Buildings are getting smarter with IoT, Sensors and Artificial Intelligence, those technologies combined are offering new opportunities to help the users to simplify their daily life.Â
With the growing demand on accessibility, flexibility and user friendliness, Sensor/Actuator Networks with cable or radio are becoming more and more important, also with regard to energy efficiency and IT security in Buildings.
KNX has established itself as the global standard for communication and automation in buildings for many years. The origin can be found as early as 1990 under the name EIB (European Installation Bus).Â
After consolidating with other standards like BATIBUS (France) and European Home System Association (the Netherlands), the KNX association was created in 2006.
With KNX a decentralized bus system, all KNX certified products from many different providers and manufacturers can be networked and configured with one another.
An engineering tool software (ETS) is used for the design, the configuration and diagnosis
on all KNX networks.
The most common media used on the physical level are T/P (Twisted Pair), Ethernet (IP: Internet Protocol) and Radio Communication (KNX-RF on 868MHz).Â
STMicroelectronics now offer a complete KNX certified chipset for all transmission media and further the possibility of integrating mobile devices such as Bluetooth5 compatible Smart Phones or Tablets.
STKNX is a KNX Transceiver for Twisted Pair cables with 2 integrated voltage regulators on the KNX Bus for wired communication which today protects the largest market share in building automation.
KNX-RF now uses radio technology in the range of 868 MHz.
KNX devices can easily be integrated into the wired infrastructure of KNX with the help of ETS. The chipset is open to a KNX-RF Stack implementation from KNX certified partners.
TAPKO Technologies GmbH www.tapko.de already offers certified KNX Stacks (KAIStack) for the ST platform.
The Software Layer integration of the KNX-RF and the BLE Stack into the
BlueNRG-2 Host, which is connected through SPI to the SubGHz KNX-RF Transceiver.
The 32-Bit Cortex M0 ARM based BlueNRG SoC therefore represents the Host for the S2-LP as well as the Controller for the BLE communication e.g. with mobile devices for IOS or Android.
The ST development environment with Evaluation boards for KNX and BLE.
For Bluetooth implementation, also BLE certified ST-Modules (BlueNRG-M0/M2) are available. If no BLE functionality is required a STM32 Microcontroller can be used as Host for KNX-RF as well.
