LaMPS Module

Owned by Nahel Falhout (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Nov 29, 2023 by Wolfgang Granzer
8 min read

Functionality

The NETx LaMPS Module is an extension to the NETx BMS Platform that has the aim to make the management of lighting control systems much easier.

It consists of two parts:

  • The first one provides general functionality for monitoring lighting circuits. It is possible to monitor the operating hours, and define thresholds for triggering alarms. In addition it provides an approximation of energy and power consumption in case there is no smart meter is available. More information can be found here.

  • The second part is dedicated to the management of DALI gateways and their devices. The Digital Addressable Lighting Interface (DALI) protocol is an application specific technology that is dedicated to lighting systems. Since it is a pure field level protocol without enhanced management features, it is integrated into other building automation technologies. The most important and most commonly used system for this integration purpose is KNX. So called KNX/DALI gateways are providing interfaces between the DALI devices and the KNX network. In addition to simply forwarding commands (e.g. on/off, dimming commands, ...) and information (e.g. on/off status, current brightness value), these KNX/DALI gateways provide sophisticated and enhanced functions. One of the most important feature is the testing of the functionality of the DALI devices. 
    However, the implementation of this function testing within the KNX/DALI gateways highly depends on the manufacturer of the gateway. Each vendor has its own way how function testing services are provided and how the test results are represented. This also concerns the mapping of this information to KNX communication objects. Even worse, most of the time a simple read and write to these KNX communication objects is not sufficient since a dedicated command sequence is necessary. A typical example is the reading of the fault status of a DALI device. First, the device has to be selected by sending the DALI number to a dedicated KNX group address and afterwards the fault status objects have to be read. This results in a complexity which is a major problem for system integrators and electrical engineers who have the task to provide such functionality. More information can be found here.

To make the management of KNX/DALI gateways easier, the NETx BMS Platform provides a dedicate module called LaMPS. The main goal of LaMPS is to provide a generic interface to initiate DALI tests independent of the used KNX/DALI gateway vendor. One of the most important functionality of KNX/DALI gateways is the possibility to monitor the fault state of DALI gateways and their DALI devices. This includes triggering of DALI device tests, evaluation of test results, and monitoring of fault states. Since each KNX/DALI gateway vendor uses their own KNX communication objects to provide this functionality, LaMPS provides an abstraction of these vendor-specific implementations. 

Currently, the following KNX/DALI gateways are supported:

If you use KNX/DALI gateways which are not yet supported, please contact us. Other DALI gateways from other manufacturers can be included on request.

Installation

The LaMPS module for the NETx BMS Platform is provided as an extension and is not included within the default setup.

To install LaMPS, open the Core Studio and shutdown the Core Server. Afterwards, start the Extension Manager via the menu Extensions > Manager > Start Extension Manager ....

Within the dialog, select "LaMPS" and press the Install button. After having installed the LaMPS module, close the BMS studio and reopen it. Within the Modules menu of the BMS Studio you will find a new sub menu LaMPS. It contains entries for all definitions that are necessary for configuration the LaMPS module.

Licensing

The LaMPS functionality is not included in a standard license for the NETx BMS Platform. This means that an extra license has to be purchased if the LaMPS module is required in your project. 

The price to be paid in addition to the normal fees of the BMS Platform license is a fixed amount, which is independent of used number of DALI gateways and DALI devices. In addition to this fix amount, 1 data point is counted for each DALI device that is used within the LaMPS module. These data points are subtracted from the total number of available data points of your BMS Platform license. For more information about the cost please contact our sales team.

The extra license itself is an option to the standard BMS Platform licenses. This means the licensing process is exactly the same as for a normal BMS Platform license. For a softlock license, the LaMPS option is encoded within your License ID and Unlock Code. For hardlock, the option is stored on your USB license dongle. 

In order to test LaMPS, LaMPS is included within the demo license of the NETx BMS Platform. This means that you can test the LaMPS module for 90 days for free.

Configuration

To be able to provide the required functionality, a correct ETS configuration of the KNX/DALI gateways is of utmost importance. Each KNX/DALI gateway has a multitude of different KNX communication objects and parameter. Only if the correct parameters are set within the ETS and only if the required KNX communication objects are correctly assigned to KNX group addresses, a proper functionality of LaMPS can be guaranteed.

