Presence simulation

The presence simulation can give those outside the impression that a house or office block is occupied, especially when there is no-one inside. The owners or operating personnel can re-cord any simulations, for example for lighting or shading, over periods of time and play them back when they are not there.

The recording records KNX/EIB telegrams in the 1 bit and 1 byte data formats and temporarily saves them with time and weekday information. On playing back, the previously saved telegram sequence can either be played back with accurate times or, alternatively, with accurate times and weekdays.

The presence simulation is operated on the system page of the same name in the panel. This system page can be jumped to using the Open page function button. Operation of the presence simulation makes a key distinction between the recording and the playing back of a telegram sequence.

4.2.4.11.1 Recording a telegram sequence

The presence simulation records telegrams received from the KNX/EIB. For this, the project planner must create special recording objects, which are independent from the rest of the panel project planning, in the ETS plug-in. A recording object can be added by clicking the right mousebutton in the "Presence simulation" parameter node. Up to 32 objects can be created in this way.

In the parameter group of a recording object, a clear designation can be assigned (e.g. "Seating group light" or "Roller shutter, living room"), which can then be read off on the panel by the op-erator. In addition, the required data format of the recording object must be configured. The two formats "DPT 1,001 (i bit switching)" and "DPT 5,001...5,004 (1 byte value)" are available. Addi-tion parameter configuraAddi-tion are not required in the ETS plug-in for the presence simulaAddi-tion.

Before the presence simulation can be used, the operator must record a sequence of telegrams on the panel. For this, the operator must switch to the "Presence simulation" system page (see picture 33).

picture 33: System page of the presence simulation

In the first step, the functions must be selected which are to be included in the presence simula-tion. The functions are defined as the recording objects, previously created in the device project planning and linked with group addresses, and the building units controlled by them. The term

"Functions" is used instead of "Objects" on the user control interface, as the switching or value telegrams configured in the ETS project execute specific functions, i.e. switching lights or con-trolling a shading situation.

Pressing the "Select functions" button on the system page of the presence simulation (see pic-ture 33) opens the page "Presence simulation channel selection" (see picpic-ture 34).

picture 34: Page for selecting the channel of the presence simulation.

At this point, the user sees the 32 functions (recording objects) created in the ETS plug-in. The user can now select up to 15 functions and include them in the presence simulation. The selec-tions are made directly by tapping the appropriate function button on the screen. A function se-lected for the presence simulation is indicated by an "X" in the function button behind the func-tion designafunc-tion. Tapping the funcfunc-tion button again deselects the funcfunc-tion. In the same way, the state "Selected" or "Not selected" can be influenced using the "Activate / Deactivate" button.

After pressing the "Save back" button, the selection is saved in the panel and the panel jumps back to the system page of the presence simulation. Pressing the "Cancel back" button simply causes a jump back to the presence simulation page without saving the user configuration.

By changing the channel selection, the user can, at any time, change the functions included in the presence simulation and, if the situation requires, adapt it to special requirements.

i The channel selection is only saved temporarily in the RAM of the panel, meaning that a new selection is required (every function deactivated) and resaving is required after a power failure or a programming operation.

i If the function selection is changed and resaved after a simulation has been recorded, then the previous recording is deleted. The operator must then record a new simulation (see next section).

Recording a telegram sequence

After the operator has selected the functions of the presence simulation, the telegram sequence can be recorded. For this, the operator must first specify a maximum recording period in days.

Usually, a simulation recording takes place independently in the background. The length of the recording period can be used to specify when the simulation recording stops automatically after starting. Independently of this, a recording can also be stopped manually at any time (see be-low).

The length of the recording period can be edited using the on-screen numeric keyboard after tapping the "Length:..." button. Periods of 1 ... 7 days can be configured.

A day is not a calendar day but a 24 hour period. Example: if the recording begins on Tuesday at 9:00, the first day of the recording will end on Wednesday at 8:59. The start time of the re-cording thus specifies the start of a day, i.e. of a 24 hour period.

Before starting recording, ensure that the time and weekday on the panel is set correctly!

i During the recording phase, changes to the time (externally by the master object or direct adjustment on the panel) should be avoided, to avoid affecting the end of the specified re-cording period during an automatic rere-cording. For this reason, a simulation rere-cording should not take place during a change from summer to winter time.

Example: the recording period is specified as 1 day (24 hours). The recording is started at 8:00 on the first day. If the time were to continue normally, it would be stopped automatic-ally at 7:59 on the next day. If, during the recording phase, the time is put back by 1 hour, then the recording would run for 24 hours but, on account of the new time, would end at 6:59 on the second day. Thus it may occur that telegrams between 7:00 and 7:59 are not recorded or there are time overlaps in the recorded telegram sequence.

The recording can be started by tapping the "Start" button in the "Recording" display group (see picture 33). The recording takes all the incoming telegrams of all the selected functions (record-ing objects) into account and saves them temporarily to the RAM of the panel. Dur(record-ing the re-cording, the number of incoming telegrams is displayed in the first line of the system page of the presence simulation. A maximum of 2,100 telegrams can be recorded. Should a larger amount of telegrams have been reached before the set recording time has elapsed, then the recording will stop. The telegrams received before this time can be saved and then played back later.

i Due to the temporary saving of the telegram sequence, the saved data will be lost if the power supply fails or a programming operation is carried out. In this case, a new recording must be started after the device reset.

