How programming works in iDM3
Part 1 — Understand the system. This is the most important chapter in the manual.
Everything you will ever build in iDM3 — a light switch, a dimmer, a heating schedule, an alarm that texts you — is the same thing repeated with different parts. Learn the shape once here and the rest of the manual becomes lookup.
The shape of every rule
ACTOR ACTION FUNCTION CONSUMER
what could which event on it what to do what it's
trigger this fires the rule about it done to
┌─────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ ┌─────────────┐ ┌─────────┐
│ button │───────▶│ "Short down" │────────▶│ "Digital │───▶│ relay │
│ GSB3-40 │ │ │ │ switch ON" │ │ SA3-02M │
└─────────┘ └──────────────┘ └─────────────┘ └─────────┘
│
┌──────┴───────┐
│ parameters │
│ delay, time, │
│ level %… │
└──────────────┘
└──────────────────────── one WIRE ────────────────────────────────────┘Read it as a sentence:
When the button called Hallway switch gets a
Short down, doDigital switch ONto the relay called Hallway light.
The whole thing — actor, action, function, consumer — is one wire. Creating a wire is how you program. There is no other mechanism.
The four parts, one at a time
Actor — what could trigger this
The actor is the device the rule watches. Buttons, binary inputs, temperature sensors, card readers, timers, counters, time programs, even the central unit itself.
An actor does not have to be something a person touches. A timer running out is an actor. A temperature crossing 21 °C is an actor. The system starting up is an actor.
Action — which event fires the rule
One actor can produce several different events, and you choose which one you care about. A wall button alone gives you:
Short down
short press
the button goes down
Short up
short release
it comes back up after a short press
Long down
long press
it is still held after roughly 1.5 s
Long up
long release
it comes back up after a long press
Permanent actions
—
repeatedly, driven by the central unit, while the state holds
"Down" means press. "Up" means release. That is the whole of it, and once you read the labels that way they stop being confusing:
This is why one button can do four different things. Short down toggles the light; Long down turns off the whole floor. Same button, two wires, two actions.
Other actor types have their own actions — a temperature sensor has Sensor high overflow, a counter has Counter reached value, a timer has Timer elapsed. Appendix A lists all 81 of them with what fires each one.
You will see both names. Older documentation — including the Rev19 installation manual — calls these Short press / Short release / Long press / Long release. iDM3 3.5.3 shows
Short press/Short up/Long down/Long up. They are the same four events: down = press, up = release. This manual uses what the software actually shows you.
Function — what to do about it
The function is the effect. For a relay output:
Digital switch ON
turn it on
Digital switch OFF
turn it off
Digital switch value
toggle it — on becomes off, off becomes on
Digital impulse
switch it, wait, switch it back (staircase lighting)
Digital delay switch OFF
turn it off after a delay
Digital copy
make it match whatever the actor is doing
Analog consumers (dimmers) get their own set — Analog set level, Analog switch ON w ramp, Analog increasing level, and so on. Heating areas, timers, counters, alarms, and the GSM module each have theirs. Appendix B lists all 108 with their parameters.
The function type must match the consumer type. You cannot apply Analog set level to a plain relay — iDM3 only offers you functions the selected consumer can actually perform, so you cannot get this wrong by accident.
Parameters — the fine print
Most functions take parameters, and this is where the useful behaviour lives.
Digital impulse on its own is meaningless until you say how long. Give it an impulse time of 3 minutes and you have a staircase light. Give Analog set level w ramp a level of 40 % and a ramp time of 5 seconds and the light fades to 40 % over five seconds instead of jumping.
Common parameters:
Delay (s)
anything with delay in the name — 0 s to 24 h
Impulse time (s)
the impulse functions — 0 s to 24 h
Level (%)
analog / dimming functions — 0 % to 100 %
Ramp time (s)
the "with ramp" functions — how long the fade takes
Set temperature
heating and cooling functions
Consumer — what it is done to
The consumer is the device being acted on: a relay output, a dimmer channel, a blind actuator, a heating area, a timer, a counter, a system bit.
One wire can have several consumers. Add three lights to the same wire and one button press switches all three. That is the simplest way to build a scene — though for anything you will reuse, a group is better (Chapter 8).
2.3 Conditions — making a rule fire only sometimes
So far every rule fires every time. Often you want "turn the light on, but only if it is dark".
That is what conditions are for. In the wire function window there is a Conditions section with an Add condition button, and two kinds to add:
Restriction value
a device's state against a fixed number you type
Restriction object
a device's state against another device's state
Each condition uses one comparison operator:
=
equals
<>
does not equal
>
greater than
>=
greater than or equal to
<
less than
<=
less than or equal to
Examples of what that buys you:
Only if the light is currently off → Restriction value: that output
=OFFOnly if it is colder than 18 °C → Restriction value: the sensor
<18Only if the hallway light is on too → Restriction object: this output
=that output
The wire fires only when the conditions pass. If they fail, nothing happens — silently, with no error.
More than one condition
Add a second condition and a Relation dropdown appears, letting you join them:
AND (A)
both conditions are true
OR (O)
at least one is true
false
false
false
false
false
true
false
true
true
false
false
true
true
true
true
true
For more complex logic there is also a Combination button, which nests conditions into a group that is evaluated as a unit.
You will sometimes see "In this case is allowed only AND operation" or "In this case is allowed only OR operation". That is iDM3 telling you the particular combination you are building only supports one of the two. It is a constraint of the structure, not a mistake on your part — restructure the conditions or use Combination.
2.4 The pieces you will meet later
Wires alone would get repetitive. iDM3 gives you five more building blocks, all of which plug into the same actor→function→consumer shape:
Programs
Time control — do something at 07:00, or between sunset and midnight. A program can be an actor.
Timers & counters
Delay things, or count events and act on the total. Both can be actors and consumers.
System bits & integers
The system's own memory. Store a state ("holiday mode is on") and test it in conditions.
Notice that timers, counters, programs, and system bits appear on both sides. A wire can start a timer; when that timer elapses it becomes the actor of another wire. That is how you chain behaviour together without any code.
2.5 Worked example: read a real one
Here is a four-button glass switch in a hallway, fully programmed. Four wires, nothing more.
1
Hallway switch, button 1
Short press
Digital switch value
Hallway light
Press to toggle the light
2
Hallway switch, button 1
Long press
GroupDigital_SwitchOff
Group All lights
Hold to turn off every light
3
Hallway switch, button 2
Short release
Digital impulse (impulse time 3 min)
Outside light
Press for 3 minutes of light
4
Motion sensor, hallway
Digital IN switch ON
Digital delay switch OFF (delay 2 min)
Hallway light
Motion keeps the light alive 2 more minutes
Read wire 3 as a sentence: "When button 2 of the hallway switch gets a short press, apply digital impulse with an impulse time of 3 minutes to the outside light."
That is the entire programming model. You now know how iNELS3 works.
2.6 Check yourself
Before moving on, make sure you can answer these. If any is unclear, re-read the section named.
What is the difference between an action and a function? (§2.2)
Which one is the actor and which the consumer: a temperature sensor, and a heating output? (§2.2)
How would you make one button do two different things? (§2.2, and the worked example)
What is the difference between Restriction value and Restriction object? (§2.3)
Can a timer be an actor? Can it be a consumer? (§2.4)
Next: Chapter 3 — Install iDM3 and start it. If iDM3 is already installed, skip to Chapter 4 — The main window, or go straight to Tutorial 1 and build the example above for real.
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