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It is our hope the preceding chapters have given you the opportunity to gain a high-level understanding of all the technologies associated with GNU remotecontrol. You are now ready to learn how to use GNU remotecontrol.
Tool Tips are present on a few of the form controls in GNU remotecontrol. Most GUI web browsers require UTF-8 to display Tool Tips. The encoding of the GNU remotecontrol database is ISO-8859-1 (Latin 1). Therefore, some characters of some display languages may not properly render in the Tool Tips. There are 2 ways to resolve this problem.
Please see the section below for more information regarding Browser Selection.
GNU remotecontrol is designed for usage with either Mozilla Firefox, or with Konqueror. Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), though one of the worlds first graphical options for a web browser and is credited with helping to grow the Internet past text browsing, the application IE simply changes too much and too often to deal with all of the inconsistencies of the browser not being compliant with International Standards of the World Wide Web. In addition, IE only runs on the Windows operating system whereas GNU remotecontrol runs on any server that can run PHP.....of which there are many.
Please review the various Use Case Scenarios prior to reading how to go about using GNU remotecontrol. These examples will greatly help you to see the value of using GNU remotecontrol.
This section is quite important, perhaps the most important of all. The absence of all devices being set to the same time often results in many problems, problems which are often catastrophic in nature. We have written this section to try to eliminate Clock Synchronization errors from hindering the efficiency of your energy management strategy.
The definition of Time can mean many things to many people. We define Time as a dimension in which events can be ordered from the past through the present into the future, and the measure of durations of events and the intervals between them. Date is a collection of time. Daylight Savings Time is the most common occurrence of Time Change. Time Dilation is not a problem with HVAC operation, nor is the Hafele Keating Effect, as the facility is not traveling.
The biggest problem with having multiple clocks is Clock Drift and the necessary correction for Delta T to account for Terrestrial Time. This Clock Drift problem is globally resolved when Daylight Savings Time occurs. The time standard the majority of the world uses is Coordinated Universal Time, often referred to as UTC. This time standard is achieved by the Atomic Clock delivering International Atomic Time.
Examples of how time differences can cause damage and harm people are in a manufacturing facility and while using medical equipment. Awareness during the Daylight Savings Time change is the easiest way to avert any unforeseen problems. Remember, even if you don’t live in a location that observes Daylight Savings Time, there is still a time correction that occurs to resolve Delta T. Finally, you may have newly installed equipment that was incorrectly configured during installation and erroneously activates the hourly time change when Daylight Savings Time occurs.
We decided to align the time of the thermostat to the time of the GNU remotecontrol server, and have the Time Zone of each thermostat as a required field in the thermostat profile. The Time Zone information lives in the timezoneoffset table in the GNU remotecontrol database, as a Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) offset. Please read the sections for index.php, explaining the Time Zone Offset field, and the section Write to a Thermostat - Date and Time for more information about how we have accomplished this action. The capability to use Database Management to manage your thermostats is very much improved by having the Time Zone information as a field in your GNU remotecontrol database.
We originally developed code to enable setting each thermostat to a specifically different time, but decided against using that option. Setting each thermostat to a different time would defeat achieving Clock Synchronization, resulting in loads of confusion when comparing your HVAC logged data with logged data from other sources, such as Weather Services, other Building Automation technologies, and Network Security.
Reference Information
So, all you have to do is make certain the time on your GNU remotecontrol server is set to the time you prefer. Then, save yourself a lot of hassle and set the time on your devices every month by using GNU remotecontrol. Finally, use GNU remotecontrol to change any IP enabled thermostat during the Daylight Savings Time change. This will make certain all of your thermostats are correct and have all of your logged data match up properly when comparing by time.
This web page provides User Management in the GNU remotecontrol application.
Add user accounts with the exact same name you setup the user accounts in your Web Server. Edit and Delete user accounts from this web page, as well. Security to access this web page is completely handled by the Web Server and the Operating System running your Web Server. You need to restrict access to this web page to only allow the user accounts you want to be able to add/edit/delete the other user accounts.
We added a management option to this web page, per a request received during our design of GNU remotecontrol. The demand for this feature is the desire to increase awareness of the need to also setup Remote Monitoring for a newly added thermostat. The intent of this feature is to provide a check and balance for all roles that use GNU remotecontrol. You set the total number of thermostats the user account can have to whatever you prefer.
This web page provides the ability to manage your individual thermostats, all at one time.
You are ready to use index.php web page after you have setup the admin.php user accounts. The detailed sections below address how to use each capability.
Loading index.php causes each attribute of each device to be read. Please see the section Adding a Thermostat for more information. The thermostats entered in your GNU remotecontrol database will populate with the current values of the first device in the profile list upon the initial load of index.php. Click the hyperlink View Settings to see the parameters currently set on the device. You only view the settings of a single thermostat device, one at a time. This is listed as Currently Viewing, after clicking the hyperlink View Settings. Please see the section View Settings for more information.