To make the configuration and most important the transfer of the configuration from ETS to the NETx BMS Platform much easier, an extended ETS app called NETx BMS App Secure has been developed. The NETx BMS App Secure includes the possibility to export the required KNX/DALI gateway configuration automatically. In addition, it warns the user if required or suggested ETS parameters are not set accordingly. 

If the LaMPS option is set within the NETx BMS App Secure, all required configuration data is included within the ".nxe" export file. For each KNX/DALI gateway type, one BMS definition file exist. All these definition files are accessible within the BMS studio via the menu "Modules" --> "LaMPS" --> "DALI".

In the remainder of this section, the different definition files are explained in detail. 

Module configuration

Here, common configuration settings for the NETx LaMPS Module can be changed:

Name

Description

Scope

Unit

Default

Notes

Name

Description

Scope

Unit

Default

Notes

xio.Lamps.FunctionTestTimeout

Timeout for DALI emergency function tests. If no test result is received after this timeout is expired, the test fails.

1 – 65535

s

60 s

 

xio.Lamps.DurationTestTimeout

Timeout for DALI emergency duration tests. If no test result is received after this timeout is expired, the test fails.

1 – 65535

s

10800 s (= 3 h)

 

xio.Lamps.PartialDurationTestTimeout

Timeout for DALI emergency partial duration tests. If no test result is received after this timeout is expired, the test fails.

1 – 65535

s

10800 s (= 3 h)

 

xio.Lamps.BatteryTestTimeout

Timeout for DALI emergency battery tests. If no test result is received after this timeout is expired, the test fails.

1 – 65535

s

60 s

 

xio.Lamps.Persistent

If true, all LaMPS items are marked as persistent and thus item values restored after server startup or after reconnecting the KNXnet/IP router or interface.

ON, OFF

none

OFF

 

xio.Lamps.OverrideThresholds

If true, all thresholds will be overridden by the values that are defined within the circuit definition.

ON, OFF

none

OFF

 

xio.Lamps.TriggerTestsOnRecovery

If true and if "Trigger test on fault" is activated for a DALI gateway, a DALI test is also triggered when the "Fault" item changes from true to false.

ON, OFF

none

OFF

 

xio.Lamps.UpsDurationTestAtFullBrightness

If enabled, the brightness of all DALI devices is set to 100 % before starting a UPS test. After the test, the original brightness values are restored.

ON, OFF

none

OFF

since LaMPS 4.1.12

xio.Lamps.UpsTriggerDaliTest

If enabled, during UPS test each associated DALI device will be actively tested.

ON, OFF

none

OFF

since LaMPS 4.1.12

xio.Lamps.ShowTestSpecificItems

If enabled, emergency items for each test type are created and shown separately.

ON, OFF

none

OFF

since LaMPS 4.1.12

xio.Lamps.ShowCommentItems

If enabled, additional items (Last Lamp Change, Comment, ...) are shown.

ON, OFF

none

ON

since LaMPS 4.1.14

xio.Lamps.StoredUnattendedTestResults

If enabled, test results that are received when no test is active, will be stored in SQL.

ON, OFF

none

ON

since LaMPS 4.1.15

Further configuration

Changelog

Version

Date

Notes

Version

Date

Notes

4.1.15

Nov 29, 2023

New features

  • Support for DALI groups for UPS emergency tests

Improvements

  • Reports: use local format of date and time

Fixes

  • Energy and power approximation was not working correctly – fixed.

  • Unattended tests were shown as “Timeout” in some reports – fixed.

4.1.14

Feb 3, 2023

New features

  • New report: LaMPS Gateway Latest

  • Additional items for comment and lamp / device / battery changes

Improvements

  • Reports for UPS: use UPS name instead of generic name “Device0”

Fixes

  • Circuits: forwarding of data from other server items not working – fixed.

  • Emergency Lighting Status (Multi) Reports misses battery level for failed battery devices – fixed.

4.1.13

Nov 28, 2022

Fixes

  • Emergency test mapping with empty start trigger and test result data point prevents from starting up correctly – fixed.

  • Module is configured to make all items persistent, but DALI items are non-persistent – fixed.

  • EAE gateway: "Last Test was" emergency device item is missing – fixed.

4.1.12

Jun 27, 2022

New features

  • Support for UPS-powered emergency lights in terms of test callback server items and reports.

  • New server items for device functions (switching, dimming, operating hours counter) inside the LaMPS branch of the item tree.

  • New server item Test faulty devices only to trigger next test only for DALI devices that did not pass the previous test.

