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It is our hope the preceding chapters have provided you the opportunity to gain a high-level understanding of all the technologies associated with GNU remotecontrol. We now need to talk about the browser you select to use with GNU remotecontrol and emphasize the concepts of time. Then, you are ready to learn how to use GNU remotecontrol.
GNU remotecontrol works with the following browsers:
Internet Explorer, though one of the worlds earlier graphical options for a web browser and is credited with helping to grow the Internet past text browsing, 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. GNU remotecontrol does work with Internet Explorer. However, Internet Explorer is not the recommendation for selection of a browser to use with 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.
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 which observes Daylight Savings Time, there is still a time correction which occurs to resolve Delta T. Finally, you may have newly installed equipment incorrectly configured during installation and erroneously activates the hourly time change when Daylight Savings Time occurs.
All times within the database are stored using the UTC time standard and converted to the user’s time zone (based on their location) for display purposes. All HVAC devices have time specified in the device’s time zone (based on its location). The time you choose on an HVAC device setting is relative to the device’s time zone.
Use the Time Administration setting to update all active thermostat devices to make sure all thermostat devices are set with the correct time for their time zone and Daylight Savings Time setting. A time update must be applied to all thermostat devices whenever the Daylight Savings Time change for the device’s location.
Reference Information
The menu contains web pages by access permissions. The menu is segmented by Main Menu, Language Admin Menu, and Admin Menu. The menu segmentation represents a GNU remotecontrol administrative account able to access all web pages and a non-administrative account only able to access the web pages listed under Main Menu.
There are three types of users: General, Translator, and Administrator. All users are General users. The Translator and Administrator users are nominated in the User Administration section. Access to each web page is limited by user type.
Administrator
General
Translator
The web pages containing a table can either list or hide each column, adjust the display order of each column, and sort each column. These settings are listed in the web page URL. This ability provides for your browser bookmark to record these user preferences.
The name of this web page is Home Page. It is generated by the home.php file. This web page provides bulk management of thermostat devices in the GNU remotecontrol application.
This web page displays all of your active thermostat devices. View your inactive thermostat devices on the Undelete Thermostats web page, generated by the admin-undelete.php file. Activate an inactive thermostat device to display the thermostat device in home.php.
Any user account visiting home.php without first establishing locations is redirected to admin-location.php. Any user account visiting home.php without first establishing groups is redirected to admin-group.php. Establishing both groups and locations is a task of the GNU remotecontrol administrator user account. The first user account to login to GNU remotecontrol is set to Is Admin status. This status selection is regulated by visiting the admin-user.php file.
This web page provides for viewing existing thermostat device settings stored in the thermostat device and writing new settings to the thermostat devices. Loading home.php causes each attribute of each thermostat device to be read. You only view the settings of a single thermostat device, one at a time. The data from a thermostat device is not loaded if the thermostat device cannot be reached or if the thermostat device is unresponsive. Click the Load option in the Action field to view the settings of a single thermostat device. This action will read the said thermostat device and load the thermostat device settings into this web page. Then, alter the thermostat settings as you prefer. Then, click the check box on the row of the thermostat device you want to apply these settings. You can apply settings to one, multiple, or all active thermostat devices.
Selecting a collection of thermostat devices is easily accomplished by selecting them with their Group field entry. Click the hyperlink in the Group field to activate the check box field of the thermostat device record in the GNU remotecontrol database.
Click the Submit button. GNU remotecontrol goes to each device, makes the changes you prescribe, and populates Historical Reporting and Exception List in the GNU remotecontrol database, as appropriate. A successful write event to the thermostat devices renders the message Settings applied successfully in the color of green. An unsuccessful write event to the thermostat device renders the message Error in the color of red. The exact message from each thermostat device for each failed write event is captured. This capability enables you to then use history.php or admin-exception-list.php or Database Management for thermostat device diagnostics to identify if any thermostat device is changing settings, identifying if you need to investigate who is doing this changing, or if the device is problematic.
There are five different fields available to easily manage your thermostat devices. You have two on the thermostat device; Device Name and Site Name. You have three in the GNU remotecontrol database; Group, Custom Name, and Description. You also have Model #, Address, and Username available in the GNU remotecontrol database, though they may not be considered an easy way to identify your thermostat devices. Plan out how you want to populate these fields, making your life much easier for managing your thermostat devices on a daily basis.
You need to know the settings on the different IP enabled thermostat devices you are charged with managing. Using GNU remotecontrol will help you see if anyone or anything has changed the settings on a thermostat device, thereby altering or defeating your Energy Management strategy. Combining into the equation a Remote Monitoring Server with Email Server notification and you are on top of the game for Energy Management.
