Inputs, Outputs and the Programming Page

This is where programming actually begins. Under everything you will ever build in LOXONE is one simple idea: information travels from an input, through logic, to an output. A button is an input. A light is an output.

Once you can connect the two on the programming page, you can build anything.

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

Explain the input to output principle that all LOXONE logic follows
Drag inputs and outputs onto the programming page and connect them
Set a programming page to a room so your work lands in the right place

The situation

You have a project with rooms set up. Now you want a physical button to do something, say to control a light.

To make that happen, you bring the button in as an input, bring the light in as an output, and connect them on the programming page. That single connection is the smallest complete piece of LOXONE programming, and everything else is a version of it.

The one principle behind everything

Information enters at an input, is processed by logic, and leaves at an output to make something happen in the building.

You can see the state of a physical input or output in the app, but you cannot change it there. The input reports what is happening. The logic decides what to do about it.

Set the page to a room first

Before placing anything, tell the programming page which room it is for. Then every block and input you add is automatically assigned to that room, which is what makes it appear correctly in the app.

Click an empty part of the page and, in the properties, set the Default Room. If a page is only for the bedroom, set its default room to Bedroom, and everything you drop onto it belongs to the bedroom without further thought.

Tip

A good habit is one programming page per room, with its default room set. It keeps a project tidy and means you rarely have to assign blocks by hand.

Bringing inputs and outputs onto the page

Inputs and outputs live in the list of peripherals, and you place them by dragging them straight onto the programming page.

Each connector has a direction, shown by its shape and colour. An input has a green tip. An output has an orange wedge. You connect them the way you would fit two matching parts together, output to input. Clicking a connector removes the link again.

Digital Input:

The button, brought in from the list of peripherals

Digital Output:

The relay driving the light

Three ways to connect

There is more than one way to make a connection, and knowing them makes you faster.

Drag directly. Immediately after dragging an input or output from the list, you can drop it straight onto a block connector or its opposite reference.

Connect manually. Click and drag from one connector to the other, or drag to the plus on a block and pick the input or output from the menu that appears.

Automatic connection. Some blocks connect the right inputs for you, following the LOXONE standard. Dragging a LOXONE Touch to a Lighting Controller automatically wires it to the T5 input as the middle button.

Information

Automatic connection is not magic, it is the LOXONE standard doing the obvious thing for you. A Touch dragged onto a lighting block wires itself to the right input, because that is almost always what you want.

Naming, and why it is not optional

It is tempting to leave inputs with their default names, but the names carry meaning that the logic uses. A block often takes not just the state of an input, but its name and its room.

To rename a block, an input or an output, click its name twice slowly, with a short pause between the two clicks. You can also change the name in its properties.

A fast double click opens the block’s settings instead.

The emergency alarm is the clearest example. It identifies which room has been breached from the name and room assignment of a door or window contact. Name an input carelessly and the logic that depends on it becomes unreliable.

Warning

Name every input for what it is and assign it to the right room. Function blocks read those names, so careless naming produces logic that behaves unpredictably later.

Takeaway

All LOXONE logic runs input to output, usually through a block in between. Set a programming page to its room so your work lands in the right place, then drag inputs and outputs from the list and connect the orange output wedge to the green input tip. Name inputs properly, because the logic reads those names.

Apply What You've Learned

Task

In a project, real or a practice one:

Create a programming page and set its Default Room to a room of your choice.
Drag a digital input onto the page and give it a clear name.
Drag a digital output, a relay, onto the page.
Connect the output to the input, and confirm the connection appears.
Disconnect it, then connect it again, so you are comfortable with both.