Home automation equipment. The advantage of intelligent functions in the home has made its way into the minds of most people and Smart Home is
the phrase on everybody‘s lips. The intelligent bus systems make buildings more cost-effective to operate, safer, more
flexible, more energy-efficient and, above all, more comfortable and convenient and the key to making a building
“intelligent” is to equip it with networks of sophisticated sensors and actuators that make life easier for their occupants on
a day-to-day basis.
To introduce this concept and make it accessible to multiple users, De Lorenzo has realized a home
automation equipment to be able to study the KONNEX (KNX) standard that occupies a large share of the market for
building automation systems.
It uses SIEMENS industrial components but other brands are compatible so they can live
together in the system even if they come from different manufacturers.
It includes plants such as lighting plant, shutter
control plant, safety plant, heating/air conditioning plant, scenery module’s plant and plant with PLC, touch panel & time
switch. It is complete with ETS software to plan, design and commission the installation with KNX-certified products. It is
recommended for installers, high schools and first years of university.
The houses and all the other buildings that the man has
erected for his own activities (offices, schools, shops,
factories, etc.) have been and still are in continuous
progress.
In fact, so many improvements have been added
during the years to reach, in particular, the following
objectives: higher safety, possibility to live more
comfortably, possibility to better perform your job and
your activities.
The traditional installation system for buildings has been
for years mainly concentrated on the distribution and
control of the electrical energy, but today this is not
sufficient any more.
In modern systems the requirements
have changed and have multiplied, mainly for what
concerns advantage, flexibility, centralized and
decentralized controls, intelligent connections of different
operating sections and systems, communication easiness,
environmental compatibility and minimization of the use of
energy and of the operating costs.
A traditional electrical plant with such characteristics is
more complex and involves a higher number of
components with the relevant consequences: a tangle of
cables, a wide range of non compatible equipment and
components, a demanding design work and, most of all, an
expensive system.
Therefore, a traditional plant is practically inadequate to
fully satisfy such requirements, at minimum design and
operating costs.
The home automation system offers the right solution.
This type of system, custom tailored to respond to the
most current requirements relevant to the electrical plant,
needs just a single bipolar conductor through which all the
end users connected to the bus communicate among
them.
The products are compatible and interoperating among
them and, therefore, can live together in the system even if
they come from different manufacturers.
The controls, the signals, the necessary data for the
supervision and all the parameters of the plant have as a
single transmission media a “single bipolar cable”, the bus
cable.
Such circumstance implies a drastic reduction of the
times for laying the conductors and all that is needed
for their installation.
The functionality of the plant is then determined by
means of a software package, through which the single
components all connected in parallel to the single
necessary bipolar line gain their “individuality”, that is
can be identified one by one, through an address, that is
the identification number of the device, and a
“conscience” of their tasks, that is the personalized
operating program for the type of plant where they are
installed.
The consequences of what has been done are
immediate:
* the components are of general use and are
personalized through a suitable software
* the tuning of the functions according to the needs of
the user can be performed at the end of the
installation
* modifications subsequent to the installation can be
performed from any point of the plant and at any time
without interrupting its functionality
Another advantage that is not immediately evident, but
that must be considered in the right perspective is the
possibility of realizing a remarkable energy saving by
distributing the energy where and when it is needed, by
interrupting it at the and by supplying it according to a
suitable time program.
The devices used in the system must be able to perform
the same functions for the automatic management of
the buildings, both commercial and residential.
The performed functions are the following:
• control of the light
• control of the shutters
• control of the heating
• management of the loads
• display, information, operator control, monitoring
and detection
• interfaces and other systems
De Lorenzo has designed a laboratory for the study of the
home automation technology that allows the student a
practical training, based on the performance of guided
experiments.
For this laboratory, industrial type components have been
educationally adapted by using the modular panel system
that allows their step by step assembling from the simplest
circuit to the most complex systems.
Starting from the basic principles the student follows an
educational path that takes him, with the aid of highly
educational manuals, to the study of the most complex
circuits in a gradual and systematic way.
The study subjects include the following categories:
EIB LP Lighting plant
EIB SCP Shutter control plant
EIB SP Safety plant
EIB HAP Heating/air conditioning plant
EIB SM Scenery module
EIB PTT Plant with PLC, touch panel & time switch
EIB TOT TOTAL CONFIGURATION
For all the categories the manuals include practical exercises
by using standard components.
Each experiment describes
step by step from the design and configuration to the
commissioning of the system.
Contemporarily to the training objectives, the student
will find important information on how to use the
management software with relevant terminologies
which are required for the assembling of the systems.
