Controlling Fans using a Touchscreen

Whilst the zencontrol touchscreen has a very large depth of configuration, we provide widget templates for many applications.  In this example we will discuss control of fan speed or temperature.  

In the widget editor in the Touchscreen section, you will see that you can select a Template.  

From these templates, you can:

• Trigger DALI scenes / arc levels to control DALI based devices (i.e, fan controllers)
• Write to BACnet points that allow BMS system to forward selections to HVAC, other systems.

Both of these templates produce a value that can be forwarded to the target of the instance to cause an action. Prior to selection of Template, we recommend you set your instance target first. 

Go to your system variable page, create a system variable, give it a name (fan speed, for example)

To make a new system variable, you can just type in the highlighted spot
 

On the touchscreen section, give the touchscreen instance you want to use the target of that system variable, let it commit.   
 
 

 
After committing.  Go into the touchscreen widget editor and pick your template for your instances.
 

For example, we pick the Fan Speed (off) template.  This template will produce a 4 button widget that sets a targeted system variable to 0,1,2 or 3.

The widgets are already configured — once applied, though, the instructions tell you to set the target system variable in each widget's LED application settings. This is how we tell the individual buttons when to highlight (reflecting the selected value).

Click on each of the four widgets and scroll down to the LED application section. Set the System Variable field to whichever system variable you want that LED (highlight) to track.

As you go through the widgets, you'll notice the LED application behavior follows a pattern: System variable equals 0 for the first widget, equals 1 for the second, and so on.

Save your changes and they will be committed to the touchscreen.

Once this is committed to the touchscreen, the system variables you have chosen will be exposed and available for read / write in BACnet.  System variables are available from Analog Value point number 336,
 
I.E, system variable 0 is 336, 1 is 337 etc

Any manipulation of the value should reflect on the touchscreen / BACnet

• If you right click on the system variable in the system variable view and set to a value
• If you press your touchscreen
• You use YABE or another BACnet client to modify the value

If you wish to control DALI devices, whilst this guide will not have full instructions, the general process is to create a system variable change trigger and then run a sequence which operates on the values of the system variable

Example sequence

Simulating the instance value

In the Touchscreen tab, you can right click on an instance and choose Simulate touchscreen.  This will cause the controller to send the event out onto the bus and process it as if it was sent by the touchscreen, allowing you to test the system response to button presses, without being physically present.

If your widget has buttons, you may be choosing Push Button 1-4 as your type of input.  In the case of the Fan Speed, your type of event is a Raw input value.  In the screenshot below, we are simulating the user sending fan speed 2.