawing mode and be resized to the smallest possible outline. It can now be treated
like any other control and can be moved to its final location on the page.
The control element, which acts as the interface to the user, or any other object
which processes data, like mathematical objects, alarm generators, or action
objects.
A data object as the source or sink of data, for example an internal user register,
a system parameter, a network variable or a BACnet server object or client
mapping.
A data point object which references a specific data object and thereby links a
control to a data source or sink. It also defines the properties of this data link, for
example when new data is to be transferred between the data object and the
control and how the data should be converted when it is transferred.
The control is created as part of the object tree, as outlined in the tutorial. It exists
independently of any register or network object. Even if all registers and network objects
were to be deleted, the control would not be affected.
The data object itself is not represented as an object in the tree view, because it is not part
of the user interface and is not bound to any of the other objects in the tree. Data objects
exist on the device independent from the user interface and are identified by a unique ID.
They are created and managed in a separate window, the Data Point Management and
Selection dialog. In some cases they are created automatically, like the data objects
representing the system parameters or data objects representing dynamic network variables,
which may be present on a CEA-709 device.
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NOTE: Data objects may be thought of as the source or sink of a data flow, where every object has
a defined direction (either source or sink, e.g. data coming in or data going out). For
internally created registers, two such data objects are created, one to write data to the
register and one to fetch the current register value. Input and output network objects are
represented by a single data object with the appropriate direction, BACnet value objects
and other objects which may be read and written are represented by two data objects, one
for read access and one for write access.
Structured network objects, as available on CEA-709 devices, are represented by individual
data objects for each of the structure elements in addition to the object representing the
entire network variable. However, most of the complex data objects, which represent more
than a single scalar value are not supported by most controls and cannot be attached to
them. The following exceptions to this rule apply for the current devices:
SNVT_switch: Data output objects of this type may be directly connected to an
alarm generator to control the entire switch. See also section 8.10 for detailed
information about alarm generators.
SNVT_alarm2: As above, data outputs of this type may be connected to an
alarm generator to send out alarm messages.
SNVT_str_asc: This and other string data types (string registers) may be directly
connected to a text control. The string received via these objects will be
displayed directly on the text control, without a lookup in a mapping table. If the
data point is an output point, the string selected from the mapping table is directly
assigned to the data point, without converting to a number first. If the string
contains non-ASCII characters, they are represented in the ISO-10646 character
set and are transferred in UTF-8 encoded format. This way, it is possible to
exchange strings in any language between two L-VIS devices.
The data point object is the object created when Add Data Point… is selected from the
context menu of a control to assign a data point to it. The reason why the assignment of
data objects to controls is done via a separate object, instead of directly connecting a
physical data object to the control has a number of reasons. The most important ones are:
1. Data objects represent network objects which exist on the device. They must be
independent of the existence of any control or other user interface object. If a
data object were to be connected to a control and the control is deleted, the data
object would be deleted as well. Using a reference object to link the control to an
existing data object solves this problem. Deleting the control will also delete the
reference object (the data point), but not the data object itself.
2. Many projects need to link multiple controls to the same data object, for example
to display a temperature which is received by a certain object from the network
on a bar control and on a numeric control at the same time. This would not be
possible if the data object would be directly connected to a control, since it could
only be at one place in the object tree at a time. A separate link or reference
object is required, which points to the data object from which the control should
receive its value updates.
3. Sometimes it is required to apply simple linear transformations to the data objects
raw value before it can be displayed. For example, an object may receive a
temperature value from the network in degrees Celsius, but the temperature
displayed on the device should show degrees Fahrenheit, or a data object
provides a speed in meters per second, but the display should read mph or km/h.
Such translations can be done by the data point on the fly, while passing values
between the control and the data object. This makes it easy to display for
example a temperature from an input data object both in degrees Celsius and in
degreed Fahrenheit side by side, using two data points referencing the same data
object, but using different value translations.
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It is important to understand this concept to understand what can be configured on the Data
Point property page. The key is that there can and usually will be multiple data points
referencing the same data object.
8.6.1 Data Point Properties
The following properties can be set on the Data Point property page:
Value Translation: If the unit of the data point is known and there are some commonly used
translations available for this unit, one of the pre-defined translations can be selected from
the drop down list. A custom translation can be defined by filling out the formula below the
drop down list. In this formula, NV stands for the value on the network side (Network
Value), that is, the value of the data point, and DP stands for the value of the data point as
seen by controls or other objects which are connected via this data point.
NOTE: The value translation of a data point can be very useful to modify a value on its way
between a data processing object and a register or network value. Using this facility,
simple data manipulation like the inversion of a state or the addition or subtraction of a
fixed offset can be archived without using a separate math object. For example, an action
which toggles a light switch may be implemented by assigning the inverted feedback input
(current switch state) to the control output. The inversion is done with DP=-1*NV+1.
