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Maestro – KNX Gateway

CD Innovation is proud to announce its new version of Maestro as a ‘Gateway Only’.
This new version of Maestro enables the Connection to KNX by implementing very simple ASCII commands only; thus avoiding the complexity of implementation of the full KNX protocol

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New KNX Touch Screen Server by CD Innovation

We are happy to announce the introduction of our prestigious new KNX screen server . This 1280×800 IPS 10.1″ touch screen by CD Innovation is built of a high quality metal and glass materials offering some powerful features such as: 4 core 64bit CPU, 1GB DDR memory, 6 channels dry contact input, 4 channels dry contact relay, built in speaker, built in microphone, and much more. Not only that but in addition to its superior performance it comes at a very competitive price of 30% less than the MTS4-10-2 older model.

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KNX BACnet Gateway using Maestro

We are glad to announce that Maestro now incorporates also the BACnet Server capability.

BACnet is a world communication standard for Building Automation and Control (BAC). More and more Building Management Systems (BMS) use BACnet / IP as a communication backbone network for their control systems. It is based on a Client / Server architecture where the peripheral units function as Servers and the control unit functions as a Client. This new functionality of Maestro, supporting Server capability, enables to use Maestro as a KNX to BACnet Gateway making it possible for the BMS to control and monitor the KNX.

With just simple Drag& Drop actions the integrator can create BACnet objects from any KNX Group Addresses as he likes. He can do so also for any other existing objects coming from Maestro such as data from Modbus, MQTT or any other connected equipment to Maestro, even internal variables that are used for Maestro’s internal logic.

The Client can initiate a ‘Discovery’ command to receive the Object list from Maestro and then Maestro enables the Client to take full control of the BACnet Object including the value change of Polling and Subscription to ‘Monitoring Value Changes’. No limit to the number of Objects that can be produced by Maestro.

This gateway solution between KNX and BACnet adds to a wide breadth of other innovative solutions for the KNX market proving CD Innovation‘s dedication and commitment to its professional channels everywhere since 2006.

For more information about this gateway solution for and other solutions from CD Innovation please contact us at: info@cdinnovation.com .

 

Maestro’s Graphs make Energy Management so easy like never before!

CD Innovation is happy to announce of some new characteristics lately added and supported by Maestro. It is now capable of collecting various data such as temperature, wind speed, power consumption, solar radiation etc’ and presenting them on graphs. The source of such data can be received directly from equipment connected to Maestro using communication means such as: MQTT, MODBUS and KNX or the result of internal calculations performed by Maestro such as the schematic of various loads, calculation of electricity costs, water throughputs, etc’.

Independent of communication, cloud and payment services, Maestro locally collects and stores the required data. It can store tens of millions of samplings enabling to collect history data from up to 1000 different sources for up to 3 years each.

Minimal work for the integrator – ticking only a checkbox and the rest is automatically done.

Maximum flexibility for the end user – Data can be presented, monitored and analyzed by the end-user for maximum optimization, using various graph types: daily, weekly, monthly and annually. Comparative graphs may be used as well. e.g. electricity consumption this month as compared to the previous month or to the same month last year. The user can also export all data along any period of time  as CSV file type utilizing for instance, Maestro as a  KNX data logger, to process and present the logged data by other platforms regardless of what can be presented by Maestro.

Adding such new functions as energy management and data analyzing puts Maestro KNX Server at the forefront technology. CD Innovation has been constantly tuned to the market rapidly growing needs enhancing Maestro with new features and improvements providing its customers everywhere with uncompromising quality at most competitive cost.

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Maestro now supports Amazon’s Alexa

CD Innovation the manufacturer and supplier of Maestro, an advanced KNX Server / Gateway,  is proud to announce the support of Alexa the intelligent and most popular personal assistant developed by Amazon.

Now, users of Maestro Server will be capable of using KNX Alexa to control all systems and devices connected to Maestro. By using simple voice commands users will be able to instantly activate devices connected to Maestro e.g. Lights, Shades, HVAC, Irrigation Systems, Alarms etc’.

Maestro offers Alexa’s voice control not only to KNX but to all devices using it’s built in protocols such as Modbus, MQTT and DMX. Even devices using proprietary protocols supported by Maestro, like HVAC controllers and AV systems will now benefit from voice activation. More over; Maestro can translate Alexa’s commands to ASCII strings thus providing a gateway between Alexa to any external controllers capable of handling simple ASCII commands.

Maestro provides a large number of different voice commands like very specific ones: “Alexa, dim the chandelier to 50 percent” or: “Alexa, set the temperature to 24”. But also group commands or a sequence of a number of actions: “Alexa turn on welcome Macro”.

This new development adds up to a breadth of Maestro’s advanced and unique features emphasizing CD Innovation’s ongoing commitment for many years to the home and building automation markets and to its worldwide loyal customers everywhere.

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Maestro now supports IoT MQTT

We are proud to announce that Maestro KNX Server now supports the well-known lightweight IoT MQTT protocol for Internet communication.

The IoT world has been more and more prominent in our daily life with the MQTT to become the protocol of choice for it. So no wonder that renowned commercial platforms like Facebook Messenger, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure decided using this Internet protocol for their WEB Services. Maestro can play any roll within the MQTT architecture: Broker, Agent (Publish and/or Subscribe) or even all at the same time.

Maestro can serve as a MQTT gateway for KNX providing valuable benefits when using it:

–          Connecting any number of remote KNX sites over IP and sharing data between them.

–          Connecting KNX to SCADA and big-data software for further processing and integration with external systems.

Moreover; Maestro can serve as a powerful central controller for MQTT components wherever they are, harnessing all Maestro’s capabilities to the process such as: data collection and graphs presentation, scheduling and advanced logic settings, artificial intelligence for data processing etc’.  These capabilities enable to securely retain the information at the user’s local site and to choose if and what to be sent for processing on third party’s cloud platform and what to retain in privacy and processed locally.

MQTT – Originally developed by IBM is an, event driven, lightweight protocol, ideal for IoT (Internet of Things) contexts. Used for single miniature sensors up to gigantic systems as Face Book and Amazon for their WEB services.

With this latest support of MQTT CD Innovation strengthens its presence in the IoT world providing the home and building automation professional channels with Internet access to KNX via the IoT most popular protocol keeping Maestro in the forefront  technology.

Maestro from CD Innovation now supports DMX control

The increased use of LED lighting and other lighting effects by architects and interior designers makes DMX (Digital Multiplex) equipment to be more and more popular in the modern houses and buildings. CD Innovation has identified that need for an optimal and seamless connectivity between KNX and DMX and completed the development of control support directly from Maestro‘s ports.

This new feature of control brings many advantages like saving the extra cost for not requiring a dedicated DMX to KNX gateway, ease of integration and boosting performance. Maestro KNX server enables to control DMX by using any kind of KNX-data-type e.g. 4bit, 8bit. All 512 channels are supported with Maestro providing 8 bit feedback object for every channel. On the fly additional special objects can be used for setting up of fade rates.

The combination between DMX and Maestro’s superb control capabilities enable the implementation of almost endless number of special effects. e.g. recording and playing of color sequences, continuous rotation of colors, changing colors by hours of the day, sunrise and sunset times etc.’

Digital Multiplex is a standard for digital communication networks that are commonly used to control stage lighting and effects and is the primary method today for linking controllers (such as a lighting console) to dimmers and special effects devices such as fog machines and intelligent lights.

By adding this DMX capability CD Innovation continues its pursuit of perfection offering Maestro to the KNX market with utmost features and capabilities.