NP16260_0104 Schneider Four Inch 480x480 Pixel Touch Screen KNX Wall Controller Colour Interface Panel

The NP16260 is the Unica answer to the question of what replaces a multi-gang keypad when the client wants one plate and a menu. It is a 4-inch LCD at 480 by 480 pixels, square rather than rectangular, mounted in the same 86 millimetre format as the rest of the Unica family so that it lines up with the keypads and sockets beside it.

Behind the screen sits an ARM Cortex-A7 with 64 megabytes of flash and 128 megabytes of RAM, which is what allows the panel to hold pages, graphics and schedules locally instead of asking the bus for every refresh. Power comes from a 24 volt DC supply at 2 watts, the bus carries the telegrams, and a USB port is exposed for configuration and firmware work without dismantling the plate.

The commissioning workflow is where this panel differs from a keypad, and it is worth planning rather than discovering. The project is built in ETS 5 or later, downloaded over the bus, and then the visual layer is layered on top: which page appears first, what the standby screen shows, how long the backlight stays on, and whether the proximity sensor at roughly 12 centimetres wakes the screen as a hand approaches.

That proximity behaviour is the detail guests notice first and the detail most often left at default, which produces a screen that is either permanently lit in a dark bedroom or requires a deliberate touch to wake. The other planning item is the depth: at 32.1 millimetres the panel is deeper than a keypad, so the wall box and the conduit entry have to be checked before the wall is closed, particularly in a dry-lined partition.

Square four-inch panels are specified where the room has a small number of functions but the client wants them labelled and visible.

• Hotel guest rooms use them for lighting scenes, do not disturb, housekeeping and temperature, and the square format reads as a control plate rather than a small tablet.
• Serviced apartments apply them where a single panel should cover arrival, departure and night modes without a manual.
• Meeting rooms use them for source and scene selection beside the door.
• Premium residential projects specify them in hallways where the panel also shows the time and the outdoor temperature.

Because the panel is square and the same size as the surrounding plates, it is also the version that architects accept most readily in a scheme where a rectangular screen would break the grid of the wall.