The Details section shows details of the referenced data object, like the name of the
underlying network object, the network object type, units, and other information. Also
shown is the unique ID of the referenced data object, by which the object may be located in
the data point management window for further inspection or modification.
In the Data Point Update Flags section, the value update mode is specified. There are three
basic modes available, together with some additional options:
No Update: This means that this data point will not request the underlying data
object to be updated, even when the value on the control side changes. Useful if
this data point represents one element of a structured data object, and updates to
this element should not cause the complete object to be transmitted on the
network.
Focus Loss: This update mode transmits the new value only when the input
control returned focus and left input mode, that is, when the final value is known.
Intermediate values, which are for example generated by moving the bar of a bar
control around, are not immediately transmitted. Use this option for push button
mode (see section 8.5.3 for more information).
Immediate: All values are immediately transmitted to the underlying data object.
This provides direct feedback to the user, while the control is still in input mode
and the user is still modifying the value. Currently really only useful for bar
controls and controls which use the keypad, since the keypad has + and – keys,
which send out intermediate values.
System Startup: The checkbox System Startup should be checked to instruct the
device to update the value on system startup. If the underlying data object is a
value output, the default value or the last stored value will be sent out, if it is a
value input, the device will try to request the current value from the sender. Both
actions can only be successful if the underlying network technology supports
them. In cases where the requested operation cannot be executed, it is silently
ignored. For example if the polled flag of an input network variable is not set, the
device will not be able to fetch the current value from the sender, since it has no
knowledge of the senders network address and therefore can not send a request
for a value update.
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Value Changes Only: This option causes the data point to forward updates only
if the value actually changed. It is very useful to avoid unnecessary operations
caused by repeated updates with the same value, provided that the data point does
not represent an event, in which case all updates must be processed and this
option should not be used.
No Invalid Updates: This option causes the data point to filter out updates which
set the value invalid (for example because the value cannot be determined from
the network). Normally the invalid state is passed on to the other side. If this
option is checked, the update is not forwarded, so that there is no change to the
current value.
Map Invalid to Default: This option causes the data point to map invalid
updates to the default value specified in the Default field. This is useful for input
data points which may be unavailable (for example not bound) and this situation
is not considered an error. Using this option, unavailable data can be replaced by
a safe default. If the invalid state would be forwarded and the value would be
used in a calculation, the entire result of the calculation would become invalid,
which may not be desired.
Reverse Direction: This option inverts the data direction of the data point to be
the opposite of the referenced data source, for example, the value of an output
NV may be used as input for a math object or a trigger or may be trended by a
trend log control. Similar, the current value of an input NV may be set by a math
object or from user input via a control.
In the Data Point Value area, the Default Value for the data point can be set. This will be
the value of the data point until a new value is received from either the network or the user
or a value which was saved to non volatile memory is loaded after system start. If this field
is left blank, the initial value of the data point will be invalid (this state is also visible on the
controls). Writing the invalid value to a BACnet client mapping will execute a withdraw
operation, that is, the value is removed from the priority array of the remote device.
NOTE: The default value of a data point ultimately refers to the value of the underlying data object.
Since the referenced data object can only have one value at a time, the entered default
value will apply to all other data points which reference the same data object as well. The
entered value will be run through the value translation to determine the resulting value for
the underlying data object and this value will be distributed back to all connected data
points to maintain consistency. Only if the data point is marked as ‘constant value’, this
process is not done (see next paragraph). When adding a constant value data point, set the
constant value flag before entering the desired constant value, in order to not disturb the
default value of the non-constant data points.
If the Constant Value checkbox is set, the point is marked as constant and the entered
default value will not be overwritten by values received from the network or data entered
by the user. In addition, you may set differing default values for data points which reference
the same underlying data object, if the data point is marked as constant value.
NOTE: Constant value data points are often very useful together with push buttons of any kind.
Create two or more push buttons, for example three text controls with the static texts LOW,
MEDIUM and HIGH, enable push button mode and request to always send the current
value, then add a temperature output data point to each of the three controls (always
referencing the same data object). Now you can set the data points to constant value and
enter different values for each of the three points (for example 18, 22 and 24). When the
user now presses the LOW button, the value 18 will be sent out. When he presses the
MEDIUM button, the value 22 will be sent.
The Persistent option is used to request that the current value of the data point should be
preserved across a reboot of the device and be used as the new default value, until updates
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are received. Since the value which will be saved is the value of the referenced data object,
this option will also affect all other data points which reference the same data object.
NOTE: The persistent option is useful for output data points which need to be sent out after system
boot (System Startup flag is set) but are controlled by actions or math objects instead of
direct user input. Such data points must preserve their last calculated output value across
the reboot, but there is no control which would normally cause the output value to be stored
when the user finishes data input. Checking the persistent flag will solve this problem.