The data from a thermostat device is not loaded if the thermostat device cannot be reached or if the thermostat device is unresponsive. Remember, index.php does not populate the values for this thermostat device if this thermostat device is first in your listing,
A status indicator appears next to each selected thermostat device when the submission is complete. This status indicator can render: Done, NoTrans, or Error. A Tool Tip will appear with more information when hovering over this status indicator.
PHP errors are logged to your PHP logging, if you have this feature enabled in your PHP configuration. A logging mechanism for errors returned directly from a thermostat device writes that information to the errorlog table in the GNU remotecontrol database. This logging will occur when the thermostat device is reachable and responsive, but something goes awry with the submission, or if there is something wrong with the device and the device returns an error.
Day in and day out, you will want to know the settings on the different IP enabled thermostats you are charged with caring for. Using GNU remotecontrol will help you see if anyone has changed the settings on an IP enabled thermostat, thereby altering and/or defeating your energy management strategy. Combing into the equation a Remote Monitoring Server with Email Server notification and you are on top of the game for energy management.
Reload index.php at any time you prefer to poll each device and read the current parameters of the attributes for all device entries.
See Troubleshooting for more information.
Highlighted fields are required.
You must have the password to the admin user account for the device you want GNU remotecontrol to write to. This is to ensure that the user of GNU remotecontrol has administrative authority to the device. Mandating usage of the admin user account further assures that writing to the device occurs by a user with complete authority to that device. Complete the highlighted fields, click Add, and click Set to enter the admin user account password for that thermostat. You have now completely added your first thermostat to GNU remotecontrol.
Repeat the above paragraph for all remaining thermostats you wish to add to GNU remotecontrol.
Reload index.php at any time you prefer to poll each device and read the current parameters of the attributes for all device entries.
See Troubleshooting for more information.
Click View Settings to load the parameters of that specific thermostat into the HVAC Settings, Setback Scheduling, and Sensor Settings. View Settings will toggle to display as Currently Viewing. This capability allows you to easily see what each thermostat is set to once you load index.php, versus having to go to each individual thermostat to review this information. This is a very powerful time and bandwidth saving capability.
Reload index.php at any time you prefer to poll each device and read the current parameters of the attributes for all device entries.
See Troubleshooting for more information.
Our research during the development of GNU remotecontrol found users want 2 separate buttons to operate GNU remotecontrol. They want a button to set the time on a thermostat and another button to set the rest of the HVAC settings on the thermostat. Here are the steps when using GNU remotecontrol for writing Date and Time to any device:
The Date and Time of the GNU remotecontrol server is displayed to the right of this button. The time of the GNU remotecontrol server is not necessarily the same time of the computer you are using. When you click Set Time on Selected Thermostats, the following is achieved:
This capability enables you to then use transactionhistory.php and/or Database Management to see if any thermostat device is gaining or losing time, identifying if you need to investigate a particular thermostat device. Please review the section above called Time for more information as to why this functionality has been designed.
Reload index.php at any time you prefer to poll each device and read the current parameters of the attributes for all device entries.
See Troubleshooting for more information.
Our research during the development of GNU remotecontrol found users want 2 separate buttons to operate GNU remotecontrol. They want a button to set the time on a thermostat and another button to set the rest of the HVAC settings on the thermostat. Here are the steps when using GNU remotecontrol for writing HVAC Settings to any device:
Once you click the Submit button, GNU remotecontrol goes to each device, makes the changes, and populates the Transaction Log in the GNU remotecontrol database. This capability enables you to then use transactionhistory.php and/or Database Management to see if any thermostat device is changing settings, identifying if you need to investigate who is doing this or if the device is problematic. Finally, index.php is refreshed and only the attributes that were changed are reflected with their new values. The benefit of this automation is the entire list of device attributes are not polled again. This is a very powerful time and bandwidth saving capability.
Reload index.php at any time you prefer to poll each device and read the current parameters of the attributes for all device entries.
See Troubleshooting for more information.
The list of objects and parameters available for you to select is listed below.
–HVAC Settings–
HVAC Mode:
Fan Mode:
Setback Status:
Setback Heat:
Setback Cool:
–Setback Scheduling–
Period
Time
Day Class Schedules
Heat
Cool
Fan
Default Weekly Schedule - Days
Default Weekly Schedule - Setback Scheduling
–Sensor Settings–
Local Sensor - State
Local Sensor - Averaging
Local Sensor - Correction
Remote Sensor 1 - State
Remote Sensor 1 - Averaging
Remote Sensor 1 - Correction
Remote Sensor 2 - State
Remote Sensor 2 - Averaging
Remote Sensor 2 - Correction
This web page provides the Transaction Log in the GNU remotecontrol application. This web page is read-only, with search fields to quickly and easily find what you are looking for.
Enter search values in the respective fields to quickly filter and display the rows you are looking for.
The field headers of this web page are rendered in the display language you choose, but the field data of this web page is not translated into another display language. The field data is only rendered in English. This is because the Proliphix thermostat device only renders in English. This provides you confidence the information you are looking at transactionhistory.php can be easily compared to the information rendered in the web server of the Proliphix thermostat device.
Next: Usage Recommendations, Previous: System Architecture and Concepts, Up: Top [Contents]