ControlSoft Feature Comparison	ControlSoft Lite	ControlSoft Standard	ControlSoft Advanced	ControlSoft Client/Server
Area/Preset Naming	ü	ü	ü	ü
8 button Front Panel	ü	4,8,12 or 18	4,8,12 or 18	4,8,12 or 18
Dynalite Area/Preset/Fade messages	ü	ü	ü	ü
Run and Cancel Macros	ü	ü	ü	ü
Network Monitor	ü	ü	ü	ü
View Macros running	ü	ü	ü	ü
Direct Control	ü	ü	ü	ü
Scheduler	üexcept sunrise	ü	ü	ü
Light Level Adjustment and programming	ü	ü	ü	ü
System Tray icon	ü	ü	ü	ü
Password protected configuration	ü	ü	ü	ü
Scheduler with Sunrise and Sunset ability		ü	ü	ü
Multi-State Buttons		ü	ü	ü
Configurable as 4, 8, 12 or 18 button		ü	ü	ü
Custom Codes		ü	ü	ü
Events		ü	ü	ü
DDE Control			ü	ü
Media playback (.wav, .mp3, .avi)			ü	ü
Channel @ Level messages in macros			ü	ü
Email ability			ü	ü
Digilin Commands			ü	ü
Plan View			ü	ü
RollCall of Devices with reporting			ü	ü
Sensor Logging			ü	ü
Database Logging ability			ü	ü
Energy Usage Reporting			ü	ü
Work over LAN / Internet with Client/server				ü4 user, additional users available
Ability to see origin of a message				ü

 

Description of Features:

Area/Preset Naming:

The ability to give Dynalite Areas and Presets english names so that they can be used in english.

Instead of “set area 1 to preset 4”.  We can say it like “set foyer to off” which makes more sense the the user.

 

8 Button Front Panel:

The main screen of ControlSoft features 8 buttons by default. These buttons can easily be programmed to start sequences or one-step commands known as ‘macros’

 

Dynalite Area/Preset/Fade messages:

ControlSoft ‘understands’ Dynalite code and can translate the idea of ‘Foyer to off over a 3 second fade’ and convert it to a Dynalite message to get that result.

 

Run and Cancel Macros:

‘Macros’ are sequences of commands that are saved and recalled as the user wants. These macros can be thought of as re-usable ‘building blocks’ that can be repeated or call other macros. You can therefore call other macros from within a macro or cancel them if need be.

 

Network Monitor:

The network monitor is a useful diagnostic tool that shows network traffic and date/time stamps each message. This helps confirm that things are happening as they are supposed to be.

 

View Macros Running:

Macros that call other macros or macros that repeat themselves may cause many macros to be running at one time. You can view what macros are running at any one time and choose to cancel individuals or all macros with a simple mouse click. This screen is a useful diagnostic while you are developing more complicated macros.

 

Direct Control:

This screen as it suggests allows you to directly control Areas and presets or start macros. It also shows you what preset an area is in at any time. Useful for checking status or simply activating something without having to write a macro and assign it to a button.

 

Scheduler:

The scheduler allows you to set up a calendar of events and run macros at specific times. You can for example run the ‘Goodnight’ macro every Monday to Friday at 6:30pm. You can also exclude particular dates. For example you may wish lighting to come on every day except 25^th December. Conversely you can program something different to happen on the 25^th of December.

 

Light Level Adjustment and Programming:

ControlSoft has the ability to produce ‘slider bars’ for each channel (circuit of lighting) in a particular area. This allows the end user to slide these sliders using their mouse or keyboard and control individual lighting circuits in real-time. They can optionally set these levels in the dimmers memory to be recalled by other Dynalite panels and thus make any changes to the ‘look and feel’ that they prefer. Naturally these features can be switched off and password protected if need be.

 

System Tray Icon:

It is not necessary to have ControlSoft main screen up all the time, but to have it scheduling events, it must of course be running the program. A small icon in the system tray does not get in the way of normal use of the computer but provides a way to quickly access all of ControlSofts features.

 

Password Protected Configuration:

When the dealer first sets up and installation, he may need to program lights, write a few commonly used macros and set up buttons etc. For the non-technical user, the dealer may wish to stop them from altering these settings and only allow them to ‘use’ the buttons and macros. This can be done in configuration by turning off those features they do not want the user to access.

 

<end of ControlSoft Lite Features>

 

Scheduler with Sunrise and Sunset ability:

The scheduler is also able to calculate sunrise and sunset times based on the latitude and longitude. Timed events can be issues like “execute the goodnight macro 1 hour after sunset”. The actual time of this event would then alter by a few minutes every day to suit.

 

Multi-State Buttons:

Normally the buttons on the front main screen of ControlSoft fire the same macro every time. Multi-state buttons allow the user to make the buttons change their label and function depending on the status of the system. A simple example is to produce a button that toggles on/off. Another button may scroll through several ‘moods’  e.g.  On, Mid, Low and Off.