The NV Timing section is used to control the timing of update messages on the network,
resulting from this data point. A minimum and maximum send time may be specified for
output data points, a receive timeout may be specified for input data points. A value of 0
always means „unlimited‟. The individual parameters work as follows:
MinSend: At least the specified amount of time has to pass between two
successive update messages on the network. If the device delivers mode updates
than this, intermediate values will not be sent out, until the minimum send time
has passed, at which time the current (most recent) value is sent out.
MaxSend: If this amount of time has passed without any updates, usually
because the value did not change in the meantime, then the current value will be
sent out. This is commonly described as a heartbeat function, used to allow the
receiver to detect if the sender is still alive and just not sending new information
because there is none, or if the sender has died and therefore no new data is
received.
PollTime: Can work as a simple poll interval, or as a receive timeout. Usually
used as receive timeout for bound NVs on CEA-709 devices and otherwise used
as poll cycle time. If used as a receive timeout, it specifies the amount of time
after which the device sends out a poll request, if no value update was received.
As a poll cycle, it specifies the amount of time after which a periodic poll request
should be sent out, independent of any updates which might have been received
in the mean time.
8.7 Mapping Table
The mapping table is used to map values of numeric data points to text strings, bitmaps
and/or colors. The mapping table object controls the display of text controls, bitmap
controls, numeric controls and bar controls and may be added to these objects.
A mapping table can include text, bitmaps and colors at the same time. If connected to a
text control, the text part will be shown together with the color settings. When the same
mapping object is connected to a bitmap control, the bitmap will be shown. Number and bar
controls use the color setting only.
8.7.1 Mapping Table Properties
The properties of a mapping table are set on the Mapping property page. The New Entry
button on this page adds a new entry to the mapping table.
NOTE: If you want to add a new entry, but the New Entry button is grayed out, you most likely have
a control selected in the tree view which does not yet have a mapping table object attached
to it. Go back to the tree view and add a mapping table object, or use the Load button to
load a mapping table from a file.
The value component of the new entry defines the lower limit for the input value to display
the given text, bitmap and/or color. Since multiple entries will be present in the table, the
entered values build up ranges, which define the texts and bitmaps to display for every
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Value
Text
Displayed when value is…
0
OFF
< 10
10
LOW
10 – 19.9999
20
NORMAL
20 – 49.9999
50
HIGH
>= 50
possible numeric value. The valid range for each entry in the mapping table is defined to
reach from the value of the entry itself, up to but not including the value of the succeeding
entry. If this is the last entry, it is used for all values up to +infinite, since there is no more
entry to define an upper bound. For practical reasons, the first entry in the table always
ignores the entered limit and is also used for any value lower than its own limit.
Here is an example with four entries:
Once a mapping is defined, it can be stored to a file (Save button) and loaded (Load button)
to define the mapping for other controls in subsequent projects. This way, an archive of
frequently used mappings can be built for use in various projects. To use the same mapping
for other controls of the same project, just copy and paste the mapping table object in the
tree view.
The same mapping table can be used in both directions. Translating incoming values to
texts, bitmaps, or colors, as well as looking up a value to send out, when the user selects a
given element from the mapping table via a dropdown list or a push button browses the
table to find the next entry.
NOTE: All texts, bitmaps and colors used in a mapping table are included in the file when the
mapping table is saved, so that the mapping file is self contained and can be loaded and
used on different PCs, even when the source bitmap files may not be available.
To define the color for a single entry, either select the entry from the list and click the color
button to the right of the text input field, or directly click in the area to the right of the text
whose color you want to set (in the color bar). A color selection dialog will appear, from
which you may select the desired color.
NOTE: To define a mapping table entry which should not modify the current color, set the color of
the entry to Unset (shown by the black cross).
To define a color gradient for a number of entries (for example going from red to green),
set the color for all entries which should have a specific color and leave all others unset
(black cross). Then hit the button to the right of the New Entry button. This will recognize
all entries with set colors as fixed and calculate gradients between them, assigning suitable
colors to all previously unset entries.
NOTE: The gradient function will operate on the alpha channel in the same way as for the normal
color value, so that on devices which support ARGB color mode, this function can be used
to generate gradients from opaque to transparent.
To set a range of entries back to unset (to re-run the gradient algorithm), you can multiselect the entries from the list and then reset their color back to unset all at the same time.
8.8 Action Objects
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Action objects are used to execute various actions on special occasions. As such, they are
often connected to controls, to trigger an action when the user touches, releases, or selects a
control. In some cases, they are connected to data point connector objects, to watch
incoming data point values and trigger an action when a certain value is received.
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In any case, the action objects need a parent object which is able to feed the required
information to the connected action, such that the action may monitor what‟s going on and
trigger at the right moment. Currently these objects are controls and data point connectors.
For every action object, there are three basic things which need to be defined:
Action: What should be done when the action triggers?
Trigger: When should the action be considered for execution?
Condition: Once triggered, under what conditions should the action be executed
and how, if at all, should it be repeated?
