New sensors lux monitoring

I have noticed that the new multi sensors and lux sensors do not seem to come up in a black and white touch screen as a monitor ?

If you have Piced running connected to CBus you will see the lux levels from sensors, after you download they remain on the screen as question marks.

In the same screen I have an old external lux sensor, and the lux does show up and the other two new sensors remain as question marks on the screen.

Any Ideas


Cheers

Chris,

 

So just confirming no one out there has tried to monitor the lux of a new surface mount lux or multi sensor onto a black and white screen.

In Piced if you connect to CBus the lux level of old sensor comes up and the lux level of new sensor also shows up.


Download to black and white touch screen, old lux sensors show the lux level, new surface mount sensors show ? marks.

Is this just a firmware thing with the black and white screens.


Unless im mistaken these sensors are proving to be useless as they have been installed into numerous jobs recently, cant use the lux level into the logic, cant display the lux level on the screen for the client

Niiiice

 

Light Level Broadcasting

Hi 265,

Check out the "Light Level Broadcasting" option on the Light Level tab in the newer sensors. Enabling this makes the sensor send a regular timed broadcast of the light level via a group.

From memory, the sensor sets the level (note: 0-255 level, not %) of the group to the Lux/10.
e.g. 100 Lux = Level of 10 out of 255, Level of 1000 = 100 out of 255.

This is much nicer than the old monitoring system which relied on the touchscreen(s) polling readings from the sensor. The value should be easy to use in logic, or display on a component by using a multiplier of 10 in the formatting options.

Hope that helps,
Mark

 

Surface sensor lux

Thank you for the reply,

Yes that is what I am doing at the moment to display the lux on the screen,

was more curious to the reasons, monitoring was no longer working.

We are currently having an issue where the sensors mounted 6m high in a warehouse, are only reaching a maximum of 380 lux when it is about 1500 lux.

Hopefully we will test some of the old and surface sensors today and see if they do not like being mounted high if it is a site specific issue.

Thanks

 

Hiya,

A few reasons that spring to mind, im sure there are more...

• Monitors have more chance of failing, as they will break if a sensor's unit address changes (e.g. during learn mode).
• Monitors create more network traffic: A read and rsp per monitoring device. The broadcast uses a single message that can be received by every device on the bus.
• Broadcasts ensure all receiving devices get the level at the same time, so no inconsistency between user interfaces (e.g. two different touchscreens)
• Broadcasts are easier to use in logic, its just a group level
• Monitors are terrible for the developers... They read the value out of the sensor, but the location and format has changed with the different generations of sensor. This makes the code in the touchscreens complex, it has to read unit types and/or firmware versions before knowing what to read and how to use it. Not having to support this lets us get on with more interesting stuff!
• Groups are easier to connect between networks. I cant even remember if a monitor works to a remote network?

Cheers,
Mark