Three tools are available in ETS for the recording, displaying, analyzing and sending of KNX telegrams on the bus as well as for the reading or sending of group address values from a computer:
- Bus Monitor
- ETS Bus Activity Monitor
- Group Monitor
The Group Monitor and Bus Monitor are very similar, but the Group Monitor has two additional functions (see table below).
In both Monitors, you first need to ensure that the correct bus interface is selected (in the toolbar on top). Setting or changing the connection is only possible in offline mode, i.e., if no recording has yet been started.
To start any of the monitors, you can either change the panel type to 'Diagnostics' or click on the panel selector to select the 'Diagnostics' panel.
Bus Monitor
The Bus Monitor is required for the complete recording and analysis of all runtime bus telegrams. The Bus Monitor requires its own exclusive bus access for the duration of the recording. This means that while bus monitoring is recording, it is not possible to check an individual address, to do a line scan or search for devices in programming mode.
ETS Bus Activity Monitor
The ETS Bus Activity Monitor does not open a connection to the installation, but "listens" if any connection is created by ETS. If such a connection is created, then this monitor is "attached" to it and displays the traffic of this connection. Once such a connection closes, then the ETS Bus Activity monitor detaches from this connection.
The ETS Bus Activity Monitor is a way to have an overview of which connection has been used for what reason when having multiple connections. Moreover, the ETS Bus Activity Monitor - monitors all interfaces, direct IP connections and local USB connections and not only the interface to which you are connected.
Group Monitor
The Group Monitor is required for the recording and analysis of group telegrams and for reading or sending of group address values from a computer. Contrary to the Bus Monitor, the Group Monitor does not require its own exclusive bus access for the duration of the recording. This means that during an active Group Monitor session, it is still possible to check an individual address, to do a line scan or search for devices in programming mode.
The ETS Monitors show the information about the recorded telegrams in tabular form. The width and the arrangement of the columns can be modified. It is moreover possible to filter for specific information. Only information complying with the filter criteria which is entered in the right upper field, will be displayed in the Monitor.
Menu bar
Menu item | Available in... | Description |
Start | Group/Bus/ETS Bus Activity | Starts the monitor: Starting the recording and playing of telegrams. During telegram recording, the 'Start' button is grayed out |
Stop | Group/Bus/ETS Bus Activity | Stops the monitor: Stopping the recording and playing of telegrams. |
Clear | Group/Bus/ETS Bus Activity | Clears all telegrams in the window |
Import | Group/Bus/ETS Bus Activity | Imports/opens previously recorded telegrams |
Export | Group/Bus/ETS Bus Activity | Exports/Saves previously recorded telegrams if monitoring is not currently active |
Group/Bus/ETS Bus Activity | Allows the printing of selected telegrams or all telegrams via the print dialog. Only visible columns are printed; according to their width in percent and in landscape format | |
Replay telegrams | Group | Allows previously recorded group telegrams (from a file) to be replayed. |
Stop Replay | Group | Stops previously recorded group telegrams (from a file) to be replayed. |
Options | Group/Bus/ETS Bus Activity | Monitoring settings for trigger, capture and recording can be made here. |
Group Functions | Group | Allows writing/reading group values with the option of making several settings (see later for more information) |
Window columns
# | Telegram counter |
Time | Telegram recording time (computer time), displayed in the corresponding format (defined in the monitoring options). |
Service | Bus service type:
|
Flags |
Control Information:
|
Prio | KNX Telegram priority |
Source Address | Individual address of the sender |
Source Name | Name of the sender (from the ETS project data). |
Source Description | The description of the source. |
Destination Address |
Can be an individual address or a group address. Further explanations on possible variations in the destination address can be found on Window column Flags & Destination address in the ETS Monitors |
Destination Name | Destination Name. |
Destination Description | Description of the destination. |
Building Function | Building function name |
Building Part | Building part name |
Hop Count |
This column indicates the hop count of the telegram (at that moment). The hop count is also known as 'routing counter'. |
Type | KNX telegram APCI service decoding |
DPT | Datapoint type |
Info | Additional information about KNX telegram data (memory data read and other data).
|
Medium info | Media-specific information; used for PL/RF |
Security | Additional information for KNX Secure telegrams as to which type is concerned (KNX IP Secure = transport security, KNX Data Secure = data security) |
Status bar
The monitor status bar can be found at the bottom of the monitor window and allows to explicitly select an interface for the monitoring session by clicking the '' button and selecting one of the shown interfaces (if none is selected, then ETS selects the most suitable interface, see Connection manager)
As soon as an interface is selected and the monitor is started, the following interface information is shown:
- Device Name
- Individual Address
- IP address (if applicable)
- Domain Address (if applicable)
- RF Mode (if applicable)
- Amount of recorded telegrams
Sidebar
By marking a specific telegram in the Monitor, ETS will show the telegram information in extended format. The different properties can be sorted alphabetically when clicking on the Property header.
Depending on whether the Bus Monitoring or Group Monitoring is used, the following information is displayed:
Acknowledge | Acknowledged / not Acknowledged |
APCI | Application Layer Control Information: Type of application layer message |
ConfirmFlag | True/False |
DataPointType | Name of Datapoint type (if project is open and if assigned) |
DecodedDpValue | Decoded Datapoint value (e.g., On, Off, Open, Close etc...) |
Destination | Can be an individual address or a group address. |
DestinationName | Group Address name; "-" if the group address name is not defined. |
Building Function | Displays the function name to which the group address is linked. |
Building Part | Displays the building part name to which a function is linked and to which the group address is linked. |
FrameFormat | Telegram format: Standard / Extended |
LocalizedType | KNX telegram APCI service decoding (Write, Read…) |
MediumInfoRF | Domain address of RF |
MessageCode | Type of service and which layer |
Priority | Low, High, Alarm, System |
RawData | The raw data of the KNX bus telegram (cEMI format, consisting of service code, service data, does not correspond to the telegram on the bus in every detail) |
RawDpValue | raw value of the datapoint |
RepeatedFlag | Repetition: True/False |
RoutingCounter | value of the routing counter |
Service | From/to bus |
Source | individual address of sender |
SourceName | Device name; "-" if the device name is not defined. |
SystemBroadcastFlag | True/False |
TPCI | Transport Layer Control Information |
Information
Additional telegram information can be found in the 'Information' tab of the properties window in the sidebar. The following properties are shown
Duration | Total duration of the recording |
Bus load (avg.) | Average bus load on the bus |
Telegrams per second (avg.) | Average number of telegrams per second on the bus |
Total telegrams | Total number of recorded telegrams |
Repeated telegrams | Number of repeated telegrams |
Busy telegrams | Number of busy telegrams |
Unconfirmed telegrams | Number of unconfirmed telegrams |
Negative confirmed telegrams | Number of negative confirmed telegrams |
Top x sender | Source address of the device that sent the most telegrams on the bus (and how many times it did) |
Top x group | Most used destination address (and number of times it appeared on the bus) |
There is a button 'Generate Statistics' at the bottom of the Side bar which enable the ETS user to generate statistics with information about recording duration, project statistics, corresponding senders / receivers and group communication statistics (who was sending, who not?) etc.
- The statistics are not reset when another interface is selected nor when the Monitor is started / stopped.
- The statistics are only reset when the content of the recordings in the Monitor is cleared.