When a new action is defined, it is important to think about these three components and
make sure the selected choices actually make sense. Each of the above properties may be
controlled individually, but not all of the possible combinations will actually make sense.
Examples of good and bad configurations and how to avoid the bad ones will be given later
on.
8.8.1 Action Properties
Actions are objects which are not visible on the screen of the device, so they do not use any
of the common properties like font, position, size, or color. Aside from the General
properties, which apply to all objects, actions are configured on the Action property page.
This page is divided in two sections. The top half is used to define the action that should be
executed, when it will trigger, and the conditions under which it will be repeated. The
bottom half is used to set options which may be required for some of the actions.
From the first dropdown list, select the action you want to execute. Currently available
actions are:
Show menu: Show the current menu, just like performing a press and hold
operation on an empty spot on the display. Useful to build menu buttons which
show the menu when pressed.
Show page: Jump to the specified page. To select a page, drag a page and drop it
on the action object in the tree view. The path to the page will be shown in the
option area below.
Next page: Show the next page of a multi-page menu item. This is equivalent to
the „next page‟ touch gesture and is useful to build a „next‟ button.
Prev page: Same as above, but show the previous page.
Sound buzzer: Output a tone on the internal buzzer. The frequency and duration
of the tone can be adjusted in the Options section. Useful to create audible alarms
when a data point or register reaches a certain value.
Turn on backlight: Turn on the LCD backlight, just as if the user touched the
display. Useful to turn on the backlight based on information from a presence
sensor.
Update data points: Assign a value to all connected output data points. The
value to send out can be preset by connecting input data points to the action
object. Useful to update the value of data points under certain conditions. Often
used to save the current value of an input data point to an internal register when a
button is pressed, or similar applications. When the connected output data point
is a constant value point, the action may be used to write a fixed value to a
register or network object when the action triggers.
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Service Pin Message: Execute the system command „send service pin message‟,
which is supported by CEA-709 models.
Lock Pages (Logout): Immediately protects all locked pages. The user has to
enter the PIN code again to unlock the locked pages.
Back one page: Show the page from which the current page was reached, similar
to the „back‟ button in a web browser. The system keeps a record of the last 256
pages visited via the show page action and picks the most recent of them to
navigate back one step.
Send E-Mail: Send out the mail referenced by the action. To select the mail
template to use, press the Select… button next to the link line and select the
desired mail template. Please refer to section 9.8 for a detailed description of mail
templates.
Play sound: Available for 12” and 15” devices and LWEB, this action will play a
sound selected from the list of loaded sounds. Note that this action will also stop
any other sound which may currently be playing.
Stop sound: This action will stop any sound playback which may currently be in
progress.
NOTE: The action update data points can also be used to increment or decrement the value of a
register or of a network output / feedback input pair, which is required to implement
up/down buttons to dim light or modify a temperature set point. To do this, connect the
register read point (or the network feedback point) as well as the register write point (or
network output point) to the action. Use the value translation of the read point to modify the
incoming value as required (add or subtract a fixed value). When the action is executed, the
modified input value will be assigned back to the output value. Since both refer to the same
local register or remote actor, the value of the register or the remote actor will be changed.
Once the action type is selected, choose the desired trigger mode from the dropdown list
next to the action list (Execute <action> on <trigger>). The following trigger mechanisms
are available:
selection: The action is triggered when the control is selected. A control is
selected when the user touches the control and releases the touch screen while
still inside the control. If the user moves outside the control after the touch and
releases the screen outside, the control will not be selected.
value update: The action is triggered when the parent object (the control or data
point connector to which the action is assigned) reports a new value, for example
because a new value was received via an input data point, which is connected to
the control (NOT to the action) or when the user enters a new value using the
control.
state: This is similar to the value update trigger, but it examines the first data
point connected to the parent object to see if it is a multi-state value. If this is the
case, the dropdown list next to the action trigger is initialized with the available
states and the user can select a state from the dropdown list, instead of entering a
numerical value. The action is triggered when the current state equals the state
selected from the dropdown. If the parent value is not a multi-state value, this
trigger cannot be used.
touch: The action is triggered when the control is touched. Note the difference to
the selection trigger, which fires only when the screen is again released inside the
control. A touch is also triggered when the control was released by moving
outside without releasing the screen, and then returning back inside the control.
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release: The action is triggered when the touch screen is released while inside the
control, or when the touch position moves outside the control while the screen is
still being touched.
short press: The action is triggered when the control is released after it was
touched for a period shorter than the configured long press threshold. This value
can be defined in the project settings and defaults to 1 second. See section 13.1.2
for more information.
long press: The action is triggered when the control is continuously touched for
the duration of a long press, as configured in the project settings. The default is
one second.
show page: The action is triggered when the page to which this action object is
connected is displayed. This trigger mode is therefore only available for page
actions.
leave page: The action is triggered when the page to which this action is
connected is hidden. This trigger mode is therefore only available for page
actions.