Each recorded telegram is issued with a time stamp, accurate to the second. The time stamp takes the current time and weekday into account when the telegram arrives. This information is obtained from the internal real time clock of the panel. Marking with a time stamp is important on playing back (see chapter 4.2.4.11.2. Playing a telegram sequence back).

The user can also stop a recording before the set recording period has elapsed. To do this, tap the "Stop" button in the "Recording" display group.

At the end of the recording, the number of telegrams received and saved is displayed in the status line of the presence simulation (first line on the screen).

i Each time a recording is started, the previous recording is deleted.

i An active recording can be signalled to the bus using the

1 bit communication object "Recording active", which can be planned in the presence simu-lation parameter node in the ETS plug-in.

i During an active recording, it is not necessary to keep the system page of the presence simulation visible. During this time, the panel can be operated normally.

4.2.4.11.2 Playing a telegram sequence back

After a simulation has been recorded, the saved telegram sequence can be played back. Each telegram was issued with a time stamp on recording. The playback of the saved telegram se-quence takes place accurate to the second.

Before the user starts playback, the type of playback must be specified. The type of playback is configured by tapping the "Type: ..." button on the system page of the presence simulation . The display group "Playback" is only visible on the screen when a telegram sequence has been re-corded successfully (see chapter 4.2.4.11.1. Recording a telegram sequence).

picture 35: System page of the presence simulation with recorded simulation

A distinction must be made between two different cases when setting the type of playback:

- Playback type "Repeating":

When the telegram sequence is played back, only the time of the individual telegrams is taken into account. The weekday is ignored.

The previously recorded telegram sequence is repeated cyclically until the playback is stopped.

- Playback type "Weekday":

When the telegram sequence is played back, in addition to the time, the weekday upon which the individual telegrams were recorded, is taken into account.

In this case, the telegrams are played back by weekday. No telegram is played back on days why no telegram was recorded.

Example 1: recording only took place on a Tuesday and was active for considerably less than 24 hours. On playing back, the simulation is only executed at the recorded times and only on a Tuesday. The simulation has no effect on other days.

Example 2: recording was limited to 5 days and was started on a Wednesday. Telegrams were recorded on the Wednesday, not on Thursday and Friday (no telegram activity), and telegrams were received again during Saturday and Sunday. On playing back, the simula-tion is executed on the Wednesday, not on the Thursday and Friday, and then continues on the Saturday and Sunday.

In every case, the recorded telegram sequence is repeated cyclically according to the weekdays until the playback is stopped.

Playback of the presence simulation can be started by tapping the "Start" button in the "Play-back" display group (see picture 35). The panel then immediately begins to play the telegram sequence back according to the saved time stamp and the configured playback type. Playback can be cancelled at any time by tapping the "Stop" button. In addition, playback of the presence simulation can be started and stopped using the

"Start/stop playback" 1 bit communication object.

Optionally, a start delay can be configured for playback. The start delay time can be set by tap-ping the button of the same name using the on-screen numeric keypad. If a start delay of more than 0 hours has been configured, then tapping the "Start" button means that playback will not start immediately. It is only started automatically when the start delay has elapsed. The delay time thus only has an effect on the start time of the simulation (like delayed tapping of the

"Start" button) but not on the saved time stamps of the telegrams. The start delay and the play-back operation can be cancelled at any time by pressing the "Stop" button. The progress of the

start delay is displayed in the status line (first line on the "Presence simulation" screen page).

i The current weekday is set either directly on the panel or by time telegram (DPT 10,001 3 bytes) via the bus.

i The previously recorded telegrams of the simulation are worked through chronologically.

The time of processing depends on the starting time of the simulation. If, for example, the recording period began at 8:00 but playback is not started until 9:00, then only those tele-grams will be transmitted which were recorded at or after 9:00. Teletele-grams before this time are only taken into account in the next cycle (only time or time/weekday-dependent).

On playing a recording period back, the telegrams are only transmitted once within a cycle.

If, during playback, the time of the panel is put back, then the panel will not transmit previ-ously transmitted telegrams of a cycle. If the time is put forward, then the panel detects which telegrams are to be jumped over, and then transmits the telegrams in one go, thus matching the telegram sequence with the current time.

The same thing happens if, during the recording phase, the time was put back, for example on changing from summer to winter time. In this case, the panel checks during playback to see if the telegram following the current one is more recent in the recording. If this is not the case, due to the change in time in the recording, then the older telegrams are transmit-ted immediately until the time stamp matches again.

i Active playback can be signalled to the bus using the

1 bit communication object "Playback active", which can be planned in the presence simu-lation parameter node in the ETS plug-in.

i Simulation playback only ever takes place using the group addresses of the recording ob-jects to be sent.

i During active playback, it is not necessary to keep the system page of the presence simu-lation visible. During this time, the panel can be operated normally.