2 More DLT Questions

Hello,

Sorry to post multiple questions in the same day.

I have been working on updating the labels on my DLTs using LOGIC but I noticed that Toolkit does not update it's internal memory even if it is running when the update command from my c-touch does across the wire. Is this by design or am I missing something? If this is so, is there a command I can issue to poll the label from a DLT?

My other question is regarding an earlier post about the number of times you can safely write to a DLT. (Sorry, can't find the link anymore). The post was from 2006 and stated that it is best to avoid writing to a DLT as much as possible due to burn-out of the chips. I am curious if this has been better addressed in the most recent units. (I have Saturns)

Justin

 

This is by design. Given that nearly all sites run without Toolkit connected to them permanently, having Toolkit update it's group labels in response to bus messages would be of little value.

Labels cannot be read out of DLT units.

I think you are referring to this post:
http://www.cbusforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3967&highlight=DLT+logic

In that thread the request was to update the label every 500ms, which would cause lots of writes to the internal EEPROM. The EEPROM that is used in the DLT is rated at a minimum of 1 million write cycles, which is a jolly lot (technical term ). However, updating it at a rate of 2x every second of every day would reach that point in only 5.8 days.
With a lifetime of 1 million writes, and it's only a guarunteed minimum lifetime remember, you could send a new DLT label every 10 minutes and the EEPROM would last nearly 20 years.

 

Could icons or variants of labels be used to enable quick changes to the labels without a write penalty? I am not sure how variants and icons work exactly but could I pre-load 4 variants of a text label onto a group address and then have the DLT switch between them without incurring a write to the rom?

 

Yep, writing the labels into the unit as variants, and then just switching the variant, would do the trick.