NOTE: The trigger of touch and release actions while moving the touch position around between
controls (without releasing the touch screen) is consistent with the display of the selection
frame. Moving from one control to another without releasing the touch screen will cause
the selection frame to follow the movement, always marking the control which is currently
touched. The touch and release actions will follow the same pattern, triggering the touch
action when the selection frame appears and triggering the release action when the
selection frame disappears.
While the action type is independent of the parent object to which the action is connected,
the available action triggers vary depending on the capabilities of the parent object, since
the action object needs information from its parent to check for trigger and execute
conditions. The following limits apply:
Control: If the action is connected to a control, all available triggers and
conditions may be used, since a control delivers both a value and user input
events (touch, release, select and similar). If a value-dependent trigger mode or
condition is used, at least one input data point will usually be connected to the
control to deliver new values.
Data Point Connector: If the action is connected to a data point connector, any
triggers or conditions which require user input are not available. A data point
connector can only feed a current value to the action, therefore the only trigger
modes which will actually trigger are value update and state. From the
conditions, the „while touched‟ condition cannot be used, since it would require
the parent to feed user input information.
Page: If the action is connected to a page, none of the triggers which require a
value update are available, since a page does not receive value updates.
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NOTE: To avoid confusing situations, it is required that only one object at a time is processing user
input. Therefore, if an action is connected to a control and the action uses a trigger mode
which depends on user input, for example touch, release, or selection, the user input will
no longer be processed by the control but will instead be forwarded to the action. This
will effectively prevent the control from entering input mode and accepting user input, even
if an output data point is be connected to the control.
The action type and trigger mode are now selected. The next step is to select the condition
under which the action may be executed. The following conditions are available from a
dropdown list directly below the action type:
Execute once: When the action trigger fires, the action is executed once, without
further conditions. This is one of the most widely used settings.
Repeat action: As above, but the action is repeated for a fixed number of times,
which is entered in the field to the right of the dropdown box. This is the total
number of times the action is executed at most, including the first time. After
each execution, a delay which is configured next to the repeat count is inserted. If
there is an additional condition (for example a value condition) and the condition
becomes false, any further execution of the action is stopped immediately.
Controlled by value: The action is executed as long as the value of the parent
object meets the requirements specified in the Options section. Note that if this
condition is false at the time the action trigger fires, the action will not be
executed. As long as the conditions are met, the action will be repeated, again
with a configurable delay between each execution (as above). If the delay is set to
0, the action will be executed exactly once (like the condition execute once) but
only of the value condition applies.
While touched: The action is executed as long as the parent object is being
touched. As above, observe that this condition must be satisfied at the time the
action trigger fires, or the action will not be executed. In practice, this means that
the condition „while touched‟ is useful only in conjunction with the action trigger
„on touch‟ or, in rare cases, „on value update‟, but not together with „on selection‟
because selection of a control implies release of the touch screen.
At this point, the Execute Action part of the property page should be filled in completely.
The contents of this section should result in a meaningful command when read as a
sentence, for example:
Sound buzzer on touch. Repeat action 3 times, waiting 200ms after each time.
If you read your settings, make sure they make sense and match your goals. For example,
you should not end up with a sentence like this:
Next page on release. While touched, waiting 100ms after each time.
The resulting action, even though it is possible to configure it this way, will not do what
you want. There are two major problem areas:
The action is requested to trigger on release of the control, yet, the condition
under which the action is to be executed requests the control to be touched. This
is a contradiction and will not be satisfied.
Even if the trigger were to be corrected, using „on touch‟, it is very unlikely that
you would want this action to show a new page every 100ms while the control is
touched. Aside from the delay, which would be too small, there is another major
problem here: After the first time the action is executed, a new page will be on
the display and the original control will be gone, so you cannot hold on to it.
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NOTE: The delay value (waiting xxx ms after each time) always applies. The action trigger will
always be locked for the given duration after each time the action fired, preventing the
same action to fire again until the wait time expired. This can be used to limit the frequency
at which an action may fire. If the delay is set to 0, it will be turned off. This also causes
any kind of repeated execution to be skipped, so the action is executed only once per trigger
event.
Below the Execute Action part of the property page is the Options section. In this section,
any additional information which may be required by action types, action triggers, or
conditions, can be set here. Options which are settable are automatically activated, others
are grayed out. The following options are available:
Value: Used by the trigger value update and the condition controlled by value.
If both are used together, they use the same settings (differing value settings for
the trigger and the execute condition would not make any sense, since the
condition must match at the time the trigger fires).
Sound buzzer: Used by the action type „sound buzzer‟ to set the frequency and
the duration of the tone. Useful values for the frequency range from about 500 up
to 8000. The most intense sound can be archived at around 4000 Hertz. The
duration is normally a value between 100 and 3000ms. (0.1s to 3s). Note that the
repeat delay should be larger than the tone duration, since the repeat delay starts
to run immediately after the action was triggered, not when it completed.
