And the ETS is really very easy to use. You always do the same steps with ETS, by the way since ETS1 from the 90s. These few simple steps will be shown in this article.

Manufacturer specific application

The ETS is the "mother software" with which you manage the many small applications in a catalog and your created projects. Every manufacturer offers the appropriate applications for his KNX products for free download. For each project, these applications are first fetched from the manufacturer pages and then imported into the global ETS catalogue, which can also be used for all further projects. From this ETS catalogue, the required applications can be added to a project. An application inserted into a project is then quasi a virtual KNX participant, since at this point in time it only exists in ETS.

Virtual KNX devices are KNX actuators and sensors or their applications inserted in ETS. For each KNX device, which is to be purchased and installed as a real existing KNX device for a project, the appropriate application is simply imported into the ETS catalogue by the manufacturer and then inserted into the project. That's how easy it is with KNX devices.

Individualization by setting the parameters

As soon as you have inserted KNX devices from the ETS catalogue into a project, you can click or mark them for editing and the ETS allows you to view the parameters of this device and adjust them if necessary. For general basic functions, most applications are already preset by the manufacturer, so that usually only little or nothing needs to be set for basic functions. The windows for parameter settings can be imagined as if you were configuring a router or a telephone system. There is an unwritten law for parameter settings: "What you don't know remains in the factory settings". So you can't go wrong. Depending on the parameter settings made, more or less functions are automatically activated.

The functions of the KNX devices are displayed as so-called link objects in the "Communication" window. This procedure, i.e. adding the devices and setting the parameters, is carried out as required for all required actuators and sensors. After at least one actuator and one sensor have been inserted in the ETS and their parameters have been set, they can be linked together. You will learn how to do this in the last part.