  • New server item Remaining Test Runtime to indicate remaining runtime of the current test in execution.

Improvements

  • Performance improvements.

  • New option to suppress creation of per-test-type server items in order to reduce number of data points in the item tree.

  • Improved LaMPS Emergency Lighting Status Multi report to restrict output to emergency lights only.

  • Improved fail reason in emergency lighting reports.

  • Hormonized server items Fault battery, Battery defect and Battery fault or defect for all gateway types.

Fixes

  • Report configuration prevents modifications of report from being saved – fixed.

  • Duplicated gateway name prevents all gateway items from being created – fixed.

  • Usage of reserved names in gateway path/name leads to ambiguous error message – fixed.

4.1.11

Feb 24, 2022

(internal release)

4.1.10

Nov 11, 2021 

Improvements

  • Reports moved from reporting to LaMPS extension.

4.1.9

Feb 18, 2021 

Requires BMS Platform >= 4.2.2000

New features

  • Support for ABB DG/S 1.64.5.1 and ABB DG/S 2.64.5.1

  • Support for Theben DALI-Gateway KNX plus, DALI-Gateway S64 KNX and DALI-Gateway S128 KNX

4.1.8

Jul 20, 2020 

Requires BMS Platform >= 4.2.1020

New features

  • New configuration option "Trigger test on recovery".

  • Emergency testing: new server items for hierarchical structure.

Improvements

  • Set non-existing DALI device as "deleted" in SQL database.

  • Improved error messages for miss-configured DALI gateways.

Fixes

  • Status items of light circuit may be wrong after server start – fixed.

  • Initial reads may be invoked twice after server startup – fixed.

  • Operating hours of circuits may not start counting after server restart – fixed. 

  • Some light circuit items are non-persistent – fixed.

4.1.7

May 18, 2020 

New features

  • New server item per gateway that holds the list of faulty DALI devices.

  • Specific server items for emergency test results for all gateway types.

  • Support for HDL M/DALI.1 gateways.

  • Support for Legrand 002698 gateways.

  • Emergency lighting devices are flagged in the database.

  • Non-existent gateways are flagged in the database.

Improvements

  • Emergency test stop can now be triggered on any level of the DALI branch in the item tree.

  • Consolidated items for emergency test running on all levels of the DALI branch in the item tree.

  • Default test timeout values have been adjusted to more realistic time spans.

  • DALI gateway definition tables: column names harmonized across vendors.

  • Plugin startup procedure improved.

Fixes

  • Last test was item is not set if test has failed – fixed.

  • Test trigger for multiple gateways does not work – fixed.

4.1.6

Mar 23, 2020 

  • re-release of 4.1.4

4.1.5

Mar 19, 2020 

 DO NOT USE

4.1.4

Sep 2, 2019 

  • Bad reference from test result to DALI device – fixed.

4.1.3

Aug 30, 2019 

  • Wrong DALI device number used for ABB gateways – fixed.

4.1.2

Aug 22, 2019 

  • LaMPS import within ETS import tool fixed

4.1.1

Aug 14, 2019 

ItemID changes from 4.1.4 to 4.1.7

List of itemIDs that have changed in release 4.1.7 compared to the previously released version 4.1.4:

gateway type

4.1.4

4.1.7

gateway type

4.1.4

4.1.7

ABB DG/Sx.64.1.1

<gateway>\<device>\Emergency\Test faulted

<gateway>\<device>\Emergency\Last test faulted

ABB DG/S1.16.1

<gateway>\<device>\Emergency\Test faulted

<gateway>\<device>\Emergency\Last test faulted

EAE DA1xx

<gateway>\<device>\Emergency\Fault emergency light

<gateway>\<device>\Emergency\FunctionTest\Fault emergency light

<gateway>\<device>\Emergency\DurationTest\Fault emergency light

Gira

<gateway>\Emergency\Emergency Mode Active

<gateway>\Emergency\Emergency Lights On/Off

Siemens N 141/02

<gateway>\<device>\Fault Converter

<gateway>\<device>\Emergency\FunctionTest\Fault Converter

<gateway>\<device>\Emergency\PartialDurationTest\Fault Converter

<gateway>\<device>\Emergency\DurationTest\Fault Converter

<gateway>\<device>\Emergency\BatteryTest\Fault Converter

Article applies to the following products:

  • NETx BMS Platform