Large commercial projects, spanning several floors or buildings, require special solutions for effective solar control and management. The full impact of properly designed motorized window coverings is most apparent in these settings.
The savings in energy to light, heat and cool the work space is dramatic. Properly controlled glare greatly increases the level of personal comfort and creates an attractive and productive environment. Most importantly, the correct selection of shade cloth allows all of these benefits without losing the ability to view the outside world.
Up until now the motor control system needed to implement all of this was costly and an electrical nightmare of external controllers, high voltage wiring, with entire rooms dedicated to the equipment. The cost and utilization of raw materials, like copper and steel, was wasteful and in no sense a “green application”. The man power needed to install, configure and manage the system was prohibitive.
InSync Digital Network (DN) was designed to eliminate the drawbacks of older technologies that were simply not up to the task. Using the principle of “removing stress from the system” Decorating with Fabric has selected the best combination of digital networking and integrated motor control to produce a solution that is simple in both concept and execution.
Best of all, it eliminates miles of control conduit, high voltage wiring, rooms full of equipment, and the pitfalls of older solutions being pressed beyond their capabilities.
The concept is simple –place all of the controls within the motor – make most of the controls virtual. Advanced electronics and software replaces expensive hardware – and does most of the work.
The InSync Digital Network is a system of solar shades with intelligent motors linked to an IP interface box and potentially other input devices such as hospital bed controls, wall switches and sun sensors.
• Timed functions from an IP interface automate a facility for any needs—i.e., light pollution control at night if seeking a LEED credit.
• Flexible programming and priorities mean that local wall switches can be set at a priority level that works with the automation system.
• Virtual wall switches can be programmed into the IP interface allowing operation of shades from any computer with access.
The InSync Digital Network (ISDN) is the latest generation of bus-line enabled Intelligent Tubular Motors and controls. The ISDN components are integrated into a cost effective system designed to operate a wide range of window coverings and projection screens over a standard RS-485 network.
Precise control of end product movement is accomplished by the advances offered with the latest InSync ILT intelligent motors. Each intelligent motor is supplied with a unique hard coded address at the point of manufacturing. This unique addressing scheme makes it possible to identify and control every motorized window treatment on the ISDN system either individually or in groups.
Control of the product on the ISDN system is accomplished by using one or more InSync Smart Switches or IP interface. The IP Interface / Web Server allows the deployment of a virtual smart switch. This virtual switch is a GUI control device accessed by any PC that is connected to the LAN, placing local control of an individual’s solar protection a mouse click away.
By eliminating the need for wall mounted switches for local control of individual areas, the flexibility of the system is greatly enhanced while at the same time reducing installation costs. Now, a change in the building layout or the re-purposing of the interior space no longer requires costly rewiring. It is now just a simple matter of adding or deleting the motors in one group and reassigning them to the new configuration design via software.
The InSync Digital Network is capable of controlling thousands of motors on a single RS-485 network. Each segment of the ISDN system architecture supports 256 unique devices. These unique devices are a combination of InSync Smart Switches, ILT Motor Interface Devices (TAPS) and Smart Sensor Control Interfaces. System scalability is one of the major benefits of the IDN system design approach. With the ISDN, network design remains a constant and allows system designs incorporating 50 motors to follow the same wiring architecture as a system with 1000 motors. This scalability is accomplished by simply adding RS-485 segment bridges for every 256 bus-line devices.
The ISDN system is a standard half duplex, bi-directional RS-485 network. Bi-directional communications makes it possible to receive feedback from each motor on the network. This allows the system to view the position and status of any motor on the network, in real time. Since the ISDN network runs over standard network architecture, it is possible to establish a remote connection to the system from anywhere internet access is available. This defines a new level of commissioning and support services that can be offered for today’s energy efficient Intelligent Building.
SIMPLE TO DESIGN:
The ISDN is a bus line based network of intelligent addressable motors and smart controls which are software configured for the management of day lighting and glare to improve the comfort of building occupants and reduce HVAC energy demands.
SIMPLE TO CONFIGURE:
Each component on the ISDN is assigned a unique address on the RS-485 bus. This scheme allows specific tasks, up – stop – down – intermediate positions – locking – scheduling, etc. for every InSync smart switch and InSync intelligent motor to be configured over the network at the software level. Configuration and re-configuration is easy as these functional assignments are made without the need to access the end product or physically re-wire IDN hardware.
SIMPLE TO INSTALL:
Category 5 cable, commonly known as Cat 5 or “Cable and Telephone”, is a twisted pair cable type designed for high signal integrity. This type of cable is often used in structured wiring for computer networks such as Ethernet. By using this world-wide wiring structure standard for the ISDN DWF Contract has insured that bus line installation is cost effective and integrator friendly.
SIMPLE TO SCALE:
ISDN insures the scalability of the control system. Residential or commercial systems, whether designed for 10 motors or 1000 motors, no longer carry the first cost impact of providing a centralize building controller and remotely located hardware modules.
SIMPLE TO PARTNER:
ISDN plays nicely with others. With the standardization of the bus line approach on a RS-485 physical layer the ISDN easily integrates with lighting, HVAC, and third party home automation systems.
SIMPLE TO PERSONALIZE:
With the incorporation of the ISDN web based Internet Protocol Interface, virtual switches can be remotely deployed on the existing buildings Local Area Network (LAN). This Graphical User Interface allows for each individual users PC on the LAN to have permission based control of their shading system. This personal control access is managed in the IP Interface. Virtual switches can be designed so that the user is only able to override the system when the energy performance of the shading system will not be compromised.