 

Configurable as 4, 8, 12 or 18 button:

ControlSoft defaults to an 8 button front main screen. This feature allows the user to optionally re-configure the screen to show 4, 12 or 18 buttons depending on their requirements.

 

Custom Codes:

While ControlSoft understands how to produce an Area/Preset message, there are many other functions and features that the dealer/user may wish to control. Custom Codes allows the user to capture a message off the network by listening for it and saving it. It can then be re-sent from within a macro. The user can also type the specific Custom Code in directly rather then listen for it.

 

Events:

All other functions in ControlSoft send out messages based on a button press or scheduled event etc. Events allows ControlSoft to listen to the network and re-act to hearing a particular message. For example, a user might ‘hear’ a message on the network because a button was pressed, and then execute a macro to override or run some sequence.

 

<end of ControlSoft Standard Features>

 

 

DDE Control:

DDE or Dynamic Data Exchange is a method of different Windows applications talking to one another.  DDE ability in ControlSoft was developed primarily to allow BMS systems to talk to the Dynalite network. It allows any DDE enabled application to directly set an Area/Preset or run a ControlSoft Macro. It can also ask the status of any particular area.

 

Media Playback (.wav, mp3, .avi)

Another possible component of a macro is the ability to play some sort of media. This has many uses ranging from using a simple warning sound generated by some event, to playing full motion video to explain a fault or status. Now a button press on a Dynalite wall-plate could execute a soundtrack etc.

 

Channel @ Level messages in Macros:

Aside from being able to natively send out an Area Preset message, ControlSoft can ask a specific channel to fade to a certain level over a specified time.

Email Ability:

The user can pre-configure emails to a known recipient with a text message. Once configured and saved to a name, this email can be called as part of a macro.  For example, by using events and email, a building engineer could be informed when a circuit breaker tripped or a certain button was pressed.

 

Digilin Commands:

This feature is specific to controlling Digilin Fibre-Optic boxes with three channels of control. It allows a group of three Dynalite channels to be assigned to a light box number. Each channel can be named in English and then the user can preset certain levels to have those channels reach pre-determined settings for the lightbox. This way the box can be more easily controlled in English. For example, a command might read like : LightBox1 go to RED Clockwise Fast. And the appropriate Dynalite channel @ levels messages would be output to effect this result.

 

Plan View:

This gives the user the ability to import CAD plans into ControlSoft. It uses a tree-structure to break a plan up into ‘most used’ views. By zooming to a particular area and placing icons, the user can see status and directly control an area in a graphical way. This ‘view’ of the plan can be saved and easily recalled which makes navigating a large plan extremely efficient. Plan view allows an administrator to easily overview an entire network and quickly navigate to a specific area to control or simply inquire.

 

RollCall of Devices:

RollCall is a the name suggests, a way of seeing if device are present and accounted for. In large mission critical installations, this feature allows selected devices to be polled and checked for a correct response. Many different Rollcalls can be saved and called from a Macro. This allows the user to schedule when and how often devices will be checked – and which devices. The result can be a report to an engineer with a breakdown of the results. Another option is to start a macro should there be any device that does not respond. This can be used to bring emergency lighting into effect or other.

 

Sensor Logging:

Developed in particular for an Art Gallery, sensor logging specifically polls Dynalite PE cells and asks them for the current light level in lux. The results are written to a Microsoft Access database for reporting purposes.

 

Database Logging:

This allows all network messages to be logged to a Microsoft Database. Each message is Date and Time Stamped and is useful for seeing lamp usage, which areas are switched on/off more than others or simply diagnosing a network.

 

Energy Usage Reporting:

This feature is used to best guess energy usage in a system without the use of current sensors. The user entered what fittings are being used in the system and those fittings are ‘profiled’ by telling ControlSoft what they draw at certain channel levels. If a few data points are given, ControlSoft interpolates all other ‘unknown’ levels. Each time ControlSoft hears a Area/Preset change, it asks the dimmers their channel levels and compares this against table data. From this it is able to calculate quite closely the actual energy usage.

 

<end of ControlSoft Advanced Features>

 

Work over LAN/Internet with Client/Server:

Normally ControlSoft is a stand alone Windows application and talks directly to the computer’s serial port. Client/Server is a version that allows the ‘Server’ application to look after all communications between itself and the Dynalite network. The ‘Client’ applications, of which there can be many, can talk to the Server via TCP/IP protocol. This means many many computers can talk extremely quickly with the server and get information back. The server guarantees that many messages all arriving at the same time are sequentially put onto the Dynet network in an ordered fashion. It also means that wiring for the Dynet is no longer necessary to these points as the clients ethernet carries the Dynet messages instead. Because this system works on IP, it also works remotely via the Internet. This would allow an engineer or user in another part of the world to access a system, get status, and actuate controls.

The Client/Server system also allows us to log ‘who’ made the call -  the origin of the message.