Reload home.php at any time you prefer to poll each thermostat device and read the current parameters of the attributes for all thermostat devices.
All user types can access this web page.
The list of objects and parameters available on the thermostat device 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
The name of this web page is Historical Reporting. It is generated by the history.php file. This web page provides access to a read-only view of successful write transactions to your thermostat devices.
This web page separates the list successful write transactions to your thermostat devices from the unsuccessful write transactions. The unsuccessful write transactions are listed on the Exception List web page, generated by the admin-exception-list.php file.
This web page provides easy review of changes to the settings on your thermostat devices. Use the filter fields at the top of the table to quickly find similar fields in multiple rows. This search functionality helps to identify patterns in your change activities.
Security to access this web page is handled by the User Administration web page, generated by the admin-user.php file.
The name of this web page is User Settings. It is generated by the user-settings.php file. This web page provides access to individual configuration of the settings available for the GNU remotecontrol user account in use.
This web page provides editing ability for user preferences of the user account. The user Location is used to provide dates and times in the correct time zone with Daylight Savings Time adjustments. A user type of administrator has user Location as the default location for new thermostats. The Language setting nominates the user’s preferred user interface localization.
Click the Submit to apply your changes.
Security to access this web page is handled by the User Administration web page, generated by the admin-user.php file.
The name of this web page is Language Administration Dashboard. It is generated by the intl-home.php file. This web page provides a review of your Language Administration in your GNU remotecontrol
Instruction for using this web page is listed on the Language Administration Help web page, generated by the intl-help.php file. This web page provides detailed instruction on using the GNU remotecontrol Language Administration System.
The name of this web page is Language List. It is generated by the intl-language-list.php file. This web page provides the detailed list of languages you have established within your GNU remotecontrol.
Instruction for using this web page is listed on the Language Administration Help web page, generated by the intl-help.php file. This web page provides detailed instruction on using the GNU remotecontrol Language Administration System.
The name of this web page is Add Language. It is generated by the intl-language-add.php file. This web page provides the ability to add a new language to your GNU remotecontrol.
Instruction for using this web page is listed on the Language Administration Help web page, generated by the intl-help.php file. This web page provides detailed instruction on using the GNU remotecontrol Language Administration System.
The name of this web page is Message List. It is generated by the intl-message-list.php file. This web page provides the ability to review messages. Messages are English language content available for translation. Each message in the system can be associated with one or more contexts and one or more content types.
Instruction for using this web page is listed on the Language Administration Help web page, generated by the intl-help.php file. This web page provides detailed instruction on using the GNU remotecontrol Language Administration System.
The name of this web page is Message Context List. It is generated by the intl-context-list.php file. This web page provides to review message context. Message contexts are a label that indicates the context of a message. The message context exists to provide support for message content which may vary according to context.
Instruction for using this web page is listed on the Language Administration Help web page, generated by the intl-help.php file. This web page provides detailed instruction on using the GNU remotecontrol Language Administration System.
The name of this web page is Language Administration Help. It is generated by the intl-help.php file. This web page provides detailed instruction on using the GNU remotecontrol Language Administration System.
This is a read-only web page providing all help available on the GNU remotecontrol Language Administration System.
The name of this web page is Administration Dashboard. It is generated by the admin-home.php file. This web page provides a listing of all web pages in the GNU remotecontrol application having administrative privileges.
This web page has no fields.
Click on the hyperlink of the web page you wish to view.
Security to access this web page is handled by the User Administration web page, generated by the admin-user.php file.
The name of this web page is Location Administration. It is generated by the admin-location.php file. This web page provides access to configure your GNU remotecontrol thermostat locations.
This web page provides the ability to find a geographic location and correctly identify the time zone of the location. Each thermostat device is resident in a single location. This functionality is used when reading time events in GNU remotecontrol and writing the date and time to the thermostat device. Additionally, use this web page to identify your location to configure your GNU remotecontrol installation. This configuration can be viewed on the System Configuration web page, generated by the admin-config.php file.
Security to access this web page is handled by the User Administration web page, generated by the admin-user.php file.
The name of this web page is Group Administration. It is generated by the admin-group.php file. This web page provides access to configure your GNU remotecontrol groups.
This web page provides the ability to define groups within GNU remotecontrol. Each thermostat device is a member of a single group. This functionality is used to ease management of writing to multiple thermostat devices at one time.
Security to access this web page is handled by the User Administration web page, generated by the admin-user.php file.
The name of this web page is User Administration. It is generated by the admin-user.php file. This web page provides access to configure your GNU remotecontrol user accounts.
