Recently I got myself a C_Bus TouchScreen in exchange for some labour. To be quite honest my little shack doesnt warrant having a Touchscreen , but now that I have it I may as well put it to good use. My description is very brief and a basic overview so you would need to read the manual for clarification..
Started off by opening the C_Touch Software and started a new project. I called it Myhouse as per my C_Bus installation this allows me to use my C_Bus tags already programmed . Some project details to fill out ,installer information ,screen orientation depending on viewing angle and other screen options.
A blank screen is presented for the user to start creating Pages. I played around for a while with boxes and text and then tried the images. These are libraries of icons and I decided to use some for the C_bus loads ie lamps and fans etc. They change according to the status of the C_Bus load...ie a bulb is shown when off and a bulb with little dots around it is shown when the load is on..
The idea is to create “Pages” and as another UKHA_D member stated its very much like creating a website.. So what I did after a few goes was set up a standard page which had a “Back” button and also a “Maintenence” button and then under the “Edit“ menu I selected ”Page “ then ”Duplicate“ . My main menu page is set up with ”Zone“ boxes and these are linked to other ”Pages“ depending on how the boxes are programmed. We will look at ”Zone 1“ Page , link can be none , User or Special. The special ones are Ones that are for instance a cleaning page which allows you to wipe the screen for 40 seconds or so without any actions being performed by screen presses , also time and date screens plus others. Special function can be none , backlit functions and time and date functions plus others. Remote Control is used for the inbuilt ir function as the touchscreen has a ir receiver (havent played with this) . Finally C_Bus ..you can send C_Bus commands to turn on / off ..dim brighten etc.
Anyway my ”Zone 1 link “ page lets me control kit in my main bedroom. From this page I can turn on / off my bedroom lites tv,and dvd . If I click on say the tv icon this links me to another Page which will hopefully allow me to control my tv (read on). The same applies for my bedroom dvd . Each button triggers a scene . The scene consists of two ir signals.
One thing that I really liked with the software was that if you right click on a icon/textbox that was linkable to a page it would go to that page . So you could test your pages and linking was correct before downloading to the touchscreen. Also if you connect the C_Bus pc interface to another com port on the pc you can test the C_Bus commands / scenes etc that are programmed.
Well of course I had some problems which seems to be normal for me... Firstly I tried to download the latest Firmware as advised by other C_Bus users . Downloaded version 1.9 into the touchscreen ,but it would drop out about 80% way through the download ?. I could download the 1.2 version BUT I couldnt download my ”Pages“. Apparently the Touchscreens can only be programmed approx 100 times as the ”Flash memory“ is only guaranteed for 100 rewrite cycles ??.. So I assumed that was my problem..This morning I tried again to download my ”Pages“ and it worked and I was also able to download the latest firmware (1.9) . So it seems ok , I have downloaded my Pages twice since but thats it for now. All the loads turn on / off via the pages as required. It really isnt that hard to program and of course my Pages are pretty basic but it gives you an ideas of whats involved.
Now my main reason for use of the Touchscreen is to be able to control my kit . To do this I need to get a C_Bus IR Reader and at least one 2 zone IR Transmitter. Should get these early next week . What I intend to do is have one zone of the ir Transmitter sending ir signals ( 1 of 8) directly to Homevision via stick on emitter. The 1 of 8 signals will inform Homevision which FirM Zone C_Bus wants to send the ir signal to . The second zone will send the ir command ie vol up vol down etc via an opto isolated interface which will send the signal to FirM and hopefully on to the selected zone ...So the idea is to trigger a scene in the Touchscreen that will tx 2 ir signals. Im just hoping there is enough delay between the two ir transmissions for Homevision to setup the zone . The only downside I see is the Touchscreen has no feedback on the status of any kit , so doesnt know if Off or On.....so it can only do toggle commands for power..
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