Heating schedules

Before you start

For heating schedules to work correctly, you have to make sure three things are configured correctly first:

  • Device time

    • By default, Vicki asks the LoRaWAN network for the current UTC time (using a MAC command). If the time is not correctly set by the LoRaWAN Network Server, you might want to set it yourself and disable the MAC command syncing

  • Device time-zone

    • Adjust the correct time-zone based on UTC where the device is installed.

  • Heating season start and end date

    • To minimize motor movements, the heating schedules are only executed during the heating season.

Keep in mind that the maximum downlink size is 51 bytes!

Good practices

  • When your country switches from daylight savings time to winter time, adjust the time-zone correctly and automatically.

  • The easiest way to sync time is through the LoRaWAN MAC command that Vicki sends to the LNS. While this works on all LNS we've tested so far, please make sure it works on your instance too.

    • To make sure that the device has the correct time, it'll send the current reading to the Application Server. In case the UNIX timestamp sent is not correct, use a SET command to set the correct time and consider turning off the MAC sync.

  • Decide on the heating start/end dates wisely so that Vicki doesn't move the motor when the heating system is still not operational.

Heating event details

This command is used to configure the device's internal heating schedule. Maximum of 20 events are supported, which are executed at individual time slots during the day and the user can choose on which week-day they are to be executed/repeated. This allows to precisely control the device target temperature on a week day, hour and minute basis.

Byte index

Hex value / Meaning

0

59 – command code

1

Event index – 0–19 for configuring of total 20 events.

2

Starting hour for a given heating event – 0–23.

3

Starting minute for a given heating event – 0–59.

4-MSB 5-LSB

Target temperature to be set at the heating event beginning, represented in Celsius degrees multiplied by 10, in order to support point decimal values. Min. allowed value – 50 (5°C)

Max. allowed value – 300 (30°C).

6

Mark which day the heating event will be executed/repeated for.

A bit value 0 means disabled, 1 means enabled. Bit 0 is for Monday, bit 6 is for Sunday.

Example command: 5900080101021F59020600006460

  • 00 – Configure event index 0:

    • 08 01 – Starts at 08:01

    • 01 02 – Target = 25.8°C

    • 1F – Monday to Friday

  • 02 – Configure event index 2:

    • 06 00 – Starts at 06:00

    • 00 64 – Target = 5.0°C

    • 60 – Saturday to Sunday

Activate/deactivate heating events

In order for a given heating event to be executed regularly it should be marked as activated. It is automatically set to active when configured via a valid configuration command 0x59.

An event can be activated/deactivated at any time, this will not erase the event itself (the settings will be preserved for later use).

Byte index

Hex value / Meaning

0

6B – command code

1

Event index – 0–19 for configuring of total 20 events.

2

Event state – 1 to activate, 0 to deactivate.

Example command 1: 0x6B0000 – deactivates the heating event at index 0. Example command 2: 0x6B1001 – activates the heating event at index 16.

Heating season start and end dates

The heating schedule start and end dates are usually the heating season start and end dates. The configured heating events will be executed/repeated throughout that time.

Note that because of how commands work (HEX values), the numbers for the months are shifted by 1, where the 1st month (January) corresponds to a value of 0, where February to a value of 1, etc.

Byte index

Hex value / Meaning

0

5B – command code

1

Starting month – 0–11.

2

Starting day – 1–31; 0 disables schedule handling.

3

End month – 0–11.

4

End month day – 1–31; 0 disables schedule handling.

Example command 1: 0x5B0A010301

0x0A01 – Start date is 1st of November; 0x0301 – End date is 1st of April.

Example command 2: 0x5B0A000300 – completely disable internal heating schedule handling.

Example heating schedule

Last updated

Was this helpful?