This web page provides the ability to define users within GNU remotecontrol. The first user account to login is set to admin status via the Is Admin? field. All other GNU remotecontrol user accounts must be established through this web page in combination with a Web Server user account. Add GNU remotecontrol user accounts with the exact same name you setup the user accounts in your Web Server.
The Is Translator? field is present for future functionality. The ability to alter the display language and wording of GNU remotecontrol will arrive through a future GNU remotecontrol version release.
We added a means of user control 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 device. The intent of this feature is to provide a check and balance for all roles using GNU remotecontrol. Imagine adding a thermostat device to your facility and forgetting to setup monitoring of the thermostat device, only to find out after a month or so has passed you have no information collected for this newly added thermostat device. This feature helps to remind you to setup monitoring of the thermostat device when you add more thermostat devices to your facility. You set the total number of thermostat devices each user account is allowed to whatever you prefer. This collectively provides for a separation of duties between the GNU remotecontrol administrator and the GNU remotecontrol user. This separation of duties greatly helps to structure change management in your environment between the different people in your organization.
Security to access this web page is handled by the Is Admin? field.
The name of this web page is Exception List. It is generated by the admin-exception-list.php file. This web page provides a read-only view of unsuccessful write transactions to your thermostat devices.
This web page displays all unsuccessful write activity within GNU remotecontrol. The Timestamp field has hyperlink functionality, leading to the Exception Details web page generated by the admin-exception.php file. There are two additional fields here not found in the Exception List table, Previous and Trace. Previous has any related error messages and Trace has the lineage of the error event.
Security to access this web page is handled by the User Administration web page, generated by the admin-user.php file.
The name of this web page is New Thermostat. It is generated by the admin-thermostat.php file. This web page provides the ability to enter your thermostat device information in the GNU remotecontrol application.
Connection Options
Database Settings - This information is resident within the GNU remotecontrol database.
Device Settings - This information is resident within the thermostat device internal memory.
Sensor Settings
Form Submission
This web page provides the ability to define thermostat devices within GNU remotecontrol. This is the only place to configure your sensor settings. The sensor settings are unique to each thermostat device.
Enter the Connection Options field values, then tab out of the Password field. The thermostat device is read. The Device Settings and Sensor Settings are populated in the web page. Select Add New Thermostat to add this record to the GNU remotecontrol database. Select Edit Thermostat to add the record and validate the entries are as preferred. Select Go to Homepage to view the thermostat device listed in home.php.
You must have the password to the admin user account for each thermostat device for GNU remotecontrol to either read from or write to the thermostat device. This approach is to know with certainty the GNU remotecontrol user has administrative authority to the thermostat device. You having complete authority of a thermostat device in your facility is a critical step in you achieving success with your Energy Management strategy.
Security to access this web page is handled by the User Administration web page, generated by the admin-user.php file.
The name of this web page is Undelete Thermostats. It is generated by the admin-undelete.php file. This web page provides access to restore display of thermostat devices deleted from the GNU remotecontrol application. Undeleted thermostat devices are displayed on the Home Page web page, generated by the home.php file. This functionality provides for maintaining historical records even though a thermostat device may be listed as deleted in GNU remotecontrol.
Click Restore in the Action column to restore a deleted thermostat.
Security to access this web page is handled by the User Administration web page, generated by the admin-user.php file.
The name of this web page is Time Administration. It is generated by the admin-time.php file. This web page provides to set the time on all active thermostat devices for the GNU remotecontrol user account.
Click the button Update Time. Each active thermostat device is updated with GNU remotecontrol time for thermostat device timezones and Daylight Savings Time based on the location of each device. Your GNU remotecontrol time is the time setting of the computer hosting GNU remotecontrol. A success message is rendered in green and a failure message is rendered in red. Review the Historical Reporting and Exception List web pages to learn success or failure outcomes to the time setting action. Please review the section above called Time for more information as to why this functionality has been designed.
The name of this web page is System Configuration. It is generated by the admin-config.php file. This web page provides display of the system configuration settings. They are configured by editing the config.php file in the web root of the GNU remotecontrol application.
Debug Settings
Database Settings
Web Settings
HTML Settings
Temperature Settings
Date/Time Settings
Network Settings
This web page provides the ability to review the settings of your GNU remotecontrol configuration. This ability helps to resolve any performance problems caused by configuration or if you need to change a setting such as DEBUG, HTML_PRETTY, or any of the Network Settings.
Security to access this web page is handled by the User Administration web page, generated by the admin-user.php file.
Next: Usage Recommendations, Previous: System Architecture and Concepts, Up: Top [Contents]