8.9 Collections
A collection object works like a folder on a file system. It helps the user to organize objects
in groups. Collections can be placed on pages to group objects together and manipulate
them as one unit. It is also possible to create nested collections to build complex macro
blocks which consist out of a number of smaller building blocks.
Following the root menu of the main tree view is a collection called Global Objects, where
objects can be collected which work invisibly in the background, without a graphical
representation on the screen and without a direct relation to any object on the screen, for
example alarm generators, data point connectors, or mathematical objects. However, it is
recommended to keep all objects which are required for a specific control or control group
to function together on the same page. This way, the page continues to work when it is
copied or moved to another project, because the required invisible objects are copied
together with the page. The base collection outside of the main menu should only hold
objects which are related to the device, rather than specific page functionality.
The last collection in the tree view is called Templates. It is used to collect all template
pages of the project. Templates are explained in a separate section of this manual.
Link: This is not an input field, but a display of the destination page for a show
page action or the name of the selected mail template for the send mail action. To
set a new page, drag and drop the desired destination page on the action in the
tree view. To select a new mail template, use the button next to the link field.
8.9.1 Collection Properties
Aside from the properties on the General property page, which apply to all objects, a
collection keeps record of the position and size of the bounding box which can be drawn
around all visible objects contained in the collection. This data can be seen on the Common
Properties page. In the context menu of the collection are a number of commands to add
new objects and control the visibility of the entire collection (Hide/Show).
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8.9.2 Collection Handling
If a collection is part of a project page and contains visible objects, a bounding box around
all objects contained in the collection is drawn in the preview when the collection is
selected. Using this box, the entire collection may be moved to another location on the
page. It is also possible to resize the bounding box, which will evenly spread out the
contained objects. For example, if a collection contains three objects in a horizontal row
where the second object is located in the center, resizing the bounding box will keep the
leftmost object at the left edge, the rightmost object at the right edge and the middle object
in the center of the bounding box, that is, the relative position of each object in the
collection does not change.
NOTE: A collection can only be resized if there are at least two visible items inside the collection.
In addition, resizing is only possible in a direction where at least two controls are not at the
same position. This is a direct consequence of the way resizing works.
To select a control inside a collection, the easiest way is to select it from the tree view at the
left. If the control is to be selected directly in the preview, there are at least two objects on
top of each other (the collection and the control). If there are nested collections, or if
controls overlap on the page, there may be even more layers of objects. There are different
ways to select a specific object in such a case: Each of these methods will:
Left mouse button double click moves the current selection down to the next
object under the cursor in the layer stack. When the bottom most control is
reached, the selection moves back to the topmost control.
Middle mouse button single click does the same as the left double-click.
Tab key moves the selection down to the next object on the current page in the
tree view. From the last object on the page, the selection moves back to the first
object on the same page.
Using the tab key is especially useful while using the keyboard cursor keys to move and
resize a control. Using the tab key to switch the selection to the next object on the page can
be convenient in this situation.
The command Lock/Unlock Position in the context menu of the collection allows locking
the current position of all objects inside the collection, to protect them from accidental
move while working on other objects in the LCD preview.
8.10 Alarm Generators
The alarm generator object is used to monitor input data points and issue alarms based on
rules which are set on the Alarm Generator property page. For a discussion of alarming on
L-VIS devices in conjunction with the underlying network technology and system wide
alarms, please also refer to section 9.5 of this manual.
To add a new alarm generator, use the context menu of a collection object in the object tree
and select „Add Alarm Generator‟. A new alarm generator object will be created and
connected to the collection object.
Once the alarm generator object is created, connect the input data points which should be
monitored. Each of the connected input data points will show up on the alarm generators
property page, where the monitoring rules can be defined.
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NOTE: It is sometimes useful to connect the same input data point twice or more times to the same
alarm generator, when the desired alarm conditions are too complex to cover in one rule,
for example different rules for alarm set and alarm clear or multiple non-overlapping value
ranges which should trigger an alarm. In this case, assign different names to the connected
data points on the General property page, so that you may distinguish between them later.
Once the required input data points are connected, the alarm generator needs one output
data point to which the result should be written. The desired output data point must be
connected before the alarm generator can be configured, because the type of data point
determines the configuration options. The following data point types may be used as
outputs for the alarm generator:
Alarm Server: On CEA-709 devices, a local alarm server data point may be
connected to deliver the alarm to remote alarm clients and display the alarm on
an alarm list control. The alarm server keeps record of all pending alarms,
delivers them to any connected clients and manages acknowledgement of alarms.
Scalar Value: Any data point representing a single scalar value, for example a
register. In this case, the alarm generator uses the connected data point as a
Boolean value, setting it to either 0 (OFF) or 1 (ON). Using the data points
scaling factors, this Boolean value may be translated into any two values, one to
signal „alarm clear‟ and one for „alarm set‟. This is most useful if the generated
alarm is to be processed further or displayed on the L-VIS device, for example to
trigger actions or display warning messages.
