The application on Tinkerbus

Devices and places

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Devices & places section has a tree on the left and an editor for the selected item on the right.

The tree

Two views, chosen with the buttons above the tree:

By place. Buildings, floors and rooms with their devices, and a Not placed node for devices without a place. Building adds a building at the top level.
By line. Areas and lines with their devices.

A filter box narrows the tree. A dot next to a device means its settings still have to be downloaded into the real device (see Download reminder). Export… writes all devices with their place to a CSV file.

Network

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Network section draws the areas, main lines and line boxes of the project with their devices and couplers, as in a KNX topology diagram. Zoom with the + and - buttons, pan by dragging, and use Fit to show everything.

Following a group address

The panel on the right lists the group addresses that two or more devices use. Click one, or click a device on the map, to see:

Group addresses

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Group addresses section lists every group address of the project with its name, the last value seen on the bus (when you are connected), its data type, its range (main and middle group) and the number of devices that use it. The search box matches address, name, type and range. Up to 2000 rows are shown; narrow the search for more.

Groups

The list is laid out under the main and middle groups the addresses are in. Click a group head (▾ / ▸) to collapse or expand it; the number in brackets is how many addresses it holds. While a search is active, every match is shown.

Reports

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Reports section writes one HTML file. Open it in a browser to read it, print it or save it as PDF. The application has no print dialog of its own.

Choose what to include:

Topology: areas, lines and their devices.
Group addresses with the devices that use them.
Every device: linked group objects and changed parameters. This makes the output long.

Enter a file path and click Create report. If the file exists you are asked before it is replaced.

Compare

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Compare section lists what would have to change in another project file to get the open project, including your edits. Use it to see what changed since an earlier version or a backup. Nothing is written.

Enter the path of the other .knxproj file and click Compare.
If that file is password-protected you are asked for its password. Click Compare again.
The result is grouped by section (devices, parameters, links and so on). Parameters and links are listed by name. An entry with details can be opened.

If you edit the open project after comparing, the result is marked as out of date. Compare again.

Catalog

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Catalog section holds the manufacturer product data (.knxprod files) that Tinkerbus knows about. It has two tabs: My catalog and Online. The catalog works without an open project; adding a product to a project needs one.

My catalog

Search products filters by product, order number, manufacturer or category. Select a product to see its details and the parameters of its application program. The parameters shown are the program defaults. Shown by default lists the visible ones, All includes settings that other values switch off. Nothing is stored in a project until you add the device. The signature of product data is not checked.

Telegram monitor

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The monitor is the drawer at the bottom of the window. Ctrl+J opens and closes it. Once you are connected to a gateway it shows every telegram the gateway passes on.

Column	Meaning
Time	When it was received
Source	Individual address of the sender, with the device name from the project
Destination	A group address with its name, or a device address (marked device)
Service	The service, for example group value write, and confirm for the gateway’s confirmation of your own telegrams
Value	Decoded with the data type of the group address from the project, otherwise the raw octets. Hover to see the raw value.

Controls:

Diagnostics

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Diagnostics needs a connection and Allow sending, because the services put telegrams on the bus. They only use read services and nothing is written to a device. You do not need a project, but with one open the results are compared with it.

Device information

Enter a device address (for example 1.1.21) and click Read. The answer lists the mask version (and its name), the manufacturer, the serial number, the order information and whether the device is in programming mode. Anything the device does not answer is listed under Not available. The On the bus tab of a device does the same read for that device. If the mask version is not one Tinkerbus knows, Unknown mask: tell the project opens a report.

Programming

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Programming section (and the Program tab of a device, which is the same panel fixed to that device) loads the settings of a project device into a real device. Read safety and the workflow first.

It needs a project, a connection, and Allow sending.

What to load

Field	Meaning
Project device	The device whose settings are loaded
Address on the bus	The individual address the device will have afterwards. Empty means the same as the project device
New device	Tick it when the device has no address yet. Press its programming button; it answers at `15.15.255` (change the field if it answers elsewhere), and Tinkerbus assigns the address first
Load	Everything (application program, parameters, group communication), or partial: parameters only, group communication only, or both
without group address links	Load the settings with no group address link, so the device takes part in no group communication
program defaults instead of the project settings	Load the application program defaults
read all memory for the backup	Read everything for the backup even where that is slow. Some System B devices answer about every 10 seconds

Check device

Check device only reads. It reads the device (manufacturer, serial number, mask), saves a backup of its memory and shows:

Routing preview

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

For a line or area coupler, the device editor in Devices and places has a Routing tab. It shows the filter table that would be created for the coupler: the group addresses that devices on both sides of it use, plus unfiltered ones and ones entered by hand. The same table is used in both directions.

A device that is not on the bus (an IP device) is only known to the router through a dummy device in the project that links its group addresses.
The tab also reads the router’s own per-range modes (filter, route or block) from its parameters, and shows for each direction what applies.
Each table row says why the address is in the table and which devices below and outside use it.
Nothing is read from or sent to the device.

The calculation was checked against recorded reference downloads, but the rule is still treated as a hypothesis until compared with more tables from ETS. A dummy device without group objects (for example a secure dummy) links to a bus interface instead of group addresses; that case is not built.

Saving and changes

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Undo, redo and the list of changes

Every edit can be undone. Undo and Redo are in the top bar (Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Shift+Z outside text fields). While there are unsaved edits, the project menu shows Unsaved changes and Show changes, a list grouped by section of everything that differs from the file as it was last saved. Closing a project with unsaved changes asks for confirmation. Undo and redo keep working after a save.

Reports to the project

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Tinkerbus can help you tell the project about two things it cannot do yet. Nothing is sent by the application: it builds a short text from a fixed list of fields, shows it to you in full, and you copy it or open the issue form of the project’s issue tracker yourself. An issue on the tracker is public.

When a report is offered

Where	Link	Report
Catalog > My catalog, Products you cannot find online	Tell the project it is missing	A product of your project that the online index does not have
Catalog > Online, when a search finds nothing	Tell the project it is missing	The search words that found nothing
Programming, when the check is refused because the mask version has no load plan	Send the project the details	A device Tinkerbus cannot program yet
Diagnostics > Device information, when the device reports a mask version Tinkerbus does not know	Unknown mask: tell the project	The same, from the device

What is in a report

The report is built from these fields only, never from the open project. Names, individual and group addresses, serial numbers, parameter values and file paths cannot end up in it.

Search and shortcuts

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Press Ctrl+K, or click Search in the top bar, to open a search over:

the sections of the application (it works without a project too),
the devices of the project (by address, name, manufacturer or place),
the group addresses of the project.

Type words; all must match. Arrow keys move through the results, Enter opens the selection and Esc closes the search. Opening a device jumps to it in Devices and places, inside its rooms. Opening a group address jumps to it in Group addresses.