NP16163_01BK_E1 Schneider Unica KNX Six Gang Push Button Black Backlit Symbols Programmable Module

The NP16163_01BK_E1 is a six-key Unica KNX push button finished in black — the key count that most often marks the boundary between a room control and a small scene controller. Six keys on a single 86 mm plate allow lighting, curtains and several scenes to be addressed separately. The backlit face means the labels for those functions are produced by the surface itself rather than engraved on it, so a panel supplied for one room can be relabelled for another using the prefabricated foils included with the device.

The push button contains an integrated bus coupling unit and connects to the KNX line through a bus connecting terminal. It is commissioned with ETS5 or higher. Every key supports a short and a long operation, so six visible keys represent twelve functions. The application program adds value output, shift register behaviour and colour temperature control where the luminaires support them.

Six keys is enough capacity that the layout has to be decided deliberately. The practical approach is to group the keys by what they control rather than by which group address they happen to carry: the lighting together, the curtains together and the scenes together, in the same order in every room of a type.

Because the face is black and the symbols are backlit, the panel depends entirely on the backlighting for legibility. This makes the day and night brightness settings more important than they are on a light finish; both should be set with the panel installed and the room in its normal condition.

The frames are ordered separately and must match the finish. On a black panel, a shade difference in the frame is visible even at a distance. The proximity function is useful where the panel is approached rather than passed, and it should be left off in positions where the occupants' movement would wake the symbols repeatedly.

Hotel suites and public rooms are the principal application, where six keys cover the lighting groups, the curtains and the scenes without a second plate being required.

Residential projects use it in living areas and master suites where the lighting is arranged in layers and the occupant expects to recall named conditions. Restaurants and bars apply it where the room is set to a scene for service and to another afterwards.

Meeting rooms use it where the lighting, the screen and the blinds are operated from one position, and where the black finish suits a dark fitted interior.

Because the panel is available in the same design with two, four and eight keys, the six-key version is often used to give a project a single visual language while matching the control capacity to each room.