Multi-State Value: Similar to a scalar value, but the alarm generator can be
configured to set the output to any of the available states, which can be selected
easily from a dropdown box. Useful on BACnet devices, where a multi-state
point may be used to signal a number of different alarm conditions.
SNVT_switch: Available on CEA-709 devices, a data point representing an
entire switch variable may be connected. In this case, the alarm generator sets
both value and state of the connected switch to either ON/100 or OFF/0. Useful
in cases where the generated alarm is to be processed by a remote device which
uses one switch input for each alarm.
SNVT_alarm2: Available on CEA-709 models, a data point representing a
SNVT_alarm2 structured NV may be connected. In this case, the user may set all
elements of the alarm2 structure to the desired values, including the alarm
priority and a description. This is most useful to communicate the result to a
remote device which provides a compatible alarm input variable.
8.10.1 Alarm Generator Properties
Once all inputs and the output are connected, the alarm generator may be configured on the
Alarm Generator property page. For each of the connected inputs, an independent set of
parameters is required. The available input points are listed in the top left area of the
property page.
NOTE: If logic or arithmetic operations are required to determine an alarm condition (for example
signal an alarm when T1 > T2), a mathematic object is required to conduct the required
operations. The result, which is conveniently stored into an internal register, is then
monitored using the alarm generator.
The suggested workflow to configure the alarm generator is as follows:
First, select the input point for which the monitoring rules should be configured.
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Define the Alarm Condition using the radio buttons at the bottom left of the page.
The available choices allow basic monitoring functionality and always define the
condition, under which the alarm should be SET. If the value no longer satisfies
the condition, the alarm will be cleared. To filter out spikes, it is usually good to
set an amount of time which the alarm condition needs to be satisfied, before the
alarm is actually set. The default of one second is often a reasonable value.
Define the Data Point Value Range. Depending on your choice for the condition,
you may need to enter values either for both (minimum value and maximum
value) or only for one of the two. If your condition is inside or outside range, you
need to enter both values to define the range, for the condition „above max‟ only
the maximum value is required and for the condition „below min‟ only the
minimum value needs to be filled in.
Define the Action that should be taken. The basic choice here is to have the alarm
generator SET the alarm when the condition is satisfied and also CLEAR the
alarm when the condition is no longer satisfied. However, you may want to only
SET the alarm when the condition is met and not clear it again, because you may
require the user to manually clear the alarm later. In this case, use the „set on
alarm enter‟ action, which will only set the alarm, but will never clear it. To
actually clear the alarm, you can either use other means to update the alarm
output variable, or you can have a separate input on your alarm generator and
define a rule for this input, which will eventually clear the alarm, using the „clear
on alarm leave‟ action.
As the last step, define the desired output, either for both conditions (set and
clear) or for only one of them. The required input fields will be active, while the
other ones will be grayed out. Note that the description field may currently only
contain ASCII characters.
The above procedure needs to be repeated for all connected input data points.
8.10.2 Application Hints
While it is pretty straight forward to configure a simple alarm generator to output an alarm
when for example a temperature reaches a certain maximum value, the alarm generator can
be used for more complex applications as well. Two of the most often used applications are
described in more detail in the next sections.
8.10.2.1 Alarm Condition with Hysteresis
Consider you want to issue an alarm when a temperature rises above T1, but the alarm
should not be cleared unless the temperature falls below T2, which would be less than T1.
Similar to a thermal protection which, once it activates, turns off the device and does not
turn it back on until the device significantly cooled down, to avoid constant ON/OFF
cycles.
Such an application can be done by connecting the temperature data point two times. To
distinguish between them, append SET to the name of the first data point and CLEAR to
the name of the second data point (on the General property page).
On the Alarm Generator property page, configure the SET data point to cause the Action
„set on alarm enter‟, enter T1 as the maximum value of the Data Point Value Range, and
select Above Max for the alarm condition. For the Alarm Output, choose the desired output
value for the Set Action. The Clear Action should be grayed out, since the rule specifies no
alarm clear action.
Now there are two options available to configure the CLEAR data point. Here is the first
one:
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Like on the SET data point, keep the Alarm Condition at Above Max, but enter T2 as the
maximum, instead of T1. For the Action, select Clear on Alarm Leave and select the desired
output value from the dropdown list at the right. This time, the Value for Alarm Clear box
will be active, while the others will be grayed out.
