NP16162_01BK_E1 Schneider Unica KNX Four Gang Push Button Black Backlit Symbols Programmable Module

The NP16162_01BK_E1 is a four-key Unica KNX push button supplied in black. The step from two keys to four is the point at which a panel stops being a pair of switches and starts being a small control surface. Four keys give enough room to separate the obvious functions of a room — lighting, curtains and a scene — without requiring the occupant to learn a combination. The backlit symbols mean those functions can be labelled without engraving the face, so the same hardware serves rooms with different requirements.

The device carries an integrated bus coupling unit and connects directly to the KNX line. It is commissioned from ETS like any other bus device. Each key recognises a short and a long press, which effectively doubles the number of functions available. The extended settings of the application program add value output, shift register operation, RGB and RGBW control, and colour temperature control where the lighting supports them.

Four keys is the count at which the arrangement of functions on the panel starts to matter to the occupant, and the arrangement should be settled as a project standard rather than room by room. The convention that works in practice is to give the left-hand keys to the lighting and the right-hand keys to curtains and scenes, so that a person who has learned one room can operate the next.

Because the symbols are produced by backlighting from the supplied foils, the labels are not permanent. This is an advantage during commissioning and a risk afterwards, since a panel that has been relabelled informally will not match its documentation. The frame and cover frame are ordered separately and must match the black finish.

The proximity function and the night brightness both deserve to be set with the panel in its final location, because a four-key panel presents more light than a two-key one, and the setting that suits a corridor will not suit a bedroom.

• Hotel guest rooms of the larger type are the principal application, where four keys cover lighting groups, a scene and a curtain without requiring a second panel.
• Residential projects use it in living areas where the lighting is arranged in layers and the occupant expects to select a scene rather than individual circuits.
• Meeting rooms apply it where the lighting, the projection screen and the blinds are controlled together.
• Executive offices use it where the room is set to a condition before a meeting.
• Where a building uses the same panel across rooms of different sizes, four keys is often the compromise that avoids specifying two products, and the black finish allows it to be used in interiors where a light panel would be visually intrusive.