In particular, the manual “Lighting plants” groups four
exercises:
• On/Off type lighting plant
• Manual light regulation plant
• Automatic light regulation plant
• On/Off lighting and light regulation plant through
remote control
For each of the other categories the manual describes
the plant and, through guided exercises, allows the
student to reach a certain familiarity with the different
components of the system.
In particular, the shutter actuator for the shutter
control plant, movement and alarm/smoke sensors for
the safety plant, the ambient thermostat with the valve
actuator and the messages/values visualizer for the
heating/air conditioning plant and, at last, the scenery
module that allows the saving and restoring of several
sceneries where light values defined by 8 dimmer
channels can be handled.
The modules
The system is basically “decentralized” and implies the
absence of a control board that contains all the data of
the plant; each device is composed of an “intelligent”
part (a microprocessor) that contains all the
instructions for its operation, hence:
• its name (physical address)
• what it has to do (functions implemented through
the software)
• with what it has to do it (still through the software)
The system uses as a “bus” a dedicated cable to which
the different compatible devices can be connected,
without a particular logic; it is obvious that this
represents a remarkable advantage both at the time of
the installation and when expansions of the plant are
needed.
The system transfers the data in serial form; the
transmission is balanced in base band.
The
transmission speed is 9600 baud.
Picture for reference only
This laboratory is designed for the study of the lighting plants and to allow the student a practical training, based on
the performance of guided experiments. Industrial type components are educationally adapted by using a modular
panel system to permit the step by step assembling from the simplest circuit to the most complex system.
The configuration allows the performing of the following exercises:
• Double Pushbutton
• Dimmer
• Brightness Control
• IT TX/RX
The manual includes practical exercises by using standard EIB components.
Each experiment describes from the
design and configuration to the commissioning of the system. At the same time, the student will be able to find
important information with relevant terminologies required for the assembling of the Home Automation systems.
EIB LP
Picture for reference only
This laboratory is designed for the study of the shutter control plant and to allow the student a practical training,
based on the performance of guided experiments.
Industrial type components are educationally adapted by using a
modular panel system to permit the step by step assembling from the simplest circuit to the most complex system.
The configuration allows the performing of the following exercises:
• Shutter Control Plant
The manual includes practical exercises by using standard EIB components.
Each experiment describe from the design
and configuration to the commissioning of the system.
At the same time, the student will be able to find important
information with relevant terminologies required for the assembling of the Home Automation systems.
EIB SCP
Picture for reference only
This laboratory is designed for the study of the safety plants and to allow the student a practical training, based on
the performance of guided experiments.
Industrial type components are educationally adapted by using a modular
panel system to permit the step by step assembling from the simplest circuit to the most complex system.
The configuration allows the performing of the following exercises:
• Safety Plant
The manual includes practical exercises by using standard EIB components.
Each experiment describe from the design
and configuration to the commissioning of the system.
At the same time, the student will be able to find important
information with relevant terminologies required for the assembling of the Home Automation systems.
EIB SP
Picture for reference only
This laboratory is designed for the study of the Heating/Air Conditioning Plant and to allow the student a practical
training, based on the performance of guided experiments.
Industrial type components are educationally adapted by
using a modular panel system to permit the step by step assembling from the simplest circuit to the most complex
system.
The configuration allows the performing of the following exercises:
• Heating/Air Conditioning Plant
The manual includes practical exercises by using standard EIB components. Each experiment describes from the
design and configuration to the commissioning of the system.
At the same time, the student will be able to find
important information with relevant terminologies required for the assembling of the Home Automation systems.
EIB HAP
Picture for reference only
This laboratory is designed for the study of the scenery module and to allow the student a practical training, based on
the performance of guided experiments.
Industrial type components are educationally adapted by using a modular
panel system to permit the step by step assembling from the simplest circuit to the most complex system.
The configuration allows the performing of the following exercises:
• Scene/event control
The manual includes practical exercises by using standard EIB components.
Each experiment describe from the design
and configuration to the commissioning of the system.
At the same time, the student will be able to find important
information with relevant terminologies required for the assembling of the Home Automation systems.
EIB SM
Picture for reference only
This laboratory is designed for the study of the scenery module and to allow the student a practical training, based on
the performance of guided experiments. Industrial type components are educationally adapted by using a modular
panel system to permit the step by step assembling from the simplest circuit to the most complex system.
The configuration must allow the performing of the following exercises:
• PLC
• Time Switch
• Touch Panel
The manual includes practical exercises by using standard EIB components.
Each experiment describes from the
design and configuration to the commissioning of the system.
At the same time, the student will be able to find
important information with relevant terminologies required for the assembling of the Home Automation systems.
EIB PTT
Picture for reference only