This method is the correct way of doing it, but it may be counter-intuitive. Many people
choose Below Min. for the alarm condition, because they want something to happen when
the temperature falls below T2. However, the condition specified here is always the Alarm
Condition. It defines the conditions under which the alarm is considered to be SET. It does
not define when something will happen. This is done using the Action setting. The alarm
condition in this example is still „above a certain temperature‟ and action will be taken
when this alarm condition is CLEARED, e.g. the device has cooled down enough. Now, if
this seems unreasonable, here is an alternative approach:
You may configure the CLEAR data point using the alarm condition Below Min. and enter
T2 as the minimum value of the Data Point Value Range. Since you now defined „below
T2‟ as the alarm condition, you need to take action when the alarm is SET, so the action
must be Set on Alarm Enter. Now select the desired output value from the Value for Alarm
Set Action dropdown list. This value will represent the cleared alarm, since the temperature
now is below T2. Overall, this way seems more awkward than the first, because the alarm
output is cleared by causing an alarm condition.
8.10.2.2 Alarm Clear via Data Point
Similar to the first example, but instead of defining a temperature T2 below which the
alarm will clear automatically, a manual input should be used to clear the alarm. Of course,
the two examples may be combined to have both, automatic clearance below a safe
temperature T2 plus manual clearance as long as the temperature is at least below T1.
First, we need to connect the input data point, via which the alarm should be clearable. This
may be the state component of a switch, a Boolean value, a register, or any other scalar
value. We will assume an internal register for this example, which we assume will be set by
the user pressing a button on the display. We assume that pressing the button will set the
register from 0 to 1 and releasing the button will set it back to 0 again.
The first part is the same as in the previous example. The temperature variable is connected
to the alarm generator and configured to cause an alarm when the temperature rises above
T1.
To clear this alarm, we configure the connected register data point as follows:
Set the Alarm Condition to Above Max. and enter a time delay of for example 3s. This will
require the user to press and hold the button for 3 seconds, before the alarm will be cleared.
Enter a value between 0 and 1 for the maximum of the data point value range, for example
0.5 would be a good value. For the Action, select Set on Alarm Enter and select the desired
output value for a cleared alarm from the dropdown list named Value for Alarm Set Action.
This is because we actually define an alarm condition when the button is pressed. As a
result of this alarm condition, we then reset the „real‟ alarm.
NOTE: The above examples may of course be combined, to have automatic alarm clear when the
temperature falls below T2 and manual clear via a button when the temperature is at least
below T1.
8.11 Data Point Connectors
Data Point Connector objects are used to receive a value from one or more input data points
and copy the received value to all connected output data points or other objects which
accept a value, for example action objects.
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A data point connector has no visible representation on the display and is therefore not
related to any of the visible objects. It can only be connected to a collection object, as
described earlier. To create a new data point connector, use the context menu of the
collection object to which you want to add the data point connector. Other than the general
properties like object name and description, there are no further properties to set.
Whenever a new value is received via one of the connected input data points, the value will
immediately be forwarded to all connected output data points. This can be useful for
example to connect an internal register to a network output. If the register contains the
result of a complex calculation or is controlled by various objects across the whole project,
it is easier to have one single point of connection to the outside world, instead of connecting
the network output in parallel to the register write data point at every location where the
register is written.
It may also be used to connect input and output data points which are of similar but
incompatible types, for example receive a value from a SNVT_temp variable and output its
value via a SNVT_temp_f variable. If a structured data point should be connected entirely
to another data point of the same type, each of the structure elements needs to be connected
individually using a separate connector, because each connector is only able to handle
single values.
NOTE: The functionality of a data point connector or any other object for which a change of an
input value causes updates to an output value without any further conditions or limits is
inherently dangerous. You must be careful not to cause endless update loops using these
types of objects. See section 14.9 for more details on this topic.
8.12 Mathematic Objects
Mathematic objects are used to do calculations on connected input data points and assign
the result to the connected output data points. The object calculates its formula every time
an update is received via one of the connected input data points, so that the output value is
always accurate. If a complex formula is used, which operates on a large number of input
data points, the resulting update rate of each input data point should be considered, so that
the resulting total update rate remains reasonable.
8.12.1 Math Object Properties
Mathematical objects are configured on the Math Object property page, where basically
the formula is entered. Before doing so, it is important to connect the required input data
points to the object, so that they are available as variables for use in the formula.
All connected input data points are listed on the left side of the property page and variable
names are assigned to the data points in the order in which they are connected to the math
object. Variable names start with v1 and continue with increasing numbers, like v2, v3, v4
and so on. There is a limit of 127 input data points per math object. Formulas using more
than 127 input variables must be split into individual sub-expressions, which should be
done anyways since a formula with such a large number of variables becomes unreadable.
NOTE: Always keep in mind that the order in which the input data points are connected to the math
object in the tree view defines the assignment of variable names for the formula. If you
replace input data points when the formula was already specified, be careful not to mess up
the data point order and thus the result of your calculations.
Using the assigned variable names, the user may now enter a formula directly below the
list. As you enter the formula, it will be parsed and the resulting sequence of calculations
will be displayed in a list at the right of the property page. This list shows your formula in
reverse polish notation (RPN), also known as postfix notation, as used by many scientific
pocket calculators. Users of such calculators will be immediately familiar with this list and
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