Area Cascading Objects
Area cascading enables lighting to be maintained in an area depending on the occupancy status of other areas. A typical application would involve maintaining lighting in a corridor when offices accessed by that corridor are occupied.
Area cascading is configured with Notifier, Activator, and Timer objects, linked to create a dependency between child and parent areas. Child areas use a Notifier to signal occupancy to the parent area and the parent area has an Activator and a Timer to turn the lighting on or off based on the occupancy signals.
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Notifier Preset Control
A 1 byte object used to detect the occupied and unoccupied preset in the child area. -
Notifier Occupancy Sync
A 1 bit object used to signal occupancy to linked parent and child areas.
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Activator Preset Control
A 1 byte object that operates during the unoccupied preset and performs an action when the Activator Occupancy Sync object detects occupancy in a child area. -
Activator Occupancy Sync
A 1 bit object used to detect occupancy in a linked child areas. -
Timer Preset Control
A 1 byte object that performs a timer countdown during the occupied preset and performs an action when the timeout period expires. -
Timer Occupancy Sync
A 1 bit object used to detect occupancy in a linked child areas and reset the timer countdown.
If the Notifier Preset Control detects an occupied preset in a child area, it enables the Notifier Occupancy Sync to send occupancy signals to the Activator and Timer in the parent area and to the Notifier Occupancy Sync in the other child areas.
If the parent area is in an unoccupied preset and its Activator Preset Control receives a Notifier Occupancy sync message, then the Activator Preset Control recalls an occupied preset in the parent area.
If the Notifier Preset Control detects an unoccupied preset in a child area, the Notifier Occupancy Sync stops sending occupancy messages to the Activator and Timer in the parent area and to the other Notifier Occupancy Sync objects, allowing their timers to expire.
If the parent area is in an occupied preset and the timer expires, then the Timer Preset Control recalls an unoccupied preset.
Each physical device has memory space allocated for area cascading items. Configured items can be stored and run from any device in the system.
Although each child area must have a sensor, a parent area does not necessarily need its own sensor. An area can be both a child and a parent. It is possible to create multiple dependencies between work islands in an open plan office or to create a hierarchy of dependencies as illustrated below.